Looking At the 2011 Draft

[Jay]

Well, the 2011 Draft is now officailly over, i will give you my indepth thoughts about the draft.

RAW BRAND

TV Picks

(2) Rey Mysterio-I am tired of them moving him back and fourth from Raw to Smackdown. I personally think that his home is on Smackdown. Many hispanics tune into Smackdown just to watch him. Poor move by the WWE. Plus, he always gets lost on Raw.
(6) Big Show-Yet another pick that seems to always move brands. WWE needs to keep him on a brand for a long enough time that he can actually make an impact on that brand. Big Show can be a great talent on the brands, but yet it's WWE who has no idea how to use him.
(7) Alberto Del Rio- It looks like his world title reign wont be on Smackdown, but i am glad that he moved brands. I think Raw will let him shine as one of the top heels.
(1/8) John Cena to Smackdown, back to Raw- Wasted draft pick. More thoughts on this in the Smackdown review.

Supplemental Picks


(2) Jack Swagger- He shone on Smackdown, and i hope that now that he is on Raw, he will be able to shine as well.
(5) Kelly Kelly-Meh, i think this is a wasted pick, but it is also someone that Kong (Karmah) can go after first.
(6) JTG- I dont see him doing anything on Raw. I dont see him making any form of change.
(10) Drew McIntyre- GREAT MOVE! Maybe he can be able to make some major movement on the Raw roster and freshen things up. That, or he will get lost in the shuffle, and hopefully it is not the latter.
(12) Curt Hawkins- He's still under contract?
(13) Chris Masters- Someone who has been underwhelming thus far with his second tenure with the WWE. Hopefully they can push him and push him good over on Raw.
(15) Kofi Kingston-I beleive he has moved on the last two draft. Someone who can have a serious run in the mid card. Hopefully they find something for him to do.
(19) Tyler Reks- Who?
(21) Beth Phoenix-And yet another name who think has moved every draft she has been on.


SMACKDOWN BRAND

TV Picks

(3) Randy Orton-YES YES YES YES YES!!!!! ORTON ON SMACKDOWN IS FTW! he can be one of the major players on Smackown. His last run on Smackdown was about 4 or 5 years ago and he wasnt ready to be a top guy. This is FTW!
(4) Mark Henry-A waste of a draft pick, IMO. They should have drafted Sheamus on TV and Henry during the Sup. Draft.
(5) Sin Cara- Not to keen on moving him so quickly. HE JUST GOT HERE!

Supplemental Picks

(1) Daniel Bryan- Not to excited on this pick, but hopefully he can shine on SD!
(3) Great Khali (w/Singh)-Another move? Did you just trade big guys for big guys?
(4) Jimmy Uso-Breaking up another tag team? Good job WWE! Thats the way tp build credible tag team divisions.
(7) Alicia Fox-Who?
(8) William Regal- This should be a fun run for Regal, especail since this could be his last run on Smackdown and his last run with the WWE. Maybe a good push to come?
(9) Yoshi Tatsu-Once again, who?
(11) Natalya- This should be a nice addition to the Smackdown roster.
(14) Jey Uso (Usos reunited on Smackdown)- Ah, keeping the team together. Good call!
(16) Ted DiBiase, Jr.-I see a program with Rhodes down the road (no pun intended). Good move. I see him as a major player on Smackdown.
(17) Tyson Kidd-Errrm, does this pick really matter?
(18) Tamina- WHAT ABOUT SANTINO!!?!?!
(20) Alex Riley- I hope to gawd WWE pushes this kid. He has potential.
(22) Sheamus- YES YES YES!!!! Sheamus needs a new set of chalenges. I think he will be a great addition to Smackdown.

The John Cena Factor- I think that WWE really dropped the ball here. They had a great chance to build Smackdown to be on even playing ground as Raw. Raw has enough talent to carry it's own, where as Smackdown has a gap in it's main event roster. WWE wasted TWO draft picks. Fail WWE, fail.

Overall, WWE once again protected Raw from looking "Weak". We know that Raw is the number 1 show in WWE, but does that mean that Smackdown should really suffer? The good thing about this is that Smackdown always seems to be good at building these stars into main players (then they get drafted back to Raw and then look weak).

I see Smackdown taking the ball with these young guys and running with it. Christian v. Sheamus will be a good program, no doubt about it. The immedate winner of the draft is Raw, but i think in the long run, the winner will be Smackdown.

 

[PHX]

Smackdown doesn't suffer at all they got the second biggest babyface in the company in Orton which is a win in itself. Putting Orton and Cena on Smackdown would be different and it was shocking but lets not fool ourselves into thinking that Raw is ever gonna take the back seat to Smackdown as its always gonna be the flagship show so in that sense it wouldn't have made sense.

That said I think it was a waste in using two picks for Cena just to simply troll.

 

[SAIYANS]

Cena on SD would be bad. You want your top star, on your top program, on the top cable channel of them all, on the best night, with the best availability. Cena has to be on Raw. We aren't talking Spike TV or anything like that, USA is the number 1 cable network there is and Raw is their and WWE's number 1 show, and they have higher demos in women, kids, teens, and males. It makes no sense to put Cena on SD, on SyFy, who while having a great number of markets more than MyTV is still smaller than USA and has the show in a tape delayed Friday night spot. None of you would do it from a business, not wrestling or fan, but business standpoint, so you shouldn't ask Vince to do that. I know some might say make it live, but it goes back to business, and none of you would want to pay for the gas to make the production trips which are much easier on back to back night in close cities, in Vince's place either.


Main Draft
Rey - is far more polished than Sin Cara, is over, and he is adjusted to the WWE style so he can work the live show

Cena - there is no damn way that WWE or USA for that matter would be stupid enough to take him off Raw and anyone who fell for the swerve should be slapped because thy want their top draw on the top brand and cable channel

Orton - he will replace Edge on SD as the primary face and is already more over than Edge was and a slightly better draw

Sin Cara - he gets to be the lucha on the show with the bigger Hispanic audience and on a show which can edit his botches as he adjust to the WWE style

Mark Henry - they needed an extra big on the roster more so than Raw who wasn't using him

Big Show - doesn't really matter since he is going to be on SD and Kane is going to be on Raw with them holding the tag straps

Alberto Del Rio - Raw needs another top heel and he is at the same level of CM Punk basically since he actually can win with the deck stacked in his favor unlike Punk who they book to fail even with every advantage in his favor (looks good while doing it though)

 

[The Flash]

The one i don't understand is Sin Cara. Was even officially on a brand? He was showing up on both shows every week since he debuted and somehow manages to be drafted? That along with Cena being drafted twice was a waste of 3 draft picks, actually 4 draft picks were wasted because if i recall, there was supposed to be 2 picks for the winner of the battle royal at the start of the show. Cena was drafted, where was the other one?

 

[SAIYANS]

Sin Cara was listed on the roster since that Primo match. As for why, he is just too spotty right now since they didn't make him go to FCW like Del Rio and they can make him seem more godly on a taped show

As for the 2 picks part, Cole goofed because wwe.com said 1 pick and he said 2.

 

[SAL]

My favorite part of the draft was that it was "random," 30 freaking people were picked, and not one member of Nexus or Corre moved.

 

[The Flash]

Kinda disappointed that Zack Ryder did'nt get drafted, feel bad for the guy cause he kept tweeting "I hope they draft me from Superstars to Raw or SD"

 

[Jay]

Cena on SD would be bad. You want your top star, on your top program, on the top cable channel of them all, on the best night, with the best availability. Cena has to be on Raw. We aren't talking Spike TV or anything like that, USA is the number 1 cable network there is and Raw is their and WWE's number 1 show, and they have higher demos in women, kids, teens, and males. It makes no sense to put Cena on SD, on SyFy, who while having a great number of markets more than MyTV is still smaller than USA and has the show in a tape delayed Friday night spot. None of you would do it from a business, not wrestling or fan, but business standpoint, so you shouldn't ask Vince to do that. I know some might say make it live, but it goes back to business, and none of you would want to pay for the gas to make the production trips which are much easier on back to back night in close cities, in Vince's place either.

My whole point is that they should try to bring Smackdown up to main brand and stop giving it a back seat. Its not that smart. Treat Smackdown as an "A" brand, no matter what kinda market it is on.

 

[SAL]

Until it's off Fridays and on a bigger network, it's simply bad business to give it as much attention as they give to Raw.

 

[Jay]

Until it's off Fridays and on a bigger network, it's simply bad business to give it as much attention as they give to Raw.

Where would you move it? What network and day?

 

[SAIYANS]

It would have to be USA. They are limited to a NBC/Universal channel legally as long as they want to be on a cable network. Those would be USA, SyFy, Bravo, G4, Oxygen, Style, NBC, and E!

They could get by with it on Friday nights over there because it has a bigger market but they can't have it be live then. They could move it to Thursday's again again but they would be directly competing with the NBA on TNT. Wednesday's are by far the worst night on TV for a show during the week statistically and have been for a while. Tuesday's they can be live and get a good number on USA, they showed just that during WWE week.

It is kind of hard to peg really because even though they are taped and have less markets on SyFy, they get good numbers. Most shows would love to have those numbers, even the CW since Smallville and Supernatural don't pull in the same figures they did over there.

 

[SAL]

Where would you move it? What network and day?

I personally wouldn't move it anywhere. I like the tiered concept, with Smackdown as a place where guys can be built up into main-eventers and Raw as the place where the big names go and celebrities show up to plug their movies and shit. All I'm saying is that you shouldn't even try to build Smackdown up to be equal to Raw when the shows are differently situated and it wouldn't be the best use of the talent you have.