By Richard Garner, Torch specialist

Editor's Note: Richard's weekly column was scheduled to run on Sunday before last night's WWE Raw hosted by Shaq.

The General Manager role has been stale for years. The idea of an authority figure appearing at the beginning of the night to spell out exactly what will happen on the rest of the show stemmed from the highly successful feud between Steve Austin and Vince McMahon in the late '90s. The problem is that Austin-McMahon was ten years ago, and ever since we have had to endure a countless number of authority figures, each having less impact than the one before.

There has been a significant change to Raw in the past month. The General Manager has been replaced by a weekly celebrity guest host who can make matches. This began with Batista and Ted DiBiase, but has since expanded outside of the "WWE Universe," first to Seth Green and then ZZ Top.

This is certainly a unique concept. Not that celebrity appearances on wrestling shows are unusual; Mr. T and Mike Tyson were essential ingredients for WWF's boom periods in the '80s and '90s, respectively, and it seems that every week there is a sports team in the front row pretending to headlock each other or a band selling their latest CD.

But the celebrity guest host concept is the realization of Vince McMahon's attempt to redefine his wrestling federation as an entertainment format, moving away from old-school wrestling traditions. The problem is that WWE's attempts at scripted entertainment segments are generally poorly written and executed even worse.

The ZZ Top appearance on the July 20 Raw ranks among the worst celebrity appearances in modern history. Certainly it was not as bad as David Arquette winning the World Title in the latter stages of WCW, but the segments that they were involved in were intolerable attempts at comedy; the sort of intelligence-insulting segments that make you question why you watch wrestling in the first place.

Although ZZ Top's affection for pro wrestling appears to be genuine, they have not had a hit worth talking about since before WWE's target market was born. This did not stop them launching into several of their songs in horrendous backstage segments with Santino Marella. In one particularly cringe inducing moment, Chris Jericho was shouting "How" several times after he was ordered to wrestle Mark Henry, prompting a rendition of "Sharp Dressed Man." There were many other similar attempts at comedy throughout the show, none of which hit the mark.

The main problem with ZZ Top's stint as Raw guest hosts was that they did not do what every celebrity appearance on a wrestling show should do; put the talent over. Like Seth Green, they were the stars of the show, not the wrestlers who appear every week and are the selling point for Pay-Per-Views and merchandise. The time that they wasted playing songs that are older than Cody Rhodes could have been spent on developing the characters of wrestlers who have not had the chance to show their personality.

Then there is the issue of target market. I hate to keep bringing this up, but it was also an example of the WWE's confused marketing strategy. While the WWE has moved away from the vulgarity and violence they used to embrace, the cultural references and choices for guest appearances are baffling. I'm not suggesting that they put Barney or a giant SpongeBob SquarePants in charge of Raw, but surely there must be able to get hold of celebrities that are more relevant to a young audience than ZZ Top.

There is anther factor that also needs to be taken into consideration if WWE is to make a success of the guest host role; the temptation to book bigger main events. To be a successful guest host it is necessary to provide a memorable main event. This has forced WWE to feature their already overexposed top stars in the main event in so many different variations over the past few weeks to the point that that there is virtually no incentive for paying to see John Cena, Triple H, and Randy Orton fight again.

The guest host concept captures WWE's obsession with authority figures and celebrity culture. The problem is that, so far, the celebrity guests have been booked to be bigger stars than many of the wrestlers. In addition, featuring an act like ZZ Top, which means nothing to the younger audience that WWE is supposedly targeting, makes the company seem incredibly out of touch with both its fan base and popular culture as a whole.

Not one wrestler gained from the ZZ Top appearance, which begs the question of why they were there in the first place. It's as though WWE creative does not know how to book a show without an authority figure laying out the matches and getting under the skin of the heel/face wrestlers, depending on their role.

If WWE is to continue with the guest host concept, they need to be clear about exactly what they want to achieve and how exactly the appearance will benefit their roster. After all, it is the wrestlers who are responsible for filling the arenas every night; not ZZ Top.

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