WWE: 10 Possible Choices for the New RAW GM

John Laurinaitis is currently the WWE Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and the Raw general manager, but luckily, that later title comes with an interim tag.

Thank goodness, because Laurinaitis might very well be the worst authority figure in WWE history, and I absolutely can't wait until the day when someone replaces him on Monday Night Raw.

Even if that doesn't happen until way down the road, it'll be a great day for us WWE fans, who will no longer have to sit through Laurinaitis' insufferable acting, his complete lack of charisma and his incredibly irritating voice.

We just hope that when Laurinaitis is gone, the WWE steps it up with his replacement.

So, today we are going to take a look at what life could be like in the post-Laurinaitis era.

Here are 10 possible choices for the permanent Raw general manager (listed in order from least likeliest to likeliest, in my opinion).

10. Joey Styles

Joey Styles may not immediately come to mind as a candidate for the Raw general manager, but perhaps no one has been more outspoken about the recent state of the WWE than the former ECW announcer.

If you follow him on Twitter, then you know that he doesn't hold back. He criticizes the WWE to the point where I begin to wonder how he still is employed by the company.

Yet, that's exactly why I could see him as the Raw GM.

The WWE has obviously been chaotic under the rule of both Triple H and John Laurinaitis and Styles would definitely make wholesale changes to Monday Night Raw.

He seems to be one of those guys who knows what changes we—and by we, I mean older Internet fans—want, and he would do his best to revolutionize the WWE.

9. William Regal

William Regal is quickly becoming a very good announcer on NXT, but maybe seven people actually still watch that show.

Thus, I'd personally love to see Regal in a more high-profile role as Raw's new general manager because he has plenty of experience working as an authority figure.

He worked as the WWF commissioner from 2000 to 2001, and he worked as both the interim and permanent Raw GM from 2007 to 2008. Might I add that he did a fantastic job in all three roles?

There's just something about the way that Regal carries himself as a heel that makes you hate him while, at the same time, also respecting him.

He would make sure that Monday Night Raw gets back on track, and he'd be the hated heel that John Laurinaitis is trying to be.

8. Teddy Long

SmackDown GM Teddy Long is the king of showing up on Raw or SmackDown and making tag team matches, so why not just extend his power to cover both Monday and Friday nights?

I'm not the biggest fan of Long—I like the guy, but he's too much of a pushover in his baby face role—but he's obviously going to be under consideration for the position of Raw GM.

Long has spent the last seven years or so as the General Manager of both SmackDown and ECW, and he's fine at what he does. Nothing great, but nothing all that bad either.

If the WWE is looking to appoint a Raw GM who can truly control chaos, then I think the company will go in another direction. 

7. JBL

Here's what JBL posted on Twitter regarding a rumored return to the WWE:

"

 “IF i returned IF, I would want to be RAW gm and have some fun! I could do wonders there-great talent, just needs someone to play off of!”

"

Count me in as someone who would love to see JBL back on WWE TV.

While I never saw much in the guy as a wrestler, the fact is that he generates a ridiculous amount of heat. He'd be a perfect fit as a heel announcer, manager or authority figure.

See the theme here? JBL would work well in just about any role, as long as he's a heel.

I'm not sure if that Tweet is hinting at a possible return to the company, but it would be awesome if it was.

6. Shawn Michaels

There's a rumor floating around that Shawn Michaels could be returning to the WWE to align himself with Triple H during his current feud with Kevin Nash.

That actually makes a lot of sense given the long history between those three, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a brief D-Generation X reunion during the buildup to a likely Survivor Series encounter between Nash and Triple H.

That being said, I could also picture HBK returning in another role: As the Raw general manager.

It's no secret that Michaels still has a great relationship with the WWE, but he's not going to come back to wrestle. If he wants to return as a TV character, however, then the Raw GM role would be a good fit.

It would present some interesting scenarios between he and Triple H, and it would be a treat for us fans to see Michaels on WWE TV every week.

5. Vickie Guerrero

Anytime a role like this pops up, I have to consider the possibility that Vickie Guerrero will fill it.

She's performed extremely well in recent roles as the manager of Dolph Ziggler, the official consultant to Teddy Long and the acting general manager of SmackDown, and there isn't one non-wrestler in the WWE who generates the amount of heat she does.

You could argue that Vickie is one of the three or four most hated heels in the entire company, and her heat would probably increase tenfold if she were to be named the general manager of Raw.

Vickie knows how to work the crowd, she knows how to piss people off and she knows how to run a show.

She may not be the most logical choice for the Raw GM at the moment, but she might very well be the best one.

4. Michael Cole

I never considered the possibility of Michael Cole leaving the announce table...until this Monday's episode of Raw.

When Cole challenged Jim Ross to "The Michael Cole Challenge" and said that J.R. could return to his position as Raw's play-by-play man if he beat Cole, I found myself wondering if this was the WWE's way of transitioning Cole to the position of Raw GM.

If you think about it, Cole has been connected to the GM role more than just about anyone else. He read the emails from the anonymous GM, and he's gotten into this feud with Ross primarily because interim GM John Laurinaitis fired the longtime WWE announcer.

Now, maybe—just maybe—Ross will beat Cole next Monday and return as an announcer, while Cole will go away for a while, only to be brought back as the permanent Raw GM.

Other than maybe Vickie Guerrero, no one's going to be more hated in that role than Michael Cole.

3. Mick Foley

Mick Foley's WWE return has officially been announced for the Nov. 14 edition of Monday Night Raw, but we're not sure what his involvement in the show will be.

Will he be by the side of his buddy The Rock? Will he be a one-time host of the show? Will he be returning as a part-time wrestler?

Well, although those choices all seem fine and dandy, the WWE will get the most out of Foley if they make him the Raw general manager.

Foley's one of the most beloved figures in wrestling and someone who can work well as a baby face or heel, so it would be a wise move to have him come back as a full-time TV character.

He's not going to be a manager, though, and he's not going to be an announcer. So, he should be the Raw GM.

2. Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon is apparently still the chairman of the WWE, so I guess he technically could return to run Monday Night Raw without having to be the show's general manager.

But this is the WWE we're talking about here, and this entire storyline has had logic gaps all over the place, including a couple that Vince himself has been involved in.

Thus, if the WWE brass wants Vince to return to TV, then they'll probably come up with some ridiculous way to make him the Raw general manager.

Whatever. That's fine.

I think this angle with Triple H and John Laurinaitis is leading to Vince's eventual full-time TV return anyway, so it doesn't really matter how it happens.

1. Stephanie McMahon

We've seen traces of Stephanie McMahon on WWE TV in recent months, most notably in a couple of backstage segments with CM Punk.

But, other than that, she's basically been absent from Raw's main event angle between Triple H, Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis. Well, at least she was until this Monday's episode of Raw.

In a backstage segment, Laurinaitis was apparently on the phone with Stephanie following Kevin Nash's attack on Triple H, and this was probably done for a reason: To foreshadow Stephanie's TV return.

Given all the people involved, it certainly wouldn't come as a surprise to see Stephanie come back and battle Laurinaitis for control of Raw on behalf of her husband, Triple H.

Maybe I'm totally off here, but the booking is set up perfectly for this. It's just a matter of the WWE managing to screw it up or not.