RAW 6-23

[jeffhardyfan52]

ya im pretty sure he was legit suprised by goign to smackdown cuz on hes blog he made it pretty clear he didnt want to go to smackdown nor be spilt from king. also you you listin to taz he was legit pissed about ecw geting only one draft pick

[dms269]

Most the guys had no idea where they were going. HHH probably knew due to who he is, but in terms of the other guys and the announcers, they had no idea. WWE tries to keep it very "hush-hush" as to not get any spoilers out for it.

[Celtics_Champs]

JR certainly looked pissed. And Tazz was pissed. ECW got screwed over. They lost CM Punk, and Kane, and only gain Hardy.

[A.J.]

JR certainly looked pissed. And Tazz was pissed. ECW got screwed over. They lost CM Punk, and Kane, and only gain Hardy.

He played that off great, Yeah I agree, ECW got totally screwed over. I guess thats what they get for having a 1 hour show. Raw is totally the best brand. Only losing Jeff Hardy, Mr. Kennedy, and HHH, and gaining Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, Kane, and Batista. Smackdown imo got better with get Mr. Kennedy and Umaga along with HHH.

[Vik Rude]

I hate how the WWE keeps stacking Raw with talent when its already the best brand out of the 3 and keep giving ECW the short end of the deal. This is the second time in a row where they lose their ECW Champion (Bobby Lashley last year). The whole McMahon angle at the end was great, spices up the whole show and puts an end to that million dollar giveaway which obviously wasn't the greatest marketing tool. Jim Ross in his blog stated that after he found out he was going to SmackDown he almost quit the WWE but afterward decided to man up about the situation and just commentate on SmackDown leaving his good friend and colleague for 30 years Jerry Lawler.

In all honesty the WWE needs to really start putting more of an investment into ECW instead of making it harder and harder to even watch that hour because there is slim to none talent on the show. They aren't giving anyone on ECW a real big push and when superstars do get big at ECW they immediately get moved to another brand. ECW has the most potential out of all 3 brands if they brought back the old concept of ECW. Extreme rules every match, the crazy athleticism, high risk maneuvers. A storyline of ECW invading the other 2 brands becoming "nWo" like, interfering in Raw & SmackDown's main events would really get viewers hooked.

[skbucks1985]

^^^ RAW's the flagship and there's an element of truth in the statement that your not a star until your a star on RAW.

The problem is much bigger than what happened to ECW last night. The problem goes all the way back to the disastrous invasion angle. The big problem right now is that the shows are similar enough to not really be different. In 03, the two shows did seem to be pretty different. RAW was much more storyline driven with HHH, Golberg, HBK, Booker, Nash, Jericho and a couple others headlining the show, these are guys who with the exception of Nash are pretty good wrestlers but are much better charachters than wrestlers. OTOH Smackdown had guys like Benoit, Angle, Guerrerro, and Lesnar headlining these shows and these are guys you can put in a 30 minute match and the crowd will be white hot for all 30 minutes. But with various things like retirements, JBL and Cena's vault into main event status and various other things put an end to this. Right now the two shows are different in certain ways, but there's no fundamental difference.

[Rich Rane]

CM Punk was drafted to Raw.

Either way, ECW still sucks and Raw is still a great brand.



In other news...I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near JR when the cameras turned off.

http://rajah.com/base/node/12836

The link to his blog is inside. JR takes it like a man though and accepts it. My respect for him skyrockets after this.

[jeffhardyfan52]

no one thinks smackdown improved? i meand jeff hardy mr kenedy umaga hhh and jr i mean jr jeff hardy hhh are all huge faces they should really draw fans over to smackdown, i know i wont care abou raw as much i sahll only watch for cm punk.

[Rich Rane]

no one thinks smackdown improved? i meand jeff hardy mr kenedy umaga hhh and jr i mean jr jeff hardy hhh are all huge faces they should really draw fans over to smackdown, i know i wont care abou raw as much i sahll only watch for cm punk.

I previously stated SmackDown! improved the most. This was a crazy draft with everyone being superstars, even the announcers, but what makes it the craziest is that SmackDown! improved the most. Raw does get to develop its younger talent and mid carders with HHH gone. The only thing I hope WWE doesn't do is putting Orton and Cena in every main event now. SmackDown! and its ratings will improve drastically with the amount of star power they received. Hell, I even want to watch SmackDown! this week.

[magic1636]

I was really surprised that the "major changes" were really MAJOR. I mean, come on you have Rey, Punk, Kane, Batista, Cole, and probably Undertaker going to RAW that makes the show that much better. Smackdown got a hell of alot better with Hardy, Umaga, HHH, JR, and Mr. Kennedy that maked that show more interesting.

[JustMoe]

I'm still in shock they finally came up with a draft that didn't just get used to totally mess up the SmackDown! roster in favor of Raw, but actually gave it the best deal, at least in my opinion. Since it's my favorite show (and the only one available on German free TV) I'm pretty excited about this. The only thing that bothers me is the atmosphere backstage at SD! has always been regarded as great, while the one on Raw wasn't - with Triple H going to SD! and most likely not another crappy HHH for Booker T & Dudley Boys-style trade in the making, that most likely will change now.

Regarding the ECW comments, I agree that they got worse by exchanging CM for Matt, but I don't regard Kane as a guy who got traded away from ECW, since he used to be on SD! til he won the ECW Championship not to long ago and just switched brands, like Chavo, not to mention SmackDown got 4 wrestlers (and JR) while only giving up 3 (and Michael), with Kane, at least IMO, being the 4th.

Finally, regarding the title thing, I expect Batista to win the WHC while Hunter defends the WWE championship against Cena, which means they will switch the two belts again, like they did a few years ago when Cena and Dave got drafted to Raw/SD!

So, what do you guys expect - will there be an additional supplemental draft taking place, not necessarily on a show but on WWE.com maybe? I'm still surprised they didn't exchange any under- and close to no midcard-talents (I really expected Carlito to move over to SD! in order to form a tag team with his brother, like it was rumored a while ago), and I'm wondering if it will still be happening.

[Vik Rude]

^^^ RAW's the flagship and there's an element of truth in the statement that your not a star until your a star on RAW.

The problem is much bigger than what happened to ECW last night. The problem goes all the way back to the disastrous invasion angle. The big problem right now is that the shows are similar enough to not really be different. In 03, the two shows did seem to be pretty different. RAW was much more storyline driven with HHH, Golberg, HBK, Booker, Nash, Jericho and a couple others headlining the show, these are guys who with the exception of Nash are pretty good wrestlers but are much better charachters than wrestlers. OTOH Smackdown had guys like Benoit, Angle, Guerrerro, and Lesnar headlining these shows and these are guys you can put in a 30 minute match and the crowd will be white hot for all 30 minutes. But with various things like retirements, JBL and Cena's vault into main event status and various other things put an end to this. Right now the two shows are different in certain ways, but there's no fundamental difference.

I see where you are going with this but you have to keep in mind ECW is now doing worse than TNA, the WWE should focus more on making their whole product better rather than just Raw. And you are right with 2003 where Smackdown and Raw where two different shows, its a shame that we couldn't have a Storyline(Raw), Wrestling(SmackDown), and Hardcore(ECW) brand which really diversify the whole concept of brands. If all three brands are producing the same television show there is no point in this whole brand structure.

[skbucks1985]

^^^ RAW's the flagship and there's an element of truth in the statement that your not a star until your a star on RAW.

The problem is much bigger than what happened to ECW last night. The problem goes all the way back to the disastrous invasion angle. The big problem right now is that the shows are similar enough to not really be different. In 03, the two shows did seem to be pretty different. RAW was much more storyline driven with HHH, Golberg, HBK, Booker, Nash, Jericho and a couple others headlining the show, these are guys who with the exception of Nash are pretty good wrestlers but are much better charachters than wrestlers. OTOH Smackdown had guys like Benoit, Angle, Guerrerro, and Lesnar headlining these shows and these are guys you can put in a 30 minute match and the crowd will be white hot for all 30 minutes. But with various things like retirements, JBL and Cena's vault into main event status and various other things put an end to this. Right now the two shows are different in certain ways, but there's no fundamental difference.

I see where you are going with this but you have to keep in mind ECW is now doing worse than TNA, the WWE should focus more on making their whole product better rather than just Raw. And you are right with 2003 where Smackdown and Raw where two different shows, its a shame that we couldn't have a Storyline(Raw), Wrestling(SmackDown), and Hardcore(ECW) brand which really diversify the whole concept of brands. If all three brands are producing the same television show there is no point in this whole brand structure.

That was one week when ECW was against the NBA Finals while TNA was against re-runs and reality TV.

I don't think the WWE could duplicate 2003 because they don't have the personnel to do it anymore and so basically you have an A show and a B show.

I do think one of the things they could with the ECW is make it the land of cruiserweights. All of there Cruiserweight wretlers like Sydal/Bourne, Jamie Noble, London and Kendrick, Supercrazy, etc. and put them all on this one show. But of course they would never do that.

[Vik Rude]

I honestly don't know safi, what their doing with ECW right now frustrates me so much. When you watch the 1st two One Night Stands...you see so much potential in ECW, so much excitement. It was a show worth watching, worth your money to go see. Why they dont make ECW actually Extreme boggles my mind.