Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Reading Between The Ropes. After discussing the first draft move in the last edition, we now move on to the second one, and Smackdown!’s first draft pick. Once again. It was a big name that jumped ship, and it seems like the WWE is determined to mix up the top order of the card in this draft, rather than split up teams and have pointless drafts of low-carders instead. That’s definitely the right move.
While in the last column I doubted the permanency of John Cena’s move to Raw, I see Smackdown!’s first pick being on their brand for some time to come. In all the build up to the draft and the various predictions made by columnists (this writer included) nobody threw up the name Chris Benoit. Now the horse has bolted, so to speak, it seems that such a draft is a very logical one, indeed.
I am very much in favour of Benoit’s move to Smackdown!. Chris was always put on the backburner to feuds involving HHH, even when he was champion. Unless it was Benoit feuding with HHH, he was in a lower-tier feud as a World Champion. That really hurt his reign. However, on Smackdown! Benoit can be straight in the main event picture. I nearly said WWE Title picture then, but that issue needs resolving. It remains to be seen whether Cena takes the title back to Smackdown! soon. I still believe he will.
Benoit also has plenty of feuds available for him, looking at the current Smackdown! roster. No one can resist another helping of Benoit and Eddie, and even possibly Rey and Benoit. The “Smackdown! Six”, as they were once famously dubbed by Jared Balstrup, have now almost been fully reunited. Five of those six are now on Smackdown!. Whether all five stay there is questionable (Angle is still heavily touted to be on Raw come the end of the draft), but at least Smackdown! has some star power and tasty feuds at it’s disposal with the addition of The Crippler to their roster.
While writing this I couldn’t help but think back to the Cena situation. One of the reasons for my doubts as to whether he would stay on Raw was due to Angle’s comments to the media about he being Cena’s next challenge for the WWE Title. I initially believed this revelation to be sufficient enough proof of Cena moving back to Smackdown!, but maybe it points to the opposite. Perhaps Angle is heading to Raw to feud over that title. Maybe Raw will have the WWE Title, and Smackdown! the World Title at the end of this draft.
The possibilities, oh the possibilities, this draft throws up. It’s certainly left many fans speculating and had the IWC in a buzz. You can’t argue with the draw of the draft. Heh, I like that. That’s got a nice ring to it. Anyway, after the speculation over Cena and the WWE Title’s future, it’s time to come back off the tangent and focus purely on the second pick of this draft.
Chris Benoit was becoming just another face on Raw, with his true skill not being utilised anywhere near as greatly as it could have been. Benoit could be rejuvenated on Smackdown! and provide them with some guaranteed quality. He’d done all he needed to do on Raw, winning it’s belt and feuding with a handful of mid-card wrestlers. Now it’s time to give him new goals on the other brand.
If you’re a regular reader of Reading Between The Ropes, or have an inkling purely from this column, Chris Benoit is my favourite wrestler today, and I sincerely hope he has the opportunity to win World/WWE Titles over on Smackdown!. I think his chances have been increased by the move, so I’m certainly favourable to the switch.
Just imagine Benoit and Rey vs. Angle and Eddie, or variations on those pairings. It’d be like the old days when Smackdown! was the better brand. The Smackdown! Six were the sole reason for Smackdown! being superior back then, I truly believe that, and the core of those stars could help get Smackdown! back up to levels of awesomness.
So, where does this leave Raw? Well, I don’t think it leaves them with too much of a hole. In fact, I actually believe losing Benoit could benefit Raw. Sure, that sounds stupid when you take a step back and look at it. Losing a talent like Chris Benoit is always going to be a blow. However, the truth is that Benoit was, as I said before, becoming just another run-of-the-mill mid-carder on Raw, and was getting lost in the pack.
The temptation to throw Benoit in to any lost situations must have been there for the writers. “Don’t worry, he can get the rub off Chris”, or “We’ll have Chris feud with this guy to cover the mid-card scene.” What this move does is force the writers (unless the hole is covered by someone who can instantly slot in Benoit’s place) to give someone else an opportunity, and make somebody else a rising star by giving them a shot in the mid-card scene. Personally, I’d love to see Val Venis, or someone like him get a shot in this role. He’s becoming more of a prominent figure on TV lately, and it looks like he hasn’t lost any of the undoubted talent he possess.
That would be more than a worthy short-term replacement for the loss of Benoit. In the long-term, if guys like CM Punk signed with the WWE, or with the prospect of Burchill being unleashed at any time (though more likely on Smackdown!) who knows what could become of Raw’s mid-card. I definitely believe this could work in their favour. It could force the writers to think more out of the box and without Benoit there as their go-to-guy, they may have to give others a shot.
Until next time,
Mitchell L. Gadd
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