Wednesday, JUNE 18 - 1:33 P.M.

WWE hasn't provided its viewers with any details on how the draft process will work this year. Will it be like the last draft where wrestlers face off in matches with the goal of winning the matches to earn a pick for their brand? Will it be a lottery style draft? There are plenty of questions about the format, but there's on that sticks out in my mind.

Who will represent the Raw brand?

Raw has been without a general manager since William Regal was suspended for 60 days due to a Wellness Policy violation. WWE hasn't done anything to make us believe that a new general manager will be announced this week and you'd think they'd advertise something like that in advance. Then again, I thought they would advertise Ric Flair's return to television in advance and that never happened.

I suppose Vince McMahon could represent the brand, but that would be overkill given his role in the 12 money prizes they are giving away this week. What about Shane McMahon? I've felt for a while now that Raw was due for a babyface general manager and Shane would be a good foil for his father's heel character. That being said, I have no idea whether Shane has interest in playing a weekly role on television.

Perhaps Teddy Long could run both brands since ECW is moving to Mondays. Then again, it would be odd for Long to pick wrestlers for both brands, so scratch that idea.

How about Flair? He just appeared on Raw. The storyline would have to be that the board of directors made the call since it was established on television that Vince doesn't want the Nature Boy on his show. I'm reluctant to endorse such a move, though. Flair was solid in the general manager role before, but I think it would be wise to keep Flair off television for a while to sell his retirement and make his next return to television mean something. I wasn't a big fan of him returning as quickly as he did and I hated the idea of not advertising him in advance.

My guess is that WWE won't name a new general manager on Monday and the creative staff instead works around it by using a lottery style draft. I'm assuming they'll go with the slot machine approach where the big screen flashes the faces of all the wrestlers and magically stops on the face of one wrestler.

Too bad if that's the case. I've always enjoyed the verbal exchanges between the general managers because it adds to the feeling that there's really something at stake at the draft and that there's legitimate competition between the brands. We might get a couple of scenes with Long and Vickie Guerrero, but I don't expect them to play major roles if there's not a figurehead representing Raw.

Wednesday, JUNE 18 - 9:55 A.M.

-I'm still amazed by how much press Dwayne Johnson is getting these days. I don't even think he's promoting a movie, yet he's appearing on "The Tonight Show," was featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and was the subject of a lengthy story in the L.A. Times. Meanwhile, Vince McMahon is giving away a million dollars on television every week and he's managed to get a quick appearance on "The Today Show" and some of the cable news shows. Ouch.

-Editor's late addition: I finished my blog and hopped in the car to run an errand and was immediately greeted with the voice of Steve Carrell, who was promoting "Get Smart." You'd think with all the pub that Rock is getting for being part of that movie that I would have remembered that he does have a flick to promote. Duh.

-It's not all bad for Vince. His ratings stunt paid off with a 3.3 rating on Raw the other night. Granted, the rating dropped in the second hour compared to the first hour and he had to pay another million dollars of his own money just to get the rating to move, but at least it didn't drop again this week.

-TNA officials should be very happy that the NBA Finals wrapped up on Tuesday. TNA Impact went head-to-head with two games of the Celtics vs. Lakers series and would have done so again had the series gone seven games. I won't be surprised if the Impact rating increases this week. The NBA Finals are finished, "Lost" wrapped up it's glorious fourth season a couple weeks ago, and the rest of the strong NBC Thursday night shows are in rerun mode. In other words, TNA won't be facing heavy hitter competition for a while.

-Can you imagine what the reaction would be like if Brett Favre made a surprise return to the field for the Green Bay Packers? Do you think the Packers would make a little fuss over it on their own website? Yeah, me too. I know Ric Flair didn't exactly return to the ring on Monday, but the fact that he made his first appearance on Raw should be enough to justify the idea of featuring his photo on the main page at WWE.com on Tuesday.

-My girlfriend doesn't watch much wrestling with me, but she is fully aware of the pay-per-view schedule because of the way it affects our weekend plans. As such, she made a solid observation recently when she sarcastically quipped, "They scheduled a wrestling pay-per-view on Mother's Day, but they don't have one on Father's Day?" Um, good point.

-Analyze this dream: I was watching the FOX Sunday night animated lineup and decided to flip channels during a commercial break. I stumbled upon a WWE pay-per-view that I was supposed to be covering live on the website and the show was already at least 45 minutes in. I immediately noticed that Jim Ross wasn't calling the match. Rather, it was former AWA broadcaster Rod Trongard. I immediately woke up from this nightmare and I couldn't get back to sleep for about 30 minutes.

-Speaking of J.R., I finally tried his BBQ sauce on a batch of grilled chicken the other night. I thought it was fantastic, but the real test would be my girlfriend, who is picky about her BBQ. She started off with a "Not bad," which told me she still really hadn't decided anything. A couple bites later, she noted that it was sweet, yet still had a little kick to it, and admitted she was impressed. "It's not as good as my mom's sauce, though," she said. J.R. shouldn't take it personally. He makes a great BBQ sauce and it's highly recommended. For ordering information, check out JRsbarbq.com.

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