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| THE SMACKDOWN MERCY MISSION |
Matt Barnes |
The WWE Draft made SmackDown the premier brand and left Raw as the B-show. Will it stay that way?
Let’s begin this feature with a poignant moment of brutal honesty, folks: WWE’s product, in recent months, has been the absolute shits. Predictable, dull, boring and bereft of anything remotely new, viewers have been left with a bad taste in their mouths by watching the same guys in the same feuds week after week.
Fans have (at long, long last) voted with their remotes, meaning that viewing numbers have dwindled. Indeed, they declined so steadily in May and June of this year that Vince McMahon took to paying people to watch WWE programming, rather than trying to find a creative, artistic way to beat the slump. Now that’s just dumb.
In fact, the last several months have been recognised by many as the most prolonged, unbearably stale point in recent WWE history, and something simply had to be done to freshen things up – Million Dollar Mania or no Million Dollar Mania. To many viewers the 2008 Draft was make-or-break and the whole promotion came out of it looking in better shape than it has done in some time, with SmackDown in particular looking better and brighter than ever.
But who really benefited most from the changes WWE made in late June? Is it a mere coincidence that SmackDown has been bolstered by the presence of Jim Ross and Jeff Hardy, given that Hunter went there himself in search of a lighter schedule? And, given how poorly ECW was treated during the main Draft lottery itself, is the continued fan apathy towards the group any surprise to anybody at Titan Towers, and is there any way back to the limelight for the third-string brand?
THE NEW KING OF FRIDAY NIGHTS
The most unforeseen shock of the 2008 Draft came when Triple H was drafted to SmackDown. Having spent years hogging the limelight on Raw (and having flirted only very briefly with the blue brand, way back in 2002) it was widely expected that John Cena would be the marquee main to depart to Friday nights, heading up a show that would have huge family friendly appeal with the likes of Rey Mysterio.
But when Rey was drafted to Raw it instantly killed that idea dead. And when Batista then followed him to Monday nights, it seemed a lock that a re-run of the Triple H versus Batista showdowns of yesteryear were on the cards and that yet another year would pass without any real Draft success for SmackDown.
Things didn’t pan out that way, of course, with Triple H surprising everyone by heading to the blue brand himself. But given that Mr and Mrs McMahon-Helmsley have another little one on the way – and that SmackDown’s schedule is far more conducive to family life than Raw’s, allowing Hunter to spend most of the week at home while travelling to and from shows on the company jet – in retrospect is it really any surprise that he made the jump?
So, with the Draft done and dusted, it all seemed pretty straightforward; Hunter to SmackDown, Batista to Raw, then either Batista beats Edge or Cena beats Hunter and equilibrium is restored in The WWE Universe™. But then, like a bolt of lightning, the unthinkable happened when both Edge and Hunter retained at Night Of Champions.
For a fleeting moment, Raw had no world title belt. Of course, this was rectified on the first Raw following the pay-per-view, when CM Punk stunningly cashed in his Money In The Bank briefcase and took the title from Edge, but for half a second there SmackDown was the most important wrestling show in the world. And it was really no surprise to anybody that it was Edge, not Triple H, who did the jobbing honours when it came to sending some gold back to Monday nights.
Sure, everybody in the world knew that Helmsley wouldn’t be quick to give up his hard-earned WWE Championship, even given his unpredicted brand switch. But given the sheer number of transitional champion roles that Edge has played in recent years, most felt that even a bunch of heartless bastards on the WWE booking committee couldn’t screw the hardworking Canadian out of his gold yet again.
But they did, making Punk’s title win a genuine surprise. And so, rather than losing the belt “the right way” when leaving Raw (seek out Hunter’s comments on Bret Hart for clarification of that statement), Triple H took it – and his friends – to Thursdays with him.
STOMPED LIKE A GOVERNMENT MULE
Naturally, the most noteworthy transition aside from our humble King Of Kings was the unexpected Jim Ross/Michael Cole trade-off, which saw long-time Raw announcer JR trade places with the dullard announcer who has (badly) called every episode of SmackDown, bar two.
When the switch was announced on air it was a breathtaking moment, and for fans that like their wrestling ‘real’ JR’s reaction was as legit as they come. For those who respect Ross’ decades-long career as one of the best announcers in wrestling history, it was a real kick in the teeth. You see,
the entire thing – like so much the last few years – was a big ol’ rib on JR. It was a chance for Vince to flex his corporate muscle and again remind everybody who the boss is. It was also a chance to create compelling, unpredictable live television, but most of all it was a rib on Ross.
And why, you ask, would McMahon want to do something so heinous to one of his most trusted and loyal employees? The answer is twofold. Firstly, he did it because he could. Secondly, he did it because Ross had been pontificating for weeks beforehand on his blog about how he didn’t want to move brands at any cost.
Make no mistake, Ross genuinely did not want (and had no reason to think he might have) to move to SmackDown. While he was certainly trying to add some spice to the promotion of the three-hour Draft special by talking up the possibility of announcers changing brands (particularly given WWE’s opinion that fat, frozen-faced Southern announcers are utterly worthless), it’s worth reworking a popular Shakespearean phrase to help decipher this one: “Methinks the JR dost protest too much”.
By proclaiming to all in earshot that he wasn’t willing to go, JR did nothing but awaken that vicious, spitting, spiteful side of McMahon that loves to poop in a metaphorical bag, light it on fire and leave it on his employee’s doorstep as an early Christmas present. There has been much made of the SmackDown switcheroo in the online community but, of all the writers out there, former WWE staffer Kevin Kelly put it best in his column on www.wrestlezone.com:
“I think Vince hates looking at JR… Vince sees everything as ‘weakness’. Fat people are weak. Sick people are weak… The surest way to get anything in WWE is say you don’t want it to happen… When JR wrote in his blog that he didn’t want to move to SmackDown, I knew he would get it. Just out of spite, Vince would do that to JR just to show he has control, just because he can… And what’s worse, JR gave Vince what he wanted… the pouty face on TV. JR put the damn rib over.”
INTO THE BLUE
Whether done out of spite, necessity or the good of the company, the transfers of JR, Triple H, Umaga and co. preceded what was undoubtedly one of the most watchable episodes of SmackDown in recent memory. The show was crisp, exciting, unpredictable and had a purpose (coming just two days before Night Of Champions).
And, as if that wasn’t enough, the brand was also at this point briefly boosted by the presence of two world titles, with both Edge and Hunter each crowing over their respective gold. This is certainly an interesting time in WWE; while SmackDown’s ratings have hovered around the same level that they have done for years, Raw’s numbers have flat-out plummeted. And SmackDown has traditionally been merrily bitchslapped in the Draft, and often relieved of its key players, this year it was different.
The blue brand needed something and, for a change, WWE actually provided it – and suddenly Friday nights are feeling a lot more interesting. Importantly, however, as Lance Storm rightly notes on page 78, SmackDown is leaving the CW Network this autumn and heading to a much less prestigious station in the States, MyNetworkTV, so something desperate was needed to boost the brand’s fortunes ahead of such a challenging move.
What the company has done by moving so many key players onto the show has guaranteed some good, entertaining action that could do far more than simply carry the show through a difficult winter; it could potentially make it the A-show for the first time in its history. This would surely benefit WWE, as MyNetworkTV is owned by US media giant Fox; any shot at improving the promotion’s standing with a mainstream media powerhouse is one that McMahon can’t afford to turn down.
EXTREME INTENT
Two men who also certainly won, both in and after the Draft, were Matt Hardy and Mark Henry. Having languished on SmackDown for far too long, Hardy is now in a position to potentially carry and elevate the ECW brand – particularly after taking his US Title with him and thus, for the first time since ECW’s ‘rebirth’, given the brand a secondary title for its stars to compete for.
The move itself instantly elevated Hardy; on the first SmackDown after the Draft, he found himself competing in a superb match against World Champion Edge – and, for a change, he was treated like a real star and looked like the multi-time champion’s equal.
Mark Henry, meanwhile, won his first major gold at Night Of Champions after over ten years with WWE, taking the ECW Title from Kane, who found himself headed to Raw with the belt following the Draft. While ECW may be but the third string in WWE’s television bow, it is fair to say that joining the C-show does present a unique opportunity for both Henry and Hardy – particularly given how a similar move has raised Chavo Guerrero’s sagging stock in recent times.
Competing for a world title – even the ECW one – is a big step in the right direction, and may finally help establish both men as major players within the company. For Henry, the challenge is different from Hardy’s; as an immense physical specimen, he has been overpushed for most of his WWE tenure and has frequently found himself in positions he just plain wasn’t ready for. This is a chance at a rebirth.
Having him take the title from Kane was absolutely the right move for the creatively challenged ECW, which may literally have died a death without a title for its talent to squabble over. The onus is now on Henry and Hardy – and, to a lesser extent, fellow draftees Super Crazy, Finlay and Hornswoggle – to make ECW television compulsive viewing for the first time in nearly a decade.
SEEING RED
Naturally, as much as SmackDown was boosted by the Draft and ECW was handed a slight glimmer of hope, there were some winners on Raw. Kofi Kingston, the youngster who jumped from ECW and then bagged the Intercontinental Championship at Night Of Champions, immediately springs to min. So too does Batista, who’s run-ins with Edge and The Undertaker, while entertaining and a vast improvement on his work the last time he was a Raw regular, had long run their course.
Of course, the real success story of the Draft – albeit, for now, a short-term one – has to be CM Punk, who hit a popularity peak around the time of Survivor Series 2006 but has languished ever since, never being allowed to generate enough momentum to compete with the real stars, but always seeming somehow too big for ECW. The onus will be on Punk now to show what he can do with the gold when the really bright lights are shining – if he, like Edge, can deliver good ratings in his unplanned title run, his potential will finally override the politics against him.
By contrast, the move presents different challenges for two other big-name WWE superstars, Kane and Rey Mysterio. While Kane had, at last, found his niche on ECW feuding with the biggest monsters in the company, Rey was pretty much the embodiment of SmackDown, even despite his lengthy injury-induced absences in recent times.
A man who worked so hard to overcome the size barrier and become a signature star, Rey will have to work extremely hard to claw back his main event spot on a show where John Cena is the clear kids’ favourite. Kane, meanwhile, will no doubt stumble around in the Raw mid-card until the next Draft, engaging in fairly pointless feuds that do little to elevate himself or others. We wish them both well.
COLOUR BLIND
Given the shocking post-WrestleMania Raw ratings and the dull, painful nature of all three brands, the 2008 Draft simply had to be a success. Curiously, its effect appears to have been threefold.
Raw is weakened by the loss of some major names, but has several fresh faces that could add to the mix and has been handed a huge boost as a result of CM Punk’s unexpected title win. ECW has been given at least a chance of creating some watchable television. And SmackDown has cakewalked it and has instantly become just about the most important show that WWE has to offer.
But, while Jim Ross, Hunter, Jeff Hardy and friends may be the shot in the arm that SmackDown so badly needed, and though Punk, Mysterio and Batista certainly open up a myriad of fresh new feuding options on Raw, as ever many of the midcard guys have lost out in the game of musical chairs, moving brands needlessly.
SmackDown, with the loss of the US Title to ECW, now has no second-tier for its young guns to make their business. As such there is Hunter at the top, then his buddies, then everybody else trapped underneath with their noses pressed up against the glass ceiling – just the way he likes it…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 30 of FSM – available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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