2009 WWE Draft – Detailed Final Analysis
A couple of hours ago, the WWE Supplemental Draft finished up on WWE.com. Like with most years, the Supplemental Draft was primarily used to move around mid-to-low card talents that really don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Some of the talents moved this year haven’t even been on television. Since guys like to jump back and forth and will continue to do so even this coming week on Smackdown, other than house show scheduling, the entire purpose of the draft comes off as a big waste of time. Did you know DH Smith was drafted to Smackdown during the 2008 Supplemental Draft? Guess how many matches he worked on Smackdown in the past year? That’s right – Zero.
Here are the first 12 Draft Picks from Monday Night RAW:
First Draft Pick: Smackdown’s United States Champion MVP is drafted to RAW.
Second Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Big Show is drafted to RAW.
Third Draft Pick: RAW’s Women’s Champion Melina is drafted to Smackdown.
Fourth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Matt Hardy is drafted to Raw.
Fifth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s WWE Champion Triple H is drafted to Raw.
Sixth Draft Pick: RAW’s CM Punk is drafted to Smackdown.
Seventh Draft Pick: ECW’s Miz is drafted to RAW.
Eighth Draft Pick: RAW’s Kane is drafted to Smackdown.
Ninth Draft Pick: RAW’s Chris Jericho is drafted to Smackdown.
Tenth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Vladimir Kozlov is drafted to ECW.
Eleventh Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Divas Champion Maruse is drafted to RAW.
Twelfth Draft Pick: RAW’s Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio is drafted to Smackdown.
Supplemental Draft (aka the Jobber Draft)
Thirteenth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Mr. Kennedy is drafted to RAW.
Fourteenth Draft Pick: RAW’s Shad Gaspard is drafted to Smackdown.
Fifteenth Draft Pick: ECW’s Alicia Fox is drafted to Smackdown.
Sixteenth Draft Pick: WWE Unified Tag Team Champion Primo Colon is drafted to RAW.
Seventeenth Draft Pick: RAW’s Mike Knox is drafted to Smackdown.
Eighteenth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Ezekiel Jackson is drafted to ECW.
Nineteenth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Nikki Bella is drafted to RAW.
Twentieth Draft Pick: RAW’s Candice Michelle is drafted to Smackdown.
Twenty-first Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Zack Ryder is drafted to ECW.
Twenty-second Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Chavo Guerrero is drafted to RAW.
Twenty-third Draft Pick: ECW’s Ricky Ortiz is drafted to Smackdown.
Twenty-fourth Draft Pick: RAW’s Layla is drafted to Smackdown.
Twenty-fifth Draft Pick: ECW’s Hornswoggle is drafted to Raw.
Twenty-sixth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s DH Smith is drafted to ECW.
Twenty-seventh Draft Pick: ECW’s John Morrison is drafted to Smackdown.
Twenty-eighth Draft Pick: WWE Unified Tag Team Champion Carlito Colon is drafted to RAW.
Twenty-ninth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Natalya is drafted to ECW.
Thirtieth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Festus is drafted to RAW.
Thirty-first Draft Pick: RAW’s JTG is drafted to Smackdown.
Thirty-second Draft Pick: RAW’s Dolph Ziggler is drafted to Smackdown.
Thirty-third Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Brian Kendrick is drafted to RAW.
Thirty-fourth Draft Pick: RAW’s Charlie Haas is drafted to Smackdown.
Thirty-fifth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Hurricane Helms is drafted to ECW.
Thirty-sixth Draft Pick: Smackdown’s Brie Bella is drafted to RAW.
Indeed… so a lot of people you probably don’t care about moved shows.
Let’s take a look at our individual thoughts:
Alan says
Smackdown rules now!!!! Gonna watch every week. Morrison, Umaga, Punk, Alicia, Edge, Rey, Jericho, Jeff. AWESOME!!!
Raw has the weirdest roster right now. I see some shitty shows on the horizon.
ECW is a tale of two cities. Swagger, Sydal, Hart Foundation, Christian and Noble on one side. Koslov, Henry, Zeke and Dreamer on the other.
Duan says
Smackdown did far better out of this draft than I had originally anticipated. In terms of workers, they have a really solid roster. They can’t match Raw’s star power, but they have enough guys with very loyal followings (Mysterio, Punk, Hardy etc) to draw decent numbers.
Raw has been loaded with the stars. Any of the lower card talent which jumped to Raw are doomed. There just won’t be enough time for them. Poor Brian Kendrick may be back on the Indies soon enough.
ECW has a good base of young talent. There’s a lot of potential there to work with. I have said from the beginning that this brand should be used exclusively for building up young and underused talent. It’s just unfortunate that they also get lumped with the likes of Koslov because WWE have no idea what to do with him.
GG says
My first thought, especially after Monday, was that it’s not really a draft. A draft is when someone is chosen. This is way more like a lottery. If it were a true draft, don’t you think The Undertaker, John Cena, and HHH would be the first three picks?
As for this supplemental draft, I think the only name that really stands out is Morrison and I’m not sure if it’s in a good way. Unless they just decided today that he was changing, they slotted him with the rest of the people who they didn’t want to show on TV Monday.
I think that they have something in Alicia Fox, but I don’t know what they’re going to do with her. I like the DH Smith move, but only if they do something with him. Hopefully this means that he, Natalya, and TJ Wilson (Tyson Kidd) are going to be a heel group.
Also, why didn’t the tag teams just get drafted together if they weren’t being split up?
Big D says
Eh… I can’t say I’m that excited. Most of the big picks I saw coming a mile away. The supplemental draft is in reality kind of worthless. I like to look at it more as to how it will benefit the individual superstars as opposed to the brands.
Since I already gave my opinions on the main draft Monday night, here are a couple of sentences on each individual draft pick from the Supplemental Draft.
Mr. Kennedy – Why does this guy still have a job? He’s the most injury prone worker they’ve had since Ahmed Johnson, he comes off like a fool when he does a public interview about steroids, his workrate is mediocre, and he’s a one dimensional promo. Also, did you know he’s been drafted every single year they’ve done a draft? More importantly – did you care?
Shad Gaspard – There has been heat on Shad for a while now from WWE Management. They don’t think that he is coming along as quickly as they expected (why do you think he was omitted from the Royal Rumble and JTG wasn’t?). I see this as a bit of a demotion for Shad.
Alicia Fox – This will give her more exposure – plus she’s hot. This is also a chance for them to get her in the ring more with more experienced divas and learn how to work in-ring (and trust me, she needs a lot of work) on a taped show.
Primo Colon – Doesn’t matter. They are Unified Tag Champs. They can work on all three brands.
Mike Knox – This is good for Knox. He can feud with Jeff Hardy and a few other Smackdown guys and improve before coming back to RAW.
Ezekiel Jackson – I thought this was a mistake. He is best right now as a cornerman for Kendrick. I’m almost 100% sure he is on ECW to work with and learn from Finlay.
Nikki Bella – Eh… just to put more Divas on RAW
Candice Michelle – She sucks in the ring and has to have her matches pretaped now in order for them to look halfway decent – so Smackdown is the right spot for her. I predict she will be future endeavored by 2010.
Zack Ryder – Who?
Chavo Guerrero – Gotta be with Aunt Vickie.
Ricky Ortiz – I wish this guy were drafted to the unemployment line. I can’t stand this guy.
Layla – She’s hot. She shouldn’t be working in the ring, but it is obvious that’s the plan.
Hornswoggle – Why? They moved him away from his “father”. I now DREAD watching RAW now in fear of him drawing more holes into walls and walking through them.
DH Smith – He’s going to ECW probably because that is the next step up from FCW, which is where he’s worked for the past 2 years straight. My guess is that they are putting him with Tyson Kidd and Nattie Neidhart to do the New Hart Foundation, which surprises me because allegedly DH and TJ had heat.
John Morrison – Perfect. He can work singles against the likes of Jeff Hardy, Punk, Rey, Umaga, and Jericho and get better. This is a future World Champion here.
Carlito Colon – Gotta keep the Puerto Ricans together.
Natalya Neidhart – Even though she’s been on there for months, I guess it’s “official” now. Lame. See DH Smith for more info.
Festus – No Idea why they are breaking this team up. Granted Jesse and Festus ARE stale on Smackdown, Festus will probably get lost in the shuffle on RAW and be a jabroni.
JTG – I guess they are keeping Cryme Tyme together.
Dolph Ziggler – Good move for the guy. He has a better chance of getting over now.
THE Brian Kendrick – Huge mistake. Kendrick was one of the reasons I enjoyed watching Smackdown. He was already a semi jabroni on Smackdown but on RAW, he’ll be lucky to make a match on Superstars much less be on the main show. I predict him not winning any matches for the entire year.
Charlie Haas – No comment.
Hurricane Helms – Another veteran who can help the young guys along. Hurricane vs. Christian will be a fun match when it happens.
Brie Bella – Gotta join Nicole.
Alright so that’s it. Tune in tonight at 8PM Eastern for FIGHT GAME BLOG RADIO on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FGB-Radio . We’ll talk more about the Draft, Oscar’s retirement, AND UFC this weekend! DO NOT MISS IT!
