Batista Returns To WWE, New Backlash Match Announced, WWE Draft, More

-- As seen on Raw tonight, Batista made his much anticipated return to Raw by taking out Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Afterward, Vince McMahon said Batista would be replacing him in the six-man tag match at Backlash.

The match will now pit Batista, Triple H and Shane McMahon against Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes. New Raw General Manager Vickie Guerrero said earlier in the evening that Triple H's WWE Championship would be on the line in the match. Guerrero clarified that if anyone from Triple H's team won the match, he would retain the title, but if Orton or his partners secured the win, then "The Legend Killer" would become the new WWE Champion. (Match preview)

Batista returned far ahead of schedule as he was initially expected to be out of action for six to eight months following his decision to undergo surgery to repair a hamstring tear in December.

-- WWE will shake things one week from now when next week's edition of Monday Night Raw hosts the 2009 WWE Draft from the Philips Arena in Atlanta. WWE.com has an article previewing next week's draft. Fans will be able to catch the show at a special start time of 8/7 CT on USA.

You can probably expect nearly thirty WWE Superstars to change brands next week as eleven Superstars changed their respective home brands during last year's draft, which was followed by seventeen more Superstars changing brands in the subsequent Supplemental Draft held on WWE.com.

-- On tonight's Raw, WWE ran its first commercial promoting the newWWE Superstars series, which is set to premiere on WGN America on Thursday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m. The theme song for the show will apparently be Superstar by Saliva as that is the song they played during the commercial. WWE is actually trying to promote the show as they ran advertisements in newspapers such as The Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinal today promoting the show.

Backstage news on why Trish Stratus didn't show up at WrestleMania (>>)