Daniel Bryan and Mick Foley are proving the importance of the GM role in WWE, one way or another.
For years, WWE has leaned on the GM role as a crutch for their shows. Everybody from Vince McMahon to Eric Bischoff to Vickie Guerrero to AJ Lee has held that spot on Raw, SmackDown, or both. That doesn’t mean just anybody can do it. It takes the right person and the right writing for a character to be able to shine and stay strong, without taking the focus off of the Superstars that actually get in the ring.
Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan are the General Managers of Raw and SmackDown, respectively. One is a fair, but strong leader, who uses his role to make sure every Superstar on his show gets a fair chance to be successful. He is encouraged to do this by his Commissioner, one of Vince McMahon’s children. The other is a man who often seems in over his head. He, at times, will try and talk Superstars out of matches, instead of trying to encourage success and moving up the ladder. He does all this, while being berated by his Commissioner, the other of McMahon’s two children.
It should be no surprise that the first one, Bryan, is on the better show. Look at the SmackDown after Elimination Chamber, John Cena and AJ Styles were both owed championship rematches. Bryan’s solution: Triple Threat Match that night with new WWE Champion Bray Wyatt.
Foley is on the lesser show. When Sami Zayn caught a few beatings from Braun Strowman, he demanded the opportunity to go one-on-one with the big man, and what did Foley do? He gave him the match, but with a 10-minute time limit, and he tried to stop the match halfway through. He didn’t encourage Zayn, in fact he discouraged him. It was like a sign to fans to not get behind Zayn, because the company doesn’t actually believe in him.
Since the brand split, SmackDown has been billed as “The Land of Opportunity,” and that’s exactly what it has been. Bryan stood alongside Shane McMahon and made that proclamation, and the two of them have carried it out.
It’s been fun to watch Dolph Ziggler get a world title match at SummerSlam, James Ellsworth get in the ring with Styles, and the women’s division look revolutionary because they are, not just because somebody says they are every week.
Raw has had one such moment like that, and, though it was through no fault of their own, it was short-lived, when Finn Balor quickly rose to prominence, then had to take time off due to injury. They’ve had more opportunities taken away from rising Superstars than opportunities given.
Obviously, Foley and Bryan have no actual say in the booking of their respective shows, but the booking of their characters is generally indicative of how the rest of the show is booked. If a GM, like Foley, is booked multiple different ways, then the show doesn’t have a clear direction and it hurts the overall product. When a GM is booked like Bryan, he looks like a strong character and the show has a clear-cut path that the fans can follow and enjoy.
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GMs can be as involved or not involved as the booker wants, but at the end of the day, they are going to have an impact, so their integrity is just as important as anybody else’s.