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As was revealed on RAW, John Cena selected his partner to face off against The Miz and R-Truth at Survivor Series, and his choice was none other than his scheduled WrestleMania opponent, The Rock. Far from taking the sheen off the novelty of Rock’s in-ring return, a pre-WM appearance has been expected for some time, as a build-up to the big showdown next spring.

Those with SD memory cards aplenty may even have, stored away somewhere, episodes of RAW in which Mike Tyson’s guest spot at WrestleMania was similarly promoted. Given that Dwayne Johnson is a WWE product and knows their system, expect more cameos and pre-WM involvement from The Rock in the final months leading up to his big showdown with Cena.

In sports entertainment, it’s hard to know when something’s real and when it’s a work; however, it would be baffling to understand why Vince McMahon would choose voluntarily to adopt a sickly demeanor during his appearance on last Monday’s RAW. He entered the arena without any of his typical energy and swagger, and seemed lacking in energy while in the ring with Triple H.

There are only reports suggesting McMahon was suffering from the flu; but is it possible that age is finally catching up to the savvy promoter? Currently 66, McMahon is past retirement age, but already seems a shadow of his former self from as recently as five years ago.

While he once struck a figure that helped him seem credible in the ring when he’d opt to let Steve Austin or someone have a storyline match with him, he now looks like an aging executive from whom you might solcit an RV insurance quote.

While “Hunter as CEO” has been a storyline WWE had run with a measure of success since this summer when the whole C.M. Punk storyline began, it could become reality sooner than later that the company’s day-to-day operations will be turned over to Stephanie and her husband.

If so, it will mark the end of an historic era; but let’s hope we don’t have to write Vinnie-Mac’s final on-screen notes any time soon. In small doses, he’s still entertaining.

In the post-Thanksgiving atmosphere, following Survivor Series but before the TLC PPV, WWE has announced the air date of their next live WWE Smackdown Supershow; the SyFy episode will hit airwaves on Tuesday, November 29.

The show will be broadcast from Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina and looks to be a blockbuster. The current card advertised locally suggests a six-man tag match with announcer Booker T as the special guest referee.

Smackdown shows have been heating up lately. A few months ago, tickets were moving so slow, offering premiums with lower-level tickets, like Ford Expedition custom floor mats, was not out of the question. Now, business has picked up, as good ol’ JR would say.

It might have been easy to miss, but when Vince McMahon appeared on RAW to “fire” Triple H on Monday’s very shoot-oriented RAW, he did not have Hunter step down as CEO, only as RAW general manager. So there’s potential for The Game to assert his authority in the future.

In the meantime, the nice angle here is that they didn’t go with the typical “Vince returns” option, but named the tall, creepy-looking, heel-fave, John Laurenitis, as RAW’s “interim general manager.” The raspy-voice, behind-the-scenes power broker, who is vice president of talent relations, is not naturally charismatic but is drawing a solid heel-pop from the crowd so far.

Laurenitis looks sharp in his Armani exchange coupons-acquired suits, though he’s quite raw in front of the camera has lacks the necessary presence to be a long-term answer. Still, kudos to Vince and company for moving the storyline in a less-predictable direction.

It’s not clear whether it’s a one-week experiment to hype the live SmackDown this Tuesday, or a permanent change, but storyline WWE COO Triple H announced on last night’s RAW that the brand split between Raw and Smackdown has come to an end, with superstars from both shows now free to appear on both shows.

Of course, this sets up a potential roster-trimming for the future, meaning some WWE superstars could be headed for physician assistant jobs soon. After all, the brand split was created so that the top-tier names wouldn’t dominate the screen time on both shows; now that the brand-split is ended, it is likely that both shows will give a majority of screen time to the top names, leaving less room for legit midcarders.

While it might sound like great news for some folks, rest assured, this will lead some lower-level wrestlers straight the the soup kitchen lines.

You need to buy network cable if you don’t have it already, to be sure you don’t miss a huge WWE event on SyFy.

On Tuesday, August 30, Smackdown will air live on SyFy instead of airing pre-taped in Friday. (The Tuesday episode, entitled “SuperSmackdown” will re-air on Friday in its usual slot.)

The event is being heavily promoted by WWE and SyFy, and it could be that it is a water-testing moment for the companies to see if Smackdown would draw better ratings if aired live on Tuesdays instead of pre-taped on Fridays. Either way, it means back-to-back nights of WWE action at the end of the month.

Keep your eyes peeled and your DVRs set!

The WWE announce team situation has improved dramatically since Triple H “reinstated” Ross a couple weeks ago. But he was AWOL at SummerSlam, meaning we had to endure an three-person color commentary crew of Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Booker T. At a PPV this big, you need the biggest voice in pro wrestling today. You need Jim Ross.

Folks itching to acquire HTC buy online to get a smartphone to figure all this out, but honestly, all it takes is common sense. And it took me no time at all.

It’s just sad.

Another sign that “same old, same old” is ruling the day in WWE despite Vince McMahon’s storyline dismissal? Look at what they’re doing to Money In the Bank – Smackdown Brand briefcase holder Daniel Bryan. A couple weeks ago, Bryan announced he’d cash in his MITB briefcase at next year’s WrestleMania.

Okay, fine, that’s been done only once before. By Mr. Anderson, I believe, who “got tricked” by Edge into putting the briefcase on the line, after which Edge held the briefcase and used it almost immediately to regain his title belt.

Flash forward to present. If WWE wants to build Bryan into a credible WrestleMania main event challenger next year, they need to put him over as a winner… a lot. Perhaps an underdog winner, but a nice undefeated in X matches streak would be a great way to build him over the next several months.

Instead, they jobbed him out to the going-nowhere-fast Wade Barrett, who’s been struggling ever since being shifted over to Smackdown. This guy’s your main event challenger in next year’s WrestleMania, taking on whoever holds the World Title at that time, be it Randy Orton or someone else, and you job Bryan out at SummerSlam?

Not a great, inspiring way to start building toward WrestleMania. So expect someone like Barrett to run the “put your briefcase on the line” scam against Bryan soon, because it’s clear WWE has no interest in building Bryan into a legit WrestleMania main event attraction. Don’t bank on Bryan making it that far, not for all the macadamia oil you can find!

SummerSlam is WWE’s second-biggest PPV event of the year, and while it contained so many twists and turns you’d need a Dokmee document management system to track them all, it would be had to call what went down an improvement.

In fact, I call it a return to a tired, familiar formula.

Yes, the main event showed some promise. Instead of the predictable Cena win, Punk won as special referee Triple H missed the fact of Cena’s foot being on the ropes. The crooked ref angle is tired and overused in WWE.

Then Kevin Nash showed up to soften up Punk. A “Nash invasion” angle is so old, it wasn’t even that fresh when it was used in WCW/nWo.

Then, predictably, out comes Money In the Bank – Raw Brand winner Alberto Del Rio to cash in his Money In the Bank briefcase and take the title away from the WWE’s hottest property right now, C.M. Punk. Del Rio is completely uninspiring as a title holder and the thought of either a short run with the title ending up back around Cena’s waist, or enduring a long Del Rio run, is heart-rending.

So, yeah. Despite the last couple months of riveting WWE programming building up audience expectations for something fresh and new, revolving perhaps around Punk holding the title for a while, we get the same old, same old. Thanks, Vince. Not.

Tonight at SummerSlam, one of the biggest and most long-delayed returns in WWE history happened. “Daddy’s Little Girl,” Stephanie McMahon, returned to an onscreen role with WWE.

In honor of her return, it got me to thinking what the perfect congratulatory gift might be for the pro wrestling princess. Now, most folks would go with a nice floral arrangement. That’s traditional. But Queen Stephanie is special. (Just ask her.)

So the real question is, what sort of floral arrangement would get the job done. Roses? That’s for lovers. Lilies? That’s for funerals … and, tempting as it may be, that’s not quite right for Mrs. WWE.

No, I think there’s a much better choice for the woman we all love to hate. Something that shows how special she is to us and what she really means. Are you ready?

The best floral arrangement to celebrate the return of Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley to the WWE screen is: Blue roses.

Why? Because blue symbolizes the unattainable, the impossible.

And Stephanie’s return to WWE on-screen being seen as a good thing? Well, that’s both unattainable and impossible.

So, blue roses for Steffie.

But not for the folks you actually like in your life. For that, there are many more options.

Late last week, the WWE released a four-pack of superstars from its roster. Gone are Melina Perez, David Hart Smith, Chris Masters, and Vladimir Kozlov from the active roster. Rumors are hot also that WWE diva Gail Kim has quit WWE, if a Twitter post attributed to her account is to be believed.

Melina is perhaps the biggest loss; a former Diva’s champ as well as one-time manager of the MNM tag team that included Adam Birch (Joey Mercury) and John Morrison (Johnny Nitro), she had recently fallen out of favor with WWE. It’s unclear whether Kim is gone, but she has made little impact since coming on board after a stint at TNA.

Kozlov never lived up to the hype around his debut, and Chris Masters had long ago faded into the background. David Hart Smith was part of the New Hart Connection tag team on Smackdown.

Both Melina and Kim were featured last Monday on the RAW Divas battle royal; Melina was the first diva eliminated, and then Kim eliminated herself shortly thereafter, so it appears there may have been a backstage reality to the in-ring booking this time. Whether that means they are looking for girlfriend gifts for new girlfriend or not is unclear, but certainly there are great places to get some if they need them.

Adam Copeland, better known as Edge to WWE fans, is taking the advice of fellow pro wrestling retiree Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Texas Rattlesnake has advised Edge to ease into retirement, rather than going off the grid completely.

While he was still selling plenty of funny tee shirts right up through his retirement, Edge was forced to retire when he found out further trauma to his neck could prove fatal. Yet after his post-Wrestlemania tour, Edge stayed busy by becoming a regular cast member of SyFy’s Stephen King-inspired horror series, HAVEN.

Now pressure is on Edge to return to WWE to promote his role on the show, as a RAW guest host or some similar non-wrestling capacity. Apparently, he’s not quite ready for that, but will appear off-screen at Summerslam’s Axxess fan appreciation event.