wwe Draft Lottery

http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com/wo/news/features/default.asp?aID=13408

I have to agree with him about Cena getting traded back somehow, just like with HHH last year. Watching Cena on the show last night, I kept thinking to myself "what's the catch?". The only way for this to work is to send Batista to Smackdown, particularly because most people seem convinced that Angle is also jumping to RAW.

Supposedly, the audiences for RAW and Smackdown are only about half-overlapped, which would mean about half of Smackdown viewers watch RAW. Cena's the kind of guy who can get over instantly with a new audience, but Batista is someone that you need to watch for a while to realize that he's cool and is not just another bodybuilding lunkhead. Batista jumping to SD could be disastrous. Besides, who would he feud with over there, particularly if Angle comes to RAW? JBL? A feud with Eddy would be good, but Eddy is always good and it's not like the world is clamouring for Batista vs Eddy right now.

I havent watched much smackdown in the last couple of months either, but the draft seems to be making things seem more interesting. Im also looking forward to the move to Fridays so I can tivo the show with no conflicts.

The PPV is shaping up to be awesome, though. I presume they're squeaking all these matches onto the Raw PPV before Batista, Shawn, or both get shipped off to Smackdown.

Now, Cena comes in and this makes it seems as though Jericho sees him as easy pickings, at least compare to the IC and the World Heavyweight titles (especially since Christian, the supposed #1 contender, got his ass jobbed out clean to both Batista and Benjamin not that long ago). Why so suddenly motivated?

The show felt off track as a whole. It's a shame since the last few weeks followed a continuity, which they broke away from a bit last night. Too bad as I was really digging Jericho's Mr. Hollywood apathy.
As much as I really like Angle, the climactic confrontation between the five guys in suits didn't make much sense.

Having said that, the fact that HHH and Steph are married IRL is hardly a secret. They've been out in public many times together, even though the marriage hasn't been acknowledged on WWE programming.

I feel like I'm annoying and redundant dissing HHH, but my tolerance for him is pretty much non-existent at this point. The show as a whole can only hold the possibility for improvement if he allows himself to be in a non-main event feud. Performers have to be able move up and down the ranks of title contention for the fictional competitive world to have any semblence of dramatic plausibility.

Alex OTM ... if you've gone through the trouble to reference a storyline from five years ago, then sell the fucking diss.

Also, there's no going back once you're been acknowledged as the owner* ... WWE can whitewash four years of storylines and pretend that Edge and Christian were never brothers, but they can't pretend that Vince doesn't own the WWE.

*assuming that this is the truth -- i.e. they can now pretend that Flair never owned 1/2 of the WWE, because that was a story. But they can't pretend that HHH-Steph aren't married once it's acknowledged in storylines, because they really are married. I might be talking in circles here. Hopefully not.

The reason I brought up a wish for its acknowledgement in programming up thread, which is just a way of saying that I too feel that HHH should have sold Kurt Angle's diss, is because HHH's dominance of the show itself is apparently garnering heat from the crowd. Also, he appears to be obliquely referencing the shoot criticisms the IWC makes about him in promos as of late, like his words prior to "leaving RAW" a few weeks back.

It's really only a matter of time before his backstage influence is brought into the show's foreground of content. if his presence in every consecutive main event feud is to persist than it will need some kind of storyline motivation.

I really wonder what the casual, non-internet fan thinks about him these days. In 2000, I honestly thought that HHH might be a new Flair -- great matches with a variety of opponents, terrific storylines, amazing heat. There hadn't ever been a long-term heel champ in the WWE so this was fresh and interesting. In that vein, maybe some fans accept that HHH is the new Flair (complete with Flair as his sidekick!) and will therefore always be on top. Sooner or later, you'd expect him to start drawing more of the "get off our screen" heel heat instead of the "boo, we hate you and will pay to see you get beat up" heel heat. For a variety of reasons, that hasn't happened and might never happen: HHH programs himself at the top of the card against the most over opponents, having Flair by his side increases his profile, can use every booking trick at the WWE's disposal to garner the heat he needs, etc.

I'm a pretty big mark for Flair and the Horsemen gimmick, so I was pretty excited at the introduction of the Evolution stable as a potential 21st century Horsemen. I'd still be all for an Evolution stable to surround HHH. I wonder why they never really ran with possibilities of recreating the Horsemen?

http://www.accelerator3359.com/Wrestling/pictures/McMichael.jpg

"Look at this venue! This place is APROPOS! And that dudn't mean yer diggin' round in the dirt with farm implements, baby"

Major props to Edge for bringing the briefcase to his wedding. I have no idea why they teased Matt's return, my guess is that Vince wanted to hear the pop and decide whether it was worth bringing him back. I can't remember the last time that the WWE booked for the internet like this, but then again, the Matt-Lita thing has blown up far beyond the internet at this point, in part thanks to Matt's endless series of interviews on the subject. Still, I'm surprised that it's blown up as big as it has.

I don't like having the Benjamin-Carlito rematch at Vengeance, because this could be too good of a feud to simply hotshot two title matches in one week. I also love that Benjamin basically lost because of one mistake and then announcers selling it. They should do it more often, because it's more realistic and makes match outcomes more unpredictable. It adds a sort of "turning point" akin to sports.

The WWE is full of this type of bullshit lately -- why waste eight months of our time with Hassan only to weakly job him out like this?

His verbal attacks on Hassan accomplished drawing the important distinction between Mohammed's personality being the problem, not race. This distinction became lost in his encounters with other superstars in the past even though this is what made Hassan a good character in the 1st place, he creates his own problems by saying the right thing in a very wrong way.

Also, it was good to give a popular face like Cena some air time, if they're apparently too hesitent to showcase Batista like you'de expect they would. And no long pointless HHH speech!

As a whole, I liked the show last night. To the extent that I'm curious about Vengence.

Well Hassan and Daivari are now on Smackdown, and Hassan beat Big Show in his first match. I honestly believe most fans won't remember the Cena squash and the change of scenery is truly a fresh start, so why not job him out? Anyway, I'm glad he's gone from RAW 'cause he was such a boring wrestler (though shame on losing Daivari too, I would've like to see Kurt Angle take him under his wing).

Also, Chris Benoit is now on Velocity.

The whole new Smackdown title is interesting. If I hadnt just bought the ECW PPV I'd be somewhat inclined to order Vengeance.

Overall, I'd say that the draft was a huge success. The "lottery" was about as random as the order of entrants into the Royal Rumble, but when you're spreading it out over four weeks you need to draft notable names each time. I never thought they'd have the balls to move so many big names, including both champions, but they did it, so kudos to them.

Batista's move looked inevitable from the moment Cena came to RAW, and it was a virtual lock once Cena won his match at the PPV, leaving no other champion that could jump to SD (they were obviously not going to create a whole new "SD championship"). Hopefully this feud with JBL doesn't ruin him right off the bat. Only Batista-Taker and Batista-Eddie are new matchups that have any hope of drawing money on SD.

Odds of HHH opening RAW next week and cutting a promo saying that Batista is a champion with no balls who jumped to SD to duck him: 1-10000000.

Benoit
Orton
Hassan/Daivari
Batista
Christian

Cena
Angle
Carlito
Big Show
RVD

I'm in a situation where I don't get Smackdown (and I rarely get PPVs anymore), so I'm looking forward to see four of the five who came to RAW and I'll miss Benoit and Christian.

I almost wanted to see Cena moved back, because I believe that's the only real money match for Batista on Smackdown (especially if they build a Rock-Austin type rivalry as teased in Triple H's post-Rumble speech). Batista-Taker could draw, but it's basically Brock-Taker, which I'm not sure how money that was (though the matches were pretty good). Plus, Taker's character has changed which makes it kinda difficult now. Eddie-Batista would work only if Eddie is a babyface.

So why does Daivari go with Hassan, but Tomko has to stay on RAW? Hopefully, they'll align him with Jericho.

RAW brand gets:

Mark Jindrak: Former WCW Tag Team Champion

Rene Dupree: Former WWE Tag Team Champion; former World Tag Team Champion

Danny Basham: Two-time former WWE Tag Team Champion

Kenzo Suzuki (with Hiroko): Former WWE Tag Team Champion

Chavo Guerrero: Five-time former Cruiserweight Champion; two-time former WWE Tag Team Champion

SmackDown! brand gets:

William Regal: Four-time former WCW Television Champion; three-time former Hardcore Champion; four-time former European Champion; former Intercontinental Champion; four-time former World Tag Team Champion

Candice: 2004 RAW Diva Search contestant

Sylvain Grenier: Four-time former World Tag Team Champion

Simon Dean: Former RAW sponsor

Steven Richards: Former two-time ECW Tag Team Champion; former 21-time Hardcore Champion