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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Bryan Cullers of Chicago, Ill.
PWTorch.com Reader

Stale. If there was one word that exemplifies Monday Night Raw in the year 2008 it would be stale. For a television program that was once one of the edgiest and hippest programs in all of cable, this is simply not good. So what happened? Everyone has there theories.

Was Triple H's marathon reigns as champion between 2002 and 2005? Was it degradation of the Intercontinental Championship to the point where the title is barely defended at most "B" pay-per-views, let alone supercards like WrestleMania and SummerSlam? Maybe it was the burial of the tag team division which at one point in the year 2006 saw a comedic "jobber" faction named the Spirit Squad hold the World Tag Team Championships for six months despite only winning one feud they were involved in.

In fact it was a combination of all of these things that currently have Raw in the state that it is in and that state is one of boredom. In June WWE held a draft that saw a majority of it's upper mid card and main event stars switch shows. These switches resulted in the balance of power shifting in WWE from Monday Night Raw to Friday Night Smackdown. In fact the Draft was so influential that it led many fans to speculate for the first time in several years which show was superior - Smackdown or Raw? Well in this viewer's opinion there has never been a question which show was better. Even before the Draft, Smackdown has been the better show for the better part of the last three years and the reason is in the writing.

The booking or the writing of a wrestling television show is crucial to the entertainment of the fans of that show and the success of the overall product. Sure, Rey Mysterio is one of the most popular superstars in the world, but if the "creative" (and I use that term loosely) team scripted Rey Mysterio to become a psychotic heel or bad guy like say a Randy Orton, then his character and popularity would be misused through no fault of Mysterio. When looking at the wrestling business, you can see how important it is to have a great booker/writer or writing staff. This problem is more than evident in WWE's current landscape Monday Night Raw has one of the worst writing staffs ever in wrestling. Why might you ask are they so bad? The answer to that is easy and that is none of them ever wrestled. That's right. The crack staff that brings you the events and stories on Monday night's not only have not wrestled but upon until they took their jobs with WWE they did not work anywhere else in the business. No minor leagues, no booking an independent show. Nothing. So how do we fix this problem? Easy, you do what anybody else would do in a similar situation. You bring in people who know what they are doing.

As an African-American fan of pro wrestling, I found the incident involving Michael Hayes and Mark Henry to be inexcusable. Having said that, Hayes sure does know how to put on a wrestling show. Hayes knows this because he was once a wrestler and member of the Fabulous Freebirds. The same goes for Dusty Rhodes, who was booking Championship wrestling from Florida while Brian Gerwitz was doing god knows what. The reason Raw is bad is because they have people writing it who don't know anything about wrestling. It would be like calling a plumber to build you coffee table.

If Raw is ever going to be good again, it needs to be more of a wrestling show. That's what Smackdown is and that is why it is better. Most fans want to see great in-ring action featuring the top stars, not John Cena's toilet humor or Kane cutting laborious promos that are so stupid that they defy belief. Even one of the better storylines Raw has going with Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix is an example of what is wrong Raw with more attempts at sitcom humor than athleticism. Another answer to Raw's problems might be Ring of Honor booker Gabe Spolsky, who got his start in wrestling working under Paul Heyman in the original ECW and is now booking arguably the most entertaining promotion in world today.

Whatever WWE does, they need to do it fast because history has shown that once a audience starts skipping a show they just don't start unskipping it. If Raw is to be as good as it once was then wrestling with a capital W needs to come to the forefront and Vince McMahon and company need to start realizing that. As a fan, I would love to see a Gabe Spolsky or even someone like Mick Foley. And really that is what Raw needs to be successful. Not ex-sitcom writers or reality TV writers, but people with experience in the wrestlng buisness. While no one knows what the future may hold for WWE's flagship broadcast, I do know this: They better think of something soon because once Shawn Micheals and Chris Jericho are through, I will be too.

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