WWE's Supplimental Draft

June 18, 2007

I was intending to do a mock obituary for Vincent Kennedy McMahon this week but in the wake of Sherri Martel’s death I feel that would be inappropriate. For those of you who haven’t heard, “Sensational” Sherri Martel passed away Friday June 15th at the age of 49. Sherri had recently (2006) been inducted into the WWE HOF and had an amazing 20+ year career as both a worker and manager. I never had the opportunity to work with Sherri, so I won’t be offering a long tribute commentary to her, like I have for so many others. I do however want to offer my condolences to her family and friends.

In place of my RIP: Vince McMahon commentary I thought I would take a look at the WWE Supplemental Sunday Draft.

I’m a little confused as to how exactly this supplemental draft is being run, but I guess that is nothing new for the wrestling business. The Monday draft was a random selection and based on most of the supplemental draft picks, I can only assume the Sunday draft is as well. Let’s take a look at all 13 Sunday Draft picks brand by brand.

RAW:
1: Paul London and Brian Kendrick: I don’t know how this is possible but RAW got two guys with one pick. This seems to go against all the hype leading into the draft, as there was a lot of speculation about what would happen if one partner got drafted splitting up an established team. Logic aside (a frequent requirement of late) this is a good pick, as Cade and Murdock are going to need new face challengers because Matt should have to go back to his own brand now.
2: Sandman: I don’t see this amounting to much. They didn’t have much for Sandman in ECW where he actually had some “star” power, so I doubt he will be featured much on RAW. Perhaps he will get Balls Mahoney like treatment by Umaga.
3: Daivari: I can only assume this draft was to get over the randomness of the drafting process. Daivari is a cruiserweight (despite his recent muscle growth) so I can’t see him being featured much on RAW. If he has any “Arab” heat left he might be good for a brief Cena match one week but I’d be surprised to see anything more. Perhaps this should be considered a Heat draft pick.
4: William Regal: Now this is a draft pick I can sink my teeth into. I love watching Mr. Regal work and he definitely can be stepped up the card. Regal could provide us with a very entertaining program for Cena. If he got drafted just to say, “ All Hail King Booker” I will boycott RAW!
5: Jillian Hall: Jillian can really work, so this will be great for the women’s division. Jillian and Mickie are awesome in the ring together so this could provide us with great matches on RAW.

Smack Down:
1: Kenny Dykstra: This could be very good for Dykstra because as a single he was getting lost on RAW and there may be more opportunity on SD. SD is very short handed when it comes to Baby Faces however, so I’m not sure who all the heels on this brand are going to work with.
2: Hardcore Holly: This should be a VERY good move for Bob. As I stated above SD is short on faces, and while he has often worked as a heel, in the past, Bob has had some success as a face also and I would think that is how they would use him on SD, offering him a ton of potential opponents.
3: The Major Brothers: This was a surprise. I wasn’t even sure these guys were considered full-time talent. I don’t know who the hell these guys are going to work with. The solid work rate teams on SD (Kendrick & London, Regal & Taylor) that could have carried these guys are gone, leaving only Deuce and Domino, who are in no way ready to carry others.
4: Victoria: I don’t like this pick. I consider Victoria one of if not the best female work in WWE, so moving her away from the women’s title on RAW is disappointing. This will be great for Michelle McCool however as she will now have a new, and very talented person to work with.
5: Eugene: This pick won’t shift the talent tide too much. I think this character has run its course. I don’t know what they could possibly do with Eugene at this point, which is a shame because Nick Dinsmore is a very talented man.

ECW:
1: Viscera: Big Vis was completely lost in the shuffle on RAW so this can’t really hurt him any, but with only the 1-hour of TV each week I’m not sure he will get featured all that much more in ECW. I would focus ECW on Chris Benoit who is a much faster paced style than what Viscera is suited for.
2: The Miz: This might really help The Miz step up if he works at it. From a work rate standpoint he isn’t too bad, but with the caliber of workers that were in SD (Finlay, Regal, Benoit, Taker, Rey, Helms, Hardy, etc.) he was below the curve there. In ECW if others don’t step up, Miz could find himself above the curve and staring opportunity right in the face.
3: Johnny Nitro: I think Nitro, like The Miz has a chance to really step up with this shift. He has struggled as a single since separating from MNM and with the talent pool in ECW Benoit will need good athletic workers to work with so this could be his chance. He no longer has Melina or Mercury so this is Nitro’s chance to show us what he has.

All in all a lot of fairly uneventful drafts and none of the brands were significantly changed by the supplemental draft. We do get a few new faces to look for on the respective shows, which will freshen things up a little. I guess time will be the true judge of how significant these shifts end up being. I hope WWE steps some of these people up in hopes of making the draft seems bigger than it first appears.

Lance Storm