Draft lottery full of surprises

Okay Vince, even before you were buried beneath a ton of rumble at the end of RAW Monday night, you got me.
Without a doubt, Monday night’s draft was by far the most impacting draft since the original brand extension draft lottery back in 2002 with eight main eventers and even the voice of RAW changing brands this week. Sure, I predicted Umaga would go to Smackdown, C.M. Punk and Batista to RAW and I even mentioned, post column last week, that Rey Mysterio would likely be drafted to RAW. However, I never saw the Triple H trade to Smackdown.
Now we need to remember this is not the first time Trips has been drafted by the Blue brand. The same thing happened a few years ago and the Game was back on RAW in a week.
What is interesting to me is the fact all three title matches this Sunday at Night of Champions involve wrestlers who were sent to different brands Monday. You have Triple H, traded to Smackdown, defending his 12th title reign against John Cena for the WWE title. You have Batista, traded to RAW, challenging Edge for the World Heavyweight title. And, you have Kane, traded to RAW, defending his ECW title against Big Show.
There is a good chance we could have the old switch pulled whereby Batista wins the World Heavyweight title and brings it to RAW and Triple H retains the WWE title and brings it to Smackdown. Let’s not forget in 2005, Batista took the World Heavyweight title to Smackdown and Cena brought the WWE belt to RAW following a trade. It could be that these same players will be instrumental in changing it back. As for Kane, he is in bad history because last year, when Bobby Lashley was traded to RAW from ECW, he was stripped of the ECW title. This means, if they keep to storyline, win or lose, Kane will again have a short title reign.
So what’s the whole draft drama mean? Well, at first glance it appears Smackdown got the best of the lottery getting Triple H, Jeff Hardy, Mister Kennedy, Umaga and Good ole J.R. announcing beside Mick Foley. Meanwhile RAW licked its wounds by getting Batista, C.M. Punk, Kane and Rey Mysterio and Michael Cole at the broadcast desk. ECW got only Matt Hardy.
Who got the shaft? Kennedy, as his big RAW push failed thanks to Signature Pharmacies and Lord William Regal’s departure from their feud due to drug suspension. And, Good Ole J.R. who just wanted to stay on the A-brand but got pawned off to the Blue. Oh, and Kane seeing he was on a brand where he was top dog but now has to be content for bit roles on RAW.
Meanwhile, the Smackdown gains tells me Vince is taking the brand’s network change this fall from CW to MyNetworkTV seriously and wants to make a big splash when the show begins airing on the new network. There was some concern he might deplete Smackdown and load RAW because he didn’t care about the rest of the summer with CW but it appears he plans to end strong since the major players from RAW will spike the Smackdown ratings seeing even I will become a regular Friday night viewer again.
The positives for RAW is that it allows lesser stars to shine since Trips and Hardy were main eventers and Umaga and Kennedy were waiting in the wings. Seeing there were no heels, with the exception of maybe Umaga, included in the trades, the Smackdown faces who came over including Batista and Rey along with ECW star C.M. Punk will make immediate impacts on Monday nights. I don’t know how much Kane will be used as he was buried on RAW several years ago. However, if Undertaker does come to RAW as expected around SummerSlam, then we could have a Brothers of Destruction reunion just as we may have a Hardy Boyz reunion on Smackdown since the Blue brand and ECW travel together and have a talent exchange.
As far as immediate high end feuds, you have Trips and Edge, Hardy and MVP, Umaga and your beast of the week (Khali, Mark Henry, Snitzky) on Smackdown. Those should be enough to get the old Smackdown views back. Meanwhile Cena and Batista, Rey and JBL, Punk and Jericho come to mind on RAW. Those are good for starters. If nothing else, it gives us a fresh look for the next year as I couldn’t have taken another Edge/Batista feud and we’ve already seen Trips/Cena before.
Out of all of this what I’d really like to see is Umaga at last get the title and C.M. Punk finally get the main event push that the Money in the Bank is supposed to bring. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen. By the way, no million dollar give away next week due to Vince’s near death experience.