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Ideas For The “Trump-Inspired” Mini-Draftees (& those “New Superstar Initiatives”)

ECW

Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal, The Bella Twins, Yoshi Tatsu, Abraham Washington, Sheamus, Tyler Rex

Shelton Benjamin should have gotten a push last night to start a hot heel run.  With only Kozlov left on the brand now that Finlay, Swagger & Henry have left, the right thing to do would be to push Benjamin as the top heel of the brand.  I’m not convinced yet of Kozlov’s drawing power as a heel.  Regal is a good heel but I don’t see the ECW title in his future right now.  What good came from moving Goldust from RAW?  They already separated Finlay from Hornswoggle and now Goldust?  Which of them will benefit from that?  They are both only used for comedy anyway, they should’ve stayed together and maybe even re-formed the “Oddities” group from the late 90s.  That reminds me that there are not enough groups in WWE.  Legacy & the Hart Dynasty are pretty much it.  There was the Edge/Vickie group there for awhile on SmackDown but how do you plan to get a bunch of individuals over on a 1 hour show?  What happened to pairing up managers with wrestlers?  Females with their males?  The Bella Twins are going to have an uphill battle finding something to do week-to-week in ECW.  They have Katie Lea and that's about it.  They better find a man to wrestle Paul Burchill or they're gonna get lost in the shuffle.  Sheamus and Tyler Rex show promise for their looks and mic skills.  Tyler Rex could be given a cool updated surfer gimmick (the opposite of what Johnny Ace had with the Dynamic Dudes in WCW) that gets all the girls and makes the heel wrestlers jealous.  In fact, put him with the twins!  Sheamus needs to find the sun quick…..he looks like the movie character “Powder.”  It’s good to be different but his skin did not look healthy.  Yoshi Tatsu; I didn’t get much from him except he doesn’t like to be mocked.  Do they plan on sticking him with a goofy foreigner gimmick because that never works.  He jumps around all happy during his entrance, then wants to fight, then throws one kick, wins and then jumps around again.  No one that has ever done that in a wrestling ring on their first night has ever amounted to becoming noteworthy (if you consider XPac noteworthy, you disagree with me).  He needs a gimmick.  Being Japanese is not a gimmick.  That’s an insult.  How about for once have someone of another descent not dress and act like they are the stereotype of their descent?  Sheamus is Irish and has an Irish gimmick.  Finlay is Irish and carries a freakin’ shillelagh.  Funaki changed to Kung Funaki and wore a Karate outfit.  Yokozuna.....lots of creativity in that gimmick.  Jimmy Wang Yang is the only person that ever skewed from the normal WWE stereotypical gimmick assignment (not that it especially worked with him, but at least it’s something, right?)  Abraham Washington has the potential to be interesting but the talk show segment on ECW this week was just hard to watch.  Maybe have him be a manager for awhile and work on his mic skills.

SmackDown!

Matt Hardy, Finlay, The Hart Dynasty

Matt Hardy didn’t last long on RAW, did he?  So now they moved him back to SmackDown?  I thought they wanted he and Jeff on different shows?  Are they going to resume their feud?  I wouldn’t do that quite yet.  Maybe he could get involved in the Intercontinental Title picture now that Y2J is tag champion.  A Rey/Hardy feud might be interesting.  R-Truth and Finlay could be thrown into this mix too.  If WWE plans on going forward with CM Punk’s heel turn full force, John Morrison needs to be given a shot at main eventing soon.  I think he is without a doubt the more talented half of the Miz/Morrison duo and since Miz got to be in a semi-main event with Cena at the Bash, why not let the former ECW champion get a shot at headlining?  The Hart Dynasty is doing great for what they are right now.  A tag title run is definitely in their future.  I think a great idea for the tag team scene would be to have Rated Y2J put together a tournament and have the Dynasty win and then beat them for the titles, then they could put the entire WWE on notice once they were champions and start challenging any 2 superstar teams from any brand to come to Friday Nights and try to beat the protégés of the “best 3 tag team wrestlers in WWE history” (Bret, Anvil & Bulldog).  You could have an ECW guy team with a RAW guy and come try to beat the Dynasty, etc.  It could go on for weeks, months, etc. until finally Edge, who has had enough and is still upset about losing the tag titles, turns face and brings Christian to SmackDown and reforms E&C to face them and win the tag titles.  That alone, if done properly, would be enough to bring up the stock of the whole SmackDown brand.

RAW

Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, Gail Kim, Alicia Fox

Let me start by saying that Maryse right now is in a league of her own on RAW and none of the other divas can keep up with how over her character has gotten right now.  The back and forth with Miz backstage outside of her matches and wrestling angles is just the right amount of face time that has made her into a star recently.  Gail Kim and Alicia Fox will need to bring their A game to Monday nights if they want to be thought of as true competitors for the title.  Alicia may need to pair herself with someone like MVP to distinguish herself from the pack.  The divas group as a whole needs some mic time to help get them over.  The 3 and 4 way matches every week with no angle or story behind them lose my interest.  I'm not saying I prefer the Beautiful People in TNA over any of the WWE Divas, but at least they get to have a storyline and some mic time to distinguish themselves.  Evan Bourne gets great crowd reactions and can wrestle.  Thus he probably will be under-utilized in WWE.  I would like to see him get a few matches in with Kofi over the US title because I think they would be great back-and-forth matches.  I see a Jack Swagger/Cena feud in the future for a couple reasons…..mainly because there are only so many heels on RAW and Swagger is one that Cena hasn’t feuded with yet.  How cool was the whole Mark Henry thing this past Monday?  I have never been a big Henry fan but my thoughts have changed as of Monday.  Years ago they tried Henry as the monster face when he was the “former Olympian” and it didn’t work.  Then he was the heel in the Nation.  Then he was Sexual Chocolate, the comedy face.  Most recently he was the monster heel of ECW and it worked.  Now that he has gone through all these changes, the way that Monday’s RAW played out was perfect.  Henry’s character has a brand new life and room to grow.  Do I see a WWE championship in his future?  Well if you would’ve asked me that 2 weeks ago, I would’ve said he was on his way out (creatively).  But this just worked and now I would not be surprised if they tried it.  WWE likes Mark Henry and it has been a while since they tried a true monster face angle.  I say run with it.  Let Mark start building himself back up in the eyes of the audience.  He pinned the champ clean his first night on the show.  Give him a few weeks to keep building momentum.  Let Orton almost forget about his win and let the audience keep reminding him.  Make the crowd yearn for the chance for Henry to get his hands back on Orton.  String them out a little bit longer.  WWE keeps trying to rush angles to conclusion and that is not how you build a new fanbase.  You have to work an angle for weeks, months before people talk to non-fans about it and get them interested in watching, etc.  Rushing a PPV in the span of 2 weeks is not worth it.  Why does each title have to be defended each month on PPV?  Why do the same guys headline 3-4 PPVs in a row with different stipulations?  Work an angle and let different angles come to fruition each month.  Some this month, some next.  If it’s all about PPV monies, do tag matches on PPVs so the superstars can work the PPV and still not have the payoff matches every month.  Why do the main eventers have to wrestle every week on TV?  Have the next segment in the angle play out weekly and let the younger hungrier wrestlers wrestle each week.  The main event of the night doesn’t always have to be a tag match/handicap match/2-on-3 match including the main event guys in that month’s upcoming PPV.  That is why ratings are so low right now.  Who cares to watch that besides the attending audience?  Those can be dark matches for their enjoyment.  Bring the stories and the long-term angles back to the main event picture.  Let the younger guys showcase their talents in the ring on a week-to-week basis.  Pair up tag teams, have factions, let wrestlers watch each other’s backs.  More character development and less pointless matches that don’t build to anything?  Why did Kofi wrestle Big Show on Monday?  And to a double-count out?  Who wrote that?  What a horrible waste of precious television time.  They could’ve gotten someone over in that timeframe.

In closing, does anyone know why WWE succeeded when Stone Cold was the top face in the company?  Because he was talented?  Yes, of course.  How about because he wrestled in tag matches or handicap matches every week?  No, not at all.  WWE succeeded on television because they didn’t have Austin in 2-4 segments throughout every show.  Sometimes he didn’t even show up until the last 5 minutes of the show.  But when he did, the glass broke, the crowd screamed and he kicked @$$ to end the show and leave the crowd at home and in person happy.  That formula is what worked then and something similar would work now.  If WWE is so intent on Cena being the next Hogan, Austin or Rock, they could try doing something like that with him for a few weeks and maybe he’d be a full-fledged over face again…..or he’s gonna have to turn heel and eventually turn back face later on in his career to get over fully again.  Cena’s character is a little stale right now.  Unless the Miz or Swagger can become the super over heel that makes Cena look good again, they’re gonna have to try something new soon……if they put Cena in a feud with Orton right now, the crowd will turn on Cena and cheer Orton.

I will never understand why WWE doesn't let some of their stale main event stars take a vacation for a few weeks/months and let them come back fresh.  I know that is what Undertaker & HBK are doing now and injuries cause some guys to be out for awhile, but absence always makes the heart grow fonder.  I think a mandatory vacation each year would help careers last longer, make employees happier and give the fans what they want.