Hello World,
The WWE held its supplemental draft yesterday and I will cover what happened and my take on how it will affect the brands going forward.
First who moved where?
To Raw; Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Alberto Del Rio (all drafted during Raw) Chris Masters, Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, JTG, Kofi Kingston, Tyler Reks, Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly.
To Smackdown; Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Sin Cara (all drafted during Raw) Alex Riley, Daniel Bryan, Jimmy & Jey Uso, The Great Khali & Ranjin Singh, Sheamus, Ted DiBiase, Tyson Kidd, Yoshi Tatsu, William Regal, Alicia Fox, Natalya and Tamina.
So Smackdown got 17 new Superstars and Diva’s and Raw got 12. That’s probably about right as Raw was stacked where as Smackdown needed a few extra bodies as their roster was on the thin side. Now let’s weigh up who were the big winners here and what we can expect going forward.
Firstly on Raw, in my opinion the top 5 babyfaces now are; John Cena, John Morrison, Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston and Big Show. That is assuming that Triple H doesn’t come back regularly. The top 5 heels are; The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk, R Truth and Jack Swagger. There is not a good balance there, the Heels are loaded with top talent while other than Cena, the face side is weak. They need a top heel to turn face in my opinion, and I believe it needs to be Swagger or Miz. I think Swagger would make a good fit; he could turn on Cole to a huge pop helping a fellow Oklahoman in the process. I think a gimmick similar to Kurt Angle’s Face run would work. He could have good matches with the likes of Alberto Del Rio; perhaps a whole “America against Mexico” thing could work for them and would get Swagger over. Another guy who could move up the card as a face I believe is Zack Ryder, I’m not saying he will be a main event level talent yet but he is already over with Internet fans and there are more and more signs in the crowd relating to Ryder. Push him already Woo Woo Woo You Know It.
As for Smackdown, I believe the top 5 faces are; Randy Orton, Christian, Sin Cara, Kane and Daniel Bryan. Again assuming The Undertaker doesn’t wrestle regularly. The top 5 heels are; Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Sheamus, Mark Henry and Ezekiel Jackson. The heel side of Smackdown is very weak in my opinion, although there are a lot of guys with potential to be a top heel, like Cody, Barrett and Ted DiBiase. I think that Cody will be elevated to the main event pretty quickly and we know that Sheamus can headline PPV’s. There are a lot of potentially very good superstars on Smackdown and it will be interesting how they progress. I’m hoping for a Daniel Bryan push as well as a Justin Gabriel one, as I believe these two have masses of potential and could have some superb matches, maybe over the Intercontinental Title. Speaking of which, I’m interested in seeing how they go about having both the Intercontinental and US titles on the same show. I’m assuming that they either merge the two or find a way to get one back on Raw, as having them both on one show doesn’t make much sense.
As for the draft, I felt some of it made sense other parts didn’t. For example, moving Drew McIntyre to Raw is a mistake, he has the potential to be a main event heel and would have had more chance of that on Smackdown. Instead he is not even in the top 5 heels on Raw in my opinion. Moving Randy Orton to Smackdown made lots of sense, they were missing that top babyface since Edge retired and I believe that Orton is the right guy for the job.
All in all I don’t believe there is a big winner here, however Smackdown needed a new top face and got one. And Raw got stacked with top Heels. Over the next few weeks and months I am expecting pushes for some of the mid-card talent to try and get to the main event level. It could be exciting times in the WWE. Well let’s hope so at least.
I’ll be back later in the week with a preview to Extreme Rules.
As always I welcome all feedback on my writing whether positive or negative so get involved.
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JM
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