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-- It's the beginning of the June, which means the annual post-WrestleMania snooze has set in. Last year, the senses were awakened by Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels's awesome feud on Raw. The year before that, Matt Hardy and MVP carried Smackdown on Friday nights during the spring doldrums.

Right now, I don't see a Jericho-Michaels program on the horizon. Top feuds in WWE right now are Randy Orton vs. Batista and Jeff Hardy vs. Edge. Both feature top star power, but both feel like repeats. Not just in terms of "we've already seen this before," but in terms of "we just paid $40 for the same matches three weeks ago."

I don't sense much excitement around the Extreme Rules PPV. Objectively, weak TV ratings support my conclusion. Over 1.0 million viewers have tuned out since the April 13 Draft show.

Subjectively, there just isn't a "zip" or a "pop" to WWE TV right now. Some stuff is good. Some stuff is okay. Some stuff is crap. It's "just there" and that doesn't translate into money being spent.

I'm concluding weak PPV buys, continuing WWE's quarterly trend of PPV buys declining.

In an effort to find a solution to this problem of WWE content simply being "just there," the question is whether WWE is lacking star power, direction, or just the "it" factor necessary to bring back those 1.0 million viewers and some excitement to the product.

Is re-incorporating Triple H and/or Shawn Michaels onto Raw part of the solution? Perhaps. Is moving John Cena far, far away from Big Show and re-establishing him as the star of Raw part of the solution? Perhaps. Is it developing a credible mid-card? We know that will never happen on Raw, so why bother.

Right now, the mix is just off. John Cena seems out of position. He's either feuding with The Miz (in a mid-card program that deserves to be main event) or Big Show (in a main event program that deserves to be mid-card). Pick one. Is Randy Orton feuding against Ric Flair or Batista? Is Flair part of the regular mix or just a once-in-a while player? Is Flair coming out of retirement or just pussyfooting around?

The mix is off, the feuds aren't clear, and WWE is scripting slop to be dumped on Santino. That's a recipe for some off-balance TV that over 1.0 million folks are skipping. WWE is in the middle of an every-three-weeks PPV schedule that won't allow them to change direction drastically. Incorporating top stars or clarifying some issues would help them avoid an "oh, it's just there," frustrating summer of TV storylines.

-- Hulk Hogan Marketing Day 3: We resume this week's course on how to promote something in the entertainment industry by looking at Day 3 of the Hogan family's sales pitch for the second season of Brooke Hogan's reality show. The show debuts this weekend and Brooke was on Howard Stern this morning to entice male viewers to check out the show for potentially scandalous TV programming.

Hulk and Brooke grabbed the female audience with the exclusive quotes in Life & Style Magazine yesterday. Today, Brooke revealed all sorts of intimate details about her personal life on Howard Stern. She basically had male callers drooling all over her, enticing them to tune in for the "Brooke Knows Best" season premiere. The recap of her appearance is available on Marksfriggin.com.

Linda Bollea, Hulk's ex-wife, is doing her part to keep the Hogan name in the media. P.R. reps for Linda sent out a notice that Linda took a drug test on Monday and she came back "clean, clean, clean" in an effort to refute Hulk's claim that she was on drugs. Tampa Tribune story.

-- Former WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar is already facing tongue-in-cheek "critiques" from his UFC 100 opponent, Frank Mir. The fight is scheduled for July 11 and Mir said he would like to coach Lesnar in a few years so Lesnar can learn how to be a real fighter. Mir was basically saying Lesnar sucks as a fighter.

"Three or four years from now, if I decide to switch over into full time coaching, I would like to coach Brock," Mir said in a story on 5thround.com. "How can he be so talented, an NCAA champion, probably one of the best wrestlers to come out of college in the heavyweight division, and still make some of the real basic balancing and footwork mistakes that he’s making right now?"

Mir also suggested Lesnar wouldn't continue as an MMA fighter if he were not making top dollars in UFC, essentially questioning Lesnar's commitment. "He fights because he gets paid to fight," Mir said. "If the UFC were to go bankrupt tomorrow, a month later I would still be in some small organization fighting. I fight because I enjoy fighting. If Lesnar was making $10,000, would he show up to fight?" 5thRound.com story.

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