Hello! That's right, the Draft has finally taken place as of last night- we know where everyone barring injured people and Heath Slater is going and the focus now shifts a bit onto Battleground but more so on how the Rosters will work now they've largely taken shape. This does have to be said straight away, the Rosters aren't "finished" after last night.
They kept the Draft as exclusively guys who are already (officially) within the WWE system whether it be Main Roster or NXT, so I'm expecting a few returns in the next couple of weeks and possibly beyond. For example, right off the bat- I think there's about 3 people who would qualify for the Cruiserweight Division that got drafted to RAW so surely they'll be bringing some more people in on that front. There were a few really odd picks, and I'll bring those up throughout this Review- but I'm not going to be getting too carried away about either Roster at this moment in time.
Round 1 of the Draft
Seth Rollins- RAW
Dean Ambrose- Smackdown
Charlotte- RAW
AJ Styles- Smackdown
Finn Balor- RAW
This was a really strong start to the Draft in my opinion. The only real surprise to me was the fact Roman wasn't picked among the first 5. Let's be honest, the Draft order doesn't actually matter too much- so I'd have thought they would want to get the mentioning of Roman out of the way as early as possible knowing the reaction his drafting would get.
The first issue that arose from the Draft, and the cynical side of me would say it was to hide the fact Roman wasn't there- is we didn't get any sort of reactions to any of the drafts. Once a name was said, they cut to a 10 second video package and it was time to move on. I know they posted it on Youtube, but the reaction for Balor being shown on TV would've been nice as well. Especially because I thought that would be the whole point of keeping all of the NXT guys at the Performance Center. It was probably more convenient for Breaking Ground I suppose.
Finn Balor's obviously the name that jumps out from this round of 5. He's finally gotten the call-up and will be on RAW. The fact he was positioned so high up in the Draft gives me a reasonable amount of hope for Finn's immediate prospects on the Main Roster, but I can't help but feel like he's going to be in the Cruiserweight Division for the first few months. That could change, especially with a certain club being split and Gallows and Anderson ending up on RAW with Finn. But at this moment in time, It's best to say I'm cautiously optimistic.
John Cena v Luke Gallows
No match except the WWE Title one was going to get time on this show, as weird as it sounds given all of the bitching- for the Draft last night Smackdown really would've benefitted from being 3 Hours long. The match was fine for what it was, but it was really a "blink and you'll miss it" type match.
Round 2 of the Draft
Roman Reigns- RAW
John Cena- Smackdown
Brock Lesnar- RAW
Randy Orton- Smackdown
New Day- RAW
I found this round of 5 funny, for the simple fact that all of them barring New Day would've been a #1 Pick at some point in the last two years. Yet they couldn't even get drafted in the first 5 last night. Again, this round pretty much went as I expected it would. I think everyone sort of knew that it would be Roman on RAW and Cena on Smackdown from basically the time that the Draft was announced. There's not really much else to say about this round to be honest. It all made sense, and I was generally happy with all of them.
Zack Ryder & Darren Young v Rusev & The Miz
If Cena wasn't getting much time, this match didn't really much of a chance did it? The match was fine, I'm still not really sold on Darren Young- but it does have to be said that he got a really good pop when he did the Crossface Chicken Wing. So more power to Darren. He would've probably gone up even further in the audiences estimation if he wasn't drafted below The Ascension.
Bray Wyatt v Xavier Woods
I actually thought this match was the best match from last night, including the WWE Title match. For me they told the best story, everything they did was really good- and crucially Bray looked like an absolute monster. While it wasn't official at the time of this match, I think it was fairly accepted that The Wyatts were going to be split given they weren't listed as a Tag Team/Faction, so they really needed to make Bray look strong tonight- and hopefully Sunday as well.
Kane, Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn Segment
This segment pissed me off. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are heading into one of the biggest matches on a PPV on Sunday. You can count the number of times Kane's been on TV this year on your hands. So, what do they do? Have Kane do a Double Chokeslam spot and have Kane be the one who looks good coming out of this segment. Why?
Round 3 of the Draft
Sami Zayn- RAW
Bray Wyatt- Smackdown
Sasha Banks- RAW
Becky Lynch- Smackdown
Chris Jericho- RAW
This was the first round of Draft picks where I felt a bit annoyed once they were all announced. None of the actual draft picks were ones I disagreed with, but they had Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens out there. As we found out later on, Owens and Sami are both on the same brand- could they really not have shown Owens' live reaction to that while him and Sami were both stumbling to the back after having made the youngster Kane look strong? Even do a thing where they come to a realisation that they're still on the same brand and then they do the now standard punching spot as they go back through the curtain. Just do something to make it seem like it actually means something to anyone that was actually drafted.
Charlotte & Dana Brooke v Sasha Banks- Handicap Match
The best that can be said about this match was that it made sense. You have the numbers game being played up on TV to build to Sasha "evening the odds" with her Tag Partner choice on Sunday. Even though I've seen people arguing that Bayley wasn't drafted so it's more of a "surprise" when she's called up on Sunday, I'm really not convinced it's going to happen. I'll happily be proven wrong, because Bayley's the only name 99% of people will accept- but for some reason I don't think it's happening now.
Round 4 of the Draft
Rusev (and Lana)- RAW
Miz (and Maryse)- Smackdown
Kevin Owens- RAW
Baron Corbin- Smackdown
Enzo & Cass- RAW
This was where the draft started to fall off a cliff a bit. I was actually fine with the Rusev and Miz picks, because each brand needed a Title. Owens should've been drafted sooner, but as I said at the start- the draft order didn't really matter for the most part. I like Baron Corbin, that's not just me saying it- you can go back over my Reviews. However, how Baron Corbin was drafted as soon as he was baffles me. You had guys like Cesaro (and I'll get to Cesaro a bit later) still available, you also hypothetically had guys like Austin Aries and Samoa Joe- who have both beaten Corbin in the not too distant past. So basically this one just blew my mind, and it started off the draft going really downhill.
Chris Jericho v Cesaro
The booking of this match made sense by the logic they imposed on themselves, in that Jericho realistically had to win clean- because otherwise it makes Jericho being picked before Cesaro look stupid. As with every match on the show apart from the Title match, it was a bit too short for my liking- but we've had a variation of this match seemingly a million times recently so I won't complain about that too much.
Natalya & Becky Lynch brawl
This was fine for what it was, and at least they've finally decided to give a bit of a build to Becky/Nattie the week of the PPV. Positive thinking, guys.
Round 5 of the Draft
Gallows & Anderson- RAW
American Alpha- Smackdown
The Big Show (really)- RAW
Dolph Ziggler- Smackdown
Nia Jax- RAW
This round was a really mixed bag, so I'll start with the positives. Gallow and Anderson being split from AJ Styles after Sunday and ending up on the same brand as Finn Balor surely can't be a coincidence. I've already said I'm a bit scared when it comes to Finn being in the Cruiserweight Division- but if he doesn't then this is surely the only way they can really go. For me, the ideal scenario is The Club winning on Sunday- Gallows and Anderson turning on AJ after, Finn coming out on the ramp and doing the "Too Sweet" hand thing with them. It sets up a potentially compelling angle with AJ in that he can be pissed off, betrayed all while having to "go it alone" for (presumably) a match with Cena at Summerslam. While we obviously get the "original" Club on RAW to feud with basically anyone they want to.
Next positive, and that's of course American Alpha. Alpha and Balor were two of three picks that I thought were "locked in"- and the other may still be getting the call on Sunday. It doesn't really have to be explained why American Alpha was called up, although the lack of any Tag Team with a shred of credibility on Smackdown beyond The Usos is a bit of a worry from an American Alpha perspective. As I said though, the rosters aren't "finished" yet- and this is one area where I'd expect to see reinforcements.
I basically explained why Nia Jax was called up in my Draft Preview yesterday so I'll let you go back and read that, but suffice to say I was reasonably happy with it. Also, the reaction to Stephanie saying she was calling up an NXT Woman and everyone thinking it was Bayley and then the reaction to when she said Nia Jax was absolutely amazing.
Now for the negatives, The Big Show was in the Top 30 draft picks- and he was higher than Cesaro, Darren Young and Zack Ryder. Cesaro's in this sentence for obvious reasons, but Young and Zack both have Title matches on Sunday. But no, they're awful- so RAW wanted The Big Show above them. Sadly, the same be said for Dolph. Dolph was one of two people who lost clean on Monday, the other being Sin Cara. But again, Dolph is picked above Zack- who they had Dolph take the clean loss for on Monday specifically to protect Zack. There's some amazing logic in that.
Round 6 of the Draft
Neville- RAW
Natalya- Smackdown
Cesaro- RAW
Alberto Del Rio- Smackdown
Sheamus- RAW
This was it as far as the "on air" picks went, so at least Cesaro wasn't completely buried by not even being picked on the live show. Neville was the one that made the most sense, because he's going to be one of the pillars of the Cruiserweight division going forward most likely. I'm not sure how Cesaro didn't end up on Smackdown to be honest, but despite that being a mistake in my opinion if he did- we may not have gotten the Promo he did on the Network after.
If you haven't seen Cesaro's Promo yet, find it. It's one of the top posts on r/SquaredCircle at the time of writing this, and it's probably on Twitter as well. It's absolutely fucking amazing. He was so pissed it was unreal and just completely buried the draft basically. I love Cesaro, and I hope things go well for him on RAW for obvious reasons- but I can't see him not getting some heat from the promo.
The other picks in this round were fairly standard in hindsight because we know who the NXT picks are, but at the time you had to at least hope we'd be getting one more big NXT name to end the (televised) draft with a good pop for someone and end it on a "positive" note. But no, the last pick of the televised draft was Sheamus.
Dean Ambrose v Seth Rollins- WWE Title
I said it in my RAW Review, having three WWE Title matches in a week is just overkill. I know why they had the match, because they wanted to try and keep the TV viewership as high as possible throughout the two hours and the Title match was the "hook"- but I just didn't really care for this match. The actual match was good, but the crowd weren't really into it for about three quarters of the match and it felt like these two didn't ever really even attempt to get out of 2nd gear last night.
It made sense from a booking perspective to have the #1 Smackdown pick stand tall to end the first live Smackdown I will say that, but I'm still not really sure how I feel about Seth losing clean to Dean, let alone losing clean to Dean within a week of the Shield Triple Threat. If anything, Dean's clean win last night makes it less likely he retains on Sunday- and that's the one that actually matters.
My expectations for last night were probably too high, so I'm not sure if my calling last night a bit of a let down and an anti-climax is actually saying it was a let down and an anti-climax by current WWE standards. However, even with Smackdown going off the air- the Draft wasn't done. Much like after RAW, we had to go to the Network to watch the conclusion of the Draft.
Round 7 of the Draft
Golden Truth- RAW
The Usos- Smackdown
Titus O'Neil- RAW
Kane- Smackdown
Paige- RAW
There's not really much worth talking about from this round. As I've already said, The Usos are pretty much the only Tag Team with some credibility on Smackdown to rival American Alpha at present- so that's something worth keeping an eye on. We should get some fun skits with Bryan and Kane as well, so that'll be fun. Perhaps most noteworthy is the fact Paige and Del Rio are on separate shows, and Del Rio seemed pissed with that fact judging by the way he did his interview on the Network.
Round 8 of the Draft
Darren Young (and Bob Backlund)- RAW
Kalisto- Smackdown
Sin Cara- RAW
Naomi- Smackdown
Jack Swagger- RAW
The Ascension- Smackdown
Again, not much worth talking about. Apart from the obvious part of Darren Young, who is the #1 Contender to the IC Title, being the #36 Pick in the Draft. Also, Kalisto not being on RAW was a weird call because of the Cruiserweight division obviously being exclusive to RAW. Things are not looking good for Kalisto at the moment.
Round 9 of the Draft
The Dudleys- RAW
Zack Ryder- Smackdown
Summer Rae- RAW
Apollo Crews- Smackdown
Mark Henry- RAW
Alexa Bliss- Smackdown
Zack Ryder, who I genuinely think has a chance of winning the US Title on Sunday was drafted below among others; Sin Cara, Jack Swagger, The Ascension and Titus O'Neil- who's already lost to Rusev multiple times. Also, the one Tag Team that I would've been pushing to be split wasn't in fact split in The Dudleys.
The notable name from this round is of course Alexa Bliss. She wasn't my first choice as far as NXT picks go, but as you'll have seen in my Draft Preview I definitely thought she was a possibility. I'm happy Bliss is on Smackdown where the Womens Division isn't as cluttered as the one on RAW because it'll help to establish her to a wider audience, unlike Nia who is immediately going to garner some interest just because of her size.
Round 10 of the Draft
Braun Strowman- RAW
Fabreeze- Smackdown
Bo Dallas- RAW
Eva Marie- Smackdown
The Shining Stars- RAW
The Vaudevillains- Smackdown
I personally didn't believe them, but if some reports are to be believed- Braun Strowman was going to wrestle The Undertaker at this years Wrestlemania at one point. Now he's the #48 Draft Pick. Not only that, but they had officially split The Wyatts up as of this draft pick. I just don't understand it to be blunt. They already tried splitting The Wyatts up, it didn't exactly go well. Now they've split them again, but with Strowman instead of Harper. So there's a high chance of it going even worse than the last time- and that couldn't have actually been conceivably worse at the time.
I wonder if Erick Rowan will rediscover his passion for being a Winemaker now.
Round 11 of the Draft
Alicia Fox- RAW
Erick Rowan- Smackdown
Dana Brooke- RAW
Mojo Rawley- Smackdown
Curtis Axel- RAW
Carmella- Smackdown
A lot depends on Sunday when it comes to this round of picks. It's not a coincidence that Mojo and Zack are on the same brand, and as I said in my Draft Preview a Hype Bros run is not far away now. Carmella being called up was the only NXT Pick that I didn't consider a possibility, for the simple reason that they kept Carmella down in NXT to get her ready for a singles run.
Carmella's had probably 3 NXT TV matches since they made the decision to keep Carmella down in NXT and bring Enzo & Cass up, and two of them were fairly standard squash matches. Obviously she's been working live events as well, but it just seemed a bit weird to me. Again, depending on Sunday it's hilarious to me that Bayley lost the Horsewomen a year ago when they were called up- and she's potentially lost Carmella last night while she's still down in NXT.
That is officially that. I've seen a lot of people talking about the Rosters and whether RAW or Smackdown "won" the Draft, which to be honest I don't really understand. It's Wrestling, if it was an actual competitive sport fair enough- but in Wrestling it doesn't really matter who got the "better deal" because it's now the job of the brand that supposedly "lost" the Draft to put all of their efforts into building their supposed "lesser talent".
Thanks for reading as always, this Review officially kicks off the Smackdown Reviews on here- so hopefully you'll be coming back every week for them. I've already said I felt like the Draft was a bit of an anti-climax. However, I'm still quite hopeful in-terms of seeing how the shows shape up next week. So basically, expect the real disappointed reviews to start next week. Thanks again for reading, the next post on here is the Battleground Predictions on Sunday so stay tuned for that- and hopefully you can have a good rest of the week.
No comments:
Post a Comment