By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE writers Ed Kosky and Brian Gewirtz (head writer for the Raw brand) answered several questions on the WWE writing process during an appearance at the Comic-Con convention today. Kosky and Gewirtz were joined by U.S. champion The Miz for the discussion.

The following are highlights from their answers, as reported by Matt Fowler on IGN.com.

-- Gewirtz talked about the "lost art" of the male wrestling manager, which is a regular topic of discussion during the PWTorch Livecast. He said he doesn't think it's a dead concept and it could return, but he doesn't see it being necessary in the current era.

"It is kind of a lost art and I'm not really sure why it evolved like that," Gewirtz said. "I think one of the reasons is because the superstars themselves are so entertaining and are so verbally skilled, whereas in the past you needed a mouthpiece to talk for somebody. Now, pretty much everyone has the skill, well maybe not everyone, but most of them have the skills to get themselves over."

-- Gewirtz also addressed criticism of the Divas matches on Raw typically only being given a few minutes of TV time and being presented as filler. Gewirtz defended against the criticism by saying some segments run too long during a particular episode and the middle-of-the-show content has to be cut during a live broadcast.

"Often times you can put aside a certain amount of time for the matches that you want to see and believe it or not, and I can't speak for this panel (smiles at The Miz) but sometimes the talent will go over the allotted time and that creates a domino effect that cuts into the time in the next segment and then the next segment and on a live show, if a segment goes three, four minutes heavy, you've got to take time out of something else," Gewirtz said.

"The main event stuff, with the beginning, middle and end, is going to take up the majority of the time so if something runs long then it's the in-between stuff that gets cut," Kosky said. "And that's when you usually get your two minute matches. It's just the cost of doing business when you do live TV."

-- Gewirtz detailed how Monday's Raw is put together: "Friday, we pitch all our ideas to Vince. It's our big 'Vince meeting' day. Saturday, we put the show together and then Sunday we're usually traveling. Then, we take some time to run the ideas by the talent."

-- Kosky added the writers will run ideas by the WWE agents/producers to see if there are better ideas to trump the creative team's ideas. "If it's good, it will make the show," Gewirtz said. "Sometimes if it's bad it will make the show too."

Gewirtz added: "It's our goal to always plan as far in advance as possible, but sometimes if a Superstar gets hurt, or if something's not getting over and the audience thinks it sucks, yes we have to act like a triage," Gewirtz said. "You can't just dictate to the audience. You have to adjust and come up with stuff on the fly."

Caldwell's Analysis: The Divas answer sounds well and good, but the Divas are consistently given very little time in the ring. The writers are essentially saying every show is over-booked and every episode features wrestlers going over their allotted because that's how frequently the Divas are given little time to work with. It comes down to a decision not to feature the Divas in quality programs so they don't get "too over" to avoid a "Sable or Chyna issue."

On the wrestling manager topic, there are two issues in play. The first issue is WWE not wanting to pay a manager in addition to the talent. WWE expects talent to be able to speak for themselves as a result. Also, it seems too "old-school wrestling" for WWE, which has make a conscious decision to distance themselves from classic "pro wrestling" elements you might see on an AWA Classics episode or WWE's Classics-On-Demand.

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