the first ever wwf/e draft

TheBoyRo
TheBoyRo Members Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭✭✭
This Day In Wrestling History - March 25

Date: March 25, 2002 (12 years ago)

Feature: One week after WrestleMania 18, WWF/E held the initial Draft to split the roster in-half for Raw and Smackdown. In the ring on Raw, Triple H faced Stephanie McMahon & Chris Jericho with the Undisputed WWF Title on the line and The NWO faced Hulk Hogan & The Rock in a handicap match.

Torch Back-Issue: PWTorch Newsletter #698.


PWTORCH COVER STORY
HEADLINE: Draft weakened as Triple H, Jericho, Austin excluded
SUBHEADLINE: McMahon picks Rock first, Flair picks Undertaker second, most of roster split part of post-Raw lottery
By Wade Keller, Torch editor

The WWF sucked the life out of the draft even before it started. The intrigue going into the draft was what the order of drafting would be of the WWF's top stars - Rock, Steve Austin, and Triple H. Instead of taking on that challenge, the WWF copped out of it, managing to avoid any ego bruising. Austin and Triple H were taken out of the draft, and the reasoning was outright lame. Triple H wasn't in the draft because he was wrestling later, as if viewers were supposed to go, "Yeah, if someone wrestles tonight, there's no way they could possibly be drafted."

The Austin excuse was only slightly less lame - that he had a clause in his contract that prevented him from being drafted, as if he had the foresight when he signed his contract to add the clause: "Should the WWF decide to engage in a brand extension process, I shall be exempt from any such ongoings."

It didn't stop there. Chris Jericho was also exempt because he was in the title match later, also. The rationale was that because either could end up champion after the show, neither could be drafted. That, of course, begs the question: When a WWF champion loses the title, which group will he end up in? The logical thing to do would be to draft everyone, but whenever a wrestler is a champion, he is accessible to both groups, and when he loses the title, he goes back to his home promotion. But that logic would have forced the WWF to set an order for Triple H, Rock, and Austin in the draft. Instead, the obvious first pick was The Rock, taken by Vince McMahon. That means no more Rock on Raw unless he wins the WWF Title.

It has been years since there has been as much tension among the top three stars in the WWF. Steve Austin's status with the WWF is up in the air at this point. He returned home immediately after WrestleMania last week, skipping Raw and Smackdown. He is in the midst of a dispute with management, a dispute that wasn't resolved in time for Raw. All indications are he's in the midst of a hold-out of some kind.

Steve Austin and Vince McMahon have often had disputes. During Austin's early days as a main eventer, certain things happened that Austin (and other veterans advising him of McMahon's ways) interpreted as McMahon playing head games with him. They've had a leery relationship ever since.

Austin's lack of trust of McMahon over the years doesn't explain all of his ornery episodes. He has been especially impatient and short-tempered in recent weeks. Austin, who opted out of working a program with Hulk Hogan when the WrestleMania plans were being discussed, ended up saddled with Scott Hall. Austin was concerned from the beginning, but was assured Hall would be on a short leash.

When Hall decided to drink beers in the hotel bar the night before WrestleMania, Hall showed that he wasn't taking his redemption seriously. It only drove home Austin's point that he wasn't going to go out of his way to help Hall in any way - especially doing a job to him at WrestleMania. A few days earlier, the finish of the Austin-Hall match was changed from Hall winning thanks to NWO interference to Austin winning clean without interference - apparently to placate Austin, who was growing less and less patient with the direction of the WWF and Vince McMahon in general.

McMahon was still attempting to deal with the Austin situation as of the weekend leading into the draft. Their solution to his unsure status was to "write him out of the draft entirely" and declare him a free agent. The last thing the WWF wanted was to upset Austin by having Rock drafted ahead of him. Both are, after all, pushed as equal top babyfaces - or at least they were until WrestleMania hype began.

Austin, though, is at a point in his career where it shouldn't surprise McMahon that he isn't going to put up with anything he doesn't like. Austin may be stubborn and ornery, but he also has pride and will not put up with backstage games. He's not talking, but his actions indicate he's had enough of what's been going on in the WWF. Just as the WWF is splitting into two divisions, the role and even the availability of Austin is in doubt. The WWF has set up the storyline so that when Austin returns, he will be courted by both Flair and McMahon, playing to his ego.

Meanwhile, The Rock has become the runaway top babyface in the WWF thanks to the momentum of WrestleMania and his promos since then. However, Rock has said in recent media interviews that he doesn't know how much longer he'll be even a semi-full-time wrestler. The last year of doing movies and wrestling full time has drained him, he says.

As much as he credits the WWF for his crossover success in Hollywood, there comes a point where wrestling may take a back seat to other movie opportunities and time with his family. He is already saying he may cut back to just a handful of special matches each year.

The length of his current contract will probably dictate how long he wrestles full time, although given his leverage at this point, he could probably negotiate out of any legal clause in his contract since the last thing the WWF wants to do is make him feel like a prisoner of his contract; they don't want to jeopardize their long-term relationship with him.

If Rock cuts his schedule back to just a few matches per year, Austin becomes all the more important to the WWF. That means management will probably do everything possible to bend to Austin's wishes, as unreasonable as they may believe he is being.

Triple H is committed to full time wrestling in the WWF for the foreseeable future. But he alone cannot carry two TV shows. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan are relatively short-term part-time novelty acts, and none can carry a show on his own. Undertaker, who was Ric Flair's first pick in the draft, is a solid role player, but isn't in a position to carry an entire show. By excluding Triple H, Jericho, and Austin from the draft, it made it politically palatable to satisfy Taker, who could totally understand being drafted after Rock, but probably wouldn't have been pleased being drafted after Hall, Nash, or Hulk Hogan for a long list of reasons.

The rest of the draft order was explained by backstage skits, such as Kurt Angle convincing Vince McMahon to take Chris Benoit (ahead of Hulk Hogan), because Angle tipped off McMahon that Flair had his eye on Benoit and Benoit looked better than ever. Certain steps were taken to give credibility to the Benoit and Angle picks, but storyline explanations were also included to dampen the ego blows to those picked after them

Comments

  • dalyricalbandit
    dalyricalbandit Members, Moderators Posts: 67,918 Regulator
    I hated the brand split
  • VIBE
    VIBE Members Posts: 54,384 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Austin's situation sounds similar to Punk, but of course, Austin was way bigger and had more wiggle room with Vince than Punk.

    I think that begs the question — why didn't Vince want to build Punk up more? I mean, there's tons of money to be made with Punk, the marks eat that ? up. His merch was selling hot as ? , which is why he was champion for so long. If Vince could put up with Austin, why couldn't he put up with Punk?

    But, anyways, back to the draft, I didn't realize it was really that complicated. SmackDown at the time was actually good, RAW wasn't much better tbh, both are WWE, so why the ego fight to stay on RAW?

    I remember finally getting to the third time they did the draft and realizing that, the top guys on RAW, would never see SmackDown as a home. Didn't Triple H get drafted from RAW to SmackDown, then from SmackDown back to RAW? I know someone did and it was weird as ? . Maybe it was Cena?
  • IceBergTaylor
    IceBergTaylor Members Posts: 19,167 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The draft was the beginning of me losing interest in the WWF/E
    I was a huge fan up until this point.
    The draft ruined WWE for me.
    Cant believe it was 12 years ago.
  • DOPEdweebz
    DOPEdweebz Members, Moderators, Writer Posts: 29,364 Regulator
    Because Austin looks like a complete badass and sells more merch than Cena and built like a football player.
  • jono
    jono Members Posts: 30,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    When Hall decided to drink beers in the hotel bar the night before WrestleMania

    Word?
  • dalyricalbandit
    dalyricalbandit Members, Moderators Posts: 67,918 Regulator
    son would drink beer in the ring while wrestling ? wouldn't shock me

  • Mally_G
    Mally_G Members Posts: 2,927 ✭✭✭✭✭
    i liked the brand split, it was supposed to give the mid and low card performers a chance to shine.

    RAW is the Holy Grail in the company, so if someone started to blow up on Smackdown, have them run with the title for a bit, make a chase type feud with a couple competitors, then whomever came out smelling like roses would move to RAW. Again, if someone wasn't working out on RAW, relegate them to Smackdown. At least the person who was relegated has the RAW juice dripping and could be a "big deal" on Smackdown, and then someone on Smackdown could try to wipe that aura from the recent acquisition.

    When Paul E. was running Smackdown, he booked a complete wrestling show. It was a better product than RAW, and the executives knew it, that's why they removed Paul from his position as booker. RAW had the names, egos, and star power that appealed to the mainstream audience, Smackdown was the wrestling show.

    That's why I say I liked the split in terms of chance for those who were always buried on RAW and never got a chance. At least with Paul E., he gave everyone a chance to make a name for themselves with their wrestling ability. But the E was more interested in him producing stars that'll appeal to Hollywood.

    Sometime ago, I wrote how the E could have used ECW, WCW, Smackdown, and RAW as a tier system to promote and relegate talent.

    ECW - new signed talent to the company (WWE). Internet matches. Expose them how they are doing NXT or the old Ohio Valley. Put them through tough matches, and some traditional ECW ? stuff to test their toughness. Here, a gimmick is established and experimented. Once the trainers feel they are in-ring ready, they graduate to WCW.

    WCW - Some TV exposure on a minor scale. Evaluating talent on whether they can feud and promo. There will be talent that graduated from ECW and some from Smackdown/RAW who were relegated and new additional seasoning. If the relegated talent can't get over in WCW, after being relegated from Smackdown/RAW for maybe a gimmick overhaul or promo work, future endeavor them, or send them to ECW for more training.

    Smackdown - Almost there, but the talent needs to show they can wrestle, promo, and have a bankable gimmick. Feuding skills are put to the test against relegated RAW talent, and promoted WCW talent. If the talent can't make it here, they are relegated to WCW. If the fans take to the talent after a few (not one), but a few bankable feuds, and title runs, then they graduate to RAW.

    RAW - The main stage, where the big boys play. It's either play hard, win, or go home. If you don't make it here, you're relegated back down to Smackdown.

    It's a simple tier system. I just wish the WWE had sense and used a proper format to make everyone a star, or at least make them appealing.
  • 5th Letter
    5th Letter Members, Moderators, Writer Posts: 37,068 Regulator
    The NXT was what ECW was supposed to be as far as being a separate entity within the WWE umbrella. But they screwed that up. As for the brand split I hated it at first but then I grew to like it. The split had potential but it was never truly used to its maximum potential. It gave the WWE two touring rosters, they had two different shows with different rules and focus. Raw was the storyline and star studded brand. Smackdown was the inring show. This dynamic worked briefly but the WWE just got impatient.
  • TonyDubbz
    TonyDubbz Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 19,261 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I liked the brand split at first because it wasn't repetitive. Like we went through all the ppvs and then came survivor series where they would do Brand vs Brand and I liked that ? becaue it combined everyone again just for that competitve event. Then things just got repetitive, I looked forward to the first year after the draft so that the rosters could be shaken up again but then they did that whole both brands would have their own ppvs thing and I aint like that ? , I wanted everyone on the same ppvs because I wanted to see brands collide more often.

  • Mally_G
    Mally_G Members Posts: 2,927 ✭✭✭✭✭
    the brand split PPVs were mad boring. they jumped the gun on the idea, because the bottom and middle of the rosters weren't stable.

    you almost always knew who you're main event was going to be on both brands, but the middle was unpredictable and the bottom, no one cared for.

    it was best to have up to the top 12 matches/feuds/storylines going onto the PPVs to sell them.

    if they built up those parts of the roster first, got good feuds started, and interesting characters, then it would have worked. but i didn't want to see Funaki vs. Brian Kendrick for the Cruiserweight title, or Rikishi vs. Goldust for the #1 contendership to the IC or US title with no build. And in having a weak low card, the main events stayed the same; JBL vs. Big Show, JBL vs. Undertaker, JBL vs. Cena on Smackdown, then on RAW it was HHH vs. Bubba Ray, HHH vs. Orton, HHH vs. Batista.

    Only when Brock bloomed and Goldberg signed did things change a bit. That's when Paul E took over the books and shook things up. He forced the writers/bookers on RAW to compete with his in-ring product and the talent with egos on RAW were getting mad because Smackdown was getting great reviews from a wrestling standpoint and forced them to ratchet up their performances. And with said attitude, they shook the rosters up to the point there was no point in doing a split because feuds were extending between shows as if there was no split.

    the split was a simple thing to do and could have banked if they simply didn't want to get lazy. It wasn't like the E was hurting for money. They cut out the duel travel costs and reallocated the funding for travel into a listing movie production company.
  • jono
    jono Members Posts: 30,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I LOVED the brand extension.
    The PPVs were a weakness because both brands were sort of weak at the low end but it gave a lot of people a chance to flourish and the titles meant more.

    The concept of two separate brands made it more fun as they could cater to both ? fans (Smackdown) and casuals (raw) but when Smackdown started being treated like ? and became essentially the breeding ground for RAW they should have ended it.

    It was cool to switch Cena and Batista but then RAW would just take guys that SD was doing good with and just leave them on he bench to do nothing. MVP, CM Punk, John Morrison etc were all doing great on SD and once they were moved to RAW they were basically enhancement talent.
  • TRILLip Brooks
    TRILLip Brooks Members Posts: 18,150 ✭✭✭✭✭
    After the Invasion angle, the E had too much talent and not enough space

    They had to brand split. They were able to make more stars that way.