The Wrestling Menu - The WWE Draft Revisited, WWE Trades & WM Rankings Feedback
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 at 2:11 AM EST




THE WRESTLING MENU #41

Welcome one and all to the 41st edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

I usually rant on about the feedback that I receive from readers in this little section. But over the last few columns, both the quality & quantity of feedback that I have received has been so good that it has been included as a whole topic in my 'Appetizers' section. This week is no exception.

Just quickly though; I may be in the minority here, but I liked this past Raw once again. That's 2 in a row!!! It wasn't as good as the week before, but I enjoyed at least 3 matches (the opener, the tag-title match & the main event), while agreeing with most of the storyline progression. Yes, I suspiciously fear what might happen at Backlash involving The Clique, but as to what happened on the individual show, I was fine with it.


APPETIZERS - WM Rankings Feedback

Last week my column practically entirely consisted of myself ranking all 19 WrestleManias in order. If you haven't had the opportunity to read my rankings as yet, you can do so by clicking 'Columns' & then 'The Wrestling Menu' from the LOP front page. I thought it might be interesting to just let you all know of what some/most of my readers thought were my most controversial rankings.

Firstly, pretty much everyone agreed with my top four picks of WrestleManias 10, 17, 14 & 3. Although, a few readers made a good case as to why I should not have ranked WrestleMania 10 as the best of all time. Granted, it was not as good from top to bottom as the other three choices, but I did feel it had the best mix of entertainment, wrestling, memories & excitement.

The only other WrestleMania which a few readers thought could have been included in the top four was WrestleMania 8. This is very surprising, as I also had some feedback that I should have ranked WM 8 lower than what I did (I ranked it 6th). Thus, it is quite evident that this WrestleMania is the most subjective one. In other words, it depends on the person as to whether or not you like this WrestleMania.

The obvious feedback I was going to get was on my high 5th ranking for WrestleMania 6. Like I said last week, we all have our personal favorites for some reason or another, and this was mine. I do realize that it is not an exceptionally strong overall card, but the atmosphere, crowd & main event did something for me.

Apart from that, the usual suspects of WrestleManias 2, 4 & 12 had their supporters & critics. On the whole, I liked all three of these cards & feel that they sometimes get harshly judged. Again though, I realize that they are very much imperfect & therefore ranked them no higher than 9th. Hell, even WrestleManias 11, 13 & 9 had their fans. Personally, I cannot see why.

May I take this opportunity to thank all those that replied with such excellent opinions over these past couple of weeks. It's appreciated, it's interesting & it's informative. As you all know, I will always respond to your feedback.


MAIN - The WWE Draft Revisited

I'm about 3 weeks late on this topic. I perfectly would have had it as close to the 1 year anniversary as possible. But a combination of my computer problems & a little event known as WrestleMania put paid to that. The infamous & much anticipated WWE draft took place March-25, 2002 on an episode of Raw.

If you can recall even further back, you will remember that the brand split & draft had been talked about for quite some time. The WWE was just waiting for what they believed to be the correct time to make such a big decision. It was important that they got the timing right, as it was a big decision that, to this very day, has altered the way we watch WWE programming. They wisely decided to wait until after WrestleMania 18 & come the 25th of March, most of us watched Raw with eager anticipation about how the WWE would handle the draft show & which wrestlers would be on Raw or SmackDown.

Now, I have never had the privilege to watch a televised NFL draft. It apparently goes for 2 days & has over 250 selections. That must be a chore to sit through for any television viewer. But in Australia, the AFL draft only has about 80 picks & usually only lasts for about 2 hours. Even though it has always rated poorly in this country & is bagged for it's boredom, I somehow enjoy watching it. I'm not 100% sure why. Maybe it's those times when teams have to make a decision 'on the spot' after previous picks have not gone to plan. So, I was looking forward to Raw on March 25 to see what was going to happen. If done perfectly, it could have been a landmark show that no-one would ever forget.

Unfortunately, the show was not done perfectly. I'm not sure about yourself, but apart from being a different type of show that marked the start of the split, it doesn't stand out too much in my mind at all. Therefore, I would have to look back at it as a lost opportunity by the WWE to have a memorable landmark show. Remember that the split was coming for quite some time, so why did this Raw almost look like it was put together on the night?

Now, I don't get paid to write wrestling shows like the WWE writers do, so I'm not going to give a million ideas as to how they should have structured the show. I'm just going to go through that Raw & tell you what I didn't like about it. It started practically at the start of the show when Linda McMahon stated that Triple H, Chris Jericho, Stephanie McMahon & Stone Cold Steve Austin were not eligible for the draft. Taking 3 of the probable Top 5-10 wrestlers out of the draft is not a great place to start. The first 3 were excluded as they were wrestling in the main event of the night for the Undisputed Title, while Austin was excluded due to a contractual clause (it was really because he didn't want to fight Scott Hall at WrestleMania 18).

The eventual winner of that triple-threat main event match on the night was Triple H. By winning this match, he was allowed (as Undisputed champion) to appear on both shows (remember those days!!!). Because he pinned Stephanie, she had to leave WWE tv for good (or a few months as it turned out), and Jericho was forgotten about as per usual. Actually, by losing the match, Jericho won the privilege of not being drafted at all & being included in a lottery which took place after Raw on WWF.com. What a shambles!!! Why couldn't Triple H & Jericho be drafted anyway? They had to go to a show after they dropped the title.

Now, there were 8 matches on the night. I usually think that 8 matches would be great on a Raw or SmackDown, but this was not your standard Raw. It is one time where I genuinely believe that there should have been only 4 or 5 matches (you won't get me saying that a lot). By having fewer matches, the WWE could have concentrated more on the drafting situations, thus leading to a more talked about show. The 8 matches were not a terrible tv show line-up, but there was nothing special. For the record, here are the results of the 8 matches on the night:

Tazz defeated Mr. Perfect via submission.
Christian & Booker T defeated Edge & DDP via pinfall.
Trish Stratus defeated Ivory via pinfall.
The NWO (Nash, Hall & X-Pac) defeated Hulk Hogan & The Rock via DQ.
Jeff Hardy defeated Billy Gunn via pinfall.
Rikishi vs. William Regal went to a no contest when Brock Lesnar interfered.
Rob Van Dam (I/C Champion) vs. Kurt Angle for the Intercontinental Championship went to a no contest.
HHH (Undisputed Champion) defeated Stephanie McMahon and Chris Jericho via pinfall on Stephanie.

Onto the draft itself. Vince McMahon had won a coin toss to get the first pick & the picks were conducted in between matches, seemingly whenever & wherever Vince and Ric Flair felt like it. This, in itself, was nonsense. It started out that McMahon & Flair would correctly state their picks on a podium at the top of the entrance ramp, but throughout the show, picks were being made from anywhere in the building. Hell, it even turned into a screaming match between the two at one stage, where Flair picked The Big Show & obviously not thinking it through properly, Vince responded with the next biggest individual he could think of; Rikishi. On top of this, later in the show, Vince came out & drafted Brock Lesnar when it wasn't even his turn. Was all this supposed to be funny or suspenseful? Because it all just came off as incompetent. For the record, the 20 (10 each) draft picks on the night are listed below:

Smackdown (Vince McMahon)
1. The Rock
2. Kurt Angle
3. Chris Benoit
4. Hulk Hogan
5. Billy and Chuck
6. Edge
7. Rikishi
8. Dvon Dudley
9. Mark Henry
10. Maven

Raw (Ric Flair)
1. The Undertaker
2. NWO (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & X-Pac)
3. Kane
4. Rob Van Dam
5. Booker T
6. Big Show
7. Bubba Ray Dudley
8. Brock Lesnar
9. William Regal
10. Lita

Like most people, one thing came to my mind immediately; SmackDown is going to be so much better to watch than Raw. That was the case almost immediately and still is (in most peoples opinions) to this very day. Ric Flair came out of this show looking like an idiot with the picks he made. Was Vince trying to put himself over as the greater tactical mind? I hope not, as like I said before, this show paved the way for the direction of the WWE up until now & beyond.

In conclusion; Another missed opportunity. This Raw should have been landmark. I don't think I set my expectations too high for this show. It's just that it was a very important episode for the future of the company, yet the WWE seemingly treated it as just another Raw.


DESSERT - WWE Trades

Here is a related topic where I really do think that the WWE are missing out on an opportunity. Since the draft episode, the WWE have occasionally thrown up the possibility of trades between their 2 television shows. Initially though, they ignored the idea, as wrestlers just moved from Raw to SmackDown (or vice-versa) as they pleased. Then in approximately September of last year, Eric Bischoff stated on Raw that trades were back on the agenda. A few even happened. From memory, they involved The Big Show, Randy Orton, Batista, Maven & maybe one other wrestler. But this was done off-screen & over the course of a couple of weeks.

I actually thought of the idea that trades could be interesting (if done correctly) in the WWE, from an Australian tv show that aired a couple of years ago. From memory, the show was called 'Treasure Island'. It was basically a ripoff of Survivor, except that it had a few small differences, such as the way people were taken off the show. Like Survivor, it had 2 teams who had to complete certain tasks to give their members a better chance of progressing through the series. But most tasks were made easier or harder depending on what tools and/or resources each team had.

Where the connection comes in, is that the teams were free to meet their opposition & trade items (that theoretically would be beneficial to both). You could not directly tell a lie about what you were trading, but if no questions were asked, anything could be traded. I remember one episode when a piece of fishing equipment was (legally) traded & it just plain didn't work.

Now I know some may disagree with me on this, citing that these possible trades will only lead to more poor sports-entertainment segments on WWE television. But I think these trades can be quite entertaining & interesting if done correctly, Sure, that is a big "if", but I reckon I could get a kick out of seeing Stephanie & Eric sitting across from each other at a table & trying to trick the other into a dud swap.

So what must the WWE do (or not do) to have these trades come off as entertaining segments. Well firstly, they have to be done sparingly. If there is going to be a trade every second week, then we're going to get sick of them pretty quickly. Secondly, the situation & storyline surrounding the trade must be setup. It doesn't have to be anything special or in-depth, but there has to be a reason for the trade. (For Example; someone demanding not to work for one of the GM's, or a wrestler getting injured often). Thirdly, they have to be done while not taking up too much time. This may be easier said than done, but could be possible in mind.

Finally, don't make it obvious who is going to be screwed out of the trade. Even not having the revelation (as to why either GM wanted to trade a particular wrestler) known until a couple of weeks later, would be a good idea. We all love a good mystery, and conjecture as to specific WWE storylines has always been part of the fun of being a wrestling fan. If we knew that say Stephanie was trying to trade Edge because he was going to miss the next 12 months through injury (& Eric didn't know), it wouldn't be quite the same.

For a current example, there have been a few rumors for quite some time now that Stone Cold Steve Austin would prefer to appear on SmackDown. He has just been fired by Eric Bischoff on Raw. So why just let him walk over to SmackDown when he could be traded? That's how it works in professional sports. You may as well get something for your asset!!! Hulk Hogan is, according to Vince McMahon, going to sit on his a$$ at home. So why wouldn't Stephanie McMahon, as General Manager, attempt to trade him to secure another wrestler from Raw. Could you imagine Eric & Stephanie wheeling & dealing over Stone Cold & The Hulkster? It could be classic.

Like I said, these trades genuinely could work on WWE television. They would fuel discussion, provide entertainment & possibly keep us all in suspense. They would also seem to be compliant to the so-called new WWE approach of having more storylines on their programming. Mind you, I will agree that if done incorrectly, these segments could be embarrassingly disastrous. But that's what the writers are paid for. If given notice, I'm sure that they should come up with a few brilliant ideas.


I really find this topic interesting & would therefore love to hear all of your thoughts on it. Could on-screen trades work, or has DaveyBoy gone bonkers? Also, please don't hesitate to let me know of your recollections & thoughts of the March-25, 2002 Raw. As always, I'd be interested to know what you all thought. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com

Next Wednesday in The Wrestling Menu, I am going to give my predictions for the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view. It is often one of the most ordinary ppv's on the WWE calendar, so I'm hoping the WWE can come up with something good this year. I will also take a look back at something that occurred almost 2 years ago to the day, which has arguably resulted in a specific WWE talent becoming much maligned. That plus more, same Wednesday time & same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is Davey Boy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.
















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