WWE Draft preview

The annual WWE Draft is tonight and everyone has their own ideas for who should switch brands. Read on for my take on it.

To be honest, there were a fair number of talents I looked at and thought of switching. I changed my mind a number of times. This wasn't easy by any stretch. Anyway, here's the rundown on who I'd switch and why. Since we don't know how many picks each side gets, I'm using the model for last year's draft where 8 people switched sides on the initial show and an additional 11 switched sides a few days later on WWE.com.

I won't go into what matches I'd book on the show to determine who gets picks, or the order, as that would take even longer to do and I have a feeling this will be long enough as it is.


I think that Smackdown needs the bigger boost (and Raw's card is fuller), so they'll get the most help here. A lot of this was "you know who could use a fresh start?" and I could very well think these are bad choices by tomorrow, but in this moment in time they make sense:

Mark Henry to Smackdown, because he's not doing much of anything on Raw. His time left in the company is apparently not long, and I think he should use it helping some Smackdown guys get a boost. Part of my choices here are in keeping with "WWE sees Raw as the A-show; use Smackdown to build guys up that Raw isn't using well".

Drew McIntyre to Raw. Time to do something new with him, too. A team with Dolph Ziggler would be nice. Heck, make a faction of guys trying to change the status quo on the show. Not like Nexus or The Corre. More experienced guys who are tired of being overlooked for older stars (and maybe even some of the new guys). Alex Riley can join up once he "earns his stripes".

Jack Swagger to Raw. I'm not sure if there's anyway to explain my reasoning behind this one without giving away how I'd book the match at Extreme Rules. Suffice it to say that he wouldn't be a heel anymore.

Kofi Kingston to Raw. Have him win Raw's Money In the Bank.

Chavo Guerrero to Raw. Have him be a face and serve as a bit of an "old guard" (along with Regal and Goldust) who eventually put over the faction mentioned above. Remember that the faction thing is just an idea. I would be more than willing to listen to alternatives from others in the company!

David Hart Smith to Smackdown. Let's see what he can do as a face. I think he might have something.

Chris Masters to Raw. Part of a face answer to the heel faction. The idea of the whole thing is to have a good number of younger guys doing something and seeing who should move up the card. Get the fans used to them, too.

Cody Rhodes to Raw. Also in the heel faction. Cena and Orton would work a good deal with these guys but not be as tough as they were against Nexus.

Evan Bourne to Smackdown. He's one of those guys I'm really curious about how high he can go on the card. He could either improve a lot and be a big deal, or be destined to be run over by heels. Let's give the first part a chance.

Curt Hawkins to Raw. Also possibly in the faction, but not as high of a priority as some of the others.

Tyler Reks to Raw, mainly because I felt I needed one more (heel) person to go there.

Michael Tarver to Smackdown. Join The Corre (which Ezekiel will leave at some point to be a face). Again, we're trying to give a lot of people fresh opportunities here.

Primo to Smackdown. Time to actually do something with this guy.

Skip Sheffield to Smackdown. Either with The Corre or against them.

Ted DiBiase to Smackdown for a reboot. There's got to be something they can do with this guy, since Raw can't come up with anything.

Tyson Kidd to Smackdown. Another guy it's time to give some fresh paint to and feature.

Zack Ryder to Smackdown, teaming with Primo as a goofy face tag team. Maybe Trent can be involved, too. Or maybe JTG teams with one of the three of them. Looking at the roster and seeing who was and wasn't doing anything was obviously a big factor in this draft!

Finally, Alicia Fox to Smackdown. Kharma should be a heel on Raw. Alicia Fox needs something new to do, anyway.

There's my admittedly so-so draft choices. I could spend hours going over every little detail, but then the blog would be more "Well thought-out ideas and contemplations about wrestling" than Ramblings. This is just a hobby, and I have a fair number of other things to do. I apologize! If I was actually working with WWE, I'd be with a number of other people with ideas and be able to spend a lot more time on it since I wouldn't have to worry about college or a job, but I'm not, so this is just somewhat of a rough draft.

I'll be back later for thoughts on the actual Draft, and Tough Enough before then.