Where have the GM's gone?

[Agent Orange7]

As I've been watching Raw and Smackdown in recent weeks, I've found myself asking the question posted as the title of this thread: Where have the GMs gone?

Am I alone in thinking this?

I know Brad Maddox is the GM of Raw and Vicki is the GM of Smackdown, but they just don't seem to be involved as some GMs of the past have been. Lately it has been all about The Authority and Kane as Director of Operations.

Any thoughts on what could or should be done about this? Does anyone other than me care about this subject? Should Triple H and/or Steph just make themselves the GM of the different shows? Do you think this will change post-Mania?

 

[Mitch Henessey]

We only need Triple H, Stephanie, and kane, and I hope it stays that way from now on.

With Vince out of the picture as an on-screen character, Triple H and Stephanie are the most powerful authority figures in WWE. I can't stand Corporate kane, because he bores me to tears, but his character serves a purpose. He's a suitable replacement/mouthpiece, when Stephanie and Triple H are not around, or when Stephanie and Triple H are busy with other storylines (i.e. Daniel Bryan), and if it's necessary, WWE can use Kane as a wrestler every now and then.

I don't know about everyone else, but Vickie in the GM role ran its course a long time ago for me. Whenever WWE announces a "new" GM for Raw or Smackdown, and it's Vickie, I feel a hard, sinking gut punch, because Vickie as an authority figure is a counterproductive and lazy move. I get the feeling WWE runs out of ideas every now and then for authority figures, so they go with Vickie as a last resort.

Brad Maddox is useless, and his routine as this clueless schmuck/dope is cringeworthy. Cutting down on the number of authority figures is a good move, because the authority scene in WWE was too crowded for months. At one point, you had Vickie, Brad, Kane, Stephanie, and Triple H running around and giving orders, and overriding decisions left and right with the "No, I'm in charge!" stuff. Five active authority figures creates a big clustered mess, and three authority figures at once is more than enough.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I'm with Mitch on this one.

Trips and Stephanie are really all we need right now. Corporate Kane is better than either of the current GM's. I don't miss Brad as he is too akward and annoying to be taken seriously as a GM. If he never gets brought back onscreen it wouldn't bother me much. Vickie needs to be removed from her GM role completely. I am SO tired of seeing her in that role. It's been done, I'd even take Teddy Long and his obsession with making tag team main event matches back over dealing with her for one more episode. Make her a heel manager instead if she has to be onscreen. Kane could be in a GM type role for both shows while Trips and Stephanie are the main (pun unintended, for lack of better terminology) authority figures over everything.

 

[Agent Orange7]

We only need Triple H, Stephanie, and kane, and I hope it stays that way from now on.

I don't know about everyone else, but Vickie in the GM role ran its course a long time ago for me. Whenever WWE announces a "new" GM for Raw or Smackdown, and it's Vickie, I feel a hard, sinking gut punch, because Vickie as an authority figure is a counterproductive and lazy move. I get the feeling WWE runs out of ideas every now and then for authority figures, so they go with Vickie as a last resort.

Brad Maddox is useless, and his routine as this clueless schmuck/dope is cringeworthy. Cutting down on the number of authority figures is a good move, because the authority scene in WWE was too crowded for months. At one point, you had Vickie, Brad, Kane, Stephanie, and Triple H running around and giving orders, and overriding decisions left and right with the "No, I'm in charge!" stuff. Five active authority figures creates a big clustered mess, and three authority figures at once is more than enough.

I took out one paragraph, because this is what I want to respond to. And I want to be clear that these are purely questions to -- by we only need Triple H, Stephanie and Kane, do you mean you think they should just get rid of Maddox and Vicki as GMs? (I'm all for that by the way. If they have the titles, use them in a meaningful way, if you're not going to use them in a meaningful way, do something else with them.)

I definitely agree about Vicki and Brad --- they just don't seem necessary in their current roles. It would be cool to have a GM who actually means something, but I don't really have any ideas who that could be right now, unless it is Triple, Steph or Kane.

 

[Pedigree1]

All we need is Trips and stephanie as far as authority figures goes.. I do miss bradley he was funny at least to me he was... Completely useless but funny.. Corporate Kane has a nice ring to it,but in reality trips and steph are all that are needed.. As far as Vickie goes,as long as she isn't on TV every week it wont bother me as much...

But i do like Teddy Long better than Vickie.. Thuggin and Buggin!

 

[L@RISANO]

I, for one, am glad they aren't on TV. The GMs are worthless,lMO. I don't think either Brad or Vickie serve any purpose. Actually, as someone who plays TEW, their gimmicks on my WWE Universe is simple, ANNOYING. Seems perfect,lMO. Needless to say, as the Booker in TEW, I don't use either of them as Authority figures when they are quite a few others who can do such a job much more effectively.

Would love if Bad News Barrett becomes an Authority figure at some point if the view is to keep him out of the ring for whatever reason...

 

[TheICChampion]

For me, the whole GM thing has more or less sucked since Bischoff got fired. I don't mean necessarily that I enjoyed him as a GM, but at least it was clear he was the authority figure, except when Vince made a few appearances here and there. Even when they had "co-GM's" it was still interesting and they played off the conflict between the two, especially when Stone Cold was around. Now, and especially ever since the "guest host" thing on Raw, the GM spot means less and less to a point where now it means absolutely nothing. At least back then, and up until recently, they made it "seem" like the GM actually had some power.

 

[Agent Orange7]

For me, the whole GM thing has more or less sucked since Bischoff got fired. I don't mean necessarily that I enjoyed him as a GM, but at least it was clear he was the authority figure, except when Vince made a few appearances here and there. Even when they had "co-GM's" it was still interesting and they played off the conflict between the two, especially when Stone Cold was around. Now, and especially ever since the "guest host" thing on Raw, the GM spot means less and less to a point where now it means absolutely nothing. At least back then, and up until recently, they made it "seem" like the GM actually had some power.

I think the last part of your post is kind of what I'm touching on. In the "old days" it seemed like the GM actually had some power, and was actually involved - and personally, I miss that angle. It would be cool to have that back IMO. I think having a legitimate GM who has some power actually adds to the show.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The GM role is redundant, even though Kane is blatantly going to be the key to the Wyatt's supremacy at Mania so won't be in the role for long (bringing down the machine from the inside? Daniel Wyatt as World Champ? Bray beating Cena? thanks to Kane Wyatt?)

But I digress, the role itself is not needed as long as there is Trips onscreen, not so much Steph but Trips has that role...

Somewhere like NXT it makes sense, although Regal rather than JBL is the obvious pick in my eyes.

The problem the E has is they have used the "evil authority" as a crutch for bad stories for nearly 15 years. The writers like it cos it's simple and recyclable often. What the E actually needs going forward is a benign but authoratitive figure like Jack Tunney or Gorilla Monsoon was... who would upset face and heel alike... I still say bring Steve Borden the man in as that role with a "fresh broom" type gimmick and only have him become Sting when provoked.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

do you mean you think they should just get rid of Maddox and Vicki as GMs?

Yes.

Corporate Kane is not my cup of tea, but he's more valuable, when you compare him to Vickie and Brad, and he's something different, when you're comparing him to Vickie alone. On top of that, Kane brings the credibility of a veteran with some name value for his matches.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The other side of corporate Kane is that Glen Jacobs is someone who will have a future outside of WWE in politics or TV punditry, or even backstage as a COO type down the line. He's perhaps the smartest guy on the roster in many ways but this gimmick gets his face known not as being a "monster" but as authoritative. Very useful if you're gonna go for senate etc in a few years.

 

[JJ15776]

A couple things:

Firstly, Triple H/Stephanie/Kane are vital to the storyline with Daniel Bryan. Once that dies down at WrestleMania, I think their roles may be reduced. At least, Triple H and Stephanie will probably be around a lot less. Will Kane continue as the Director of Operations and be the main authority figure? That's a possibility, or maybe he'll put the mask back on and return to the ring. Who knows, really.

As for the GMs, I think having two different GMs became redundant as they got rid of the brand split. Especially when you sometimes had both GMs on both shows making decisions. Like many others have said, I'm sick to death of Vickie being a GM. Make her a manager again, she's fine in that role. Brad Maddox is awesome, though...if they're not going to use him as a GM, they need to find something for him to do.

So what I'd like to see post-Mania is a return to one authority figure, be it Kane as Director Of Operations or Brad Maddox as GM. Keep Triple H and Stephanie off screen(they can return once in awhile to make big announcements, like Vince used to do when Eric Bischoff was GM) and return Vickie to a managerial role.

 

[Notorious718]

Ever since the brand split pretty much ended with wrestlers going to both Raw and Smackdown as they please, the concept of a general manager just doesn't work for me anymore especially now with the Authority stable. And when you think about who the general managers are last time I checked, I have no problem with them just doing away with them. I never particularly cared for Brad Maddox either as a wrestler or an on-screen personality and Vickie Guerrero as general manager as been beaten to death over the last few years that I just don't care to see that anymore. The last time all of the authority figures, general managers included, were on screen, it was established that Triple H and Stephanie could override their power and appeared on both shows anyway. The general manager thing is just redundant at this point and keeping them around in addition to the Authority would just cause a huge clusterfuck.