Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

I thought I pop down my thoughts and predictions for Mondays upcoming three hour draft special. What I'd like to see and what for the most part will not happen. Many of these criticisms are much stated and I probably should pay Wade Keller royalties for a bit of repitition but who cares it needs to be said, and said again until things change or I get tired of saying it.

Either Re-establish the Brand Split or Drop It All Together: The brand split hasn't been respected beyond its first year or so in existance, but the last two years have seen it degrade to a laughable extent. Remember when you didn't get to see Undertaker on Raw? Remember how special it was when we had to wait for Wrestlemania for Kurt Angle to lock up with Shawn Micheals. Seems along time ago doesn't it? These days everyone turns up when they want, where they want with no explination.

My first suggestion, nay demand, is that the Brand Split become exclusive once again with the exception of Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and Summerslam. All the other PPVs will be split between Raw and Smackdown/ECW. ECW will not be given its own PPVs it will ally with either Smackdown or RAW. Therefore if WWE insists on having sixteen PPVs a year this will at least make them seem different and not over expose every single match to the point of abject boredom.

Think of it this way, no matter how awesome HBK-Jericho was seeing it six PPVs in a row was just way too much, especially with interactions every week on RAW. Now imagine if we'd seen Jericho kill Michaels and beat him to a bloody pulp and we had to wait TWO MONTHS for him to get his revenge, people would want to see that match, they'd be dieing to see it, rather than shrugging and going "ugh...this again".

Problem is this approach requires two things, long term booking and actually giving two shits about the Undercard. Yes the Undercard, remember those eight guys in the Money in the Bank who didn't get to have any back story or cut any promos before wrestlemania, well we'd damn sure have to develope them. Furthermore those IC, US, Tag Team and Women's Titles will actually have to be built up, have long running stories and actual matches on PPV.

I know what your thinking this means every single wrestler won't get a pay day every single show and John Cena won't be there to carry every single buy rate, but guess what, we might actually be able to care about more than the same eight guys on the top of the card!

Let's have a Look at a potential RAW card:

John Cena vs. Batista

Triple H, Shane, Vince vs. Orton, Rhodes, Dibiase

Rey Mysterio vs. William Regal

Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Steamboat

Shawn Michaels vs. Kane

CM Punk vs. Kofi Kingston

Mickie James vs. Melina

Beth Pheonix vs. Santino

Is it the perfect line up? No of course not, but it would mean that Mickie James, Melina, Kane, Regal, Punk and Kofi Kingston would have to be built up, focussed upon and allowed to develop and gain or regain there following. For the Split to work Raw will need strong heels, thus I think Batista, Punk and Kane will either need to turn or be built up strong. But there is enough star power (especially considering you won't have seen them in a big PPV match for six weeks) to sell the show. I know what your thinking what about Smackdown, there PPVs always sucked, well lets see what we can rustle up.

Potential Smackdown PPV:

The Undertaker vs. Triple H

Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy

Edge vs. Big Show

MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin

Maryse vs. Gail Kim vs. Michelle McCool

The Colons vs. Miz and Morrison

Jack Swagger vs. Christian Cage

Evan Bourne vs. The Brian Kendrick

Doesn't seem to bad to me, I know some months it will be stretched thin, but it will make sure that the big four PPVs are special, that cross promoted matches seem like the biggest deal in the world. Cena vs. Tripper would seem like a huge deal at Wrestlemania if they hadn't so much as locked eyes with one another in an entire year. Of course I don't trust the writers to do this they'll probably panic after a month and we'll be back to seeing the same old matches and the same old wrestlers headline each and every show, rather than actually promote a Kofi Kingston vs. CM Punk fued.

Draft Moves I'd like to see:

Matt Hardy to Raw: It seems like an odd one as he's such a natural fit on Smackdown but with my split brand system I'd like to give him a run with Shawn Michaels if anyone can get him to elevate his game its HBK and if not then send him packing.

Mark Henry to Raw: Henry showed last year that he can be a credible bad arse monster heel, and that he can deliver brutish promos, build him up on Raw and feed him to Cena.

Cryme Tyme to Smackdown: Make SD! the tag team show, actually build the division make it a unique selling point for that brand, lets throw Cryme Tyme in with the Colons and Miz and Morrison who have been tearing down the house lately.

The Brian Kendrick to Raw: No I'm not taking the piss, move him to Raw make him be the cocky deuche bag rodent and get him in the ring with Shawn Michaels, CM Punk and Kofi Kingston

Christian Cage to Smackdown: I think he'd get lost in the shuffle on Raw but on Smackdown there's room for playful interaction with Edge and a fued with Jeff Hardy who would be free to win back his fans without Matt shackled to him.

Umaga, Koslov and Kennedy to somewhere where they actually have something to do: Under my system the undercard of both the main shows would require strenghtening, Raw could use the extra heels but these mid level players could be shuffled accordingly to add depth where nessecary.

Not exactly a set of world shattering draft picks I know but I just think the shows need a little tweaking here and there. Really the undercard needs development rather than hot shotting of characters accross the brand, that card has been thoroughly played, and its totally played out.

Its mostly some food for thought. With JBL gone the heel depth chart looks horrible, its about time Batista, Triple H and Punk got turned (not all of them of course) and if Shawn Michaels is one wrestlemania away from retirement then the WWE really needs to devolpe not just a new main eventer but a new fucking Icon to carry each and every show because Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit aren't around to cover over the cracks.