WWE Draft 2008

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

Cena moving to SD! makes a lot of sense seeing as though they went with the Cena/HHH feud on a nothing PPV rather than saving it for Summer Slam at least. Also it would set up next years WM feud when Cena challenges Undertaker for his streak in his hometown/state. Batista would head to Raw to keep things balanced. Batista is out of feuds on SD! anyways and could join the Jericho/HBK triangle, and eventually team with Orton against HHH and HBK. Hell they could even pull an angle where it will be "What side does HHH choose" he was a lackey in the Clique and was the leader of Evolution.

 

MVP could be swapped to Raw, but I wonder if that's put off for a year to give Cena comebody to feud with while UT and Edge finish their program over the summer.

 

Umaga is a lock to move. I'd say Mark Henry is probably going to move to Raw/ECW away from Hayes.

 

If one Hardy moves, the other will the other way. Vince doesn't want them on the same brand because then they're seen as a tag team or something like that. And if Matt Hardy moves, one would expect Chris Jericho to move to switch the US and IC titles.

 

Punk needs to be taken off ECW. I think he heads to Raw which is fine by me. I hope Kingston and Benjamin stay on ECW. ECW might not get a top face to replace Punk because the feeling will be a move to being taped with Raw will allow the top Raw stars to slum there on occasion.

 

Deuce moves to Raw to set up the Legacy stable, Murdoch heads to SD to be away from Cade's push. Kelly Kelly will be moved of ECW, and Jillian Hall will probably head to SD! to help out with the womens division.

[Nate 0]

has WWE said how this is gonna work this year or if there will be another supplemental draft

[sluggo 0]

I hope Cena isn't jumping. I've had enough of Edge/Cena in 05/06. I don't want Batista on Raw either.

 

Move Umaga to ECW to save AAE, move Deuce to Raw, Cherry and Victoria to Raw for Melina and Jillian, Punk to Smackdown (seeds of Edge/Punk have around for a few months), Orton to Smackdown to keep him away from that 2nd generation stable, Morrison to Smackdown, and the bombshell...........Jericho to SD and he takes the IC belt.

[JPopStarKami 0]

I hope Cena isn't jumping. I've had enough of Edge/Cena in 05/06. I don't want Batista on Raw either.

 

Move Umaga to ECW to save AAE, move Deuce to Raw, Cherry and Victoria to Raw for Melina and Jillian, Punk to Smackdown (seeds of Edge/Punk have around for a few months), Orton to Smackdown to keep him away from that 2nd generation stable, Morrison to Smackdown, and the bombshell...........Jericho to SD and he takes the IC belt.

 

Of course, technically, they don't need to move Punk to Smackdown to have him challenge Edge, he can challenge for any title at any time regardless of what brand. It's how Edge switched the Smackdown...as a Raw superstar, he used his second MITB to win the belt and switch shows automatically. Still though, he probably should swap already, ECW is hurting him more than helping now.

[Garth 0]

The precedent that Lashley and the ECW title set would suggest Jericho wouldn't be taking the IC belt anywhere if he moved. But since when has WWE followed it's internal logic.

[shrevedude 0]

Here is a mock draft I did with random drawings to determine who went where...I'd love to hear some feedback on how good or how stupid some of these choices turned out

 

As you'll notice, Raw sure got creamed, especially in the supplemental draft...

 

Main Draft on Raw:

1. Triple H to Smackdown

2. Mick Foley to ECW

3. Edge to Raw

4. MVP to ECW

5. Randy Orton to Smackdown

6. Umaga to Smackdown

7. Chavo Guerrero to Raw

8. Mickie James to Smackdown

9. Kofi Kingston to Raw

10. Great Khali to Raw

 

Supplemental Draft:

1. Eve Torres to Raw

2. Paul London and Brian Kendrick to Smackdown

3. Santino Marella to ECW

4. Colin Delaney to Raw

5. Stevie Richards to Smackdown

6. Jamie Noble to ECW

7. Cherry to Raw

8. The Boogeyman to Smackdown

9. Maryse to Raw

10. Val Venis to Smackdown

11. Natalya to Raw

12. Jillian to Smackdown

13. Paul Burchill to ECW

[sluggo 0]

The precedent that Lashley and the ECW title set would suggest Jericho wouldn't be taking the IC belt anywhere if he moved. But since when has WWE followed it's internal logic.

 

 

WWE logic isn't that good since Batista and Cena switched up and brought over their respective title.

 

Then again, every draft has been different since the first one. Last year, we got the random face generator, one year the GMs picked whoever they wanted, another year we don't even know how they were selected. They just showed up out of no where. I imagine this year we get ping pong balls in a cage. Are trades allowed? Without a Raw GM, that would make it kind of impossible to pull off.

 

 

and about the Edge/Punk thing, Edge cost CM Punk the ECW title a few times before Mania.

[foleyfanforever88 0]

This is what I would do:

 

To Raw: Batista, Kane, Shelton, Kelly Kelly, DLo Brown

To ECW: Umaga, Big Show, Murdoch, Finlay, Hornswoggle

To Smackdown: HBK, Jeff Hardy, Burchill, Carlito, JBL

[Ravenbomb 0]

The Cena/Batista/Lashley thing is easily explained. Cena had the WWE title, Batista had the World title, Lashley had the ECW title. The WWE and World titles had no brand specificity in their names, but the ECW title wouldn't fit anywhere besides ECW.

[Boxer 0]

If they really wanted to spice things up, the should also be allowed to draft FREE AGENTS. Maybe we'll get the debuts of Ron Killings, Chris Harris and D'Lo Brown. Hell, maybe even SID.

[Scroby 0]

How can you draft "free Agents" when they offically haven't even debuted on tv? The only people who should be drafted are people who are already on selected brands. Maybe WWE can do something on WWE.com where the GM's get together and select "Free Agents" but even then I don't think that would get any fan intrest.

[Hawk 34 0]

That wouldn't be difficult. Vince would simply announce that their is a new free agent available to be drafted to any of the brands and they could hype it throughout the night as a big deal. Finally, if they did something similar to the random generator process, it would land on FREE AGENT and out comes that free agent. The only issue is that Killings and Harris would be met with no reaction. D'Lo might get a nostalgic pop.

[Scroby 0]

I like the idea of the Random Generator landing on Free Agent then that Free Agent comes out. If anything that Free Agent should then go out and have a match against someone, but I think the problem would be the lack of a re-action any Free Agent would get. I can see the crowd doing the "who the hell is this guy?".

 

Then again, I'm hoping they do the balls in the spinner and someone draws a name.

[luke-o 0]

It would be an great way to push someone though by debuting them out of no where.

[Scroby 0]

It would be great to push someone like that if they had a history with the WWE, like D-Lo does. However doing it with someone like Chirs Harris wouldn't be smart because I gurantee 85% of the WWE crowd will be in cricket mode, probably the same for Ron Killings as well.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

The whole premise of the lottery is silly - they didn't want to hurt anybodies feelings. I mean you have GM's from each brand submit a protected list and then have a straight up draft where all unprotected superstars are fair game. Then you can have trades and such as well - I think doing things that way would give instant pushes to all those drafted as the rival GM saw something in them sorta deal.

 

There could even be a rule where the GM would be allowed to protect two more superstars after each wrestler is taken off his roster.

 

Also this would be a good place to debut developmentals - instant push if they are drafted over some vets (of course this is where again feelings would get hurt)

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

I like how they did it last year.

[Scroby 0]

The whole premise of the lottery is silly - they didn't want to hurt anybodies feelings. I mean you have GM's from each brand submit a protected list and then have a straight up draft where all unprotected superstars are fair game. Then you can have trades and such as well - I think doing things that way would give instant pushes to all those drafted as the rival GM saw something in them sorta deal.

 

There could even be a rule where the GM would be allowed to protect two more superstars after each wrestler is taken off his roster.

 

Also this would be a good place to debut developmentals - instant push if they are drafted over some vets (of course this is where again feelings would get hurt)

You do realize the draft has always been a "random lottery" right? It's not really a draft. The only time the "draft" effect is really used is when the GM's did trades on WWE.com. It's also a work, the GM's have no control on who their picking. So how would feelings even get hurt? All Vince has to do is tell one wrestler "yeah...we're gonna put you on Smackdown now." and then that person would be on smackdown.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

The whole premise of the lottery is silly - they didn't want to hurt anybodies feelings. I mean you have GM's from each brand submit a protected list and then have a straight up draft where all unprotected superstars are fair game. Then you can have trades and such as well - I think doing things that way would give instant pushes to all those drafted as the rival GM saw something in them sorta deal.

 

There could even be a rule where the GM would be allowed to protect two more superstars after each wrestler is taken off his roster.

 

Also this would be a good place to debut developmentals - instant push if they are drafted over some vets (of course this is where again feelings would get hurt)

You do realize the draft has always been a "random lottery" right? It's not really a draft. The only time the "draft" effect is really used is when the GM's did trades on WWE.com. It's also a work, the GM's have no control on who their picking. So how would feelings even get hurt? All Vince has to do is tell one wrestler "yeah...we're gonna put you on Smackdown now." and then that person would be on smackdown.

 

I understand it's always been a lottery, but it was supposed to be a draft the first year before it was switched because it would rank the wrestlers and cause some to be buried if they were not drafted. Say the bookers didn't want HBK moved, how do you not draft him as a rival GM and explain for storyline purposes - you didn't think HBK was good enough?

[Hawk 34 0]

The first draft in 2002 was an actual draft with each GM selecting specific people.

[foleyfanforever88 0]

The whole premise of the lottery is silly - they didn't want to hurt anybodies feelings. I mean you have GM's from each brand submit a protected list and then have a straight up draft where all unprotected superstars are fair game. Then you can have trades and such as well - I think doing things that way would give instant pushes to all those drafted as the rival GM saw something in them sorta deal.

 

There could even be a rule where the GM would be allowed to protect two more superstars after each wrestler is taken off his roster.

 

Also this would be a good place to debut developmentals - instant push if they are drafted over some vets (of course this is where again feelings would get hurt)

You do realize the draft has always been a "random lottery" right? It's not really a draft. The only time the "draft" effect is really used is when the GM's did trades on WWE.com. It's also a work, the GM's have no control on who their picking. So how would feelings even get hurt? All Vince has to do is tell one wrestler "yeah...we're gonna put you on Smackdown now." and then that person would be on smackdown.

 

I understand it's always been a lottery, but it was supposed to be a draft the first year before it was switched because it would rank the wrestlers and cause some to be buried if they were not drafted. Say the bookers didn't want HBK moved, how do you not draft him as a rival GM and explain for storyline purposes - you didn't think HBK was good enough?

 

That's why each GM submitting a list of those they want to keep would be a good idea. It's basically taking the whole roster off their shows and re-distributing, but with only a few (10 or so) changes.

[Scroby 0]

Yeah but that was also a different scenrio Hawk. It wasn't "we're gonna move this random person to a random brand" it was the roster being divided up into two different shows. Every draft since that draft has been a lottery.

[Hawk 34 0]

The random generator is really the best way to go about it. Especially with the "earn a selection" process with the matches like last year.

[Mike wanna be 0]

The random generator is really the best way to go about it. Especially with the "earn a selection" process with the matches like last year.

Agreed. I'd really like to see, for example, a battle royal of all the wrestlers that were drafted throughout the show as the main event, with two draft picks on the line for whatever brand won the match. It would open the door for two brands to use a "You let us down on your first night on the brand" storyline on a guy, and the third brand could have a "You're the hero, you won that match and got us ___ & ____!" storyline going, and that's not including any "Why'd you toss me out, we're on the same brand!" feuds.

[RepoMan 0]

I like how they did it last year.

 

I mark for the draft-trolla.

 

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I like how already drafted people are still in it..will RAW randomly re-draft Jeff Hardy back?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Adamle's going to RAW to take JRs spot

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

JR to SD?

 

ruh oh

 

[sluggo 0]

The Cena/Batista/Lashley thing is easily explained. Cena had the WWE title, Batista had the World title, Lashley had the ECW title. The WWE and World titles had no brand specificity in their names, but the ECW title wouldn't fit anywhere besides ECW.

 

 

you were saying?

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

TOP WWE TALENT REPORTEDLY EXTREMELY ANGRY AFTER LAST NIGHT'S RAW

by Dave Scherer @ 11:24 AM on 6/24/2008

 

We have heard from numerous sources that Jim Ross was extremely upset after being moved from Raw to Smackdown last night. In speaking to a number of people today the feeling was that Ross did not know in advance that he would be moving from Raw, where he has been the signature voice for years. I will have more on who knew what when on my hotline later today.

 

Getting back to JR, who Vince McMahon has seemingly taken great job in embarrassing and has tried, unsuccessfully, to replace over the years, according to a few different people, Ross went to management right after last night's show ended and told them about his feelings concerning the change. He reportedly made it very clear that he had no desire to switch brands and I am under the impression that he took the move as a slight, which I would have as well.

 

One rumor making the rounds was that he said he would not make the change to Smackdown and instead would go home if he wasn't kept at the announce desk on Raw. Again, that is a rumor at this point but it was definitely circulating backstage last night.

 

There is definitely a feeling among the WWE workers that given Ross' stature and tenure, he deserved to be told in advance if he was going to be moved. The consensus is that he deserved better than to have it sprung on him on live national TV.

 

Jerry Lawler was also said to be upset at the change given that he and Ross are legitimately great friends and enjoy working together.