by Hanley! » Apr 18, '18, 4:08 pm
I think Smackdown won the draft either way, but how much they won by really depends on whether or not you consider the fact that they lost Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Those are two great talents that Smackdown have lost, even if they've been officially gone for a couple of weeks already. KO does seem like a Raw guy, but I wish that at least Sami could have stayed. He would have been a great addition to either the midcard or the main event on Smackdown.
After Raw, I knew that Smackdown wasn't losing anybody that I would miss. I like Bobby Roode but he's been miscast on Smackdown. Natalya is also a good performer, but she's been underused her entire career, and has rarely had an impact on the Smackdown women's division. Almost everybody else who moved was dead weight. Even without bringing anyone over from Raw, this almost would have made Smackdown a better show.
The main event scene looks great now. Styles, Bryan, Nakamura, Samoa Joe can have some awesome matches and feuds. Mix in Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton from time to time (I see them flitting between the main event and the midcard). You can maybe use Almas and Eric Young in that sort of position too. Almas has a main event gimmick, so he should be debuting around IC championship level at least. And as the leader of a faction, there's really no telling how high Eric Young could go on the heel side.
Under those few guys, the midcard is a little thin, but I think it can still work well for the next year. Benjamin is a great hand who can put on good matches while helping others get over. Rusev is super over. Sheamus and Cesaro can also work midcard matches and might even split up after a while and rejoin the midcard on Smackdown. Cesaro could actually begin to reach his singles potential on this iteration of Smackdown. How exciting would that be?
The tag division is fucking stacked compared to what it was. The Bludgeons, the Usos, the New Day, the Bar, Gallows & Anderson, and Sanity. That's six teams that could realistically hold the tag titles before we start to look at the jobber teams. I've no idea how they got away with this. Raw's division is going to suck even worse than usual now.
The women's division I'm more iffy on. The face side is stacked with Charlotte, Asuka and Becky. I'm not including Naomi in this because she's shit, and I'm always confused when people praise her. But that's still a strong face side. The top heel, however, is Carmella. That ain't good. Peyton Royce is good, but I still feel like we're missing a big name on the heel side. Maybe Zelina Vega can take that role in a few months though. I love her act with Almas, but she is also a wrestler and they might start using her as one on the main roster.
It's been a great draft, because depending on how the next few weeks go, it might actually tempt me into watching Smackdown again. And meanwhile, I won't feel like I'm missing out at all by skipping Raw. If WWE can book one main roster brand competently, that's almost the best case scenario at this point.
I do have a few small frustrations though:
- I was hoping Seth Rollins would move to Smackdown. He's wasted on Raw, and a run on Smackdown could transform him into the top guy in the company.
- They split up the Balor club. If they wanted to leave Balor on Raw, they should have considered drafting the Revival to Smackdown instead. They're an even better team that Raw are doing even less with. And Balor needs something to set him apart on Raw, he's dying a death over there.
- Why is Sanity coming up without Nikki Cross? She's the most attention-grabbing part of their act! I'm hoping that she's just staying in NXT to run a program with Shayna, and that she joins the faction afterwards.
- Big Cass. He's going to be Smackdown's new Baron Corbin. Vince will keep trying to push him to the main event because he's big, and he'll just end up getting in everyone else's way. He'll never actually make it as a main event guy though, because he's just not good enough. Just like Corbin. We could be looking at the next Money in the Bank loser.
Overall though, this is as good a draft as I could have expected for Smackdown. They dropped a bunch of dead weight, and got Samoa Joe, Asuka, and all the best NXT call-ups in return. What a result!
Last edited by
Hanley! on Apr 18, '18, 5:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.