Monday, September 22 – 10:59 A.M. (CT)

-With Raw ratings taking a big hit last week, the 800th episode of Raw taking place tonight, and Smackdown on the verge of switching networks, I have a hunch that WWE creative will dig into their usual bag of tricks to help generate some much needed buzz about their product.

It will be three months tomorrow since we've seen Vince McMahon on WWE television. When we last saw Vince, he was lying on a collapsed stage telling "Paul" (a/k/a Triple H) that he couldn't feel his legs.

I'm not sure what WWE had in mind that night. There were rumors that the stage collapse angle was going to be a major storyline that would play out through the summer months. When WWE didn't follow up immediately, people within the industry started to speculate that Vince was trying to write his character off television.

I've heard many times from many sources over the years that USA Network officials love the McMahon family. With the ratings taking such a big hit last week, it wouldn't surprise me if the USA Network honchos suggested the idea of getting a McMahon family character or two back on television.

And you just know that the people who work closely with Vince won't miss this opportunity to suck up to the Chairman of the Board by telling him that he is the key to boosting the slumping Raw rating.

The 90-day break from the Vince McMahon character has been nice. I'm happy there wasn't a major storyline right after the big stage stunt because it failed to generate the type of buzz as that the exploding limo did the year before. The character was tired and viewers needed a break from it.

As a matter of fact, I'm still not ready to see the same old Mr. McMahon character rehash the same old storylines that worked so well with Steve Austin during Raw's peak years. The character needs to be retooled. At the very least, it needs a hot storyline that doesn't bring back memories of Austin vs. McMahon.

Speaking of Austin, he's expected to return to television after the No Mercy pay-per-view to begin hyping his appearance at Cyber Sunday. WWE officials seem to believe that you can't have Austin without McMahon, which fuels my speculation that Vince will be back on television sooner rather than later. Again, this is pure speculation on my part, but I'll be very surprised if we don't see Vince sometime between tonight and the end of next month.

-Monday mornings are always so much nicer when your favorite football team wins on Sunday. I'm a lot more optimistic about the Vikings than I was last week at this time. Suddenly, they're only a game behind the hated Packers in the divisional race, the defense looks great, and the offense even looks multidimensional. I don't know how long it will last, so I'm just going to enjoy the win and hope for the best.

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