Major Backstage RAW News: The New GM?, Creative Team

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

? As noted earlier here on the website, a lot of WWE talent, especially Smackdown and ECW talent, had not yet been told that they would be appearing on RAW this week. That was as of Saturday night.

? Although nothing has been confirmed, there was definitely talk this week about putting Ric Flair in the now open spot for General Manager of Raw. This has already been speculating by many in the wrestling media with tonight's big three-hour show taking place in Charlotte, NC. One negative would be bringing Flair back to TV just two weeks after he took a punt from Randy Orton, which most sell for a good amount of time before returning. As reported on a few months ago, WWE offered Flair the role of General Manager of Smackdown in April when they moved Vickie Guerrero to Raw. Flair turned the offer down at the time.

? As reported on Tuesday, WWE creative was given a list this week of talent not to book at tonight's TV tapings in Charlotte, NC and tomorrow in Roanoke, VA. In the past, the creative team was never told anything ahead of time regarding drug test failures and were only informed around the time the company was about to release that information publicly. This led to rumors that more suspensions and even releases could be coming soon. It is possible this was done so storylines could be setup to explain the absence of talent on TV instead of them just suddenly disappearing for 30 or 60 days. Based on what is known, creative also wasn't told directly why certain talent would not be available for the TV tapings.