DISCUSSION - My Thoughts from the AFTERMATH of the Lottery Draft (Raw Spoilers)

[Heyman]

<font color=yellow>MAJOR UPDATE: http://www.wwe.com/news/headlines/1258111

-Triple H moves back to Raw in exchange for Booker T and Dudleys
-Angle becomes new GM of Smackdown
-Gay Train and Pulumbo move to Raw in exchange for Rico and Jackie
</font>





DISCUSSION - My Thoughts from the AFTERMATH of the Lottery Draft (Raw Spoiler)

To Raw
-Shelton Benjamin
-Edge
-Nidia
-Taijiri
-Rhyno
-Paul Heyman

To Smackdown
-Spike Dudley
-Renee Dupree
-Rob Van Dam
-Mark Jindrak
-Theodore Long
-Triple H

<font color=red>RAW</font>

Shelton Benjamin: I'm probably in the minority when I say that I think it's a good thing that WGTT broke up. At a time when the WWE could develop more 'big names' for the future, I think both Hass and Benjamin have a lot of potential to establish themselves. Both men obviously have a lot of talent. They can be excellent mid-carders on their respective shows. If all else fails? They can always be re-united via trade or free agent signing (as we saw with the Acolytes and Dudleys a few years ago).

Edge: As a guy who only gets Raw, I'm very excited to see Edge come to Raw. Lots of possibilites here. He can feud with Christian, re-unite with Christian (seeing as how Raw could use some more tag teams), or feud with Shelton Benjamin or Rhyno (perhaps one of them could be revealed as the guy who injured Edge last year). I also like how all of the Canadian wrestlers are on Raw now, while all of the former members of "TLC" are also on Raw. This could make for some interesting TV. I'm not sure what I'd do with Edge right now. I'd love to see him feud with Christian, but I also liked it when the two men were together.

Nidia: Don't care too much about Nidia coming to Raw. Guess she'll add to the Women's division. Next.

Taijiri: While I'm excited that Taijiri comes to Raw (I'm a huge fan of his), I'm also a bit worried. As we have seen with Spike, Hurricane, and Matt Hardy, "cruiserweights" get buried on Raw for the most part. If the WWE were interested in having Taijiri win another title other than the Cruiserweight title, then they could've made him compete for the US title atleast. With Randy Orton set to have a very long IC title reign, what will become of Taijiri? If he's used correctly however, I am glad to see him on Raw.

Rhyno: Hopefully - Rhyno can get his career back on track on Raw. If he's revealed as the guy that took out Edge, perhaps that could work. Other than that, he'll probably become a jobber again.....which is too bad. He used to be one of my favorites prior to his injury.

Paul Heyman: If Heyman does become a manager on Raw, whoever he manages will be over big time. I wouldn't mind pairing him up with Shelton Benjamin, to ensure that Benjamin stays over. However - do you think there's a chance that Heyman will form a mini-ECW stable? Have Rhyno, Dreamer, and the Dudleys be a part of it. I personally think that would suck, but I dunno..........

<font color=blue>SMACKDOWN</font>

Spike Dudley: A decent pick of Smackdown I guess. Spike should add to the CW division, and will probably be used to put over other Cruiserweights (although it may not achieve very much since Spike has jobbed so damn much).

Renee Dupree: Good pick-up for Smackdown. Dupree should be able to be a decent mid-carder on Smackdown. He already has decent ability and charisma.

Rob Van Dam: I'm sad to see RVD go to SD (since I only get Raw), but I'm also glad that he will be on the same show as Eddie Guerrero. The two men should have awesome matches with one another. Hopefully - RVD's career will be revived here. However - will this be possible with the likes of Triple H, Taker, Angle, Guerrero, and Cena all 'above' him?

Mark Jindrak: I'm not too high on Jindrak at the moment. He seems like a guy who will get lost in the mix at the time being. Cade however, should be fine on Raw. Cade has pretty decent mic skills and isn't that bad in the ring. Looks to me like Jindrak could become another A-Train for the time being.

Theodore Long: Hopefully - he will be named GM and not Stephanie. If Stephanie is named GM however, I can see Long managing Orlando Jordan. Maybe even Renee Dupree will join their mix since he is a 'minority'.

Triple H: This is what I worry about the most.....Triple H to Smackdown. While it's great that guys like Jericho and Edge will have a chance to main-event now, it could potentially be horrendous for guys like Eddie Guerrero and John Cena........the two brightest stars in the WWE today. We have seen what Triple H did to RVD, Booker T, Kane, and Jericho's career. Will he do the same to Cena and Guerrero? What about Kurt Angle?


Obviously, Triple H and Eddie Guerrero will have a match in the not-so-distant future. In Triple H's mind, he jobbed at Mania and therefore, may not want to job again. Also - if Triple H defeats Guerrero, this makes him inadvertently 'superior' to Angle and Lesnar (since they just jobbed to Guerrero). This is my biggest concern! Hopefully - Trips will do the right thing.

I also wonder if Triple H's history with Billy Gunn will come into effect at all. Now that Evolution is on the Raw brand while Trips is on Smackdown, don't you think he needs a new stable? ;). X-Pac and Road Dogg should come to Smackdown. :p

[Vastardikai]

I think Triple H should have a long, extended feud with the Undertaker. It keeps both men occupied, and it keeps Eddie Guerrero as WWE Champion. Then again, the matches will suck...

[ilt_undertaker]

<font color=Silver>Your sig still makes me mad, Heyman, but you made some good points :y:</font>

[Sephiroth]

I think Triple H should have a long, extended feud with the Undertaker. It keeps both men occupied, and it keeps Eddie Guerrero as WWE Champion. Then again, the matches will suck...

I totally AGREE, dude your my new best friend :naughty:

[Shaggy]

When the first few picks of the draft took place I thought the WWE was gonna move the young guns around. With all the talk about a new era beginning and how it will be a era for the younger superstars to seize the throne I thought this was the beginning. Triple H going to Smackdown I think is good cause, just like you said, other superstars will be able to main event on Raw. That will be great. Triple H also now over Smackdown can put down Cena, Guerrero, Angle and Undertaker so we can see matches with those guys now.

I was happy when they announced Jindrak going to Smackdown because not many fans probably remember right now that Sean O'hair is over on Smackdawn and Jindrak and O'Hair (At Least I thought) Were a great Tag team in WCW. Infact they were one of my favorites over there. Hopefully WWE will put them together. WGTT broke up but I think it might be the better for them to try out on there own for a while. If it still doesnt work out maybe they will do another Draft or Trade or wno knows.

Well that is all I will say for now since they have said that they arent done until tonight. Then hopefully there will be different changes and who knows what would could happen.

[BasicThuganomics]

I'm just glad that Cena didn't get traded to RAW. But I think that while the draft wasn't that much of groundbreaking thing, It was pulled off the best way possible. Things were shook up, but both RAW and Smackdown aren't totaly different.

I really hope Shelton Benjamin and RVD get the biggest pushes out of the people traded. RVD is obviouly awesome and would do great in the main event scene on SD. And I have always liked Shelton, especially fter how well he handled himself in those three matches on SD last week. He's got mad potential :y:

I really am starting to think that Edge as a heel is a good idea, because RAW really doesn't have a credible main event heel at the moment.

We'll have to wait and see if there are any other changes to the rosters by the "deadline"

[The Naitch]

I wasted 2 hours of my life watching last night's RAW. I could've went for dinner with my dad seeing as how he's on vacation and all, but instead I decided to stay home and watch RAW. I was expecting the draft to be something similar to last years' draft because main eventers were involved. This time all the picks were mainly midcarders going to a different show. And why the hell is Tajiri on RAW?!

[The CyNick]

I dont think HHH vs Eddie will be done for some time, I can actually see it headlining WM 21.

Obviously HHH on SD is a big concern, especially since the two brightest stars for the future (Cena and Guerrero) and both on SD and they are both faces. I can easily see Cena getting buried in all of this.

I would also like to see HHH feud with Taker. They had some good matches in the past, and with HHH set to take some time off soon for his movie, maybe it would be the right time for HHH to JOB to Taker. Then when he comes back, he can get the win back from Taker, and set up HHH for a title run.

Breaking up Cade and Jindrak made no sense to me, unless of course it all winds up with Cade joining Jindrak on SD to go after the SD tag titles. I dont see either Cade or Jindrak doing that well on their own at this point.

Nidia on RAW makes sense since she can actually work matches.

Tajiri on RAW makes no sense, he's a CW he should be on SD. I cant see him going anywhere but Heat in this one.

Shelton and Haas breaking up was something Ive talked about before. I think they could have spent more time as a team, but at the same time both will be singles stars, so they might as well develop individual personalities.

Spike to SD makes sense for the CW division.

Dupree should get a chance to shine on his own, I could see a feud with him and Cena, which might be alright.

Teddy Long seems to be a good fit either as SD GM or as a manager for OJ, as long as he gets more TV time its all good playas.

Heyman to RAW will lead to soemthing likely, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Rhyno, meh he's in limbo, could be on Heat.



Edge to RAW is odd in that he's lost his program with HHH, now he doesn't really have anyone to put him over. I guess they assume the fans see him as a main eventer already. Edge-Orton would be interesting, but I think Edge wants to be in the World title picture. The more I think of it, the more I think HBK needs to turn heel, win the title, and then he'd have a bunch of guys to feud with.

RVD to SD, well at leats he wont get buried by HHH....oh wait...

[Loose Cannon]

Well if Cena gets buried by HHH, I swear they got no fk'n brians over there. Cena is the most over guy next to Guerrero right now, so they better keep pushing him if they want to make a ton of money off him. HHH probably saw how popular Cena was getting and wanted to be a part of it. Selfish asshole, if that's the case.

What I am really pissed about is that the potential Orton/HHH rift is probably finished now. Orton will probably take over Evo, but now he doesn't have Trips to put him over. And Jindrack is gone, so there goes the possibility of him and Cade joining Orton. DAMMIT. Why must you do this to me WWE.

But hey, Possible ECW stable :cool:

[tucsonspeed6]

Actually now that there's a power void in Evolution, we may see a struggle between Orton and Flair, resulting in a feud as Randy realizes that Flair is a legend that needs to be "killed" The question is whether or not HHH will start another stable on SD. While he was once a constant singles star, I think his character has learned the power of numbers and they've been pushing HHH as one of the smartest guys out there, so it'd go against his character not to. My prediction is that while Evolution tears itself apart on Raw, Trips will be building a new group on SD. Should the Raw Evo survive to the next interpromotional PPV, we could see a SD Evo v. Raw Evo. Pretty cool I think.

[loopydate]

I loved how the draft lottery went last night, and here's why:

1) They managed to "shake things up" while still keeping the brands separate. Had they made a total shift of personnel (which is what I thought was going to happen), any momentum the shows had built up would have been crushed. As it is, the main stories are being held together (Jericho/Christian, Benoit/Michaels on RAW - Guerrero/Angle, Cena/everybody on SmackDown) and guys like Shelton Benjamin, Rene Dupree, and Mark Jindrak get a chance to come in with an "impact" post-draft.

2) The Paul Heyman resignation storyline was done very well, assuming that the long-rumored ECW "Invasion" is about to happen. Shuffling the ECWites (Spike, Tajiri, Rhyno, RVD) gives Heyman a handful of disenfranchised WWErs to join his crusade against Bischoff and whomever takes control of SmackDown.

3) Nidia going to the Women's division is a good move. It seemed strange to me that they didn't push the first female Tough Enough champion toward that title when she first came in, rather placing her on the other show. Now that she's on RAW, she can (hopefully) show that the TE trainers can actually put out a champion (I am NOT counting Maven's Hardcore Title runs, because by the time he won it in the 24/7 era, the belt was meaningless).

4) I got one step to my recent wrestling "wet dream" coming true. Now that Mark Jindrak is on the same show as Sean O'Haire, Chuck Palumbo, and Johnny Stamboli...Natural Born Thrillers, baby! Naturally, that'll never happen, but I would mark out like a...well..mark if that happened.

5) I like lists that are divisible by five.

[Corkscrewed]

4) I got one step to my recent wrestling "wet dream" coming true. Now that Mark Jindrak is on the same show as Sean O'Haire, Chuck Palumbo, and Johnny Stamboli...Natural Born Thrillers, baby! Naturally, that'll never happen, but I would mark out like a...well..mark if that happened.


I totally forgot about that! I'd really mark out if that happened. That would be AWESOME.

HHH vs UT for a few months would be awesome. As long as they don't bury Cen and Guerrero, I'll be cool.

[The CyNick]

Actually now that there's a power void in Evolution, we may see a struggle between Orton and Flair, resulting in a feud as Randy realizes that Flair is a legend that needs to be "killed" The question is whether or not HHH will start another stable on SD. While he was once a constant singles star, I think his character has learned the power of numbers and they've been pushing HHH as one of the smartest guys out there, so it'd go against his character not to. My prediction is that while Evolution tears itself apart on Raw, Trips will be building a new group on SD. Should the Raw Evo survive to the next interpromotional PPV, we could see a SD Evo v. Raw Evo. Pretty cool I think.

Creating a second Evolution faction would be interesting. NOt sure who would be in it, but it could be an interesting concept.

[The Naitch]

I was thinking the same thing. I doubt they'd throw Evolution away into the garbage with other stables like X-Factor etc. They're here to stay. Triple H wouldn't have it that way. They'll be two Evoltution stables. One on each show. One led my Orton on RAW. One led my Triple H on Smackdown, because face it, Triple H doesn't look good when he's flying solo.

[VonErich Lives]

I'm suprised Cena didn't move to Raw, I wouldn't be shocked if he did soon, simply because all the FCC crackdowns going on.

So, here's the real question... who does Teddy Long manage? or maybe they make him the new GM? I hope not, I'll assume Steph or Shane come back to be the new GM.

So, is there an outside shot Foley becomes the new GM of SD and trades say Cena to Raw for Orton... just a wild thought, I don't really think it will happen, but who knows.

[MVP]

Good assessment Heyman

MY thoughts:

RVD should turn heel and feud with Eddie Guerrero. It's a perfect opportunity to pull off some impressive matches against the man who defeated Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, even if he doesn't win the title. RVD needs his main-event credibility back.

Edge and Chris Benoit should form an alliance and team up on Shawn Michaels who will most likely turn heel, despite all the face pops he gets. Edge will get his wings back if he's in the big matches. I'd also like to see an Edge-Orton program in the near future after the Mick Foley feud blows over. What I picture is Edge winning the IC title from Orton, and Benoit and Edge hold both of RAW's best championships (like Austin and Triple H in 2002, Power Trip :cool: ).

I'm upset that World's Greatest Tag Team was split up, but I'm glad that both Haas and Benjamin will get their chance to shine solo. Both of them shold be great additions to the midcards, along with Rene Dupree who I see feuding with Cena in the near future.

I see Rhyno as a potential main eventer now that Goldberg's gone, but it doesn't give guys like Booker T and Chris Jericho very much to hope for. :(

Jindrak could team up with Orlando Jones and form a tag team under the management of Teddy Long. Jindrak could be a black sympathizer, at least it'd give him some personality.

[PureHatred]

Posted this in another thread...
actually agree with most of your evaluation

My own thoughts on the picks:

Raw: Shelton..really pulling for this to work out. i think he's very talented and I hope he's ready for a singles push.
Nidia...IMO the entire women's division is a waste of time. so who cares.
Tajiri...not sure how he fits in.
Rhyno..like Rock Bottom said, now he'll be jobbing to main eventers. goody. (and he looked fatter than normal.)
Edge...I see an Edge/Orton feud in the near future.
Hayman..I'll talk about this in a sec.

Smackdown: Rene...same as Shelton
Jindrak...Palumbo/Jindrak sounds good
Triple H...awesome move. Yeah he's an ass, but admit it: Hunter has been taking one for the team lately. Loses to Benoit. Didn't beat Eddie tonight. Was the only really big name to move shows. Yeah, we get to see McMahon-Helmsley Era Part Deux, but it looks like he's going to feud with Cena at first. So he might not win the WWE Title back for a WHOLE FOUR MONTHS!!! Oh, and with Hunter off of Raw, there's an opening in Evolution. HBK is the obvious pick, but the better choice would be to add Christian and Trish. It would definitely give Evolution more of a "future of wrestling" feel and Arrogant Heel Stable+Hot Chick always works.
RVD...hoping he turns to the cocky asshole "Mr.PPV" Rob Van Dam and feuds with Eddie
Teddy Long...manage Rene. A crazy Frenchman with an insane poodle named Fifi managed by wrestling's version of Johnny Cochrane. I smell ratings.
Spike...cruiserweights here we come


Paul Heyman. Steph's going to Smackdown. I really think we're going to see him try to "compete with his dad" again and bring back ECW. Look for Heyman to wind up there, in "ECW-Lite." Very little is going on for some of the ECW alum (The Dudleyz, Lance Storm, Tommy Dreamer, Taz?..you get the drift) so there are some roster possibilities, especially if its just a one-hour show taped where Velocity or Heat is currently positioned. But the real hardcore ECW fans are going to be really disappointed by the WWE's version. it'll be neat for a second, but unless Heyman is given total writing control, it's going to feel very empty. It just won't have the same soul that the original had.

That is all.

[Heyman]

HOLY SH</>IT!!!!! :eek:

http://www.wwe.com/news/headlines/1258111

-Angle is the new GM of Smackdown
-Pulumbo and Gay Train move to Raw in exchange for Rico and Jackie
-Booker T and Dudleys go to Smackdown in exchange for..........Triple H!

[The Naitch]

interesting. I was actually lookimng forward to having Triple H on SD

[MVP]

Booker T on Smackdown should be interesting as long as he doesn't reunite his tag team with RVD. :mad:

Sounds like Smackdown is getting the most of the tag team division anyway. If so, smart move on WWE's part, EXCEPT FLAIR AND BATISTA STILL HAVE THE RAW TAG TITLES! :rant: