Jim Ross has a new blog up on his official website at this link looking at the WWE Draft and WWE Supplemental Draft this week. Here are a few captions from the blog entry:
“First the Draft. No huge surprises as any one who did not think that Monday Night Raw wasn’t going to be enhanced more than any other brand simply wasn’t paying attention. Raw is the #1 TV priority of WWE and rightfully so as it delivers the biggest audience in the longest standing time slot on the best medium to sell pay per views, cable TV. Raw will have John Cena, HHH, Batista, HBK, and MVP at their disposal to feature as fan favorites. That’s five deep, at worst, plus perhaps an unknown will “break through.” One can also assume that Raw will get the “pick of the litter” from FCW whenever that may be. It will also be interesting to see how impactful Mr. Kennedy is when he debuts on Raw after fully healing from shoulder surgery which should be in the next month or so. If Kennedy “hits” as he is likely to do then Monday Night Raw gets even stronger. Santino Marella has surprisingly become one of the most popular individuals on Raw which doesn’t hurt the Monday night staple either as far as entertainment content is concerned. I DVR Raw every week but always try and make a point of watching the show live if at all possible. I feel all WWE announcers should watch all the shows but that’s just one man’s opinion.
Smackdown did well retaining The Undertaker, Jeff Hardy, Edge and Umaga while adding Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Kane, and perhaps the Smackdown sleeper Draft pick in John Morrison. I also like having Shelton Benjamin, Dolph Ziggler, Curt Hawkins, Ricky Ortiz (no towels please unless they feature JR’s BBQ), Charlie Haas and Mike Knox on Friday nights. Opportunity is knocking and it will be fun to see who truly wants to step up and grab the proverbial brass ring and become a perennial main eventer from these newcomers and from the other holdovers. If all the pieces fall into place, I can easily see several of the young Smackdown talents becoming big time players in WWE much Sooner than later. I like the overall level of athleticism of the SD roster.
ECW has a smaller roster but they also only do one hour of TV per week which is about 42 minutes of content for Sci Fi. I could theoretically see some of WWE’s promising prospects making ECW their first WWE address over the next few months. I love watching fresh faces compete as I think most fans enjoy seeing “new” to a large degree. Who’s to say that ECW can’t be a surprise laden broadcast every week especially if we start seeing some newcomers on Tuesday night. I don’t know the plans but it seems to like that concept might be logical.”