WWE: RAW, Smackdown GM Swap Only Furthers Storyline That Can Wait

This morning's announcement of the fates of RAW general manager John Laurinaitis and Smackdown GM Teddy Long was a big deal, at least from the perspective of the commentators last night on RAW.

As far as WWE itself is concerned, this was a necessary announcement that was just staged for a time not convenient for most fans. By the time that 10:00 a.m. rolled around on the East Coast, people were either getting into their Tuesday work day or in the middle of a day of school. The only people with sufficient time on their hands to wait for the announcement were elderly people, people who were home sick or people who don't have a job.

If the timing of the announcement isn't bad enough, the announcement itself was anti-climactic. Dozens of people on Twitter predicted correctly last night that the WWE Board of Directors was planning to flip-flop the general managers for next week. Teddy Long, a long-time authority figure, will be the lone man in charge of RAW next week, his first-ever time all alone on the RAW brand. As for Smackdown, the man formerly known as Johnny Ace will try to bring excitement to Friday nights in the only way that he knows how.

This feud with the two GMs and their desire to manage both brands all builds toward a potential WrestleMania match involving the two men. Here's hoping that Long and Laurinaitis won't be doing the wrestling themselves, but rather that they have representatives in their places. It could be teams represented by each GM's assistant (David Otunga on RAW and Santino Marella on Smackdown) or just be the two assistants facing each other one on one.

Regardless of how the match shapes up, it seems to only build to the idea that the winner will manage both brands. It just seems to be an unnecessary build too soon for a WrestleMania match. It also is a match that, with time, could become a bigger deal than just another thing thrown onto a stacked top of the card like WrestleMania often gets to be.

This storyline can wait, especially if it means the departure of Long and full control being given to Laurinaitis, who does a great job as the most hated authority figure since Vince McMahon himself. WrestleMania could be used to start building to a massive payoff, but that could wait until the summer.

The June pay-per-view, scheduled to take place at the IZOD Center in the New Jersey Meadowlands, was once rumored to be the revival of Bragging Rights. Bragging Rights, if you recall, culminated with a big 7-on-7 match with superstars representing their respective brands. The first two times it was done, the match and a weird-looking trophy were awarded to Smackdown. Just imagine if the stakes were a little bit higher.

It's Team Laurinaitis against Team Long. The winner runs both brands, while the loser does God knows what. It allows for some rivalries between the brands to actually form and have a GM brawl be the focal point of an entire pay-per-view concept.

Also, the idea of only one general manager in WWE brings to mind the idea of there being an end to the Brand Extension. If that is the case, it can be built toward the unification of the two brands into one company once again. Just imagine seeing SummerSlam just nine weeks afterwards, with both world championships being unified together, creating one singular championship and a new belt design replacing the WCW look and the ugly WWE Championship John Cena initiated.

In that time for a build would also be the TLC pay-per-view, which could bring wrinkles into a storyline. This would also allow time for what is believed to be the 1,000th episode of Monday Night RAW on July 23, which could be an epic night. All that stands in the way for WWE is to slow this storyline down. Drag it out and make it a payoff that fans will wait to see.

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