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Wrestling Deja Vu 04.27.09: Dissecting the Draft
Posted by Joseph F. Martinez on 04.27.2009

The WWE Draft is supposed to be an outlet where anything goes, but this edition of Wrestling Deja Vu discovers otherwise. Join the column as I take a look at some of the more prominent recycled material from all of the WWE Drafts.

Hey yo. Welcome to the April 27th installment of Wrestling Deja Vu. It is the last week of a very busy wrestling month that saw Wrestlemania 25, The WWE Draft, TNA's Lockdown PPV and last night's Backlash. Ring of Honor is also moving forward and making progress with their television program. It has been a good month all around for fans of wrestling, but if I had one complaint, it would be that Backlash was really unnecessary. It was two weeks after the big show and the buildup was pretty sloppy.

Anyways, this week's column is going to focus on an event that transpired in April, the WWE Draft, and some of the reoccurring gimmicks that have accompanied the draft since its inception in 2002. Gimmicks in wrestling aren't recycled just with the wrestlers, but events like the draft definitely have things happen over and over again.

As always, these general columns can't focus on every gimmick, so I only placed emphasis on five. Some had to be left on the cutting floor such as the gimmick where a champion always changes their brand.



The draft is an annual occasion used to "shake up" the wrestling landscape. Before the last draft, the WWE at least made an attempt to make it seem like it was real, but they just gave up. Things like the United States Champion get traded for the Intercontinental Champ and the woman titles switch brands don't happen by chance. The draft is normally a success at making the programming fresh, so I'm eager to see how it takes effect.



DISSECTING THE DRAFT

Each year the draft claims to be an event where "anything goes," but as time has passed, it's revealed that the more things change, the more they stay the same. These five gimmicks seem to transpire every year during the draft and the WWE writers seem oblivious to their repetitiveness or maybe they just operate under the mindset that wrestling fans forget easily. Anywho, these gimmicks aren't necessarily bad, but their nature puts a damper on the draft's (it's really a lottery, isn't it?) spontaneity.

DEJA VU


Triple H gets drafted…twice

This columns lives off of recycled material, so it's no surprise that draft picks themselves have been done over and over again. These guys get drafted for different reasons. Sometimes, they're drafted because they've simply done everything there is to do on a certain brand. This is true of a superstar like Batista. The guy was basically the king of Smackdown and the 2008 draft was a perfect time to move him. Other individuals get drafted multiple times because of bad luck or injury, this is the case of Mr. Kennedy. Kennedy was a prospect on the rise. He debuted on Smackdown and quickly rose through the ranks until he was drafted to Raw in 2007 with the intention of moving him up to the big leagues. Unfortunately, it was one injury or scandal after another for Mr. Injury and he was drafted the following year back to Smackdown. He didn't do much there and was sent back to Raw in the most recent draft. If the draft is made a yearly deal then it's certain the more and more superstars are drafted over and over again.

Notable draftees: Triple H, Mr. Kennedy, CM Punk, Batista

RAW POWER



Raw is often called the WWE's flagship program, so it makes sense to have most of the main event talent on this show. With the exception of the 2008 draft, it can be argued that Raw got the better end of every draft. World Champions like Triple H, Bobby Lashley, and John Cena have all been drafted to Raw during their title reigns and each got a chance to run on Raw as one of the top guys. Smackdown has definitely had it's fair share of good draft picks, but it pales in comparison to Raw. ECW can be called the "quality" program, but they normally don't get anything come draft time. I believe Raw has drafted a former or current World Champion in every draft since the second draft in 2004.

Notable draftees: Triple H, Batista, John Cena, Kurt Angle

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO



Tag teams come and go in the WWE because they don't really place a focus on the division (no big loss in my opinion). It's been a while since the WWE had a good tag team, but John Morrison and his partner, The Miz changed all that when they started tagging up. They carried the division for a while and other decent tag teams started forming (Priceless, The Colons). Unfortunately for tag team wrestling, the WWE has bigger plans for the pair and thought the WWE draft was the ideal plan to split the two. This isn't the first time a tag team has split in the draft. The 2002 draft saw an end come to the tag team of D-Von and Bubba Ray Dudley, as well as the Acolytes. Tag teams splitting up via the draft creates an aura of uncertainty since most fans (casual or not) know that most wrestling is pre-determined. It also helps separate a wrestler from his tag team in case the higher ups at the WWE have intentions on pushing the superstar.

Notable breakups: The Dudleyz, The Acolytes, Kendrick and London, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder (WOO WOO WOO), The Miz and John Morrison

BREAK ON THROUGH



Breakout superstars that go to their brand by way of the draft are unique. Most of the time, the guys projected to break out (like Mr. Kennedy) end up flopping or becoming extremely stagnant. Some guys find a way to shine and make their way up the WWE ladder. An example of a breakout star was The Silverback, Mark Henry. His move to ECW was considered nothing by most people, but he gained all his credibility back during his extreme tenure. He won the ECW Championship, made the ratings go up and was an all-around great champion for the brand. Most people don't like giving Henry his props because he isn't a great technical wrestler or whatever, but he really made something out of nothing. Another breakout guy was CM Punk. Punk was drafted and already had the Money in the Bank briefcase but few people could have predicted him winning the World Heavyweight Championship, The Tag Team Titles and the Intercontinental title all in less than a year. In some way, these picks have more value than a pick like Triple H because they get over well with the crowd and their popularity comes out of nowhere,

Notable draftees: Mark Henry, CM Punk, Johnny Nitro, Muhammad Hassan, Kofi Kingston
Candidates for breakout of the 2009 draft class: Mike Knox, John Morrison, Alicia Fox, Dolph Ziggler, Hurricane Helms

NEWBIES NEED NOT APPLY



The WWE roster changes at a pretty quick pace. It seems every month 3 or 4 guys are released from the company and the economic situation has quickened the pace of released individuals. The WWE draft is a perfect place to end the tenure of a low card individual because they were more than likely not doing much on the brand they came from. If creative has nothing for the draftee to do, then they most likely just release the guy from the company. If they do have something to do for the worker, then they get an opportunity and sometimes move into the "breakout" category. There are other reasons a guy may never debut for a new brand. In the case of Bob Holly, he just showed up on Raw and tagged up with Cody Rhodes. Another example is Ric Flair who showed up on Raw to kick off his retirement tour and only made a few appearances on the blue brand.

Notable no-shows: Ric Flair, DH Smith, Hardcore Holly, Mark Jindrak, Kenzo Suzuki
No-show candidates for the 2009 class: Mike Knox, Hurricane Helms, Zack Ryder, Ezekiel Jackson, Brian Kendrick.

WDV FACE-OFF

No WDV Face-Off this week since these aren't wrestlers. It'll return next week

THE RUNDOWN

In theory and practice, the WWE draft is a good way to "shake things up." Every year usually has a surprise or two and the wrestling landscape is changed. As time goes by, some of these things are used over and over again and it takes away from the program, but definitely does not kill it. The WWE Draft normally does decent ratings and is a fun show so it is possible that it has become a yearly deal and I have no problems with that. You can find at least 4 of these different gimmicks in each draft (with the exception of the 2002 installment since it was the first). Because of the focus on easing the transition of Smackdown to the MyNetworkTV station, 2008 was a bizarre draft year, yet it still had four of the five gimmicks listed. While the WWE brands this event as "anything goes," it can safely be said that things are recycled and trends are noticed. Maybe in the future they'll make it seem like anything can really happen, but at this point they really do not have to do any of that since it is a pretty successful deal.

In Case You Missed It

Miss any columns posted over the weekend? No problem, here's everything that was done.

411Mania's Squared Circle News Report

Contemplating CHIKARA

The Wrestling Bard

Column of Honor

The Bell to Bell News Report

Please Don‘t Hate…

For the Record

Triple Threat

And of course, last night was WWE's Backlash PPV. The site has loads of coverage and analysis so check all of that out while you're here.

Goodnight, Travel Well

- So, Backlash was last night and the official institution of the draft takes place starting with tonight's Raw. Raw appears to have gotten the better of the deal with a ton of stars going to the show ), but John Cena, Triple H, Batista and Randy Orton have all already feuded with one another in one form or another so it'll be kind of repetitive. John Cena v. Batista would probably be the lone "fresh" storyline out of these four. Smackdown is the show I'm looking forward to. It'll be interesting to see who of all the midcarders breaks through and becomes a legit main eventer. ECW is always good for quality programming so I have no qualms about that show.

- As for the Jeff Hardy situation, if I'm the WWE, I have Matt Hardy beat Jeff at last night's Pay-Per-View and keep Jeff off of television until they renegotiate some sort of deal. If they cannot come to an agreement then let Matt boast about ending his brother's career and let him get over with that. If Jeff does eventually come back, have him come back and attack Matt, sell a "JEFF HARDY BACK ON SD!" shirt, have them fight in some sort of gimmick match at Summerslam and continue with their careers. Everyone wins even if I can't stand Jeff Hardy.

- Like I briefly mentioned last week, I like the arrival of Bobby Lashley for TNA. More information has been made public and it looks like Lashley hasn't really signed a contract with TNA and doesn't even plan on wrestling with the company. TNA has done things like this in the past and it has never helped them (see the Rikishi fiasco). Hopefully Lashley does something to boost their profile or they'll just be left with nothing. I also hope they keep Trevor Murdoch as a performer. I liked him when he was tagging up with Lance Cade.

- And we've reached the conclusion of another column. This one was probably the longest I've written since joining the site back in December, but there was a lot of content to cover which is why I left some regular features out. Any comments, suggestions or questions are welcomed in the comment section and/or via e-mail. I also made a Twitter for some reason. You can follow me there by going there at www.twitter.com/jfmtz. I suppose I'll give updates on the column there, but I don't really expect it to get much following. Bookmark 411mania for easier access and I hope to have you back next week for another installment of Wrestling Deja Vu.


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Comments (7)
 
Bad column

Posted By: joohi (Guest)  on April 27, 2009 at 01:00 PM
 
 
Nice article! It's great that you see Alicia Fox, John Morrison, Dolph and Hurricane Helms as the breakout potentials this year!

With WWE taking more risks (Matt Hardy heel and possibly a main eventer by the end of the year), I think we're gonna see these stars break out as well!

Posted By: Kato (Guest)  on April 27, 2009 at 01:54 PM
 
 
"Tag teams come and go in the WWE because they don't really place a focus on the division (no big loss in my opinion)."

This comment killed my interest in finishing the column, plus any chance of me clicking on your columns in the future. You are no wrestling pundit, much less a fan. Good day.

Posted By: Nate (Guest)  on April 27, 2009 at 04:31 PM
 
 
Lol, @ the fact that "Nate" is jobbing this colum out because you made a true statement being that, the WWE has a revolving door for tag teams and since 2002/3 there haven't been many good tag teams around. Anyways good colum pissed u didn't push Ryder cuz you're gay other than that

Posted By: Joohi v.ABC (Guest)  on April 27, 2009 at 05:46 PM
 
 
I love you Joeypoo.
Do a colum on bringing back Phil of the Future they will listen to you baby.

OH OR DO ONE ON HOW SEXY JOHN CENA IS!!!!

GTG LUVZ U BBY

Posted By: Joohi Cena (Guest)  on April 27, 2009 at 11:07 PM
 
 
hey how about deja vu for lockeroom cliques?

hbk's clique [hhh* hall nash syyxx]
vs
hogan's clique [savage* barber jimmy hart]
vs
hhh's clique [flair* rko batista jbl]

* - was able to hump steph

Posted By: Guest#4863 (Guest)  on April 30, 2009 at 07:03 AM
 
 
This is SOOOO impressive :D

Posted By: :) (Guest)  on May 02, 2009 at 12:21 PM
 


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