Lost in the fallout over the suspension of Smackdown/ECW head writer Michael "PS" Hayes is the fact that the creative team for the two brands is without a real leader. With Hayes off the road and his boss, Stephanie McMahon-LeVesque, about to go on maternity leave for the 2nd time in 3 years, it's left to Chris DeJoseph (aka Big Dick Johnson) and Ed Koskey to run ECW & Smackdown, respectively. The results so far have not been good, and have the fingerprints of the Nutty Professor himself, Vince McMahon.

Consider the problems:

1. Money in the Bank winner CM Punk has not had the benefit of being protected in the booking since winning at Wrestlemania nearly 2 months ago. Punk took the loss last night, pinned by old nemesis John Morrison in a tag title match, and has found himself on the losing end of too many matches lately. Past MITB winners Edge & Rob Van Dam were booked stronger than this, so why is Punk doing so many jobs? Blame it on Vince, who may not like Punk too much privately, though we don't know that for sure. The poor booking includes a couple of TV losses to Edge, both due to interference from the Edgeheads (Hawkins & Ryder), matches that Punk should've been put over in. Remember, too, that Edge had everything to do with Punk losing the ECW title in February, so there might be some political issues between the Straight Edge Superstar and the Rated R Scam Artist, which would explain a lot.

2. Undertaker was, in this writer's view, unfairly stripped of the World title on the 5/2 Smackdown. Two weeks later, it comes out that it was McMahon who made the call, thinking that having the Deadman chase the title would bring more money than having him defend vs. Edge. Not so. Edge has no credibility as a main event heel, relying not on his own talents like he has before, but rather the support team that has been built for him over the last 6 months, starting with Vicki Guerrero. Edge has become a poor man's Triple H, circa about 8 years ago, but Vicki is no Stephanie, not even close. She has no cred, either, especially when you consider she has no real need for the wheelchair she uses every week. In the real world, she'd have been arrested and jailed for fraud long ago, among other charges. This actually reflects poorly on the memory of her late husband Eddie, and on her nephew, Chavo, which might explain why Chavo and his newly acquired bodyguard, Bam Neely, didn't take part in the main event on the 5/16 Smackdown. Chavo might've had enough. We know Teddy Long has, and "resigned". Rightfully, Long is the true GM of Smackdown, and that leads to our next item......

3. Long was sidelined in September with a "heart attack", just as he was about to "marry" Kristal Marshall. Marshall was cut a month later, and after Vicki was revealed to have been involved with Edge throughout his rehab, Teddy returned, but was reduced to being an assistant, his job taken away without real explanation. This plot hole has been ignored since then, and when the opportunity came to address it, they had Long "resign". Wrong move. This is what happens when you have writers who are being kept ignorant about wrestling history and don't really know how to correct the mistakes already made.

4. Lack of a true tag team division. John Morrison & Mike Mizanin have been champions since November, and retained last night beating Punk & Kane. That shouldn't have happened, and we already addressed the mishandling of Punk. Miz & Morrison have beaten Jesse & Festus, Jimmy Yang & Shannon Moore, and Tommy Dreamer & Colin Delaney at least 3 times apiece. With all the attention focused on the Edge-UT feud, Uncreative hasn't bothered to properly build up teams that could actually win the titles. The only real solution is to unite the tag titles with the World titles over on Raw, and let the tag belts be defended across the board, but that isn't happening any time soon.

5. The perils of Colin Delaney. Ever since debuting at the end of '07, Delaney has been used as the ultimate jobber. But there is no explanation for why ECW GM Armando Estrada has abused Delaney thus, putting him in one mismatch after another, and not allowing Delaney to demonstrate what he really can do. That they have killed off the cruiserweight division for the time being doesn't help.

6. Vince needs to retire. It's really that simple. As he nears his 63rd birthday, McMahon isn't the creative visionary he was in the 80's. His on-air persona, perceived as irretrievably insane, may in fact be a reflection of himself. With Stephanie about to take her leave for the summer, Shane has become more involved in the creative process, proving he's just as capable of steering the ship. Like Undertaker, Shane has shown an interest in MMA, but Papa Vince's decision to strip the Deadman shows that Vince sees UFC in particular as a major threat, and had the gogoplata, a figure four choke, banned as a virtual FU to UFC. Unfortunately, Vince's decision making is a detriment to the company more than he realizes. He has to step down, and soon, and let Shane AND Stephanie take control.

Is Raw as bad off? Not really, but it's getting close. That's a topic for next time.