Evaluating The General Managers Under The Corporate Heel Storyline

A few months ago, they had this angle about evaluating Vickie Guerrero's job as Raw GM. That led to some shifting of power in terms of who was running the two shows. Brad Maddox took over on Raw, while Vickie got Smackdown. I am not going to be looking at how entertaining the two are as authority figures right now. I am going to be evaluating how the WWE is actually utilizing them.

Why even bother bringing this subject up? Because the roles seem almost pointless. You have Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Vince McMahon all being heels and calling the shots. The General Managers are both just pawns under them. It would make more sense to consider them corporate assistants to Triple H and Stephanie. Their roles are being overshadowed.

When Maddox took over on Raw, they treated him as the GM the fans deserved. It was a heel move from Vince McMahon. What should that have led to? An incompetent GM angle? Instead, it manifested itself in just another authority figure being used by the bosses above him.

When Vickie went to Smackdown, it looked like she would be bitter over the fans wanting her to lose her job on Raw. That could have led to an angle revolving around Vickie Guerrero getting a reign of terror on Smackdown. It didn't happen. Well, not with her. Triple H is getting the reign of terror.

Just taking a general evaluation in how the WWE is creatively handling the GM positions right now, it seems really useless. I don't blame the writers. The McMahons obviously want to run a big storyline about them being the top heels against Daniel Bryan. It just isn't really possible to treat Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox better with all this other stuff going on. It is a waste. I find it hard to consider them true GMs when they are overshadowed like this. As I said before, make them assistants to the real heels in charge. They will still have power to make matches. The only thing that would really change is the job title. Sounds trivial, but it might help with the flow of the storyline a little better. I just can't take Vickie and Brad seriously as in charge as a GM should be.

New Raw GM: Brad Maddox

Well, there was change. Vickie is out and Brad Maddox is in. In terms of the storyline happenings, he was the likely choice for GM. He was Vickie's sidekick. No swerve there.

What direction may they be going with this? They already sold him as someone incapable of holding down the job of running Raw. Many fans viewed Mike Adamle as an incompetent choice to be GM. Imagine that as a gimmick. That is the kind of gimmick they may be pushing with Brad Maddox. And when he starts messing up, that will further the issues between Vince McMahon and Triple H. They were at opposite ends of each other last night. Vince McMahon is definitely starting to act more like a clear heel again, so the signs of a feud are coming up.

Do I personally like the choice of Brad Maddox? Not really that exciting to me. Not even worth talking about much. But considering how they might handle his run as GM, that might make things interesting. Vince said that the fans deserved Brad Maddox. How will they push Maddox as GM to sell that point? Could make for some good moments.

The Shield And Brad Maddox Reveal

It was finally revealed on Raw where The Shield and Brad Maddox fit into this whole drama involving CM Punk. Paul Heyman was indeed the mastermind. Vince McMahon had video evidence to prove that they were all working together to save CM Punk's title reign the numerous times they did. It wasn't for the weak reasons that The Shield and Maddox were trying to sell, which just about everyone figured. As you would guess, I have some complaining to do.

First, I am going to say what I like about what happened. There are two things I like. I'll get to the second one at the end. First, I was feeling for a long time that the WWE was under-utilizing Paul Heyman's character. I actually like how the story ended up. While Paul Heyman seemed to be not doing too much in front of the camera, he was actually scheming and up to no good behind the scenes. Clever. That actually paid off well. The ends justify the means.

Now, time to complain. The WWE went with the obvious direction with The Shield angle. Why were they attacking people? Because they were helping Paul Heyman and CM Punk. No swerve. That was kind of flat. I'm just glad they didn't try to drag this on any further. It was not a believable gimmick.

What's next for The Shield? That's something else to complain about. Cena now finds himself as one of the three guys feuding with the three-man heel stable. This wouldn't be the first time a threat is developed, fed to John Cena, and then dropped back to mediocrity. I wasn't liking this group, but going the obvious pattern by having them feud with John Cena doesn't make it better.

What about Brad Maddox? He got beaten up by The Shield. That's another guy I wasn't really caring too much about. At least The Shield can still serve some kind of purpose and then move on to possibly having good singles or tag-team careers after this storyline ends. I don't feel Maddox really has a place. He definitely served a purpose in the storyline, but what do you do with him now? I can imagine him going the route of Alex Riley.

After Vince revealed all this, he was prepared to fire Paul Heyman. What happens? The return of Brock Lesnar. That's the other thing I liked about all this. Brock laid out Vince. That should lead to Triple H returning for a rematch. This could actually lead to a better stable. A while back, I thought about whether The Shield should add members. No, I don't think Brock should join that stable. I think they should all combine with CM Punk and Heyman. The Heyman Guys? Call it whatever you want. I don't think now is the time where The Shield has to go rogue against Heyman. CM Punk does not need to go on his own now too, either. Let them all stay together for a while. What about Maddox? I don't think he's too necessary. You can have a strong, main-event stable at a good time of the year to have one. That is the best option, in my eyes anyway.