“And I Quote…”
by Mike Killam
This past Monday night marked the seven month anniversary of the Anonymous General Manager on Raw. It’s hard to believe it’s only been seven months of listening to Michael Cole say “can I have your attention. I’ve just received an email from the anonymous Raw general manager! And I quote…” In honor of the anniversary, rather than just peddling my own opinions (we’ll get there, I promise), I’ve enlisted the help of our very own Wrestlezone Forums! Here’s what a few of you had to say:
CuddleBuns84: “It’s simple and sweet. Straight to the point. No 10 minute promo from the GM.”
Jack-Hammer: “As has been said, what’s best about the Raw GM concept is that it’s minor, quick & painless almost every time. One thing that stands out is that it leaves Raw without a visible on screen authority figure, which is something that we haven’t seen on a televised wrestling show in a very long time. In WCW, they had the "WCW Commissioner", the WWE has had the "WWF/WWE President" & various GMs for Raw and Smackdown!, TNA has had about half a dozen different authority figures running around on iMPACT! at any given time over this past year so not having that character has been kind of refreshing.”
Heartbreak_Kid_707: “The main con of it is its ran its course, people wanna know who it is. They need a physical presence to interact with…wrestlers and fans both need it…”
Arkham Noir: “The biggest con is probably the way we are presented with the GM. To have some random noise alerting us followed by a Micheal Cole appearance is channel changing material in my book. People just don’t seem to like it and it sort of breaks the whole flow of any scenario. Words sent via an e-mail really have nothing special about them. Yes it avoids having someone with zero delivery skills from sabotaging the whole thing (Mike Adamle) , but at the same time, a person’s presence can add so much to any segment.”
These are all really great points and I’m…wait a minute…CuddleBuns84? Somebody actually chose CuddleBuns84 as their profile name on a professional wrestling forum..? You’re not Michael Cole in disguise are you…?
If you would have asked me 2 months ago what my biggest complaint was about the Anonymous GM angle, I would have listed off half a dozen things and spent an hour deliberating on which was worse. Today I’m a changed man, and I’ve really only got one big issue with it: WWE has no idea where they’re going with it, and it shows. The “General Manger” has shifted personalities almost as many times as Cole has since its inception, and has gone from an exciting mystery to a bipolar nuisance.
Last June when Vince McMahon announced that Raw would have a new Anonymous General Manager, we all knew it was because Bret Hart had personal issues going on and could no longer play the role. But it was still very intriguing, and the speculation of who would eventually be revealed was insane. Suddenly rumors of a Steve Austin return were all over the place, and the Rock was “rumored” to be taking time off from filming. Jim Ross, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon, and hell…even David Arquette and Ted Turner got some speculation throw their way.
After awhile people began to lose interest, but WWE retaliated by teasing Stone Cold and several other legends, reigniting the speculation. It was at this point that I realized the angle was WWE’s way of doing the best they could with a bad situation. The loss of Bret Hart was unexpected, and there was no way to bring in a new authority figure that fast. So they improvised and created a situation that would buy them as much time as they needed. It really was a genius move by WWE, but it’s now 7 months later, and they still have yet to resolve the issue and bring in a real General Manager. But is this really that much of a problem? Do we need an on-air personality taking up television time? Do we need one more person trying to get their character over and into the mix of the weekly programming? Why not use somebody who’s already in place…?
