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FORMER ECW STAR RELEASED

Former ECW brand star Kevin Thorn (real name Kevin Fertig and also the former Mordecai) is the latest casualty of the WWE releases today.

Fertig had been signed to a WWE developmental deal in 2002 but was released after the Mordecai character bombed shortly after its debut. He was re-signed and sent to OVW before being brought back up as part of the ECW rebirth, designed to be a supernatural character as part of a concession to the Sci Fi Network, which at the time wanted something that its core audience could connect to.

Fertig had returned to WWE television on the first episode of ECW on Sci Fi as the vampire-like goth Kevin Thorn character and was a staple of the early episodes through the ECW Originals vs. New Breed feud that culminated at Wrestlemania 23. After former valet Ariel (Shelly Martinez, most recently Salinas in TNA) was released by WWE, Thorn's character went through something of a makeover to distance him from the vampire character before being sent down to WWE developmental to brush up on working as a babyface.

During his time post-ECW, Thorn suffered a shoulder injury and needed to undergo surgery and rehap.

Last October on the WWE Universe social networking site, Fertig blogged, complaining about WWE creative not having anything for him, penning, "So who do you want to be for Halloween???? Me, I just want to be me again, the resident bloodsucking dark prince of ECW. I want to be undead again because it seems like I have been dead for a year now. but wait, I cant be dead though because they stuck that stake in my back, when they really should have stuck it in my heart!!! If they really wanted to get rid of me. That's gonna come back to haunt them. A Year ago, I was told there is a new direction and we want you to be normal!??? THAT really doesn’t work ,when you already were being what you thought was normal.I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a vampire?"

Fertig was most recently scheduled to return to the main roster as part of the Smackdown brand as member of a group led by developmental talent Vade Hansen. The group was designed to have a feud with The Undertaker leading into Wrestlemania this year, but Vince McMahon decided to kill the direction off after a single Hansen promo aired on Smackdown.

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