Alex Marvez's weekly look at professional wrestling

A recent overhaul has caused the heads of even the most ardent World Wrestling Entertainment fans to spin.In the past two weeks alone, 28 performers -- including bigwigs like Paul "Triple H" Levesque, Dave Batista and announcer Jim Ross -- have switched brands between WWE's Raw, Smackdown and Extreme Championship Wrestling talent rosters. A handful of youngsters were promoted from WWE's developmental program. Two world championships and two lesser belts changed hands. Plus, Rey Mysterio returned after a four-month absence with a biceps injury and WWE owner Vince McMahon was "injured" in another whodunit storyline (allowing the company to quietly end its ill-fated $1 million giveaway promotion that failed to spike Raw's television ratings).Here's a closer look at some of the major happenings:-- CM Punk wins a world title: With Triple H taking his Raw world title to Smackdown, WWE needed to switch champions. But having Punk defeat Adam "Edge" Copeland on this week's Raw for what was the Smackdown belt is a curious decision.While a favorite among hardcore grappling fans, Punk may struggle gaining mainstream acceptance in a more prominent role. Punk (real name Phil Brooks) doesn't have the kind of jacked-up physique that WWE fans have become programmed to expect from their world champions.Punk's credibility also has suffered because he was programmed to lose so frequently by WWE scriptwriters. Only three weeks before toppling Edge, Punk lost cleanly in an ECW tag-team match when pinned by John Morrison. Previous WWE champions were more "protected" before starting their title reigns.-- Mark Henry wins the ECW title: Backstage politics may have played a role in this decision. WWE suspended Michael Hayes, a wrestler-turned-scriptwriter, for reportedly directing a racial slur at Henry during a Wrestlemania 24 party in late March. There is the belief that WWE had Henry win a three-way bout against Glenn "Kane" Jacobs and Paul "Big Show" Wight for the ECW belt as appeasement.Even if that is the case, Henry should still be proud of receiving his first title reign in a decade. Henry has shown significant improvement while persevering through 13 injury-plagued years in WWE. -- Kofi Kingston wins the Intercontinental title: This is another title change that may stem from a feared backlash over the Hayes situation as well as the desire to create a new black superstar after last year's departure of Lane "Booker T" Huffman and Bobby Lashley.Billed as being from Jamaica, the Ghana-born Kingston (Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah) was raised in Boston. He has wrestled professionally for three years and didn't debut on the ECW roster until last December. Kingston will need to show rapid in-ring improvement to keep credibility among fans after defeating Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental strap. -- Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes win the Raw tag-team titles: As the respective sons of "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Dusty Rhodes, this duo has huge shoes to fill. Rhodes (Cody Runnels) hasn't shown much charisma in his 11 months on the Raw roster, while DiBiase is being fast-tracked after winning a WWE title in his Raw debut. But with WWE traditionally having so much success with second- and third-generation wrestlers, expect Rhodes and DiBiase to receive every chance to succeed. -- Levesque and Ross head to Smackdown: WWE's hope that a roster shuffle will improve flat domestic business is reflected by this move. Ross was the voice of Raw for the past 13 years, while Levesque has appeared almost exclusively on the show since 2002. Shifting both should help WWE maintain its television ratings when Smackdown moves from CW to the lesser MyNetwork on October 3. In exchange, Michael Cole should do a solid job replacing Ross at the announcing table and Batista's move from Smackdown to Raw gives the latter a solid headliner. (Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro wrestling column for Scripps-Howard News Service. Contact him at alex1marv@aol.com.)