In the meantime, after a double elimination on Tough Enough, a “shocking announcement” from Austin was teased for next week’s episode. And no, it’s not Bret Hart’s guest appearance.

Personally, I’m in favor of reducing the number of times RAW is expanded to three hours, in order to keep it feeling like a special event. Do it too often, and it eventually just feels routine. I’m sure there are some custom electronics that could calculate the math behind the perfect equation of how often RAW ought to be expanded to three hours, but personally I think it ought to be a bit more organic than that: it should only be expanded for very special events.

Next Monday, Ashton Kutcher will appear to host and promote his new movie, The Killers. After that, there will be a three-hour Raw on June 7 featuring the cast of the new A-Team movie, which includes UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the Mister T role, as well as Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley.

Finally, Royal Pains star Mark Feuerstein will host on June 14 in a tidy cross-promotion between Raw and the USA dramedy. With a lineup like this, it looks like Bret Hart won’t have to work too hard as the new Raw GM after all. Guess he won’t have to peruse the PA job listings any time soon, then! Good deal!

It’s early and no first-night-upset was expected. A monkey wrench was also thrown into the works, also; History Channel’s runaway hit, Pawn Stars, had its second-season finale on Monday and drew a strong, record-setting 5.8 million viewers, allowing it to edge Raw as the most-watched show in all of cable.

Pawn Stars draws heavily on the same male demographic that Raw and Impact draw, so once next Monday rolls around and Pawn Stars is no longer around during its hiatus, it will be intriguing to see what gains are made by both Raw and Impact. At least we won’t have to see The Old Man on Pawn Stars trying to underbid for a set of 1920s incontinence products. Heh.

While both shows felt like 1997 throwbacks, Raw won this first face-off hands down in its degree of creating an event atmosphere. While it’s not like Hart and Michaels wrestled amidst outdoor fireplaces, it was certainly special to see that face-off finally happen.

Tyson is the scheduled guest host of Raw next Monday, which airs from Minneapolis’ Target Center.

So, if Tyson’s ego is not soothed properly and stuff goes wrong, such as his people not being pleased with the sort of water softener provided them, keep in mind Shane’s departure from WWE and how it might affect the guest host program going forward on Raw, if the Tyson appearance goes south.

June was when WWE ill-advisedly tried to sell as “real” storylines in which Vince McMahon was killed (twice) as well as other storyline twists that ended up being bad, bad ideas. Still, the Trump thing seemed a bit more obvious so maybe some Wall Street rubes were just bored. But, hey, that’s the WWE treadmill for you; while the details change, there is a season for everything, including storylines that require retraction and clarification.

Welcome to June.

While such promotion ought to be second-nature to WWE after all these years, sadly the writers and promoters don’t always put in the effort necessary to do the job well and come off like a bunch of industrial knobs, rather than working professionals.

Yet last Monday, they did their job well; the Jericho-Roarke angle was moved forward, the JBL-Michael angle pushed No Way Out rather than giving something away for free, and a skit angle promoted a rare crossover appearance by the Undertaker on Raw.

That’s hitting on all cylinders.

How successful McMahon’s run will be depends largely upon how it’s handled. In recent years, Vinnie Mac on Raw means his presence covers over undercard wrestler appearances like a set of area rugs. They overkill his presence and refocus the entire broadcast around him.

That’s not healthy for a promotion that should be about getting the in-ring talent over. So here’s my list of suggestions for making Vinnie Mac’s return a welcome visit.

1) No more fake deaths/murders.

2) Keep his appearances brief, intense, and rare.

3) Write him back out of the storylines after WrestleMania and keep him gone after that until he’s really, actually needed again.

That’s a promo on diet pills if you ask me; for an 800th episode, they ought to have a lot more than that in store.

And by the time Raw hits the air tonight, I’m sure they will.

Their latest project could be their biggest challenge, however; some folks will remember Mike Adamle from his days hosting the original incarnation of American Gladiators. After several years of relative obscurity following that show’s demise, Adamle emerged in WWE earlier this year as an interviewer, and eventually an ECW play-by-play announcer.

His stint as announcer was plagued by mistakes and gaffes that showcased his lack of a wrestling background, as well as his unfamiliarity with the WWE roster. His appeal was roughly that of an air conditioning compressor.

However, since being named the surprise new GM of Raw, Adamle seems to be getting a second chance, this time utilizing his weaknesses with the hope to turn them around to strengths. So Adamle doesn’t know the WWE roster that well? Put him in skits that have him directly interacting with members of that roster. Adamle is hated? Make him the heel GM of Raw so that fans booing him fits in with his role.

Smart booking could help Adamle succeed as a heel GM of Raw, and this past week’s Raw did that pretty well, hot-shotting three title defenses onto one night. And if Adamle screws up again and says that a 2-on-1 handicap match against a face champion with title match implications has “never been done before?” Well, all the more reason to boo him.

It’s risky, but it gives Adamle a new shot at finding a niche in the company. It’ll be interesting to watch. And just let me suggest a bit of booking myself: a lot of people wouldn’t mind seeing some WWE talent beat the crap of out Mike Adamle. Whether it’s Punk or someone else, I’m not saying, I’m just saying… what’s good enough for Vinnie Mac is good enough for Adamle, right?

Sometimes, too much of them on TV is simply too much and their prescence becomes about as welcome as commercial collection agencies at a Debtors Anonymous meeting.

That’s why I hope they don’t rush Vince back to his on-camera roll. The shows are more fun and less predictable now, and I’d like to see WWE run with this concept for a while longer.

Who knows? Maybe when they finally bring Vince back, they’ll even find a way to make his character fresh and unpredictable.