Joe Roman Jr.
Roman’s Rants Vol 2: Seriously… Another Draft.
Drafts are a big part of sports. Almost every major sport has a draft, and it’s a way for organizations to give themselves and the fans a glimpse of the future. With that being said, PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING DOES NOT NEED A DRAFT!
What started back in 2002 as a creative idea to continue a storyline with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Ric Flair has now turned into the “cringiest” nights in the WWE every year.
When the WWE draft first started it was interesting to see Raw and Smackdown dividing the roster and having each show create its legacy. Everyone was available to be drafted. Teams would be split up and champions would switch shows. I can remember when the two champions back in 2005 switched shows. John Cena and Batista would establish their names after being drafted. Since then WWE’s draft has been either a hit or a miss, but the last two years have been a huge miss.
Before Smackdown airing on FOX, there were already two separate rosters for the two shows, then news broke about Smackdown moving both rosters were used on both shows. That leads me to why the draft this year was terrible and why I gave up not even an hour into Monday Night Raw. Just about every WWE wrestler that has been heavily featured on one show will stay on that show. Only a handful of wrestlers have made the switch between shows. Sasha Banks was drafted to Smackdown on Friday, and Charlotte Flair was drafted to Raw tonight.
It’s concepts like the draft that keep pushing fans in the 18-30 demographic away from WWE. Some of us have grown up with the draft, and now its just old and makes very little sense. Not to mention the god awful crossovers within FOX and USA. FOX had Joe Buck and Troy Aikman give their thoughts on Smackdown. Tonight members of the NHL On NBC crew gave their thoughts on the Raw wrestlers.
The more WWE uses old gimmicks and concepts like the draft the more popular AEW will get because they’re a one show company. However, matches that aren't featured on Dynamite are shown on AEW Dark which airs Tuesday nights. Therefore, AEW does have two shows but is only filmed one day a week.
The WWE is going to be stuck in a creative limbo until 2020 when the XFL starts and McMahon can leave the WWE creative to fresher minds. As of today (10/15/2019) it was announced that Eric Bischoff was fired from WWE. He was the creative genius during WCW’s run as the most watched wrestling show in the 90s. He was then brought to WWE to be the Raw “general manager,” but since then he has taken more of a creative behind the scenes position. It was announced that he would lead Smackdown creative team, but now that he is fired the WWE will continue to implode from within. Until then everyone should check out AEW and NXT, you won’t regret it.