Draft dodging

Hey, Readerland.  It's Mr Ogre back with another blog entry.  I had another entry that I was slowly working on, but I think it's crap, so I might not bother posting.  Anyway, I managed to not blog about wrestling for a while by, you know, not blogging.  Funny how that works out.  But this one is back to wrestling, and specifically the WWE draft, which was last night and the Supplemental Draft, which was this afternoon.

Now, I don't want RAW, so I'm going off of someone else's results of the show.  Here are the highlights:

John Cena was drafted to Smackdown.
Rey Mysterio was drafted to RAW.
Randy Orton was drafted to Smackdown.
Mark Henry and Sin Cara were drafted to Smackdown.
Big Show and Alberto Del Rio were drafted to RAW.
John Cena was drafted BACK to RAW.

Okay, I'ma take a look at this regular draft first.  And basically say "Seriously?"  The whole John Cena Double Draft thing could have gone without being done and both brands could have gotten another draft pick.  That's just stupid.  On the positive side, Rey Mysterio is off of Smackdown so I don't have to watch him for a while.  I do watch Smackdown, so the additions of Randy Orton, Mark Henry and Sin Cara could be good.  I will, however, miss The Big Show.  He's not a great wrestler, but he's at least entertaining.  The only issue I have with that move is that Show is one half of the tag champs and can appear on either show to defend the titles.  That makes no sense.

Okay, let's get to the Supplemental Draft.  I'm just going to lump everyone together by brand, cuz the list is kinda long.

From RAW to Smackdown:
Daniel Bryan, Great Khali w/Runjan Singh, The Usos, Alicia Fox, William Regal, Yoshi Tatsu, Natalya, Ted Dibiase, Tyson Kidd, Tamina, Alex Riley, and Sheamus.

From Smackdown to RAW:
Jack Swagger, Kelly Kelly, JTG, Drew McIntyre, Curt Hawkins, Chris Masters, Kofi Kingston, Tyler Reks, and Beth Phoenix.

So, rather than go through and individually analyze each pick, I'll go through and kind of generalize.

Smackdown:  I think the addition DB, Regal Yoshi Tatsu and Sheamus alter the landscape of the brand.  DB and Sheamus have been feuding for a while, so bringing both of them over to Smackdown does both of them some good, as well as Sheamus can be plugged into the main event scene with little trouble, as he's a former WWE champ.  DB could go there as well, I think.  Bringing over Regal and Yoshi bring two good workers into the fold, albeit with differing styles.  Regal has made mention of retiring soon, but I can still see him being a good trainer/mentor or some of the younger guys.  That would help them immensely.  Khali was basically traded because you don't want to have the two giants on the same show.  Trading Natalya for Beth Phoenix (essentially) is kinda of a wash because the Diva's (for the love of Pete Rose on a stick, go back to calling it the Women's Division already) division is crap.  At least until the debut of Kharma.  Whichever brand she ends up on, she's going to clean house.  Ted Dibiase and Tyson Kidd?  Meh.  Neither of them really do much for me.  Kidd is a technically gifted young guy, but he doesn't really seem to be over with the crowd at all.  Dibiase is the same, but less talented.  On the downside, I will miss Curt Hawkins, as I wanted Smackdown to draft Zack Ryder and team him with Hawkins and Trent Baretta, as I mentioned in my previous blog (http://skredlitheogre.blogspot.com/2011/04/looking-to-future-of-wwe.html).  Too bad Baretta is still on Smackdown, because he is being underused, just like Hawkins and Ryder.

RAW:
With Jack Swagger and Drew McIntyre, you have two guys who can work in the ring, are fairly over with the crowd.  You also have the plus of Swagger being able to go to the Main Event, as he's a former World Heavyweight Champion.  McIntyre, on a personal level, is uninteresting, but he does seem to have some intensity in the ring.  He's got good size and skills and could be thrown into the Main Event pond with only a little bit of tweaking.  Plus, for what it's worth (which isn't much), he's had some kind of relationship...thing...with Kelly Kelly (God, that's a stupid name), so I suppose they could continue that if they want.  At least I wouldn't have to watch it on Smackdown.  Masters and Reks have been feuding on Superstars lately, so that could continue and both men would make good midcard title contenders.  With the trade of Beth Phoenix, I really think that Kharma will debut on RAW.  Beth is by far the largest of the Diva's (Wikipedia says 5'7" and 150 pounds) while Natalya is the next overall largest (5'5" and 135).  Michelle McCool is tall, but she's built like a toothpick.

Speaking of Kharma (formerly known as Awesome Kong), I hope they do this right.  I hope they feed her some lesser Divas before having her face off with Beth Phoenix, just to build her up.  Granted that she's billed at 5'11" and 272 pounds (she's nowhere near that heavy), so she should be able to run roughshod over all the other Divas, but if you want to do it right, you have to build up Beth as well.  If you want someone to be able to stand up to the monster that is Kharma, you have to build Beth up correctly or it won't work.  Of course, this is assuming they're going to have Beth feuding with her.  I mean, it would only make sense.  Although, Gail Kim did pretty well against Kong/Kharma when they were in TNA together, so that might work, too.

Ultimately, I feel semi-positive about the draft.  Smackdown gained some good people while losing some good people.  But they are NEW people and that makes a difference.  I was hoping for Zack Ryder to go to Smackdown, but I'm sure I'll still see him once a month on Superstars.

Well, here's some semi-breaking "news" and by "news" I mean rumors that might not amount to anything.  The Undertaker is hurt and out of wrestling for a while.  Wait, that's not it.  That's SOP.  The REAL rumor is that Taker will be coming back to RAW when he returns.  This makes me happy.  The less Taker is on my TV or computer (as I don't watch RAW) the more chances there are for some NEW people to step up and take a Main Event spot.  Basically, I figure Taker will be out until next year's Wrestlemania, along with the buildup for that.  I am totally okay with that.  Maybe at some point, I should do an entire blog dedicated to the Undertaker. But not now.

Only time will tell whether or not this draft is a success and ratings will rise or whether the WWE will continue to tread water.  Personally, on draft day, I think at least 50% of the rosters should trade shows.  Granted, I also think there should be a third brand that could draft as well.  Bring back WWECW (under whatever name) and give some other people a chance to shine.  And no, Superstars doesn't count.

However, speaking of Superstars, Zack Ryder Tweeted that he was hoping to be drafted from Superstars to RAW or Smackdown, which is really funny.  Since that didn't happen, and assuming they aren't going to be used seriously, I would love to see Ryder and Hawkins basically "take over" Superstars.  They act like they make the matches and even have a cheap "General Manager" and "Assistant General Manager" office and basically let them get themselves over.  Or over even more.

Anyway, I'll be back soon, probably,   Until next time, take care.  Woo woo woo, you know it.