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Making the selections "random" from a storyline standpoint was such an awful move. It completely neuters the significance of winning a match to gain a pick. Making matters worse, because there was only so much room for matches, there were only a small handful of picks made... relegating the vast majority to wwe.com on Wednesday (*after* Smackdown! and ECW tape, at that). If most of the picks are being made online, and all of the picks are random, then why have a Draft Special at all? Let's call a spade a spade here, this was a rating's grab, and not a very entertaining one at that.
There are so many ways they could have done the draft better... For instance, they could have done the "random pick" gimmick during commercial breaks for all three brands, and still had the interpromotional matches where the winner not only allowed their brand to *choose* a Superstar to draft (thus making the potential selections more suspenseful), but also gaining immunity from being drafted, giving them something to genuinely fight for. That's just one suggestion, I'd imagine there are many others, probably better than this.
It didn't help that the matches weren't all that good... A battle royale (with no individual advantage to the winner) as the main event? Really? And, honestly, is it really too much to ask to have Cena go up against Edge and for them to have a good, solid match that Edge would win cleanly? And who else felt there should have been a Hardy vs. Hardy match? Or would that have been too good? Truly indicative of the evening: All that Talent, standing around at the end, doing NOTHING.
There were a couple of draft surprises (Flair, Lashley), and its always a treat to see Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Gene Okerlund, Stone Cold, and Bret Hart... but that couldn't overcome the pointlessness of the random selections, the middling matches, and repetitive and largely boring commentary on McMahon. And truly indicative of the evening: All that Talent, standing around, doing NOTHING. Maybe the "Supplementary Draft" will allow for some meaningful changes (perhaps the cruiserweight division to ECW? More Main Eventers on SD?) but I'm not holding my breath.
But we come back to the Finish of the show, the one true surprise I'd reckon no-one saw coming... wwe.com is saying that he's "presumed dead," and obviously he isn't in real life, so you really kind of have to wonder how the hell they are going to follow up - keeping kayfabe would be retarded, and he cannot stay away forever (this IS Vince, after all). The following weeks could either be really, really interesting or really, really awful.
Jeffrey O. Gustafson
Brooklyn
P.S. With that many Main Event-level opponents, John Cena better loose at Vengeance.
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I've been a wrestling fan for over 15 years. I've been a "smart" fan for a long time now. I remember going to sites that predate you guys. I've even emailed my opinion a couple times and had one or two posted publicly. Basically I'm saying I'm an educated wrestling fan. I had hopes for this draft. I didn't have high hopes, mind you, b/c it is, after all, the WWE. Those hopes were genuinely dashed. So, these are the results:
GAINS
RAW - King Booker & Queen Sharmell, Bobby Lashley, Snitsky, Ken Kennedy
SMACKDOWN - The Great Khali, Torrie Wilson, Chris Masters, Ric Flair.
ECW - The Boogeyman, Chris Benoit.
LOSSES
RAW - The Great Khali, Torrie Wilson, Chris Masters, Ric Flair.
SMACKDOWN - The Boogeyman, King Booker & Queen Sharmell, Chris Benoit, Ken Kennedy
ECW - Bobby Lashley, Snitsky
I've come to the conclusion that this was the worst 3 hours of wrestling booking I have ever seen, and was nothing but an orgy of ego stroking for Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr. and his baby RAW.
Smackdown gets screwed by losing three HUGE pieces, two of which go to Raw. Smackdown gets a big stiff, a giant stiff, boobs and a 60 year old. ECW gets the BOOGEYMAN (please not irony in using all caps) and Chris Benoit. I love that Benoit went to ECW. But ECW loses their champion to - you guessed it - Raw and ECW get the BOOGEYMAN??
Smackdown gets screwed. And ECW fails to get the major HEADLINING help that they need.
All for what? To strengthen a show that doesn't need it nearly as much as the other two.
Three Smackdown stars vs. one Raw, and the Smackdown stars aren't going to team up, like JBL was screaming?
Instead of a show that could have been extremely entertaining, we get a VKM ego bloating masturbatory celebration.
And VKM getting blown up as if Raw is the real finale to The Soprano's? No one buys it Vince we know you're not dead. OMG they blew up VKM! Today is going to show footage tomorrow morning, but even more people who are actually wrestling fans are not going to watch ECW, nor Smackdown, or next weeks Raw because of the atrocity that was tonight's show.
If WWE Inc doesn't give a crap about Smackdown or ECW, I'm not sure I should give a crap about WWE. I am extremely close to loosing interest in WWE completely because of their incompetence. I enjoy watching wrestling. But perhaps it's time for me to watch more TNA and get into the MMA tourneys. WWE just keeps making that choice easier & easier for me to make.
-- Sincerely,
Chris J. Collins
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WWE Raw Review for June 11th 2007
I guess the Taliban came to the draft this year. More on that later.
The show began with un-mentally stable Vince McMahon looking scary. I guess this wouldn’t be the half of it.
The First match of the night was in fact Edge-Cena. Possible for the last time. It was a pretty good opener. Then the “draft machine†beeped and booped until it found The Great Khali. I don’t watch Smackdown, so I’m glad I don’t get to see that big eyesore anymore.
CM Punk vs. Carlito – This is a first time facing for these two. I didn’t know what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect Punk to lose. But he didn’t lose I guess, and Carlito loses. After he lost, the draft machine fired back up and the Boogeyman was coming to get ECW.
Snoop Dizzle Speaks. That’s entertainment in itself.
Mick Foley speaks which was totally pointless. I was surprised he didn’t have anything to plug.
Raw gets King Booker? That guy still works there?
In a segment everybody saw coming, Chris Benoit got drafted. He’s back in ECW once again. If I had told you in 2003 that Benoit would be back in ECW by 2007, you would’ve slapped me. You would’ve done the same if I told you ECW would be back and it would suck.
Lets skip the rest and just jump to what everybody's talking about:
So Vince being a psycho, walks thru a hallway full of WWE workers (some of which I had not clue still worked there. I mean, Jamie Knoble, really?) He walks outside and keeps turning back, then he reluctantly gets in his limo, and obviously the Taliban had been at Raw tonight, because Vince’s limo was a car bomb. I sat there in a stunned silence. I don’t know why, but at first I began to feel sorrow. I don’t know if I was feeling sympathy for a kayfabe death, or I knew wrestling had just died before my eyes. I didn’t move, blink or udder a word, I just stared at the TV, even watching Law & Order for about ten minutes before snapping back to reality. I made sure I was watching the same show.
I’m at a loss. I don’t know what I can say.
Mark Davis
Windsor Ontario Canada
