WWE Draft Results & Thoughts, & More - April 27, 2011

Welcome to the "apparently you can be redrafted" edition of The Wrestling List.

Wow, was Monday night's WWE Draft edition of Raw a mixed bag. As usual, matches were held with draft picks being on the line. A battle royal was held to open the show and it was won by Smackdown. The first pick of the draft was John Cena going to Smackdown. My first thought was oh my goodness. This draft is going to be huge. Moving the top guy over to Smackdown. Gutsy move. Later, Rey Mysterio was sent to Raw. Not a balance fixer at all but then the move of Randy Orton over to Smackdown not long after stunned all of us. Cena and Orton moving to Smackdown? Umm, who is there to move from Smackdown to Raw to be a top draw for that brand??!! That was my thinking for the rest of the show. Well, until the end. Mark Henry gets drafted to Smackdown. He turns on Cena in the six man tag team match. Miz pins Cena. Raw gets the last pick and I'm thinking that it has to be something huge. Then, it's Cena…..going back to Raw..….ok? It was just really bizarre. Since when can you be redrafted? I guess in the world of WWE you can. It would have made better sense to have Cena traded like Triple H was years ago. Remember he was drafted the one year to Smackdown and there was suddenly this really weak trade announced later in the week sending him back to Raw. Yeah, that was lame and this was too. A trade would have at least made more sense instead of the same person being drafted…twice. Just didn't like it. It did answer of my question of who the top draw on Raw was going to be. Same one as before.

So, let's look at the draft picks and I'll give my thoughts on each one that were announced on last night's Raw.
Raw Picks:
John Cena. Goes to Smackdown and back to Raw. Already talked about that so moving on.
Rey Mysterio. I'm just not excited about this move. I guess I'm just not excited watching Rey matches anymore.
Big Show. No excitement here either. Been there done that. Show has jumped brands and switched from face to heel so much that I can't really keep up. I'm not knocking Rey or Show obviously. Just not excited at all.
Alberto Del Rio. This is a big move sending him over to Raw. It's also making fans of Christian get excited that maybe he has a shot of winning the title on Sunday. Del Rio just hasn't done anything for me either. I've seen a lot of him on Raw and I'm just not getting into him yet. Maybe I'll be proved wrong. I'm just in that middle ground with him.

Smackdown Picks:
Randy Orton. This is obviously the pick of the draft since Cena stayed on Raw. Sending Orton over to Smackdown will send him to the top level of that brand immediately. Should be a good thing for Smackdown.
Mark Henry. I think this is going to be a good thing especially after his heel turn. If they make him a monster heel again which is likely, he'll be fun to watch. I like this move. His move over to Raw was bad as it is usually for a lot of Smackdown top talent that move over.
Sin Cara. Not surprised at all here. Probably be a good thing for him especially with as nervous as he has looked in his matches. They can post produce him now on any mistakes in the ring now. Gives Smackdown a lucha guy that will get fans behind him. Good move here.

Other notes from Raw. This was exactly my complaint about Michael Cole. Divas match starts and he rants and raves. Takes full attention off the match especially when we have a storyline going on with LayCool at ringside. This whole thing just didn't make any sense. When Cole got up and the distraction made the match end early, my first thought was ok, Cole has to be traded here. His rant and rave costs him to be traded. The draft graphic pops up and it's…..Rey Mysterio. Absolutely no ties to the match or angle especially when WWE overbooks those kind of situations all the time in these drafts. Then, LayCool has a really good brawl that saw Michelle get fired over the announce table by Layla. I thought that looked awesome and then the emotion from Layla on what has happened with her best friend and her. However, a lot was taken away from it due to the ranting and raving of Michael Cole. Again, he overshadows the other talent. I was hoping that he'd get drafted to NXT….which is shown online. The R Truth promo was really good. I loved the opening where he teased the "what's up" and then said "shut up". His reaction to the "what" chants was good. Not sure how WWE felt about him having to be bleeped a couple of times for language but I thought he did good in getting over his new heel persona. Again, he should be the face in this whole deal in my opinion. Friend fooled him into giving up his dream, outed his personal problems, and basically made a mockery of him. How is Truth the heel here? Wow, JR busted his hand on Cole's mouth. Bet that hurt both of them!

Let's get to the supplemental draft that was covered on WWE.com this past Tuesday. To keep it simple, I'll just separate the brands as I did early and show who is going where and give thoughts.
Going to Raw:
Jack Swagger. Unfortunately, this means more of Michael Cole is what this told me.
Kelly Kelly. Good to have her back on Raw. Thought she shouldn't have went to Smackdown in the first place. Raw seems like a good place for her.
JTG. No real comment here. Haven't watched him in forever.
Drew McIntyre. This is an interesting one. I'm not sure if a move to Raw is going to help him or not. I think he may just get lost in the mix on Raw just like so many others from Smackdown have.
Curt Hawkins. Yeah, I've got nothing here. Haven't watched him in forever either. Solid when he was with Edge. Lost in the mix since then.
Chris Masters. Probably will be used as a comedy type gimmick on Raw.
Kofi Kingston. This is an interesting one. I think Raw is a better place for him but I just think he may get lost in the mix. Another young guy that got pushed and then stopped.
Tyler Reks. Got nothing on this one either. Barely watched him.
Beth Phoenix. I like this move of her coming back to Raw. She got lost in the mix fast on Smackdown. Hopefully, Raw will get her rolling again. She's much better than how she is being used.

Going to Smackdown:
Daniel Bryan. I really like this. This could be a great thing for him to get on Smackdown.
The Great Khali and Runjin Singh. I really like this too cause he's off Raw. LOL
Jimmy Uso. Means nothing unless the others are going with him.
Alicia Fox. Ehh, whatever. Think it will be a fine move for her. No opinion really either way.
William Regal. Honestly did not even know he was on the Raw roster. Wasn't sure what roster that he was on to be honest.
Yoshi Tatsu. Probably be a good thing for him.
Natalya. I just want Natalya to get a good run wherever she is. Hoping this will be a good thing.
Jey Uso. Ok, now we have both Uso's together. Tag teams unfortunately don't matter in WWE. Frustrating obviously. More young guys that got the push and then right back down.
Ted Dibiase. Wow, I hope this is a good thing for Dibiase. Anything has got to be better, right? Surely, it can't get worse. They've turned Dibiase into a joke much like they have a lot of the young guys. Never would have guessed that Rhodes would be more successful right now than Dibiase.
Tyson Kidd. Another start stop guy. Got this big push including a bodyguard and then completely gone off of TV. I like him. Hope it's a good move for him.
Tamina. Well, I guess they put her back with the Uso's?
Alex Riley. Wow, splitting up Riley and Miz. Probably the right time for it.
Sheamus. This was a surprise but I like this move. He needs a fresh start on Smackdown cause they have ruined him on Raw. Bad ruined him.

So, there you have it. Overall thoughts. I think Smackdown got the much better deal out of this. I'm not excited about any of the moves for Raw. I think Smackdown is a much better position right now. That show tends to be good especially for in ring action. Seeing the talent going over there could be a good thing for them and for the show. They have the star power with Orton. A big heel in Henry. Some definite good mid card talent. Bryan and Sheamus are guys that you can into the title mix. Gotta say that Smackdown came out the winner in my opinion.

The WWE Extreme Rules PPV is this Sunday. I think it will probably be a solid show.

Don't forget that The Rock will be on Raw this Monday night. It will be his birthday party.

Chris Jericho was eliminated on last night's Dancing With The Stars. He had a good run on there.

Jay Lethal was let go by TNA. Yeah, of all the talent that they have that should probably be cut loose. Lethal is the one that they let go. Really what can you say to this news?

The news on Scott Hall just continues to get sadder. Just looks really bad for him. Kevin Nash took to his blog to type up his comments on Hall. It is a really interesting read and it's just sad knowing how bad of shape that Hall is in. Here is a link to what Nash had to say: http://kevinnash.tumblr.com/

That is it for tonight. I have a Wrestling List typed up that I'll send out later this week probably. Looking back on my favorite moments in WCW Monday Nitro history in anticipation of the new WWE DVD that is a best of Monday Nitro set. Take care and God bless!!