Judging from the (surprisingly, I might add) few posts above from our fellow members, I’m probably going to be the first one to express a very different opinion about Smackdown last night, at least publicly anyway. Now, to make things clear, my really negative reaction has nothing to do with Smackdown itself because it could easily have been another edition of RAW however the highly anticipated draft happened last night, on Smackdown so, again, this not about Smackdown (or RAW, for that matter) but about WWE in general.
Just to get it out of the way, I gave last night’s show a mere 1/10 and just to be clear, that one point goes for Dean Ambrose getting the clean win over Seth Rollins, which I absolutely loved.
As far as the draft is concerned, for all the hype and anticipation, to me it turned out to be THE clusterfuck of clusterfucks. It felt rushed, it felt sloppy, it felt completely fake and I cannot begin describing my disappointment in how unorganized WWE turned out to be given they had months in advance to plan it right. Now, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t born yesterday and of course I am aware that everything is predetermined and all but do you really mean to tell me they couldn’t give us the slightest feeling of realism for this thing?
If the draft was the most important thing last night, the main focus of the show, why on earth was it necessary to give us all these filler matches that, aside from the championship, meant absolutely nothing? Oh, were they supposed to be considered a build up for Battleground? You had a fucking month already for that!!!
How stupid was it having both commissioners with their respective GM’s on fucking podiums, basically reading out each name like they had the lists in front of them beforehand? I mean, granted, they obviously had everything sorted out (or…did they?) but why not play it out a little bit? Make it like each team was thinking over their next pick, for example, based on what the other brand selected and whatnot?
Where were the cameras in the locker room areas, liked they used to do in previous drafts, where we could see some live reactions from the superstars themselves on the spot, again, giving a more realistic feel to the whole thing?
Where was any fucking surprise? For all this time there was talk about WWE looking to bring back at least a couple of old timers, just to add some spice into this draft. As in, just when one brand seem to have the upper hand (sort of speak) the other brand would then announce, say, a Kurt Angle or a Karlito or someone dammit. Wouldn’t that add some intrigue and excitement to the draft? i
How is it that the commentators were not part of the draft? They did decide, after all, to switch things up in the booths, right? Why go with a simple announcement and not play it all out as part of the draft?
How is it that while they announce on Monday that the cruiserweight division will be a RAW exclusive, they make NO FUCKING MENTION about the rest of the divisions/championships, not even on the night of the actual draft, as in which brand will feature which title? Will they be floating? Are they going to create new and perhaps separate titles for each show, a disaster (in my opinion) waiting to happen?
Finally, how on earth did they imagine they could squeeze the whole draft alongside a stacked card in practically less than two hours?
I’m pretty sure a lot of you, while reading this, may wonder why I make such a big deal about it, bitching and moaning or perhaps nitpicking to a point where it’s excessive and beyond reasonable. Well, I apologize if I love my wrestling that much that I care if certain things are done right. Not what I want, but what’s right…
Draft Day used to be so special back in the day. They didn't do it very often, but when they did, it fealt big and important. Good job WWE on fucking that up too....
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