WWE Draft 2008

We’ve already seen Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy move. As you already know tonight’s bouts will match-up two brands against each other. The winner gets the draft pick. More importantly, the Guy at Ringside Dressed like Hulk Hogan that was at every Michigan show a few months ago is back in the front row tonight in San Antonio!

Oh, and the Million Dollar Madness password tonight is Night of Champions.

Match/Draft Pick #3
Chavo Guerrero and Bam Neely (ECW) vs. Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes (RAW)
Holly hits an Alabama slammer and pins Chavo.

RAW Draft Pick: CM Punk

Draft Grade: B. So that’s who Rey Mysterio is going to fight. A lot of people seem to love CM Punk (I’m not one of them) so his promotion up to RAW makes sense; he’s been billed as a bigger star than the ECW stage provides. Is his presence going to make RAW better? Is his going to fight for those titles? Maybe. He can face Rey, Shawn Michaels, Y2J, and even Cena-Orton-HHH. Let’s hope he can step up to the challenge.

Match/Draft Pick #4
The Miz and Morrison (ECW) vs. The Hardy Boyz (SmackDown)
We have the Hardy Boyz together sooner than expected! It’s like they were never apart. They were meant to be a tag team. Still, Miz and Morrison have really improved as a partnership and this is a pretty good match. Morrison pins Matt Hardy with some dastardly tactics. Best match of the night so far.

ECW Draft Pick: Matt Hardy

Draft Grade: F. Not only does this choice stink but it also lowers the grade of every previous pick. I’m crushed. Matt doesn’t belong in ECW purgatory and he doesn’t deserve to be separated from his brother.

Match/Draft Pick #5
Mickie James and Melina (RAW) vs. Natalya and Victoria (SmackDown)
Melina gets hurt and both teams are DQ’d. Both RAW and SmackDown get draft picks.

SmackDown Draft Pick: Announcer Jim Ross
RAW Draft Pick: Announcer Michael Cole

Draft Grade: B I really liked both announcing teams and wasn’t sure if a change needed to happen. Nevertheless JR and Mick Foley should prove to be a very entertaining pair. The four announcers look shocked and have a hard time saying anything. Maybe the advance word was true and no one knew what was going to happen to their lives.

The truth is I’m putting my computer away for the night. I’ll watch the rest of RAW some time tomorrow. I’m sad and disgusted. I thought this Draft was going to bring change and new life to the WWE. Instead it seems like a reinforced status quo laced by vindictive decisions. Arrrggghh.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

WWE Draft 2008

Tonight’s bouts will match-up two brands against each other. The winner gets the draft pick. More importantly, the Guy at Ringside Dressed like Hulk Hogan that was at every Michigan show a few months ago is back in the front row tonight in San Antonio!

Oh, and the Million Dollar Madness password tonight is Night of Champions.

Match/Draft Pick #1
Triple H (RAW) vs. Mark Henry (SmackDown)
Henry gets the most of Triple H for most of this match but there’s no way the WWE Champion is going to lose this one. And he doesn’t. He hits the “World’s Strongest Man” with a Pedigree and the sweaty one is out for the count.

RAW Draft Pick: Rey Mysterio! And there he is!!! He looks great and ready to rumble. RAW just got a lot more exciting but we don’t know how the tiny luchador is going to do among RAW’s pantheon of behemoths. Maybe this means John Cena or Randy Orton is moving to SmackDown.

Draft Grade: D. This doesn’t really alleviate RAW’s matchup rut since we don’t think Mysterio is going to be fighting Cena-Triple H-Orton at PPV’s any time soon. Their massive size difference is painfully obvious when Mysterio stands with Cena-Triple H during the next segment. Is he going to fight Jeff Hardy every week? This doesn’t make sense unless there are a lot more changes to come.

Match/Draft Pick #2
Finlay and Hornswaggle (SmackDown) vs. Santino Marella and Carlito (RAW)
Looks like Vince McMahon is getting back at Santino for insulting the Triple H politics. Santino gets pinned by the little leprechaun. How embarrassing.

SmackDown Draft Pick: Jeff Hardy.

Draft Grade: B. We called for this pick in our Draft Wish List because we wanted to see the Hardy Boyz reunited but also because we wanted to see Jeff fight Rey Mysterio. With Mysterio gone to RAW this seems like an even swap that won’t really change the make-up of either brand. Too bad. It leaves poor Rey without a high-flying RAW counterpart.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

ECW Results
The Miz def. CM Punk
Kelly Kelly, Michelle McCool, & Cherry def. Layla, Victoria, & Natalya
Mike Knox def. Colin Delaney
Armando Estrada def. Colin Delaney
John Morrison def Kane

Tonight’s ECW gets off to a surprisingly good start with CM Punk facing The Miz. We immediately think mismatch; The Miz is a good tag team partner but there’s no way he can defeat Mr. Money in the Bank one-on-one. CM Punk is the #4 ranked wrestler in the WWE’s Power 25. The Miz ranks #4 in our Best Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestants behind Alton, Veronica, and Coral.

But the Miz storms out from the beginning and shockingly takes down CM Punk and we can’t help but wonder is Punk’s time in the WWE up?

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