Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Editorial5 Winners and 5 Losers Since The Brand Split

5 Winners and 5 Losers Since The Brand Split

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In an effort to revitalize the product while also bringing back memories of years gone by, WWE brought back the brand split and instituted their NBA-style draft last month. There has been many noticeable changes in the product since that took place since the draft. Smackdown used to be a watered down version follow-up of the events that took place on Monday Night in addition to being taped. Now, they have displayed must see television, combining simple story-telling with very good matches as well as injecting reality and furthering feuds with Talking Smack. Meanwhile, Monday Night RAW maintains its sports entertainment allure as WWE’s flagship shows, featuring established stars and main eventers along with future faces of the company. While RAW was deemed to have won the draft due to the immense talent that they had on paper, that hasn’t necessarily translated into dominating Smackdown as many initially thought. With that said, there is one certainty, being that there have been beneficiaries to the draft and those who have been negatively affected by the draft. With that said, here are my five biggest winners and losers from the draft.

Loser Number 1: RAW’s Tag Team Division

In the draft, many were of the opinion that RAW’s tag team blew the teams that Smackdown drafted out of the water. On the surface, it appeared that way, but if one were to look closer, Smackdown’s tag team division has been better, and it hasn’t particularly been close. Among the notable tag teams RAW drafted, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley drafted WWE Tag Team Champions, The New Day, two neophytes with tremendous upside in Enzo and Cass, and two well-traveled veterans of the wrestling business, two thirds of The Club, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. The primary tag team feud has been The New Day facing The Club, and believe it or not, they managed to build up approximately a month worth of TV time with a beef that was over……testicles. Yes, testicles. As much as I appreciate humor from WWE every now and then, and while The Club did inject a little (actually, scarce) humor in their dismantling of Big E’s manhood, the titles were on the line, and instead of making the feud important with a rich prize on the line, it just felt like a comedy act that didn’t make the belts feel important (then again, titles that look like two copper pennies can’t really be taken seriously anyways). WWE also drafted one of the greatest tag teams in the history of the business, the veteran Dudley Boyz, until they announced their retirement last week. In order to garner heel heat from the crowd, The Club ended The Dudley Boyz’ run in WWE by injecting imagery and irony by putting D-Von through a table. While I believe that The Dudley Boyz deserved a much better send-off, I can understand wanting to make The Club have that disdainful heel aura. I wonder what took them so long. The tag teams on RAW really lack the star power, and other than the three prominent tag teams that I mentioned, some of the others feature pure comic relief (The Golden Truth) and pairs with charisma amounting to that to a pile of walnuts (The Shining Stars). Enzo and Cass hasn’t been in the tag team title picture since Money In The Bank, and while Big Cass is set to compete for the Universal Championship tonight, the future of RAW’s tag teams look pretty bleak, especially with Jeri-KO seemingly disbanding sooner than later, as expected.

1. Winner Number 1: Smackdown’s Tag Team Division


One of the primary concerns of the draft was that the tag team division wasn’t deep enough to stretch over two brands. However, WWE still went along and gave Smackdown their tag team division, and in doing so, made tag team titles specifically for Smackdown. The one notable Smackdown pick in the draft was the exciting and World’s Greatest Tag Team look-a-like, American Alpha. While it initially looked like this tag team division was in dire straits, they have been able to feature all of the tag teams and give them something to fight for with a tournament that began last week. What I enjoyed last week about Smackdown last week was the match between American Alpha and Breezango (one of my increasingly favorite tag teams). They had a tremendous tag team match with great near-falls and story-telling. Breezango was perceived by many just to be a comedy act. Two men immersed with their own looks, but they are two good workers and they’ve done their jobs well. American Alpha needs no stating from me about what they bring to the table. Along with that, The Usos, while annoying and not really special, have shown they can produce good matches when paired with the right opponent (Wyatt Family, Gallows/Anderson, Rollins/Reigns), and with the rumors of them being the team to face American Alpha at Backlash, and turning heel in the process, I see great potential. Other teams like The Vaudevililans and The Hype Brothers may fall out of the loop every now and again, but their presence on Smackdown seems to have a more permeating effect than the teams on RAW. That’s what I love about Smackdown. They aren’t just there. They seem to have a purpose.


2. Loser Number 2: Sami Zayn

This one hurts a lot. You wouldn’t know it by watching Zayn, whenever he’s appeared, on RAW since the brand split, but he’s had one of the best years for anyone on the roster for 2016. He had a near perfect classic with Shinsuke Nakamura at Takeover: Dallas.Then he was involved in what many believed was one of the best matches of the night at WrestleMania with the Intercontinental Title Ladder Match. He continued with the best match of Payback, against Kevin Owens. He played a big role in the stellar Fatal Four way over the Intercontinental Title at Extreme Rules and had one of the best matches of the year at Battleground, again against Kevin Owens. That’s not including his involvement in the Money In The Bank Ladder match. However, the fears most people had for Sami Zayn being drafted to RAW have been realized. The top of the roster is too crowded.

You already have the main event players with guys like Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns taking up a good chunk of the time. Before he went out due to injury (and perhaps this may present an opening), Finn Balor was inserted immediately to the main event spotlight of RAW. Then you have guys hovering around the mid to upper card such as Rusev, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Cesaro and Sheamus taking up that space. Then you also factor in the tag teams, the female division, the weekly filler/fluff and Braun Strowman/Nia Jax’s weekly feeding sessions and you can see that Zayn has fallen out of the rotation. It also appears it will be a long climb before he reaches back there. You would think that Zayn being one of RAW’s higher picks, eh’d be featured more. With the Cruiserweight division set to come back with the Cruiserweight Championship, I suspect that Zayn is going to be involved in that seeing as how he meets the weight limit of 205 pounds. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing for him, it’s a far cry from what many wanted for him coming out of Battleground. It also presents the negative of having him being drafted on the same brand as Kevin Owens. This isn’t to say Sami won’t ever be in the main event, but that doesn’t appear to be the case for the immediate future.

Winner Number 2: AJ Styles

AJ Styles being drafted in the first round was a positive sign for me, because I think it signified that WWE, but more importantly, Vince McMahon, is high on AJ Styles. There’s no reason not to be as well. Since debuting in WWE at the Royal Rumble, he’s been one of WWE’s most consistent performers. He’s shown he can wrestle WWE style main event matches against some of WWE’s chosen ones in John Cena and Roman Reigns. He just came off one of the best matches of the year against Cena at Summerslam and he also had another very impressive outing on Smackdown against Dolph Ziggler. Now, he’s set to face Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and there’s no reason why WWE shouldn’t pull the trigger now and not hinder him. Styles is shaping up to be the face of Smackdown, despite Dean Ambrose being the WWE Champion. He’s the clear star of the of the brand, and going forward, it looks like he will be not only WWE Champion, but running things on Smackdown as one of the top faces of the company. AJ’s been one of, and a good case can be made, that he’s been the best that WWE has had to offer this year because of his sheer consistency. He’s a perfect heel, gives you reasons to hate him and can get the crowd captivated. But his clean win against John Cena at Summerslam not only make shim look extremely strong, but gives him credibility. If he can beat John Cena clean, there’s no reason why he can’t defeat Dean Ambrose. That was the issue that Dolph Ziggler had. He simply doesn’t have the reliability to win a huge match. He did lose 2 out of 3 pre-show matches against Baron Corbin of course. The top of Smackdown’s elite isn’t as deep with Cena out, so this is the perfect time for AJ to spread his wings, and there’s nowhere except up for him.

Loser Number 3: Cesaro


Cesaro turns 36 this year, and while that’s relatively young in the wrestling world, we have to at least start setting our watches to when Cesaro will reach his full potential. There have been many for a while that have been calling for Cesaro to get more prominence and an increased role on television. He aired his frustrations right after being drafted to RAW, where he believes that Smackdown would be the place that places influence on wrestling and not all of the sports entertainment fluff that gets inserted to RAW. Now, if you ask me, Cesaro doesn’t have the full arsenal to carry a main event feud. His speaking is amateur at best, and he’s lacking in charisma. The wrestling and power is there. But simply saying “HEY” and waiving to the Cesaro section isn’t enough. He has to work on it, and RAW will present limited opportunities for him to improve as opposed to the more storyline centered Smackdown. Right now he is in a Best of 7 Series with Sheamus in which the latter currently leads 1 to 0, and unless something is announced over time, there is no incentive to this series as this seems to be more of an endurance test for both the competitors and the fans. Unfortunately, I just don’t see Cesaro getting that opportunity that many people think that he should get. I think he should get it, but only if he works on the other aspects of his character. Unfortunately, a high maintenance show like RAW won’t present that opportunity for Cesaro. Only time will tell what the future holds for Swiss Superman.


Winner Number 3: Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler fell into relative obscurity since his last world title reign in 2013, meandering from the mid-card to the pre-show. He hadn’t had anything significant going for him, but Smackdown commissioner Shane McMahon claimed that they were going to be the brand of opportunity, and Shane delivered on that promise. On Dolph’s first night on Smackdown, he defeated five of the biggest names on the Smackdown roster and got himself in a feud with Dean Ambrose. The feud with Dean Ambrose featured marvelous storytelling, with great matches to build up to it, but more importantly tremendous promo work. While their match at Summerslam didn’t match the quality of build-up that came to it, I think this little stint by Ziggler isn’t temporary. I think he’ll be back in higher-profile things on Smackdown. I think he showed his potential shine when he has something to motivate him, and let’s face it, what exactly has Ziggler looked forward to in the past 3 years?


Loser Number 4: Rusev

Rusev no crush. Rusev’s been an okay United States Champion, but since he’s feuded with Roman Reigns, he’s looked like an absolute chump. Reigns comes out to challenge Rusev, and Reigns gets the upper hand. Rusev and Lana celebrate their marriage and Reigns embarrassed Rusev and Lana. Rusev challenges Reigns to a fight to defend his wife’s honor and he loses cleanly while getting speared from the top of the ramp. Then, at Summerslam, he gets speared from approximately the same place. Now, I’m certain that Rusev will continue his feud with Reigns by perhaps costing him in the Universal Championship match tonight, but there has been little to be encouraged about since Rusev came to RAW. With the talent on the roster, Rusev will begin to feud with guys of higher pedigree. So far, with the way this feud has been going, it has been disproportionately favored Reigns. WWE needs to have Rusev be the monster-like heel he’s supposed to be. Of course, he can’t win every match, but when a man who used to run rough shot over the entire roster now is getting handled by one man with this much ease, his credibility. will gradually go down and he will fade into obscurity once again. WWE is treading dangerous waters.


Winner Number 4: Heath Slater

The best way I can describe Heath Slater, especially after the draft, is that old saying. When life gives you bananas, you make a banana smoothie. You can’t tell me you haven’t enjoyed Slater’s work. Slater was left out of the WWE draft and garnered the gimmick of being the hottest WWE free agent, crossing both brands, interfering in segments and providing humor. It’s sort of weird how wrestling works sometimes. In Slater’s case, he’s been mauled by Lesnar, lost to Rhyno, lost to Jinder Mahal, and won by DQ against Orton but got RKO’d after, and he’s on fire and the crowd loves him. It’s because he does his job well. WWE crowds appreciates those who can do their jobs, and Slater does his correctly. No one knows what’s in store for Slater, but the brand split has been good for his character.


Loser Number 5: Bray Wyatt

It’s been a rough go for Bray Wyatt. He has yet to win a championship in his singles career, and has yet to win any important feud. For the time being, it appears as though he will be feuding with the Apex Predator, but his career has been in limbo. None of his feuds have amounted to much, he’s lost important ones(John Cena, Undertaker), and he was left off the Summerslam card. Many thought Bray being on RAW would be a chance to expose him much more and get him into the main event spotlight instead of the crowded RAW. Bray Wyatt has done masterful mic work since being drafted to Smackdown and had a good match with Dolph Ziggler on one episode, but again, he has yet to do anything, and even if he were to win against Randy Orton at Backlash, what will it result in? Barring a face turn, his other options for the time being at the top are limited, especially with Cena out. Ambrose and Styles are in a current feud that may last a couple of months, and after Orton, where does he go? Ziggler? This is all of course under the assumption Styles wins the title, because he’d probably still be a heel. This is where the lack of talent on Smackdown may hurt Wyatt, because there are scarce opponents of high pedigree to give him the revitalization his persona and his career needs. Hopefully things pick up for him sooner than later.


Winner Number 5: The Women

Charlotte was drafted in the first round as number 3, perpetuating WWE’s faith in the women’s division. That faith has been validated as Charlotte has had two stellar matches against Sasha Banks. Bayley getting called up last week also gives the RAW’s women division some added life and energy, seeing as how over Bayley was with the crowd during her stint at NXT. For the Smackdown women’s division, the development started out slow as Becky Lynch is the proposed face of that group of females. However, the character development has come on very strong since. Before Eva Marie’s suspension, she had a perfect heel gimmick for her, teasing coming out for matches with her announcer while never actually competing. Carmella had nothing to her without Enzo and Cass at her side, but her beating Nikki Bella senseless on Smackdown and on Talking Smack adds a dimension to her character, and her as a heel is certainly better than imitating Michael Jackson in your entrance. Alexa Bliss is still green in a lot of areas, but she has a great look and has the look of a top female heel. Nikki Bella returning also gives the added star power and insurance that the Smackdown’s women division needed. Combine that with the experience of Natayla, the wrestling of Becky Lynch and, well, whatever Naomi is doing, and you have a solid set of females. Stephanie likes to gloat about the Women’s Revolution, and she does take a lot of the credit of course, but I think we are in the midst of a Female Renaissance of sorts. It certainly is much better than where this division was prior to the NXT call-ups from last summer. So enjoy it while we’re in it. They may not show it every night, but if you’ve watched them closely, they’ve delivered on big stages.


Bonus Winner: Kevin Owens

BECAUSE HE JUST WON THE FREAKING TITLE. Sorry Adam Cole, but it’s KO MANIA BAY BAY!!!!!


Agree? Disagree? Let me know. Until next time.

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