Oh Look, It's Vickie

A new Smackdown GM has been named. Teddy Long? Brad Maddox? Booker T kept his spot? None of the above. It is Vickie Guerrero.

That is not the person I would have chosen, but now that she does have the position back, I hope they do something different with her. She was getting stale as Raw GM and not really contributing anything of value for a while at one time. The fact that she draws so much heat was her only redeeming quality, but they were not even featuring her properly to let that do anything. Besides, do people really tune in just to see Vickie screaming over being booed? Let her be a true heel GM now. Don't let her be one of those GMs that pander to the fans and bosses to try to do a good job. You have Brad Maddox to do that. If you are going to make Vickie a GM again, have her get a storyline where she wants revenge against the fans that had her fired, in kayfabe. They are already teasing that direction, but run with it. Have her make life miserable for faces on Smackdown. Develop her as something the fans would really like to see fired even more than she just was on Raw. Make her more intriguing. Fans might tune in just to see what Vickie would do next and who will finally stop her reign of terror. Even though fans didn't like her during her recent run as Raw GM, she really didn't have that strong of a reign of terror, especially in the last few months.

How would I like to have seen the Smackdown GM situation handled? Very simple answer to that. Let Booker T and Teddy Long finish their feud. There was tension between the two before Booker T left. There's more than one way to get rid of one GM and name another. Having it done by authority figures above the GM is one way. That already happened recently on Raw. You can also have it settled in some kind of match. John Laurinaitis knows about that. Why not have a representative for Booker T face a representative for Teddy Long? If the WWE is not going to settle the issues between Vince McMahon and Triple H at Summerslam, a Smackdown power struggle culminating at the big summer PPV would not have been bad. Booker T can even represent himself by competing. In the end, my point is simply that it would have been nice if they mixed things up a little better with recent GM changes.

If I would not have had Vickie be a GM again so fast, where would I have put her if she still wanted to stick around? Make her a manager of a wrestler again. Vickie's career would just be going through this cycle of manager and authority figure, but what else is there for her? Who would she manage? I have seen some people mention Vickie teaming with Ryback. I like that idea. He's a heel that they are currently interested in featuring. Giving him Vickie as a manager might have made him look more interesting after he's lost so much credibility.

More Brogue Kick Controversy

I'm not going to pretend to be the first person to note the similarities between some of the recent WWE storylines and what is currently going on in the NFL. If you don't watch the NFL, there is currently a controversy with the officials. The regular officials are not working, so the NFL is having replacement officials, which are minor league officials, handle the big games. Following some of the games, I have seen issues with taking too long to decide what to do, awarding a team an extra timeout, not handling penalties correctly, and a few others. Life goes on. There have been no huge disasters from this pro football mess. But I'm not here to judge that.

The WWE is definitely paying attention. I am just going to talk about the issues with Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio. Cars, shoes, injuries, and David Otunga have all become a part of this long feud for the World's Heavyweight Championship. The recent development revolves around the Brogue Kick, which is the finisher Sheamus loves to use the most. It was banned up to just before the match at Night of Champions officially started. Alberto Del Rio is complaining about it. JBL, who is back in the absence of Jerry Lawler, agreed that removing the ban at that time was stupid. By his logic, the move should never have been banned in the first place, but removing it at the time Booker T did was just unfair to Del Rio. I really don't care too much to argue one way or the other. This is a kayfabe controversy. It is part of the storyline. It definitely does match something I would expect to see in a football game.

Is this an interesting way to draw in viewers? It may just be because I have been watching wrestling for so long, but it does not feel fresh or interesting to me. This entire feud has gone on for too long. By recent developments, it is not ending just yet. Whether the title is held by Sheamus or Del Rio, get a new challenger. To me, that would be the freshest option. Enough with coming up with new angles to try to keep this one feud fresh. The seeds were planted since April for this feud. Five months later, they are still at it. They are trying too hard. Let me look at it from the standpoint of being a football fan, and I only started being one a year or two ago. I don't find these refereeing issues to be a draw. It takes a lot of time to sort through those issues. Just like it can kill the momentum of the players in the game, it can take the fans out of it a little. People just want to see the game. Going back to pro wrestling, those fans just want to be entertained and see some action. The WWE has done enough to make this feud interesting over the last few months. All that is left is to follow through and move on.

Random Thoughts For Smackdown 8/17/12

First, there was this match on Smackdown to determine who Booker T's new assistant would be between Kaitlyn and Eve. Did you need a more blatant example that the WWE is currently more concerned with the periphery of the diva division than the actual heart of the diva division itself? You would think things would revolve around the title. When was the last time there was a match on Raw or Smackdown to determine the #1 contender for the Diva's Championship? I don't even know. I'm not even going to cheat and look it up to seem like I know. Instead, two women fight for a position on the periphery. If you think about it, this current diva division really is the reverse of the division you had after Trish and Lita left. At that time, the WWE's chief concern was recreating the centerpiece. No divas were being properly developed in the periphery. After the WWE struck out multiple times, the agenda has changed to develop periphery divas, but you have no centerpiece. And you can see how that makes the division look. Anyway, Eve won the position. Because I have other things to talk about, I will not go into that too much now. I will get back to it one day.

Chris Jericho's final week before his next hiatus is winding down. On Smackdown, he was inserted into the matters involving Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, and Booker T. He lost his match, which furthers the storyline he currently has, and still has Ziggler to look forward to at Summerslam. While on a message board recently, I saw someone come up with an interesting idea. Have Sheamus/Del Rio happen early on the card. No matter who wins, Ziggler can cash in and win. His match with Jericho would then turn into a title match later on in the night. Since Jericho is taking time off for his band, he obviously is not going to leave with the title. Although the idea is interesting, I wouldn't do it. Just have Ziggler beat Jericho and not cash in at all. In kayfabe, sell that loss as the reason Jericho finally breaks down and leaves. Ziggler can then get a ton of momentum from doing that. That will build him up for his eventual cashing in of the briefcase. Even if he does not win it through the briefcase, I think the WWE wants him to win back the title one day. And he will need the build for it. And it would be great if he is holding the title when Jericho is ready to come back. Perfect progression of this storyline. Jericho failed before, but he's re-motivated and back. Then, he wins the big one.

And what about Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio? Yes, it's back on. Sheamus wanted it, so Booker T eventually obliged. Weak. I was hoping for something good, but that was weak. It is not as bad as the hype for Jericho's return this year leading to no big actions, even though that seems to have been part of the storyline, but it is still a waste. The match is back on. I already spoke about why Ziggler does not need to cash in when talking about Jericho. There's another way to look at it. Why have Ziggler win the title and kill Del Rio's momentum? Del Rio has been going for the title for months now. To just write him off so easily to push Ziggler now would be a waste. The WWE should follow through with Del Rio now and continue to develop Ziggler for the moment.

Summerslam's World Title Match Called Off?

It certainly is an interesting twist in this feud that has been going on for months between Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio for the World's Heavyweight Championship. Booker T, Smackdown's new GM, has called off the title match after Del Rio constructed this elaborate trap for Sheamus on Smackdown last week. Obviously, things have not ended just like that. This is just part of the storyline.

I think this is a great development. Not only does it get people wondering what will happen and tuning in to see what happens between Del Rio and Booker T, but this is great character development for Alberto Del Rio. A year ago, I referred to him as a "Master Heel". This was back when he was looking very good after winning his first WWE Championship. Shortly after saying that, as is often the case, the WWE made me eat my words. They made Del Rio's character look cowardly and pathetic. He was going against John Cena, after all. They screwed over Del Rio's potential to get very over more than they screwed up my expectations. Since then, ignoring the time he spent injured, the WWE would give him good moments here and there, but they never pushed hard and well for him to look good. Last week, he started to look like that "Master Heel" again. He had a bunch of thugs come out to help him get Sheamus. And now, he finds himself going against a face authority figure. That is good.

I think this guy has great potential to be a top heel. They just need to deliver with the storylines. I don't know how they will get this match between these two back on, but I still feel it is only a matter of time before Del Rio does win the title.

Team Long Vs. Team Laurinaitis Preview

When I got up on Tuesday, I expected to log onto my favorite pro wrestling message board and see a topic with over 100 posts about Christian being suspended for violating the WWE Wellness Policy. Why else would the WWE write him off the huge tag match to decide the boss of both shows? That stupid hairstyle he now has? He has been out with an injury for a while, but if he was healthy enough to take a beating at the hands of CM Punk, I don't see what the problem would have been in having him involved in a large match featuring a dozen wrestlers, not to mention mascots and GMs that will be at ringside to eat up some time. Christian could have definitely have done a little bit and taken a little bit.

Who did they replace him with? Drew McIntyre. That makes this even more awkward. They take out a former World Champion, and one of the heels to first side with John Laurinaitis, and replace him with a guy who is barely finding a place in the midcard recently? In terms of the storyline, McIntyre makes sense. He has had issues with Teddy Long. But they announced him joining the heel team only in passing. Could they maybe have done a backstage segment for it? What would that really have ruined? Two less minutes for the closing promo between The Rock and Cena, or have the overrun last a little longer? Obviously, it's not like there were a ton of other credible heels with nothing else to do for Wrestlemania on the active roster. If they had not gone with McIntyre, it probably would have been Jinder Mahal. I think we dodged the bullet on that one.

Aside from the switch with Christian and McIntyre, the final two members for both sides seems pretty strong. Miz is on the heel team. That is not shocking. He saved Laurinaitis from Santino. In a reversal of what happened there, Booker T saved Long from Mark Henry to get a spot on the face team. Wasn't expecting him at all before Raw. Nice surprise. Not a shocking surprise, but nice. Both Miz and Booker T have that credibility.

I'm not going to run through all the members of the team. I just wanted to mention the recent additions and changes. Moving on, who will win? Not only do I want John Laurinaitis to be GM of both shows, I think it is heading in that direction. Things would be pretty flat if Teddy Long were to run both shows. There is more potential with a heel GM that a lot of people despise, while a lot of other people are finding funny. Laurinaitis is fresher than Teddy Long right now. Obviously, there will be some shady happenings. The GMs arguing with the ref and fighting each other are almost guaranteed. Will there be someone betraying his team? Not necessary, but it could make things more interesting for what happens after Wrestlemania. In the end, I think it is a good idea to have just one GM. And Laurinaitis would not be a horrible choice.