Afraid so!
So the Draft’s on this week’s RAW. It’s something that even the smarkiest smark can get at least a little excited about, because it holds so much possibility for freshening things up, which WWE desperately needs.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to see that we’ll get that where we need it most; RAW. Cena and DX aren’t going anywhere, which means they’ll still have a stranglehold on the top three babyface spots or, if HHH turns heel again, two of them and the top heel spot. Which has been the set up on Monday Night’s for three years, give or take.
Before Jericho made a very impressive heel turn, I could have seen him moving to Smackdown and feuding with Edge. Now he’s got way too much momentum on RAW to go anywhere. Hunter’s gonna have to at bury him before that can happen. Kennedy’s just starting to gain traction, and putting him up against fellow loud mouth Jericho is a pretty enticing theoretical feud, and I have to believe that the people who do this stuff for a living have thought of this if it came to me just now, considerable evidence to the contrary aside.
Of the notable RAW guys, I can maybe see Jeff Hardy moving to Smackdown or ECW. A feud between he and Edge can have its cake and it eat it too; they have significant history together, but haven’t had any real one on one matches of note. Hardy would also give us a respite from the Edge/Batista/’Taker triumvirate of main events on the Friday show, and give ol’ Nero a chance to run with the ball without having to carry the main belt in the company. Shipping him to ECW would serve a similar function, but that show’s main event scene’s being built around Vince’s big man fetish.
Umaga seems a lock to leave Monday Night’s. He’s all but been jobbed out since he came back from his wellness suspension in the fall, so he could really use a fresh crop of jobbers to the stars and midcarders to feast on. If ECW is really going to be the superheavyweight show, they ought to send him there. He’s an immediate big fish in a small pond. A match with Big Show would at least be different, and Kane and he had a shockingly solid chemistry when Big Red passed the “RAW Monster” torch to him in 2006. I’m not saying that the portly Samoan fella isn’t prone to being in crap matches, but I’ll take him over Mark Henry as a main eventer, although that’s damning the poor guy with the faintest of praise.
Every other move they could make on RAW would be rearranging furniture, really. It would be nice to see London and Kendrick be able to leave their post as the most entertaining JTTS in WWE. Maybe they could head back to Smackdown and challenge Miz and Morrison for the tag belts they held for so long, and Yang and Moore could take their place. None of them are doing anything of note now that HEAT’s gone. It would also be nice to see guys like Charlie Haas or Super Crazy move to ECW, where they might have a chance to not be jobbers.
Smackdown’s main event scene seems pretty fixed, at least with that aforementioned triumvirate. Dave isn’t going anywhere, because he’s the most over place holder champion they could possibly have. Edge isn’t going anywhere because he’s too damn good in his role, and going to RAW would severely diminish what they’ve spent months building for him, unless he took his entire familia with him, and that strains credulity in WWE land. It would be pretty hilarious from a storyline standpoint if Vickie got drafted to RAW or ECW and ruined their hegemony, but she’s too good in her role to go anywhere either.
I see more big names going than coming from Smackdown. They’ve all but telegraphed MVP leaving by giving him nothing since his feud with Matt Hardy ended. That’s a double edged sword for him; he’s most likely to go to RAW which is also where’s he most likely to get lost in the shuffle. Still, he’s following the career trajectory of every major star they’ve created (or tried to) since Cena; start out on SD, establish yourself, then graduate to the big time. It’s arguable that this stalled Carlito and Kennedy’s promising starts because they got lost in the shuffle, but they might as well give Porter a crack at the big time and see if he takes, or at least give them a fresh placeholder challenger for Cena and HHH.
I could also see Rey Mysterio going to RAW, even if they’ve got an injury revenge storyline against Edge and Vickie (and Big Show, depending on whether they acknowledge Show squishing him when he came back), solely because he’s spent his whole WWE run on SD, and they’ve got a lot of potential big matches for him on Monday nights (HHH! Cena! Shawn! Jericho!). In ECW, he’d be the stand out biggest star on the brand, and give them a lot of David vs. Goliath potential if Kane and Show stick around, as well as some legitimately good matches against Punk, Shelton, and Morrison if they stay put.
Other people I can see leaving Smackdown:
Finlay and Hornswoggle-They’re an over comedy act and that fits the more sports entertainment-centric RAW. Splitting them up is also a strong possibility, since it would make the draft stips mean something while still highlighting how Finlay’s the worst father ever without ever saying it. Besides, without the little person/child (?) around, Finlay could turn heel again, as God intended him to be. He could be an awesome challenger for anyone from Show to Kane to HHH to Cena.
Jesse and Festus- A very good gimmick, and an entertaining team that should get a serious shot at the tag belts (well, as serious as WWE allows). Conversely, splitting them up could give Festus a push with the big dogs on ECW, even if that would probably lead to what Vin envisioned for the big guy should he move beyond his current role. It would definitely free Jesse up to join the 2nd Generation Stable that we all assume is going to happen.
ECW – Should pretty much stay the same, really. The only guy I can really see moving is Punk, because he has MITB, but even that seems more perfunctory than anything. I would not be shocked to see him stay on ECW, since he’s their “ace”. At most, I see him staying with the SD touring group. Part of that is smark overprotectiveness of my favorite wrestler; I feel like his anti-push would get even worse on RAW, culminating in him being the first guy to fail to earn a title with the briefcase. Mind you, that will probably happen anyway; the only way I see him getting a title out of it is in ECW, which would be backwards, although it would redeem a Kane/Big Show PPV title match with a cool outcome (so I’m kind of hoping he does cash it in at Night of Champions).
Most everyone else is doing just fine where they are, thanks. Although Miz and Morrison holding Smackdown’s tag belts while potentially heading to RAW for dual tapings is problematic, and I really like that feud with London and Kendrick I just came up with for them, so I could see them stick around with the SD group, too. Maybe Mike Knox will be moved to RAW or SD to be not over there, a la Snitsky last year and Boogeyman will moved somewhere else to not wrestle there, but I don’t see guys like Chavo, Kofi, Shelton, SydalBourne, or the main eventers (and Mark Henry) going anywhere. Although to consummate this demonic Henry/one of the 7 footers feud, he has to officially move to Smackdown. So maybe that will happen.
I just got a chilling thought about Henry, MITB, and his ECW title shot. I’ll share this with you, theoretical readers, in hopes that saying it aloud will cause it to not happen. Maybe Henry will challenge Punk for his MITB briefcase on Monday, in order to ensure he’ll be able to get his match he wants no matter what happens in the draft, and win it. I dunno, it just came to me, and scared the living crap out of me. That gives you perspective on how comfortable my life is, that that scares me, but don’t say it didn’t make your blood curl a little too, Smarky McSmarkington! And all my other readers. Although, it would still serve the purpose of elevating someone…
Ahem. The Lovecraftian horror of Mark Henry fantasy booking aside, I don’t see them changing ECW much. The fact that they’ll be RAW’s little brother instead of SD’s now kind of undermines travel from RAW show to ECW and vice versa, although that assumes that they’ll still be doing the talent exchange gimmick. If nothing, a lot of HEAT regulars may head to ECW in a supplemental draft to pad things out.
Having two women’s belts also undermines shipping Divas around, unless they unify them immediately. Now that Michelle McCool, Victoria, and Natty Neidhart have a belt to fight over, there’s no real need to move any of them unless Neidhart’s going to be part of this seemingly inevitable second gen stable. Under the “she has done nothing for months banner”, I’m guessing Maria gets moved, or maybe Candice once she heals up. Maybe Maryse (to a place where the announcer won’t call her Maurice), Layla, Kelly and other pure eye candy get shuffled around to be valets or job to the girls who can work, but going any further than this is on the Divas is wasting bandwith.
Holding the draft on the go home show for a PPV also undermines it a bit. You can’t even pretend Batista, Cena, HHH, or Edge is moving, since they World Title matches on Sunday. That can go for pretty much anyone with a title match, although there’s wiggle room with the secondary belts being more transient. Yes, the World Titles were swapped three years ago, so there is precedent, but I don’t see HHH working Friday Nights. They could pull some misdirection and tease us with it (like when Hunter was drafted to SD in ’04 and even had a match with Eddie for the WWE Title), but I doubt it.
As great as it would be for the WWE Landscape to radically change by the end of Nitro’sRAW’s three hours, it’s likely we’ll just see some minor cosmetic alterations and have to hope that someone lucks in to a major push like John Morrison and Khali did last year or finds their niche and flourishes in a new setting, like Big Daddy V. Hell, if he can get a major push just by going to ECW, taking off his shirt, and adding Matt Striker as a mouthpiece, there’s hope for everyone in the WWE talent pool, even if swinging moobs and a bunch of failed pushes seemed to have really helped in that case.
To cover my ass, though, I’ll posit a future where CM Punk defeats HHH and becomes WWE Champion with a Pepsi Plunge, creating a markedly different experience for WWE centric-fans and ROH-bots; Cena goes to ECW and FU’s the whole roster, but still loses when Nunzio watches a Randy Orton match and realizes that his one weakness is being kicked in the head really hard; and Colin Delaney fulfills his destiny and becomes a Whipreckian fluke champ on SD because they’re going in to syndication in the fall anyway, so why the hell not? How’s that for shaking things up?
