The Shimmy 4.14.08: The 2007 WWE Draft Analysis

Salutations, everyone, and welcome to another edition of The Shimmy. I trust you are all well and if you’re not, well, I’ve never met you anyhow so what do I care for? Just kidding. Sort of. Anyhow, last week I made some suggestions as to what the WWE might want to do if and when they decide to do a tri-branded Draft again this year. This week I take a look back at how last year’s draft went and what happened to last year’s draft class. The answers may surprise you.

Raw to SmackDown: The Great Khali

After two relatively impressive runs on SmackDown and ECW, The Great Khali finally captured some box office potential on Raw in his feud with John Cena. Unfortunately for him after the Cena feud there really wasn’t much else for Khali to do on Mondays. Who would have figured that switching to SmackDown would net the Punjabi Nightmare a World Heavyweight Title run? Sure it was done out of necessity once Edge went down, but still, the big man certainly walked into a good situation. Since then his run on SmackDown has been pretty good. He’s lost that air of invincibility he once had, jobbing to Undertaker and Batista countless times and even being the one main eventer to actually job to Finlay, but he’s still managed to be presented as a major force. I’ll be very curious to see what happens to Khali once his feud with Big Show has run it’s course because he may once again find himself in a position where he has done all he can.

Draft Grade: A

SmackDown to ECW: The Boogeyman

The Boogeyman’s ECW career actually started off pretty well. He had a surprisingly entertaining feud with Big Daddy V and was instrumental in getting Big Daddy V over as a legit main eventer (at least for ECW). He was even in a shockingly good tag team match teaming with CM Punk against The Miz and (I believe) Elijah Burke. Unfortunately for Boogey he has run into the same problem he’s had since he entered WWE, and that’s staying healthy. With the ECW/SmackDown talent exchange it’s questionable whether or not he still has room in ECW, but if he doesn’t get healthy we’ll never find out one way or another.

Draft Grade: C+

SmackDown to Raw: King Booker (w/ Queen Sharmell)

On the surface this switch made sense last year. Booker had been on SmackDown for a while, received a career resurgence under the “king” gimmick, and Raw was light on main event heels. His time on Raw pretty ushered his way out of WWE though. He was never portrayed as the big deal he was on SmackDown and he was largely there to help get other people over. His controversial (by his standards anyhow) 60-suspension ultimately is what sent him packing from the company, but one has to believe that he may have thought twice about asking for his release if he had stayed on SmackDown.

Draft Grade: C

SmackDown to ECW: Chris Benoit

While Booker T’s move to Raw helped usher him out of the company, Chris Benoit’s move to ECW helped usher him out of this world. Obviously there was a myriad of things that were going on in Chris Benoit’s life that made him commit the horrible acts of last June. From steroids to concussions to just being a little bit crazy the man had enough problems to deal with. According to reports from the Wrestling Observer, though, Benoit took the move to ECW rather hard and it added to a professional paranoia (to go along with personal paranoia) that Benoit had been experiencing for months. Not only that but Benoit was planned to be the face of ECW for the foreseeable future, used to get guys like CM Punk and John Morrison ready for the big time. Without Benoit in the plans the ECW Title fell off the map in terms of being an important title and it’s been struggling to regain some World Title legitimacy ever since.

Draft Grade: F

Raw to SmackDown: Torrie Wilson

Well this got one of the non-wrestling Divas off the show with the Women’s Title. I don’t think Torrie actually stuck around SmackDown long before her back injury sent her home. The rumors are that Torrie may not return to the ring at all so we might not see her in a SmackDown ring again.

Draft Grade: C-

Raw to SmackDown: Chris Masters

Like many upper midcarders on Raw Chris Masters had been jobbed out beyond recognition. He hadn’t been on a PPV since early January, he had his Masterlock broken by Bobby Lashley, and he was even losing to Santino Marella. The move to SmackDown was supposed to be a fresh start for “The Masterpiece.” That fresh start included becoming Chuck Palumbo’s personal bitch. A 60-day Wellness suspension later and Chris Masters was gone from the company, choosing to hone his craft in Japan.

Draft Grade: D+

ECW to Raw: Bobby Lashley

Lashley had been hanging out on Raw for months anyhow but this move, coupled with the loss of the ECW Title, was supposed to push Lashley into that next rung of WWE superstars. For his part he did well on his brief stint on Raw. He came across as a real big deal and had really good match with John Cena at The Great American Bash. An injury would derail Bobby Lashley and conflicts with management caused Lashley to be yet another member of the 2007 Draft that left the company.

Draft Grade: C+

Raw to SmackDown: Ric Flair

While Flair had not experienced the same kind of career dropoff as say Chris Masters, it is fair to say that the Nature Boy was floundering on Raw. The move to SmackDown was ripe with possibilities, from teaming with Batista, to putting over MVP, to reacquainting himself with Edge, and possibly even regaining that big gold belt. While a few of those things did happen, Flair still managed to flounder on SmackDown. By the summer he would be taken out by The Great Khali’s vice grip and we wouldn’t see Naitch back until December. At that point he went on his “lose and retire” run and was allowed to compete on all three brands (and rarely was it actually SmackDown). Of course Flair just ended his in ring career a few weeks ago at WrestleMania, tossing out another member of the 2007 Draft class.

Draft Grade: B-

ECW to Raw: Snitsky

Snitsky was never ready to leave ECW. On ECW he could have been a big fish in a small pond. On Raw he was a small fish in a big pond, and at times he was an invisible fish as well. Late in 2007 Snitsky managed to find a nice little role for himself on Raw but it still wasn’t quite the impact he could have had on ECW. At this point he is the resident “big man heel you beat before you reach Umaga” or the hired muscle for a tag team. In recent weeks we have seen Snitsky start to grow the goatee back and one can only surmise that a push should be forthcoming.

Draft Grade: C

SmackDown to Raw: Mr. Kennedy

At the time this looked like a smart move. Edge vs. Mr. Kennedy should have been a can’t miss feud and it made sense for them to move Kennedy so the two men would be kept apart. Kennedy was one of the hottest acts in the company when he made the switch and moving to the A-show should have only helped him. It didn’t. In fact Kennedy’s push was stalled by a combination of bad luck and Raw’s hot-and-cold upper midcard booking. Despite a few rays of hope every now and then Kennedy’s move to Raw has to largely be seen as a failure.

Draft Grade: C-

Not that impressive, huh? Of the ten draft picks only three are still active with WWE. Of those three one has significantly fallen down the ladder and another is Snitsky. Of the other seven picks, one is still with the company but hasn’t been seen since God knows how long, one is retired, one is leaning towards retiring, one is a dead murderer and three more have officially parted ways with the company. The only person that really benefited anything from last year’s draft was the freaking Great Khali. But what about the small scale Supplemental Draft? How did they draft picks from that pan out? Wait seven days to find out!

Andy! Andy! At Last You Have Some Feedback!

John Reid asks about tag teams:

Great ideas for the upcoming draft. My question is: what do you think they could do about the tag team situation? Obviously it’s not a priority on RAW as it is on Smackdown, but do you think they could actually move tag teams like the Miz and Morrison to Raw where they fit with the sports entertainment graphic WWE likes to portray? Also, should they split Morrison could get a longer deserved title run with the IC belt.

Alas, I just wish the WWE would create another stable that would actually have impact on either Smackdown or ECW!

Actually it’s seemed like Raw has added an emphasis on tag teams the past couple of weeks. Then again it looks like Cade & Murdoch may break up and I’m still not sure that London & Kendrick aren’t going to do the same so who knows how long that will last. As for Morrison, I’m torn. I really love his team with The Miz but at some point he needs to get back in the singles mix. For what it’s worth I think The Miz should as well. I don’t think a move to Raw would be good for either man because as I’ve said many times before Raw is the place where upper midcard pushes go to die. They have had success on SmackDown/ECW, let them stay there. I do agree with you, though, I would love to see a good stable again, and SmackDown’s La Familia doesn’t count.

The Shimmy Likes it Raw!

What’s on tap for tonight’s show?

Randy Orton vs. William Regal; I tried putting Regal in a match against the champion in England in 24/7 mode of SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 and my show got a 1.5 star rating. Hopefully this does better.

Like I said we’re in jolly old England and last time we were here we got a MOTYC between John Cena and Shawn Michaels. Anything so good this time around?

One Tree Hill returns tonight at 9:00 as well. E-mail me if you’re interested in donating a TiVo. This could be really bad when 24 returns in the fall.

That does it for me this week. Next week I take a look at the 2007 Supplemental Draft. Will the 2007 Supplemental Draft class fair better then the 2007 Main Draft class? Tune in next week to find out! Until next week, don’t die. Clark…out.