By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

Jim Ross offered a healthy and candid evaluation of all-things WWE following the 800 episode celebration of Raw in Tampa on Monday night. Among the highlights in his latest blog on jrsbarbq.com:

- Ross repeated his praise of Shawn Michaels as one of the best big-money wrestlers in WWE, but flying with Shawn to Tampa from Dallas, Ross says "one can see the fatigue in his eyes." Ross speculated Michaels could be done around WrestleMania 26, but he hopes he's wrong.

Caldwell's Analysis: I was ball-parking WrestleMania 25 in Houston, so that's pleasant news if WWE has Michaels at its disposal for another 15 months or so. There are plenty of options for Michaels to have another program with the likes of a Chris Jericho to carry Raw TV, and Michaels's in-ring schedule has certainly been reduced to get more mileage out of his body.

As Ross said last week, WWE needs Michaels more than Michaels needs WWE, so he'll probably have a healthy amount of control over his future programs, especially based on the success of the program with Jericho.

- The Undertaker's submission vice-like finisher is now called "Devil's Triangle." Of another note, Ross says he was surprised Taker's appearance on Raw wasn't more heavily promoted.

Caldwell's Analysis: It certainly was curious to see WWE put lackluster effort behind promoting The Undertaker's rare Raw appearance on Monday night. He was certainly one of the key members of the roster in the early days, then a central figure in the Attitude era. It would have been fitting to promote a Taker appearance well in advance along with the Batista vs. Jericho and DX vs. Miz & Morrison matches.

Taker's drawing power is built on his mystique and making rare appearances. Treating him like just another guy showing up on Raw for a reunion cuts into his potential drawing power and doesn't help the prestige of Smackdown when one of its top stars is treated like just another wrestler on the flagship show.

- Ross says that Jack Swagger has a chance to be special and in the same class as Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar for making the transition from amateur wrestling to stars in pro wrestling. "Having hired both Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle, it isn’t hard for me to put Jack Swagger in their class," Ross said. "Swagger likely won’t be as high maintenance as the other two, but he has the chance to be special."

Caldwell's Analysis: I don't believe we have enough of a sample from Swagger to determine what he'll be able to bring to the table over the long haul. His first attempt at a major promo last night was above-average, but there's not quite a killer instinct in his eyes or in the way he handles himself in the ring. Brock and Angle have always given the impression of having a killer instinct, based on their amateur backgrounds of looking for the kill to score victory.

Ross certainly has an eye for talent, based on his years of scouting for new stars when he was VP of talent relations, so the strong endorsement for Swagger is nothing to sneeze at. Swagger will need time to develop and maybe need a mouthpiece like Lesnar had with Paul Heyman, but he took a nice step last night on ECW.

- "Amazing to see so many wannabe stars contribute literally nothing intellectually to their in-ring personas. Nothing. Many spend more time in catering or talking to one of seemingly two dozen divas than getting with those that can help them develop their presentation and in ring personas. Amazing."

Caldwell's Analysis: This isn't Ross's first promo on the younger talent for giving off the appearance of disinterest in growing or developing as wrestlers. It's been a common theme this week in the interviews from Chris Jericho and Jericho hinting at Vince McMahon's mindset in not trusting younger wrestlers. When the appearance of a lackluster work ethic is there, management and veteran executives are not going to respect the young talent and hand them main event status on a silver platter.

- "The tag team scene in the WWE needs lots of work unless it is simply positioned to be where it is...mid-card fodder."

Caldwell's Analysis: It doesn't help that one week after winning the World Tag Titles, C.M. Punk and Kofi Kingston were positioned in separate matches where Punk was about to lose a singles match against Randy Orton less than three minutes into the match and Kofi took a clean loss in a tag match mere minutes into the action.

Also, a re-re-re-united DX teaming up to defeat a legit tag team that has been working together, Miz & Morrison, pretty much kills the credibility of the art form of tag wrestling. When a couple of singles wrestlers can get together after not wrestling together for a while to defeat a now-seasoned tag team, it doesn't put tag team wrestling in a positive. Then again, the art form of tag wrestling has been dead in WWE for years.

- Speculation over the musical chairs at the announcing position is not news to him, as he's learned to expect change. "At the end of the day only one man (Vince McMahon) knows for sure what he wants for his company," Ross said. "I've learned that predicting those matters cannot be in my best interests."

Caldwell's Analysis: We know that McMahon has been frustrated with Michael Cole on Raw. We know that he would be frustrated with Jim Ross back on Raw. We know that he would be frustrated with himself on commentary.

Being a WWE announcer takes the thickest of skins and the patience to deal with McMahon's changing opinions on how to verbally present the product. Ross has been through enough announcer changes the past two years to simply take it week-by-week. He hinted at that in his blog, saying he wasn't informed to be in Tampa for Raw until late last week.

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