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WRESTLING COLUMNS
General Managers.... Good Thing or Bad Thing
March 5, 2004 by Chris Chambers
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In the beginning, the General Managers of Raw and Smackdown were named after
Vince McMahon beat Ric Flair for total control of the company (around the time
Austin just left WWE for a while). Vince McMahon was originally Co-Owner with
Ric Flair being Ric ran Raw & Vince ran Smackdown. After Vince won the match, he
was handling both shows untill he came up with the to hire two GM's, one for Raw
and one for Smackdown. In this column I am going to talk about each GM, the
feuds with the two GM's, and the good and bad about having GM's. After you have
read this column please email your feedback on whether or not having General
Managers is a good thing or a bad thing.
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The Announcing of the two new General Managers was definitely a shocker to most
people. When Vince McMahon came out and announced the new GM of Raw to be none
other than Eric Bischoff. My Initial thought was has "hell officially frozen
over" or am I dreaming and I haven't woke up yet. The main shocker of it was the
hug between Vince & Eric, that officially in my mind was just to much to bear.
Throughout the time when the GM's were announced I would have to say Eric was a
surprise choice for Raws General Manager. The next few days on Smackdown, Vince
announced none other than Stephanie McMahon as the Smackdown GM. I wasn't really
surprised to see Stephanie announced as GM of SD. I knew it had to be a McMahon
to be a GM and I didn't feel that it would be Shane so Stephanie was the best
choice.
There have been three good General Managers and they are Eric Bischoff,
Stephanie McMahon, & Paul Heyman. I am going to talk about Eric Bischoff first.
Eric Bischoff is a very good man when it comes to business. Most people think
Eric Bischoff sucks and that he was the cause for WCW's downfall, well for those
people you are dead wrong. Eric wasn't cause for the downfall of WCW it was
AOL/Time Warner and Ted Turner, I won't get into that but I just want to let all
the people know it wasn't Eric's fault WCW went down. Eric Bischoff as GM of Raw
at first didn't appeal to me but Eric kinda grew on me so to speak. Eric
Bischoff really impressed me with the creation of the Elimination Chamber. Eric
Bischoff in my mind is a creative mastermind and I enjoy his perspective on the
business by watching him on Raw each week. Another GM, I wanna talk about is
Stone Cold. He wasn't officially a full GM, he was only a Co-GM. Stone Cold did
some good stuff by keeping Eric Bischoff at bay and other stuff like that but I
think short term Stone Cold as GM was good but long term not so good. The next
General Manager I am going to talk about is Stephanie McMahon. I don't have alot
to say about her as GM but I did enjoy seeing her as GM. She brought back WWE to
an old and familiar aspect an that is she brought back WWE to the wrestling
aspect on SD. What do I mean you say? Well its simple, she focused Smackdown on
what the business is all about wrestling. When she was GM, Smackdown was all
about wrestling while Raw was all about drama and smut. The final GM I am going
to talk about is Paul Heyman. When Paul Heyman was announced as the New SD GM I
was all for it and happy. Paul Heyman is definitely a creative genious when it
comes to the business. He took over as GM after Vince beat Stephanie at No Mercy
03. Paul Heyman in some peoples eyes is stupid and annoying and shouldnt be on
tv. Well for those people, all I can say is "What in the blue hizzell are you
smokin". Since Paul Heyman took Stephanies place as GM, Smackdown has been the
best product or brand (whichever ya wanna call it). I enjoy Smackdown alot and
the main reason is because of Paul Heyman. Paul Heyman is also sticking to the
wrestling aspect of the business and thats why I think Smackdown is a huge
success right now.
Now I am going to talk about the feuds between the three GM's. First feud I am
going to talk about is Eric versus Stephanie. This feud between the two was ok
IMO. They both invaded each others shows and stuff like that. The one thing that
I did enjoy from this feud was the talent switching shows. I thought that was
awesome seeing Eric taking some SD talent and Stephanie taking some Raw talent.
They also tried out promoting each others shows on each others show. Now onto
the current feud between Eric & Paul Heyman. I think this feud is very good
because there are still bad feelings from the top three federation war era.
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Eric
says on Raw that he has a better product than that other GM Paul Heyman. Paul
Heyman says he wants his SD to be better than Erics Raw. Personally I would like
to see an Eric versus Paul match happen and we can see once and for all whos
better.
Now onto the Good and Bad of General Managers. I will start off on the Good
things. One good thing that I know of right off the top of my head is that
having General Managers is good for the ratings. Another good thing would have
to be seeing each others philosophy on running each show. Eric has done alot of
good things for Raw and Paul Heyman has done a tremendous amount of good stuff
for Smackdown. Now onto the bad of having General Managers. One bad thing I
could think of is that having GM's takes away the spotlight of the up and coming
talent that deserves a chance to shine. The thing of having GM's taking up time
and holding down some great wrestlers is very bad for business.
This is my opinion on General Managers and if you agree or disagree feel free to
email me and share your opinions.
by Chris Chambers..
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wrote:
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