I had a whole diatribe lined up about how Raw could have been a fresh show without Cena and Orton then I realized its the draft. Smackdown always gets screwed, so its not like I shouldn't have seen this coming. Even when both shows desperately need a shake-up its pretty much same old same old.
I don't like the majority of picks, but I don't think SmackDown screwed. Orton and Sin Cara are big pick ups for them. Mysterio isn't a loss, really - he's oft-injured and has done everything there s to do on SmackDown multiple times. Ditto Big Show. Del Rio's a blow, but SD's got enough young heels in the Corre and Rhodes to fill that void.
Originally posted by Amos CochranI don't like the majority of picks, but I don't think SmackDown screwed. Orton and Sin Cara are big pick ups for them. Mysterio isn't a loss, really - he's oft-injured and has done everything there s to do on SmackDown multiple times. Ditto Big Show. Del Rio's a blow, but SD's got enough young heels in the Corre and Rhodes to fill that void.
I think you are putting a lot of faith in a stable that for all intensive purposes is mostly cannon fodder right now. I do think Smackdown got screwed. While I agree Rey's injuries pose a problem, he is the face of Smackdown more then anyone else. Yes, even Taker. He has been one of their cornerstones for a long time and the last time they moved him to Raw, it didn't work out. Big Show also fits into that category as well. Yes, it will freshen up Smackdown a bit, but I would choose stable over people with injury problems then a new up and comer who has not totally blown everyone away and Mark Henry.
Orton is a great pick for Smackdown, no question, but they need more then just one guy to fill the void left by Edge and now Rey as well as ADR. Smackdown needed this draft to be a giant win for them. Instead, it turned out to be more of the same of shoving people on a bloated Raw roster who will get lost then go back to Smackdown get big again to the point they get drafted again and get lost in the shuffle. Wash, rinse and repeat. Cena out of Raw was the big card they could have played and everyone knew it including Vince. Yet, they refused to play it long term and pretty much folded.
Ladies and gentlemen, the following public service message is brought to you by your friends from D-Generation X, who would like to remind each and every one of you that if you're not down with that, we've got two words for you...
Originally posted by Peter The HegemonI was actually more thinking he'd be drafted tonight and then traded back in a couple of weeks--they did that with Triple H once, IIRC. (I think it lasted less than a couple of weeks, but similar idea.)
IIRC it lasted all of 24 hours before they announced the trade back to RAW. Trips certainly didn't miss a week on RAW, that's for certain.
Originally posted by ekedolphinI loved how Cole got his mouth busted up by Jim Ross. And he can't even claim an undefeated record anymore, since he lost by DQ! (Of course, he also lost a tag-team match back in '08 that CRZ has frequently mentioned).
He can still claim being undefeated at WM, followed by UT putting in an unannounced appearance and squashing him like a bug in less than a minute. :-)
smark/net attack Advisory System Status is: Elevated (Holds; June 18, 2006) While the switch from Cena to RVD should alleviate some complaints, the inevitability of the belt's return to Cena (note where Summerslam is this year) and the poor initial showing by the new ECW are enough to keep the indicator where it is for now. The pieces are in place, though, especially on RAW, for improvements to be made to the IWC's psyche in the near future.
Poor Christian. He's the big loser last night. It looked real bad for him as Edge's successor and potential World Champion when Cena and Orton got moved to Smackdown. Though Cena was a bait and switch, Christian is still screwed. Even if he wins the World Title on Sunday, he's not the top face of the brand with Orton there. In Dwight Shrute parlance, "always the Padawan, never the Jedi."
My biggest gripe is moving Big Show to RAW and thus, (eventually) splitting up his team with Kane ... I was a sucker for their alliance and few years back & still am ...
I feel the same way after this show that I did after WrestleMania: I don't trust the driver.
Cole is sullying everything, and The Rock means everything. I don't want to see him in the ring, I don't want to hear him at ringside, and I can't keep track of his allegiances. He switches seemingly every match between being a company shill and playing the weasel heel. His ringwork is taking away a spot from a real ring performer, and even Ted Dibiase could make some traction by calling out Lawler and JR. I'm glad Swagger is getting airtime. I'm not glad he's the fourth man in a four-man match. This should have ended at Mania.
The Cena switch is straight out of the apex of Hulkamania. It kills two picks and allows the smallest amount of change possible.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Worst RAW since before the Rumble. Time to at least kill the draft if you aren't gonna kill the brand extension. It was a big deal when the shows were supposedly equal, but you gotta think that even an 8 year old Cena fan knows that RAW is the A-show at this point.
I give Orton less than a month before he appears on RAW.
If they wanted to send Sin Cara to SD to give him time to adjust, they should have kept Rey there. I just see them getting more and more pissed of at him for not adjusting to WWE style and him fading away. Hope I'm wrong though.
Originally posted by CerebusWhatever happened to Smackdown being the 'hispanic' show? Did the move to Syfi change the demographics that much?
Yeah, it changed them pretty much completely. Like the poster Tenken said, UPN/CW/MNTV was on free plug-in-the-wall network TV that was available to the country's large working class Hispanic population while they didn't get Raw. But SyFy is pay cable too, so that ended the days of Smáckdowñ.
Originally posted by MayhemMy biggest gripe is moving Big Show to RAW and thus, (eventually) splitting up his team with Kane ... I was a sucker for their alliance and few years back & still am ...
They find themselves in a unique situation, they have to keep the titles to remain friends or lose each other forever. Or maybe Kane will be moved in the draft today.
Originally posted by ScottyflamingoI give Orton less than a month before he appears on RAW.
I give him next Monday at the Rock's birthday when he will challenge Miz for the world title and bring it to Smackdown.
Complete and utter BS at the end with the double drafting of Cena, no other word for it.
Though i am loving Cole's increasingly split loyalties between Cena and The Miz, with his fury at him leaving raw at the start and his giddyness at him being drafted back later.
If Cena ever turned heel, you just KNOW that they are slowly setting up Cole to be his #1 cheerleader.
Nothing like shuffling pieces around to mask the fact that they simply can't create stars anymore. Used to be you'd see a guy like Christian given a shot here, as he's got a golden chance with the amount of fan support he's going to have going into the PPV.
But, no. Pushing someone is as much of a banned term as "wrestling" now. Instead of Christian as top guy (who, by the way, can probably pull decent-to-good matches out of most of the guys there) they move Orton over and say "problem solved".
What happens if Orton gets injured? What about if Cena cranks his neck and is done? There's only so much spreading of the talent that they can do before Yoshi Tatsu is the top face on a program. They don't have the option of stealing a guy like Jericho anymore because there is no real competition to steal a game-changer from. These writers seem to be only concerned with putting the problems facing them off for another day, for 'the next' group of writers to have to worry about.
What gets me is there's a core group in creative that don't get fired/hired every few months. They WILL be there to deal with this problem eventually. This group also seems to learn from their mistakes at roughly the same rate that Russo, Carter, and Bischoff do.
Originally posted by Tribal ProphetNothing like shuffling pieces around to mask the fact that they simply can't create stars anymore. Used to be you'd see a guy like Christian given a shot here, as he's got a golden chance with the amount of fan support he's going to have going into the PPV.
But, no. Pushing someone is as much of a banned term as "wrestling" now. Instead of Christian as top guy (who, by the way, can probably pull decent-to-good matches out of most of the guys there) they move Orton over and say "problem solved".
What happens if Orton gets injured? What about if Cena cranks his neck and is done? There's only so much spreading of the talent that they can do before Yoshi Tatsu is the top face on a program. They don't have the option of stealing a guy like Jericho anymore because there is no real competition to steal a game-changer from. These writers seem to be only concerned with putting the problems facing them off for another day, for 'the next' group of writers to have to worry about.
What gets me is there's a core group in creative that don't get fired/hired every few months. They WILL be there to deal with this problem eventually. This group also seems to learn from their mistakes at roughly the same rate that Russo, Carter, and Bischoff do.
This was my diatribe. I adore you right now, Prophet.
(edited by lotjx on 26.4.11 1354) The Wee Baby Sheamus.
Originally posted by Tribal ProphetNothing like shuffling pieces around to mask the fact that they simply can't create stars anymore. Used to be you'd see a guy like Christian given a shot here, as he's got a golden chance with the amount of fan support he's going to have going into the PPV.
But, no. Pushing someone is as much of a banned term as "wrestling" now. Instead of Christian as top guy (who, by the way, can probably pull decent-to-good matches out of most of the guys there) they move Orton over and say "problem solved".
What happens if Orton gets injured? What about if Cena cranks his neck and is done? There's only so much spreading of the talent that they can do before Yoshi Tatsu is the top face on a program. They don't have the option of stealing a guy like Jericho anymore because there is no real competition to steal a game-changer from. These writers seem to be only concerned with putting the problems facing them off for another day, for 'the next' group of writers to have to worry about.
What gets me is there's a core group in creative that don't get fired/hired every few months. They WILL be there to deal with this problem eventually. This group also seems to learn from their mistakes at roughly the same rate that Russo, Carter, and Bischoff do.
This was my diatribe. I adore you right now, Prophet.
(edited by lotjx on 26.4.11 1354)
I second it. The writers/bookers are never punished for poor ratings and buys.
Why is Stephanie allowed to continue to be in charge of creative? A decade ago, RAW was frequently getting 6's in the ratings, WCW was still getting 3's despite being horrible. Under her watch, RAW has dropped to doing a little better than WCW did before it DIED. There was all that audience for wrestling that is now gone.
I could've gotten into the "Cena flip-flop" if they would have made more of the show about that and had him flip shows every time one brand got a pick by winning a match. It doesn't make sense that RAW waited until the last match to redraft Cena when they had won draft picks before AND they they could've lost the last draft pick that was at stake in the final match.
Holy fuck shit motherfucker shit. Read comics. Fuck shit shit fuck shit I sold out when I did my job. Fuck fuck fuck shit fuck. Sorry had to do it....
*snip*
Revenge of the Sith = one thumb up from me. Fuck shit. I want to tittie fuck your ass. -- The Guinness. to Cerebus
'Wrestling' now isn't looked upon the same way as it was a decade ago just the same as the viewing audience isn't the same as it was a decade ago... or two decades ago.
The times, they are a changing. Trying to compare Wrestling today to Wrestling a decade ago is pointless. Just cause it's the same product name (You know what I mean...) doesn't mean it's the same product you get. Take the last season of LAW & ORDER as an example. There wasn't a single character on that show who was there from the first episode. It was a completely different show, but still called LAW & ORDER. The WWE product may be called the same thing it was a decade ago, but it's completely different.
Originally posted by JayJayDeanI could've gotten into the "Cena flip-flop" if they would have made more of the show about that and had him flip shows every time one brand got a pick by winning a match. It doesn't make sense that RAW waited until the last match to redraft Cena when they had won draft picks before AND they they could've lost the last draft pick that was at stake in the final match.
Originally posted by Tribal ProphetNothing like shuffling pieces around to mask the fact that they simply can't create stars anymore. Used to be you'd see a guy like Christian given a shot here, as he's got a golden chance with the amount of fan support he's going to have going into the PPV.
What do you mean, "a guy like Christian" here? Is Miz a guy like Christian? Is Sheamus a guy like Christian? Is Del Rio, Christian's opponent in that pay-per-view, a guy like Christian?
This sounds, to me, like a comment I have heard perpetually since I began discussing wrestling with people on the Internet. I can't tell if the problem is that there exists some myth that WWE/the WWF was ever some star-producing machine that generated Hulk Hogans like clockwork, or if it's that people have such short memories that the handful of guys who nabbed their first world title reigns within the past year and a half have already been forgotten. Either way, I don't see the argument that things are any different now than they ever were, in this specific field of discussion. I mean, somebody has to be headlining the shows, right? So as long as there are shows, there must be "stars" on them ... is it that you just don't like the ones that are there, so you decide they just aren't even there in the first place? Is it because you think in the past they've had more than [whatever number you think goes here]?
The nature of WWE's storylines, characters ... hell, the entire product has changed so dramatically that it's worth repeating that it's almost silly to compare across eras. But there are still "stars" there.
Originally posted by Cerebus'Wrestling' now isn't looked upon the same way as it was a decade ago just the same as the viewing audience isn't the same as it was a decade ago... or two decades ago.
The times, they are a changing. Trying to compare Wrestling today to Wrestling a decade ago is pointless. Just cause it's the same product name (You know what I mean...) doesn't mean it's the same product you get. Take the last season of LAW & ORDER as an example. There wasn't a single character on that show who was there from the first episode. It was a completely different show, but still called LAW & ORDER. The WWE product may be called the same thing it was a decade ago, but it's completely different.
But the WWF was a completely different product in the 80's and was still successful. And Law and Order didn't drop off over 50% in the ratings that last year.
Yahoo! It's the annual WWE brand draft - the most important night of the year (well, that's what Jerry "The King" Lawler said) and it's time to shake things up once more! Yeah!
Careers will be changed forever! How crazy could things get?
=
Mighty hero John Cena is drafted to Smackdown?? Hey, all right!
Oh, nevermind...
SHUT UP! Rey and Sin Cara will be working together?? Great!
Oh, what the hell...
At least RAW won't be canceled - the Miz is staying put.
After reading the results, I'm glad I didn't buy the PPV. A number of years ago, Triple H held the title almost 24/7...he was on every show, at the start with a long promo and in the PPV, and totally defying logic, reason and whatever else...