MR. TITO: WWE Drafts and Superstar Shake-Ups SUCK – Why is WWE Still Doing Them?

Well, here we are again with the WWE Draft… I thought this idea was a Vince McMahon thing, but apparently Triple H continues this complete nonsense. Why switch wrestlers around? An audience gets built up based on the wrestlers on a particular show and watches what is convenient for them (Monday or Friday), and then WWE reshuffles their roster deck. There’s always a chance that a fan favorite switches brands and that creates inconvenience for the fans.

Then, you get cases of wrestlers being “above the law”, such as Brock Lesnar and now Roman Reigns being exempt from the Draft. As the infamous Jim Ross always says, “you are can’t be half pregnant”.

Smackdown was a total waste last night and looked marginal and small compared to the legitimate draft conducted on multiple sports channels last night known as the NFL draft. For one, it’s IDIOTIC to conduct your “draft” against any NFL programming whatsoever. NFL takes viewership from everything and having your own phony draft makes you look weak by comparison. Honestly with last night’s draft, nothing really happened other than Bron Breakker moving to RAW.

As we’re in a world without Roman Reigns leading the Bloodline for the moment, it made me realize how much 2022-2023’s WWE was really dependent on him and how the early boom of 2024 was dependent on both the Rock and Roman. WWE has a bunch of upper midcarders and lower tier main eventers that feel exactly the same right now. Maybe that’s a product of Roman Reigns being so dominant for the past 3.5 years?

But just the possibility of shuffling the rosters is just stupid. Any chemistry developed is thrown out the window. Take late 2016 Smackdown, for example. The top had AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley now), John Cena, and potentially Randy Orton/Bray Wyatt as top guys while the Women’s division had great chemistry together with Alexa Bliss, Nikki Bella, Carmela, Becky Lynch and a few others (6 women, but they all worked together perfectly). Then, you had the Miz finally figuring out his heel character when he cut the famous post-Smackdown promo on Daniel Bryan, adding Maryse, and having a fantastic feud with Dolph Ziggler. Then, two idiotic moves happened during the first few months of 2017. Road Dogg was made lead writer of the show and shredded any logic that the booking once had. Then, the “Superstar Shake-up” following Wrestlemania 33 occurred and it moved Miz and Alexa Bliss to RAW while Smackdown inherited Jinder Mahal.

As I’ve said for YEARS, WWE needs to treat RAW and Smackdown like team franchises that have wrestlers under “contract” for X amount of years while annually, having the ability to draft “rookies” from NXT/Developmental Center or from other promotions. Both brands could have a salary cap, too, and thus be restrained by a budget to make choices. The existing wrestlers could only switch brands if (a) contract expires or (b) switches brands via trade. Where things could get REALLY interesting if is the General Managers were allowed to trade future draft picks for existing wrestlers. For example, if I wanted Cody Rhodes on my roster, I could give up a few wrestlers plus a future NXT/Developmental draft pick.

My idea would extend to in the weeks following Wrestlemania, a legit DRAFT of NXT/Developmental Center/Other Promotion talents would occur and allow for 3 call-ups per brand. WWE could hype the draft for weeks by showing highlights of said potential draft picks’ matches from NXT or other promotions (if available). Then, fans would tune in to see what fresh new superstars that RAW or Smackdown would select.

But nooooooooooooooo, let’s allow a STUPID Vince McMahon Era idea to remain with the remixing of existing RAW and Smackdown rosters while refusing to use what makes the NFL, NBA, and MLB great right now.

Honestly with NBA and MLB right now, their off-season moves seem to be more interesting than their regular seasons. Seriously… The viewership for both leagues is way down, but discussions of where NBA or MLB players may go often drives up interest in sports talk or news shows. The NFL trading and free agency has surged lately, as more teams are rolling the dice on trying to win a Super Bowl. Look at how awesome the Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford trade was… Rams rolled the dice to win a Super Bowl and it worked, while Goff has resurged in Detroit and combined with the many draft picks the Lions received for the trade, have built a playoff contender.

But nooooooooo, let’s keep doing these swapping existing wrestlers to confuse everyone about who wrestles on what show. In other words, let’s keep a STUPID Vince McMahon idea alive.

One would think that WWE would surround Cody Rhodes with strong opponents following Wrestlemania 40. Nope, he’s wrestling AJ Styles who has been mostly an upper midcarder and coming off an injury at the tender age of 46 and about to turn 47. What, was Kane not available? you know, the guy you stuck Chris Benoit, Daniel Bryan, and Seth Rollins with after their big Wrestlemania World Title wins? WWE gives WEAK opponents to new World Champions after Wrestlemania (besides Hogan, Austin, Rock, Cena, and HHH) and wonder why they aren’t over. It’s like Ultimate Warrior in 1990 as WWE Champion and here’s Rick Rude to wrestle again.

New WWE regime is in place and doing well, but there are some things where they remain “stuck on stupid”. The WWE draft IS stupid and needs to be flushed down the toilet, much like Vince McMahon’s TKO stock currently is.

FINGER OF SHAME to the WWE for having Drafts to switch around existing wrestlers. You suck for this.

There you go, AEW marks… PROOF that I can be critical of the WWE. Did you like them apples?

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