The Draft
 

From PWInsider:

World Wrestling Entertainment announced that it will hold its 2009 Brand Draft on the 4/13 episode of Monday Night Raw from Atlanta, so expect a lot of talent roster shake-ups to occur shortly after Wrestlemania.

To be followed shortly after by WWE's annual "Vince Gets Killed" storyline.

Which, in turn, will lead to the purging of the rosters for the Diva's search.

The circle of life

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I've always been a believer that the draft should happen right after Mania. This is because I view Wrestlemania as a very final thing. It's the payoff for a number of fueds, and the night after new ones begin.

The only time fueds carry on past mania is, in my opinion, some lazy booking where they just do the Wrestlemania rematch to death.
I think since things should in theory be shaken up and started fresh after mania, they should do the draft right after.

Agreed. It's supposed to be what the rest of the year revolves around. Putting the draft immediately after Mania creates the feeling of a 'new season' or what have you.

I wouldn't even mind it occuring the night after, but a week long grace period to wrap things up and promote the draft seems good.

Also, I really wish they'd go back to the podium pick system like a real draft, instead of that stupid wheel of misfortune on the titantron.

Agreed, but then they have to have GMs for each show and actually be able to come up with reasons to move the people around, instead of the roulette that they currently have.

Lazy? Ab-so-freaking-lutely!

I'd rather see a system where champions were undraftable, and could only be moved through agreed upon trades. At the same time, all other compettitors are fair game.
With a pick, a GM can either draft a new wrestler, or lock-up a wrestler already on their show.

Steph is basically Raw GM, so it pretty much boils down to coming up with storyline reasons for the pick. So again, laziness.

But the 'team captains' was fun.

Well there would actually need to BE three General Managers. RAW has been with out leadership for a minute. I hate the titantron gig, so i'm down with the old draft. I would like to see some Draft day trades and all that jazz!

I liked when they had the tumbler and both GMs did a pick at the same time. I think WWE should consider doing a complete "redraft" and recreate the initial draft from 02.

Trades were awesome.

I still want to know how Stone Cold had the forethought to have an anti-draft clause in his contract to enable him to be a free agent...

I'd also like to see stuff like draft day debuts or returns. For instance, say the Smackdown GM drafted away one of Raw's top stars.
Then the Smackdown GM could respond on Friday by announcing, and debuting, the signing of someone like RVD, or the return of Angle, or something. It of course would have to correspond with real life returns to the company, but it'd be a nice way to do it.

I'm not a fan of all the 'supplemental draft' business though, when people just start showing up on other shows inexplicably.

Welcome to 2009, where the draft only means whatever the writers want it to mean.

That is exactly how it should be done. :y:

I already have some ideas for who they will move around, and I personally think it will shake up the WWE quite well.

They do have an order to such things (although they usually forget one or two moves that is then just addressed randomly), and personally I like it, because it gets guys that they're not going to move on the big show (like Charlie Haas) to one of the other brands.

I wonder what show Kelly Kelly will wander off to this year.

ECW will get cherrypicked once again. Then they'll build up all new exciting stars to be raided next year.
Swagger and Bourne to Raw, Christian to Smackdown, and as consolation they'll get Vladmir Kozlov and Gregory Helms.

I think they'll also lose Ricky Ortiz, who is pretty much doing nothing there, anyway. I think he's going to be used as this year's Kofi Kingston, and end up on RAW with the IC Title before long. Jack Swagger also seems like a good "ECW-to-RAW" prediction, although I think they might keep Evan Bourne there, just because they can then insert him into random matches wherever they choose (like John Morrison & The Miz).

Christian to SmackDown! is one I am pretty sure about, and I could very easily see a bunch of talent like Hurricane Helms and Jimmy Wang Yang being sent to ECW. Vladimir Kozlov to ECW also seems like a safe pick.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what happens.

I don't mind that ECW gets cherry picked though, the guys that deserve to me moved up do, and the guys that could use more TV time and more exposure get moved to ECW.

Juan, the problem with that kind of thinking is that there's really not enough room on the one-hour ECW show to actually get those people the TV time and exposure that they need.

I dunno, it worked fine for Miz, Morrison, Finlay and Mark Henry. Paul Birchill is even getting more TV than he ever did on Raw.

In my opinion, holding a draft every 12-16 months is ill-advised:

• Lack of brand identity: By having a draft every 12-16 months, it hurts the brand identity of each show. While it's true that a draft 'shakes things up', I think the WWE would be better off by having a draft every four years or so.

• Instead of frequent drafts, allow for 'trades' on infrequent occassions.

• A more "fixed" roster will allow for a greater RAW/Smackdown rivalry. No longer, will a guy just 'flip' rosters every few months. The roster can be fixed, and guys will be known as a 'RAW' guy or a 'Smackdown' guy....which can add fuel to the fire.

• Eliminate ECW. The presence of ECW only takes away depth from Smackdown and RAW in my opinion.

• Try and cut down on the number of overall titles within the company.

Christian to RAW please.

I could see Triple H going back to RAW, actually.

Last year's draft wasn't done until the end of June...it seems a little weird that they're going to hold another one only 10 months after the last, but I agree with a post-Mania draft making the most sense. Because it's so close to last year's draft, I don't see a lot (or any) of the guys drafted last year moving again.

I could definitely see guys like Kozlov, Helms, and R-Truth ending up on ECW once the likes of Christian and Swagger get plucked away. I think something definitely needs to be done about the Raw main event scene, though, because it seems like almost everything's been done now. Preferably Orton beats Cena at WM and they can move Cena to Smackdown or something, but I'd tinker with the idea of separating Edge from Vickie via a lottery pick and build an angle around him trying to sweet talk his way into Stephanie's good graces or something. I think it'd be interesting to see (because, hell, anything involving Edge is more interesting than anything currently on Raw), but then you'd have a problem with trying to figure out who's the #1 heel between Orton and Edge.

Triple H ending up on RAW is not an idea I would consider too weird. Batista is set to return around Summerslam, right? I cannot see him feuding with anyone else but Randy Orton. I can see them getting Triple H in there just to complete the Evolution thing. It'd suck, but I don't know. I can see them doing it.

I can also see The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels trading places. With John Cena being on RAW forever and ever, it might be a good move to have him leave RAW for SmackDown!, and fill the gap that Triple H leaving would create.

I the thinks a John Cena would returns to the blue ropes show.

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As I was saying in another thread, here is how I think the shows should be divided (in terms of their wrestlers).

ECW

• Young semi-promising guys that would benefit from getting more TV time in a smaller stage. These guys would probably be 'curtain jerkers' on the big shows at this point, but could easily be 'future players' (i.e. like CM Punk).

• Old mid-card veterans that won't really 'get over' more than they really are but still have decent 'name' value and can help put over younger talent.

My top 5 stars if it was up to me (no particular order)

1) William Regal
2) Jack Swagger
3) Tommy Dreamer
4) Fit Finlay
5) D.H Smith (when he debuts)


RAW

• Main-eventers that can still get substantially bigger than they are now....or, would be COMPLETELY refreshed with a heel/face turn.

• Any mid-carder with major potential....and has a major chance at being a legit main-eventer one day.

My Top 10 stars if it was up to me (no particular order)

1) Randy Orton
2) John Cena
3) Dave Batista
4) Jeff Hardy
5) MVP
6) CM Punk
7) Christian
8) Matt Hardy
9) Shelton Benjamin
10) Santino Marella



Smackdown:

• Mid-carders that won't be getting into the main-event scene any time soon (or even have the potential)

• Main-eventers that peaked a long time ago and have had numerous and/or MEMORABLE runs as BOTH a face and heel.

My top 10 guys: (no particular order)

1) Triple H
2) Edge
3) Rey Mysterio
4) Undertaker
5) Shawn Michaels
6) Big Show
7) Kane
8) Mr. Kennedy
9) John Bradshaw Layfield
10) R-Truth