Believe it or not, it’s high-time that WWE considers bringing back the role of general manager to provide some on-screen direction for Raw and SmackDown.
The WWE Draft that will begin on Friday Night SmackDown and end on Monday Nigh Raw somewhat serves as a promise that we will see a hard line drawn between the brands’ rosters.
It also naturally means there’s going to be some competition between brands, both in the draft and after.
Naturally, you would assume both brands would want the best superstars available, potentially creating a friendly kayfabe competition over who gets which competitor. It’s the format we’ve seen these drafts take before, and one that would hypothetically be simple to repeat.
Typically speaking, that’s why you see these drafts headed up by some sort of authority figure for a brand, usually a general manager. They make the calls as far as who goes where, and otherwise deliver the drama that the draft needs to be more exciting than a simple list that gets published online.
That reportedly won’t be happening this time.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer (h/t WrestlingInc’s Daniel Yanofsky), WWE does not want authority figures to be on TV right now. That reportedly means the draft will be headed by representatives from Fox and USA Network.
This is in line with WWE.com’s announcement that, “on both nights of the Draft, Superstars from Raw and SmackDown will appear along with personalities from FOX and NBCUniversal programming to announce select picks that will determine the rosters of each distinct brand.”
In other words, the drama of the WWE Draft might be headed by people like Tim Allen and Gordon Ramsey, or worse yet some sort of actual executives from each station, rather than solely by WWE talent.
To me, that’s ridiculous.
The general manager role has been a mainstay in wrestling for numerous years. There’s nothing wrong with continuing that tradition by appointing two people to be in charge of Raw and SmackDown.
If that suggestion just made you recall in terror or disgust though, let me provide some extra context.
The general manager or on-screen authority figure concept has been met with so much pushback lately because the roles have mostly been going to members of the McMahon family.
In no way would I advocate that Shane or Stephanie McMahon immediately return as a weekly presence. It’s a tired out storyline that usually only serves to make variations of the same Austin versus McMahon attitude era storylines.
Sure, that worked recently for Kevin Owens, but there’s absolutely no need to bring that dynamic back again so soon.
Instead of thinking about McMahon’s then, try to remember all the babyface managers of the 2010’s. People like Paige, William Regal, AJ Lee, and Daniel Bryan, all of whom were great general managers.
In fact, I recall Paige, in particular, getting quite a lot of praise as GM. She came across as fair, unobtrusive, and with the right amount of edge and character to still warrant having the role.
The same can be said for William Regal in NXT. How many times do you see Regal inserted heavily into a storyline? The answer is not often, unless it’s for angles like the mystery Aleister Black attacker storyline from last year.
Speaking of that storyline, that just goes another step towards showing why general managers would be a strong asset for WWE. Angles like that don’t work if you lack an authority figure to head the investigation.
Look at the initial mess that was the Roman Reigns versus Erick Rowan storyline if you need any proof.
On top of that, any potential inter-brand drama is lost without general managers, face or otherwise. While I understand some may be tired of that concept, there’s no denying that history strongly suggests we will see it run out sooner rather than later for Survivor Series.
If you think those stories came across as lame or unnecessary in the past, just imagine them devolving into some sort of ratings battle or corporate drama between unseen executives. That’s not the kind of angles that make for exciting wrestling television, yet that’s really all that would be left if WWE doesn’t establish some sort of brand leader.
Therefore, I think it would only make sense for WWE to install some impartial, face-leaning, talent as general managers for both Raw and SmackDown.
With everything going on in WWE today, and everything that could happen in the future, it just seems like the benefits of having on-screen general managers should be too great to ignore.