How I Would Book It- The 2011 WWE Draft

[Note: This first entry covers an event that already happened. It was written a week ago before the event happened. This column story was sent to The John Report as a column submission for a new writer search but was not one of the winning columns. For more information on that story and why I created this blog, see my first post.]

Welcome to the first How I Would Book It column. In this column, I will be looking at current feuds and upcoming events in the WWE and discuss what I would have happen if I was in Vince McMahon’s shoes. I will also occasionally look at past feuds or events or even ones that are not even planned to happen yet. I am always thinking of how the WWE could make their product more interesting and this is your chance to get a glimpse of my imagination. This week I will be focusing on this Monday’s 2011 WWE Draft.




The WWE Draft is a very important event in the WWE because it can be career-changing for any of the drafted WWE Superstars. For example, look what happened to The Miz. Before he was drafted to Monday Night Raw in the 2009 WWE Draft, The Miz was one-half of a successful tag team. The problem was that The Miz was on ECW which was the least watched of the three WWE brands. I rarely watched ECW before it ended in early 2010 and the only reason I was even remotely familiar with The Miz before the 2009 WWE Draft was because his tag team partner John Morrison and him had a brief feud on Raw with D-Generation X in 2008. When The Miz was drafted to Raw, I was wondering how the WWE would use him. The WWE ended up pushing him almost immediately. The Miz went after the top face of the company John Cena and constantly called him out. When Cena would not appear, The Miz would declare himself the winner. I was in attendance at Judgment Day when The Miz “defeated” John Cena for his fourth consecutive “win” over Cena and I was really impressed with the amount of heat The Miz was able to get from the crowd despite being a midcarder. The Miz’s feud with John Cena eventually ended when he lost to Cena in an actual match at The Bash. At that point, I thought The Miz would disappear but he continued to get plenty of attention on Raw. Two years later, he has gone from the next Marty Jannetty to the WWE Champion. And it is all thanks to the WWE Draft. ECW would not have been able to give him the exposure he needed and The Miz’s mediocre wrestling skills would not have made him a good fit for Friday Night Smackdown. The WWE Draft can drastically change someone’s career and The Miz is proof of that.

The WWE Draft had eight televised selections last year. After the supplemental draft, 20 WWE Superstars had switched brands but for this column I will just focus on eight draft selections for this year’s draft. So here is how I would book the 2011 WWE Draft.




Drafted to Raw:

Jack Swagger- I think drafting Swagger to Raw makes sense right now. He has been appearing on Raw a lot lately as Michael Cole’s trainer so I would have him as an official Raw Superstar. Raw would benefit from having Swagger because they would have a few options with Swagger. They can keep him as Cole’s trainer, they can have him break away from Cole and continue being a heel, or they can have him turn on Cole and make him into a face. Swagger is a former World Champion so he could be in the mix for the WWE Championship.

Kofi Kingston- This could be a potential career changer. Kofi has great athleticism and whenever I see Kofi at a live WWE Event, he always gets a great reaction from the crowd. Like Swagger, there are a lot of things Raw can do with Kofi. Why not make Sin Cara and him into a tag team? It would give Sin Cara a chance to work with a WWE veteran and it would probably result in some exciting matches. If I was in charge of Raw, I would give Kofi more opportunities to cut promos. That is how The Miz was able to rise so quickly and it might be a way for Kofi to establish himself as a main event Superstar.

Drew McIntyre- I would be very interested to see what Drew McIntyre could do on Raw. He has been a Smackdown Superstar his entire WWE career so far so I think a change of scenery could give him a boost in his career. I like McIntyre’s aggressive style of wrestling. I think he could be a very nice addition to The New Nexus. McIntyre does not have a proven track record that suggests he would be very successful on Raw but neither did The Miz. McIntyre was impressive in the beginning of his stint on Smackdown so I would definitely take a risk moving McIntyre to Raw.

Drafted to Smackdown:


Randy Orton- This is an easy one for me. In my opinion this would be great for both Smackdown and Orton. Smackdown needs another top superstar. Even before Edge retired, Smackdown was lacking big names. Other than Edge and Rey Mysterio, what big stars did Smackdown have? Undertaker rarely appears on Smackdown anymore and does not seem to be appearing again anytime soon. The Big Show gets a good crowd reaction but is not popular enough to increase ratings. Alberto Del Rio is quickly rising to the top but he’s not quite there yet. Smackdown needs to give fans more reasons to tune in every week. They have attempted to do so by drafting Triple H in 2008 and drafting Chris Jericho in 2009. Now they need to draft Randy Orton. As for Orton, he needs to get back in the World Title picture. It is getting harder for Orton to get to the top on Raw with John Cena and The Miz in his way. On Smackdown, he would have almost no competition. I would have Alberto Del Rio win the World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules and have Orton start feuding with him immediately. It would not be a problem that Orton is currently feuding with CM Punk. I would have Orton beat Punk at Extreme Rules and the feud would effectively end right there. Randy Orton was on fire for most of 2010 but he has not been close to the World Title picture so far in 2011. A move to Smackdown would get him going in the right direction again.

Daniel Bryan- Daniel Bryan is no longer the United States Champion and is not really in any Raw storylines right now. Oh wait….I take that back. He is actually a small piece of APPLE right now. If I was running the WWE, I would make APPLE a one night only deal and have Daniel Bryan try to advance his career on Smackdown. I would love to see him start feuding right away with someone like Cody Rhodes. Cody and he could have a few impressive pay-per-view matches. Smackdown is more suited for Superstars who are more talented in the ring than on the mic so Bryan should be able to advance his WWE career a little more quickly on Smackdown than he would if he stayed on Raw.

Evan Bourne- Evan Bourne’s situation is very similar to Daniel Bryan’s situation. Bourne has been fun to watch on Raw but there just does not seem to be enough room for him right now. If he goes to Smackdown, I think he would have an opportunity to wrestle more often. Even if the move does not make a huge impact for him, he is no worse off than if he stayed on Raw.

Ted DiBiase- Ted DiBiase is another example of a Superstar who has potential but is not being used enough on Raw. Being reunited with Cody Rhodes on Smackdown could be interesting. Like Bourne, this would hopefully give DiBiase a chance to get more TV time. The fact the WWE had DiBiase be the star of The Marine 2 tells me that they have (or had) high hopes for him.

Zack Ryder- The theme of most of my Smackdown selections is giving young and upcoming talent a chance to show the WWE Universe what they can do when given an opportunity. Zack Ryder is another example of that especially since I do not think Ryder really has been given a chance to show what he can do. The others I mentioned have at least gotten a chance and failed. Where was Zack Ryder’s chance? Ryder’s goofy character seems to be a perfect fit for Raw but unfortunately Santino is currently Raw’s top class clown. I think Smackdown is perfect for Ryder because they have Hornswoggle. I think Ryder would have great chemistry with Hornswoggle and it would create some very entertaining backstage segments. It would also be a good idea to put the former WWE Champion #1 contender in some matches to show what he can do in the ring. Out of the eight selections I have listed in this column, Ryder would probably have to biggest potential to boost his career as much as The Miz did thanks to the draft.

I know I have five Superstars going to Smackdown and only three going to Raw but I did that on purpose. Smackdown needs more talent and Raw has too much talent. Raw recently added Dolph Ziggler and Sin Cara and will probably get Chris Jericho if and when he returns to the WWE so Raw can certainly afford to take a net loss. There are Superstars I wanted to have change brands but ultimately I decided it would be better to leave them alone. Sheamus seems like a good fit for Smackdown but he is the current United States Champion and that would mean Wade Barrett the Intercontinental Champion would have to go to Raw and I would rather see Barrett and The Corre stay together on Smackdown. I would like to see Kane on Raw but he is currently working with the Big Show and I would not want to end their feud with The Corre right now. R-Truth would be a nice addition for Smackdown but I would like to see him start a feud with John Morrison after Extreme Rules. I think the selections I discussed in this column would benefit both the brands and the drafted Superstars. That’s how I would book the 2011 WWE Draft.