By Richard Gardner, Torch specialist

Triple H made the call to Shawn Michaels, trying to initiate the inevitable DX reunion at Summerslam. In between smug insider references ("I thought you didn't do jobs") we found out that Shawn Michaels wasn't watching Raw. You can hardly blame him. The guest host concept may have been successful in terms of getting WWE pockets of media coverage, but in terms of show quality, putting celebrities in charge of Raw has been an unmitigated disaster, typified by the appearance of Jeremy Piven and Dr. Ken this Monday.

WWE has sold its soul to celebrity culture. With less than three weeks before the second biggest Pay-Per-View of the year, WWE spent an entire show promoting a movie that, for the record, looked f'n terrible. The fact that Summerslam is on August 23 was an aside; the big issue was that "The Goods" is in cinemas on August 14. Whether WWE was remunerated for this promotion is irrelevant; there is no way that the release of a Jeremy Piven film should be presented as bigger event than Summerslam.

After getting all this advertising for his movie you would think that Jeremy Piven would have the integrity to put over the WWE product. That was not the case. He had to be corrected by John Cena after he referred to Summerslam as "Summerfest." The jury is still out over whether this was a genuine mistake or he was just making sure that the general public knew he wasn't a fan of something that hasn't been cool since the turn of the decade.

I wrote extensively about the shortcomings of the guest host concept two weeks ago. The main issue is that the celebrities who use the time on Monday nights to sell their products to a captive audience are put over as big stars by the wrestlers, when it should be the other way round. WWE took an Internet poll of thoughts on who would win in a match between Shaquille O'Neal and The Big Show. That Shaq got 83 percent of the vote typifies the way in which the celebrities have been put over the wrestlers in recent weeks. The majority of WWE's fanbase believes a basketball player could beat the WWE's largest wrestler and former World champion.

The treatment of The Miz in the opening segment was even more alarming. The Miz, who was over as a heel fairly recently until he was destroyed in a one-sided feud with John Cena, was neutered in the ring on Monday night. He was booked to just stand there while Cena and the movie stars insulted him, and was further buried in main event. Who would pay money to see him in a title match now?

The idea of having a guest host of Raw may work if used sparingly with the right person, but to do it every week is not only overkill, it also constantly takes up time that could be used to feature some of the underutilized members of the Raw roster. The WWE creative team may have aspirations to move onto Hollywood, but they have shown total ineptitude when writing for the celebrities. Whether it be lame comedy or dialogue that outright buries the wrestlers that they are interacting with, the quality of the non-wrestling segments on Raw has become almost uniformly awful.

WWE and USA Network are enthused by the guest host concept despite the obvious problems it causes, with Chris McCumber, USA's Executive Vice President of marketing, digital, and brand strategy, describing it this week as an opportunity for celebrities to promote their products to an installed audience of over five million. However the blatant product placement is detrimental to the overall quality of the show. I'm sure that celebrities could reach a much wider audience by promoting their products during an episode of "24" or "House," but it doesn't mean that either show would benefit by incorporating blatant product placement into their narrative.

In the closing moments of Raw, John Cena threw Dr. Ken over the top rope into the waiting arms of Carlito, Chris Masters, and Jack Swagger, who promptly dropped him on his head. In all likelihood this was an accident and not a reaction to Raw being turned into a circus over the past few weeks. But, it might have been appropriate based on the overall lack of quality on the show.

See you at Summerfest.

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