With WWE’s “Draft Lottery” coming up this week on RAW, my brother Matt and I decided to try our hand at a Draft of our own. Rather than put all the names in a hat and leave things to the luck of the draw, we decided to actually conduct a WWE Fantasy Draft, with Chris selecting on behalf of RAW, Matt for Smackdown, and everyone on the current active WWE roster, injured list, and announcing teams up for grabs. Some potential authority figures (Heyman, Bischoff, etc.) were included in the pool of talent, with the assumption that after the draft, Vince, Linda, and/or the Board would put one or more of them in charge of each show, should they desire.
In addition to Vince, Linda and the Board, some other talent that was left out of our pool include �legends� that occasionally make appearances such as Mae Young, the Fabulous Moolah, Pat Patterson and Jerry Brisco; referees from RAW and SD; road agents; the Spanish announce team (since they are used for both brands); and OVW talent that hasn�t appeared on RAW or SD other than as enhancement talent.
Here’s what we came up with:
| Smackdown (Matt) | Raw (Chris) |
| 1. Eddie, WWE Champ | 2. Chris Benoit, Big Gold Belt Champ |
| 3. Randy Orton, IC Champ | 4. John Cena, U.S. Champ |
| 5. The Rock | 6. Edge |
| 7. RVD, � Raw Tag Champ | 8. Triple H |
| 9. Kurt Angle | 10. Chavo Guerrero, Jr., Cruiserweight Champ |
| 11. Victoria, Women’s Champ | 12. Undertaker |
| 13. Flair | 14. Kane |
| 15. Batista | 16. Booker T, � Raw Tag Champ |
| 17. Rey | 18. Bill Goldberg |
| 19. Jericho | 20. Stone Cold Steve Austin |
| 21. Shawn Michaels | 22. Ultimo Dragon |
| 23. Mick Foley | 24. Rhyno |
| 25. Big Show | 26. Torrie Wilson |
| 27. Christian | 28. Billy Kidman |
| 29. Trish | 30. Billy Gunn |
| 31. Rikishi, � SD Tag Champ | 32. Scotty 2 Hotty, � SD Tag Champ |
| 33. Scott Steiner | 34. Jamie Noble |
| 35. Shelton Benjamin | 36. Tajiri |
| 37. Charlie Haas | 38. Nunzio |
| 39. Molly Holly | 40. Jim Ross |
| 41. Jerry Lawler | 42. Tazz |
| 43. Michael Cole | 44. Shannon Moore |
| 45. Renee Dupree | 46. Jonathan Coachman |
| 47. Teddy Long | 48. Bubba Ray Dudley |
| 49. Jazz | 50. D-Von Dudley |
| 51. Bradshaw | 52. Chuck Palumbo |
| 53. Paul Heyman | 54. Johnny Stamboli |
| 55. Rodney Mack | 56. Eric Bischoff |
| 57. Shane McMahon | 58. Johnny Spade |
| 59. Doug Basham | 60. Test |
| 61. Danny Basham | 62. Garrison Cade |
| 63. Rosey | 64. Mark Jindrak |
| 65. Maven | 66. Lance Storm |
| 67. Sean O’Haire | 68. Akio |
| 69. Matt Hardy | 70. Sakoda |
| 71. Shaniqua | 72. Rob Conway |
| 73. Mark Henry | 74. Sylvan Grenier (w/Fifi) |
| 75. Orlando Jordan | 76. Al Snow |
| 77. Nidia | 78. Spike Dudley |
| 79. Ivory | 80. Dawn Marie |
| 81. Chris Nowinski | 82. Hurricane |
| 83. A-Train | 84. Lillian Garcia |
| 85. Stevie Richards | 86. Stacy Keibler |
| 87. Gail Kim | 88. Paul Bearer |
| 89. Bob Holly | 90. Paul London |
| 91. William Regal | 92. Funaki |
| 93. RUE DEBONA! | 94. Val Venis |
| 95. Matt Morgan | 96. Rico |
| 97. Josh Matthews | 98. Miss Jackie |
| 99. Bill DeMott | 100. Sable |
| 101. TONY CHIMMEL | 102. Terri |
| 103: Jacqueline | 104. Jon Heidenreich |
| 105. Tommy Dreamer | 106. Stephanie McMahon |
| 107. Lita | 108. Lamont |
| 109. Matt Capotelli | 110. Chavo Guerrero, Sr. |
| 111. Marc Loyd | 112. Todd Grisham |
| 113. Justin Roberts | 114. Howard Finkle! |
| 115. Mean Gene Okerland | 116. Sgt. Slaughter |
It�s interesting. No doubt if we would have just thrown all the names into a hat something different would have transpired, and who knows if the rosters would be as balanced as they turned out above. Some observations:
- Some tag teams were broken up, while others kept together. One key point that I think we did intentionally was splitting up the two teams with Tag Titles. Both are made up of primarily singles wrestlers anyway (RVD, Booker, Scotty and Rikishi), and holding tournaments to crown new champions on both shows is an ideal way to breath some new life into the tag division.
- Evolution stays intact except for HHH, putting Randy Orton into a position where he can get even more over as the leader of the group
- Both rosters have a relatively even number of talent that�s �questionable.� This includes injured stars (Angle, Regal, etc.), part-time workers (Rock and possibly Goldberg, who�s still listed on WWE.com�s Superstars page), and folks like Mick and Austin who could possibly wrestle here and there, but will likely have non-wrestling roles for the majority of time they�re on TV.
- JR and the King as well as Tazz and Cole were broken up, putting JR and Tazz (and if I have my way, Coach in a three-way team!) in the booth on RAW with King and Cole on SD.
- The titles with �WCW� lineage all ended up on RAW, drafted along with their title holders (something we both hope WWE holds true to in their real draft): World Title, US Title and Cruiserweight Title. Moving John Cena and his US Title to RAW will hopefully give him more freedom on the mic and in front of the live crowd; and putting cruiserweights on RAW keeps that �total nonstop action� feel going (no pun intended).
- The titles with �WWF� lineage all ended up on SD, drafted along with THEIR title holders: WWE Title, IC Title and Women�s Title. Putting the women who can actually wrestle on SD keeps the �T&A� divas on the cable show, allowing them to do the more risqu� in that arena. Also, moving Randy (and Evolution) to SD gives him a nice change of scenery, and this and the above switch exposes WWE�s two biggest �new stars� (Cena and Orton) to audiences that maybe hadn�t seen much of them, due to not getting UPN in their area, etc.
- Separating Rey Mysterio from the other cruiserweights was done 100% intentionally. For one, he stays on SD which has a high Hispanic audience. Second, he�s shown he can be a star and hang in the ring with �heavyweights.� And finally, Matt was being a spiteful bastard once he knew my intentions to bring the CW Title to RAW!
Well, there�s our Fantasy Draft. Let us know what you think by emailing me on the link below, and enjoy the REAL WWE lottery on RAW, where you can see who did a better job at splitting out the rosters and making both brands more exciting.
That’s all for now � PEACE.
