This week has been dominated by the draft and the supplemental draft and earlier this week, I provided a column on who I thought needed a move. As the draft has concluded, we can see that actually, a few of the guys I suggested moved – more on that though in the second section of this column which will follow later today. The draft took place on Monday and began with a Raw domination.

The first pick was:

MVP: Taking the US title with him, he has a good launch pad and will be in the limelight at the very least, until he drops that belt. MVPs problem is that management have been testing him to see if he has the patience and the skills to be a main eventer. Now he has passed that stage, he looked to be moving up the pecking order and many thought he’d win MITB. Raw simply is not the stage for him to move up the card with so many huge names and if he had stayed on Smackdown, he’d be in a title match in a PPV by the end of the year.
Verdict: Thumbs Down.

Big Show: Moving to Raw to follow Vickie, strangely without Edge following suit. Presumably the story with Show and Vickie won’t just die without reason or explanation, so look for him to do Vickie’s dirty work, leading to him main eventing Raw shows on occasion and being the monster jobber (a la Kane) to the likes of Batista, HHH and Cena etc. Perhaps on Smackdown, he’d have more title opportunities which can be said about many performers, but this move is decent for Big Show as he’s a decent live performer, more so than other monsters in WWE.
Verdict: Thumbs Up, this is a good move.

Melina: Not so sure what to make of this. Gail Kim has just joined and I thought she’d be the next Divas Champion, so to put a face champion on Smackdown seems slightly illogical. This move has ups and downs – positives in fresh matchups and negatives in bringing over a face.
Verdict: Short term pointlessness but fresh matches, so just about Thumbs Up.

Matt Hardy: Quite liking the new attitude of Matt and the coat, but the entrance music HAS to go! Heel Matt would never slam tornadoes! As for his move, the payoff for Jeff hasn’t occurred in the feud, but at a guess, I’d say that Backlash will see the final rematch, which defeats the point of this draft if inter-promotional matches still take place. As for beyond the Jeff feud, who knows? Feud with the tag champs or a quality performer like Michaels?
Verdict: Jury’s out. Shall wait and see. This is one of the more interesting moves.

HHH: Who didn’t guess this one? Raw was always going to be stacked this draft and HHH joins Cena, Batista, Michaels etc as big main eventers. One is going to HAVE to turn heel because Raw has a huge imbalance of main event faces who will have to feud with each other or they’ll end up having a clusterfuck over the WWE title.
Verdict: Predictable, but this move is fine. MyNetwork is sinking and HHHs ego won’t allow him to be on Smackdown when it falls.

CM Punk: Suggested this one too and it happened. Has a real chance to become a proper main eventer with the lack of top faces on Smackdown. He lies behind Taker, who has wrecked knees and Jeff Hardy, who is busy at the moment with Matt. Now is CM Punk’s time to shine and though he’ll lose his MITB cash-in, he’ll stay in the main event area if he impresses.
Verdict: Wanted it and got it. Very much thumbs up.

The Miz: What a mistake! They’ve broken up one of the best tag teams in years. Miz had the voice, Morrison, the talent. Miz will drown on Raw with all the names. Look for him to move to Smackdown or ECW before the next draft when creative decide they’ve got nothing for him. This night was the beginning of the tag team break-ups.
Verdict: One of the worst decisions of the draft.

Kane: Now this one was a surprise. Smackdown lost Show, but got Kane as a replacement. The guy really cannot find a permanent home and it’s sad to see. Not a lot more to say on this one.
Verdict: He’ll do fine, but this is Kane, so very much “Jury’s out”.

Chris Jericho: Now this one I liked. Originally I thought it would be a mistake in moving him from Raw who need heels, but I’d say we’ll see a heel turn from Batista. Jericho will need a month or so before he gets into a proper rivalry, but once he does, he’ll get in the title hunt and have a decent reign, unlike his time on Raw. Will his work be overshadowed by last year’s though? Perhaps.

One thing I will say is that this may (I stress MAY) lead to an Edge face turn. Some may say this is a bad idea, but we’ve not seen face Edge in years and a trial tweener run could be advised against Jericho eventually as that would be a cracking match up. Two of the best mic workers in recent history against each other sounds appealing.
Verdict: Very good move in my opinion if WWE can sort out Raw with replacement heels.

Kozlov: They’ve got Henry, they’ve got Zeke. What the hell do they need three monster heels for? Absolute farce. ECW is a favourite of mine and this guy is going to stink up the joint.
Verdict: Hard to say. Kozlov to TNA would have been preferable.

Maryse: Again, rather predictable, which was the theme of the draft. In terms of her ability, she’s come on leaps and bounds this year and arguably deserves a promotion. The more worrying thing is this: Raw wants a better roster to be the true “A” show and they’ve put the fucking butterfly belt on Raw!! The women’s championship is one of the oldest, most prestigious belts in wrestling, dating back some 50 years and they’re putting it on the “B” brand. Can we say merchandise inspired? Either that or because Vince is “high” on Maryse.
Verdict: Maryse deserves it for her good work, but the Women’s Title deserves better than “B” status.

Rey Mysterio: Yep, called this one and it HAD to happen. Latino market wants their favourite back. Smackdown needed their midcard belt. Nothing more to it other than looking for him to instantly have a feud with Mike Knox to relive that story and to reintroduce the “ultimate underdog” nature.
Verdict: Thumbs Up.

That wrapped up the main draft and left us with a feeling of disappointment regarding the predictability. Some moves stunk up the joint like Miz leaving Morrison and Kozlov joining ECW to create a monster roster, but the rest were either good or very good. I’d say a lot of people will be disappointed with the main draft and although on the night it felt disappointing, I think it will do just fine.

Main draft overall rating: Decent and probably a 6 or 7/10 job. A fairly standard, if largely predictable draft.

The Supplemental draft however, was the most inconsistent draft I’ve ever seen. We began with:

Mr Kennedy: Now those of you read my first ever column will know I picked this guy to move. However, I’ve been left disappointed by the choice of brand. The man of glass may not even return with reports that his injury is a lifelong one, but if he does, he needs a solid platform to revitalise himself. With so many main eventers and midcarders, he just doesn’t have that. Unfortunately, I don’t see much way back for him and so this seems like a complete oversight by creative to put him on Raw.
Verdict: Bad move in that he should have gone to ECW and become their champion.

Shad Gaspard: At this point, I thought “Sigh, they’re going to drag this out and put JTG on Smackdown too to waste a draft pick.” I wasn’t wrong. However, in hindsight, this move is a total joke. The tag champions have wound up on Raw and although part of being unified champions’ means challengers come from all corners, I was expecting the Raw brand to hold the majority of the matches and teams. As it is, more draft breaking will occur if Cryme Tyme become tag title contenders.
Verdict: Another bad move.

Alicia Fox: Now some good and bad came out of this. Bad is that no-one cares about her. Some fans won’t even know who she is and will be surprised to see Edge’s former fling return to Smackdown if they’ve not seen ECW. The good however is that DJ Gabriel can lose the stupid gimmick and form a British stable with Burchill and Katie Lea (hopefully with Regal if he moves or Drew McIntyre if they call him up again). Also, Edge looks to be done with Vickie and he could have an edgy (no pun intended) valet in the mould of what they wanted Kristal to be with him.
Verdict: No-one cared, but on second viewing, I like this move as it could benefit two performers.

Primo Colon: Anybody who saw the WWE live chat about the supplemental draft would agree with the Fink’s comments. The Fink was going crazy over this and implied that tag team wrestling was dead. At this point, Miz/Morrison were finished. Cryme Tyme were finished and now the tag champs were split. One comment was particularly apt and that was “Tag Team Wrestling has been released. We wish tag team wrestling all the best in their future endeavours.”

People reading this column will know that Carlito moved later in the day, but for 2 and a half hours, we worried. In hindsight, decent move, though it’s a return to Raw for Primo after he had one match against Charlito (and criticised Carlito).
Verdict: Jury’s out. Now that tag titles are on Raw, we’ll have to see what mood Vince is in as to whether it is allowed to flourish.

Mike Knox: A lot of people give this guy a hard time. I think he’s ok, but perhaps that’s because of my love for his beard. Without that, he’s fairly generic. Knox will have a chance to be the monster heel to batter the smaller guys on Smackdown (Rey, Jesse, Jimmy Yang etc) and won’t get lost in the mix amongst the smaller Smackdown roster.
Verdict: I liked it, many others don’t, but I think Thumbs Up.

Zeke Jackson: Brian Kendrick has unfortunately lost his bodyguard. That’s bad. Zeke is one of three giant heels (in size, not popularity). That’s bad. Zeke doesn’t have mic skills. That’s bad.
Verdict: WWE has come to terms with the release of Ezekiel Jackson. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. That’s bad.

If you enjoyed this first section, then give me your feedback by email or feel free to give it a star rating below! You can now read the second part by clicking here!

Alex Williams
alex@ifight365.com