Complete 2009 WWE Draft Coverage + Thoughts

Tonight I covered the 2009 WWE Draft with some thoughts from fellow site members GG and Duan, commenting on all of the moves from brand to brand. Some interesting moves – including some that were expected and some that were “eh”, but nothing totally insanely surprising like last year’s Draft. At the end of the night, I just said to myself – what’s the point?

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2009 Draft Match #1: Rey Mysterio (RAW) defeated Evan Bourne (ECW): Rey is the IC Champ, but this is non title. Striker just said PURORESU on WWE TV! This match could’ve kicked all kinds of ass, but was disappointing and rushed.

Draft #1: WWE United States Champion MVP from Smackdown to RAW.

Big D – Nice push for MVP. Rey is probably going back to Smackdown and taking the IC Belt with him. I hope MVP doesn’t take a pedigree anytime soon.
GG – It either means that Rey is moving next, or that they’re going to unify the IC and US belts.

2009 Draft Match #2: Kane (RAW) defeated Brian Kendrick (SD): Squash.

Draft #2: Big Show from Smackdown to RAW.

Big D – Eh… alright
GG – It looks like they’re going to continue the deal with Vickie and him. I wonder if Edge also moves over?

2009 Draft Match #3: Michelle McCool, Natalia, and Maryse (SD) defeated Melina, Mickie James, & Kelly Kelly (RAW): Short and relatively boring. They have all this time and we’re not seeing any real wrestling matches.

Draft #3: WWE Women’s Champ Melina from RAW to Smackdown.

Big D – Title Unification?
GG – It’s a smart choice and I hope that Rey follows. Smackdown should have all the women.

2009 Draft Match #4 (for TWO Draft Picks): World Champ John Cena (RAW) defeated. ECW Champion Jack Swagger (ECW): I like this match a lot. Old school match. Cena’s raw power (no pun intended) against Swagger’s technical prowess. This is a great showcase of Swag’s skills. Cena won cleanly with an STF. Great Match!

Draft #4: Matt Hardy from Smackdown to RAW
Draft #5: WWE Champion Triple H from Smackdown to RAW

Big D – Smackdown loses the WWE and US belts to RAW in exchange for the Women’s Title. They will have to do a few title changes here and there to fix this.
GG – I wonder if Jeff Hardy now comes to Raw. It’s quite obvious that they’re loading up Raw bringing Hardy and HHH over.
Duan – OK, HHH leaving is a sign of things to come. They are giving up on Smackdown.

2009 Draft Match #5: Great Khali (SD) defeated Santino (RAW): Beth comes out and says that if Santino loses, Santina will be a guest on the Khali Kiss Cam next week. Pure comedy squash. For a 3 hour show – this is extremely rushed.

Draft #6: CM Punk from RAW to Smackdown.

Big D – So if the Kiss Cam is on RAW next week, does this mean Khali is gonna get drafted on stay on Smackdown and just appear on RAW? That’s right – this Draft… (Say it with me) DOESN’T MATTER! As for Punk – I guess he’ll do better there.
GG – Punk – I guess he is slotted higher just based on the move, which is probably good for him.
Duan – And I thought Punk was going to be the first Money In The Bank winner not to take the title.

2009 Draft Match #6: Kofi Kingston (RAW) defeated The Miz (ECW): This was a pretty fun match. The middle part with the rest-hold sort of killed the crowd, but remember – this is a FOUR HOUR SHOW. Great near-falls near the end. Overall though these guys do work well together.

Draft #7: The Miz from ECW to RAW

Big D – RAW wins again in the “RAW Roster Rape”, As expected, Miz & Morrison were split.
GG – I’d have to see what they’re going to do with him before I even have a clue about this one.

2009 Draft Match #7: Edge (Smackdown) won a 15 Man Tri-Branded Battle Royal (for TWO Draft Pics): I’m not going to count up the people in this match, but just know that the new draft picks switched over tonight are on their new brands.

Draft #8: Chris Jericho from RAW to Smackdown.
Draft #9: Kane from RAW to Smackdown

Big D – Jericho was the big rumor, but Kane? Does it even matter?
Duan – Kane is the most stale character in WWE. That is not a win for Smackdown. I like the idea of Jericho really dominating on the weaker brand while getting to work with some new people.

2009 Draft Match #8: Christian (ECW) defeated Shelton Benjamin (Smackdown) : THIS was an AMAZING match. Both of these guys wanted to show off what they could do on RAW since neither guy has been on that brand in years. They went all out and it’s a damn shame WWE is so thickheaded to not push these guys!

Draft #10: Vladimir Koslov from Smackdown to ECW.

Big D – This is NOT an improvement for ECW. EVEN LESS reason to watch that show.
Duan – I support that pick. I no longer have to watch Koslov wrestle.

2009 Draft Match #9: Matt Hardy (RAW) defeated CM Punk (Smackdown) via disqualification : I’m fine with them having just a series of good matches that mean something. The Draft is cool like that and I like the kayfabe irony that this match was “booked earlier today”, but now due to the draft, they’re representing opposite brands. Nice! This was a really good wrestling match and like Kofi/Miz, with a crappy DQ finish (but it at least made sense). At least we’re getting good matches on this thing and everything seems important despite it not mattering in a month (or week). Jeff attacked Matt, causing the DQ. Matt wins.

Draft #11: WWE Divas Champion Maryse from Smackdown to RAW.

Big D – I guess they are not unifying everything – just swapping the belts

Draft Match #10: Chris Jericho (Smackdown) vs. Tommy Dreamer (ECW): Doesn’t make much sense to book this logically like it did Punk/Hardy – so throw that out the window. Jericho wins (as if you didn’t know?)

Draft #12: WWE Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio from RAW to Smackdown.

Big D – Not unexpected. Michael Hayes has been pushing for Rey to return so that they can strengthen the hispanic demo. Besides him, Melina moved and if you combine that with the Colons and the debuting Eric Escobar – that’s FIVE hispanics. Four boys and one girl – that’s like a small family at the K-Mart Blue Light Special. Ha!
Duan – As D predicted. It was the logical choice. He meant far more on Smackdown than he ever did on Raw.

And that does it for us tonight folks…

Why is JR still stuck on Smackdown and we have to deal with “Vintage Cole” for another year. But they swapped Smackdown and RAW mid-card and women’s belts.

The Supplemental Draft is on Wednesday on WWE.com at noon.