Wednesday, OCTOBER 14 – 3:27 P.M. (CT)

-When Vince McMahon first suggested on an episode of WWE Raw that the show was going to use guest hosts instead of a full-time general manager, I assumed he was just joking and didn’t possibly think it was a viable idea. Even on the Dot Net Weekly audio show, we glazed over the idea and didn’t talk about it much in depth.

Of course, Raw on Monday nights is WWE’s flagship show and it’s most important show in terms of ratings (please save your emails because I agree with most of you that Smackdown is a better show). Thus, the guest host gimmick has been successful as far as ratings and mainstream publicity goes (at least one outlet picks up footage from the show every week).

However, just like the question arises regarding too many pay-per-views, is over-saturation of the guest host gimmick bad for the quality of Raw and WWE overall? Let’s face it, having a guest host (or hosts) is a crutch for the Raw creative team. They can book several segments with the host and anything with Chris Jericho is going to be money.

The problem lies with a show last this past Monday’s, with Nancy O’Dell and Maria Menounos as the guest hostesses. The show actually ended up being pretty decent and advanced a lot of current storylines (remember those?), however, nothing was promoted before the show. Not one match. Not one segment. Nothing. The guest hostesses (and respectfully, not the biggest names), were enough, in WWE’s eyes, to get people to tune in.

I have said it before and I will say it again right now; I like having guest hosts, but less is more. For every Bob Barker or Snoop Dogg, we are going to get a ZZ Top or Al Sharpton. Why not spread out the guest hosts to once a month or so and really land a top notch personality every time? That way, the lifeblood of the company (the continuous storylines) are not overlooked in favor of the Dancing With The Stars level celebrities, and when there is a guest host, WWE can really have fun booking that particular show.

I am not trying to find the solution to get WWE an extra point in the ratings. That will come with the next boom, franchise superstar, or both. This is basically me looking out for the loyalists; the fans that will watch every week, but fans who desire (and deserve) a high quality product. If you think about it, WWE caters to the “fringe” fan. While that makes perfect business sense, I would love a flagship show that fans like me will enjoy, and one that will get the fence viewers to tune into and watch.

By the way, this Monday’s drinking game should be every time Michael Cole says something with “shizzle” at the end of it, or every time he puts over the fact that it could be John Cena’s last night on Raw. I imagine either of those games would send a lot of people to the hospital for alcohol poisoning.

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