My Two Cents: WWE Draft Changes the Questions

Thanks to Nadene Dodge's thought-provoking piece on last night's WWE Draft, I decided that I had to throw my two cents in the platter. With that said, I want to address several topics that were brought to my attention throughout the day.

The JR to SmackDown! Angle

I have been a longtime supporter of Jim Ross. From his days in WCW to his reign of slobberknocker comedy in WWE, Oklahoma's Bar-B-Que lovin' native had no problem speaking his mind about last night's shocking trade.

Thanks to BR's Ian Robinett, we found out that Ross may not be happy about trading places with SmackDown!'s Michael Cole, but he will make it to the broadcast this Friday night. With the transition to MyNetworkTV only a few months away, the WWE's "Creative Geniuses" want all the stronger links on there in preparation.

That brings us to the second topic.

The RAW/SmackDown! Switch

If you weren't paying close attention to last night's draft, you missed this shocking DYK. Was I the only one who realized that all five of SmackDown!'s draft picks were from RAW? Need a little help with that? Here you go: Jeff Hardy, Ross, Umaga, Kennedy, and WWE Champion Triple H.

SmackDown! is bound for its new home as early as August, and bringing in huge faces such as Hardy, Kennedy, Ross, and The Game would almost guarantee that the show would have huge ratings in its first airing on its new network.

Good move for MyNetworkTV, mainly because the only show they have that makes people tune in is, shockingly enough, Jerry Springer!

RAW Continuing Its Reign as "The Flagship of WWE TV"

Though RAW lost its WWE Champion to SmackDown!, they did gain a fistful of high quality talent. It started with the acquisition of Rey Mysterio from SD! and continued to roll with the selection of Mr. Money in the Bank, CM Punk from ECW.

But the night wasn't over for RAW as they managed to pick up the ECW Champion Kane as well as SmackDown!'s resident animal, Batista.

The only downside in most people's eyes is Michael Cole going over to RAW. But when you think about it, Cole is just a younger version of Jim Ross, which is why they chose to bring Cole over instead of Adamle.

In all honesty, this will continue the balance, and Ross on SD! may also bring back another familiar face to WWE: Stone Cold Steve Austin.

ECW's First, Last, and Only Acquisition

If anyone can scream complete foul play, it's Teddy Long and ECW. While the two slices of bread known as RAW and SD! cleaned up on Draft Night, the PB&J in the middle only got one pick all night: United States Champion Matt Hardy.

On one hand, it's nice to see Hardy moving his rivalry with The Dirt Sheet and Chavo Guerrero over to The Land of Extreme.

But in all honesty, ECW grabbed one pick while losing two of its biggest stars in Punk and Kane. In fact, Kane now takes the ECW Championship to RAW and Punk takes that MitB Briefcase over to the Flagship.

I expect Long to make his disapproval of last night's draft loud, clear, and vocal tonight on ECW. But until then, let's move on to the next topic.

Edge, Vickie, and the Sh** Hitting the Fan on Friday Nights

This Friday on SmackDown!, it's clear that Edge and Vickie will be celebrating the departure of Batista from Friday Nights. But they also have to realize that Batista will be in their vision come Sunday at Night of Champions.

But that's not the only thing that La Familia has to worry about this Friday night.

After Vickie made a smart move in giving us The Hardyz one more time, she made it clear that she would do whatever it takes to keep her perch atop the SmackDown! Kingdom alongside Edge as the World Heavyweight Champion.

But Batista now has backup in his fight to take out La Familia. Kennedy returns to the place where his career began, and he already has The Rated R Superstar in his cross hairs. And if Kennedy can't do it...

Time to Play a New Game

It had been six years since Triple H competed on SmackDown! Not since losing the WWE Championship to Hulk Hogan at Backlash in 2002 had there been so much hype around the arrival of The Game to SmackDown!

But after going back to RAW later that year, the closest that Triple H came to being on SmackDown! was when he was drafted the following year, only to get traded back to RAW for Booker T and The Dudley Boyz (now Team 3D).

Now the inevitable has happened to SmackDown! After losing Batista, SmackDown! got Triple H and the WWE Championship. SmackDown! now has both the World Heavyweight Champion and the WWE Champion...at least until this Sunday.

Vickie and Edge were happy about losing Batista, but their happiness soon had a dark cloud looming above, as the final two picks turned out to be Kennedy and The King of Kings.

With Triple H on SmackDown! La Familia's days of terror are officially on borrowed time. Being one of the founders of Degeneration X, expect The Cerebral Assassin not to be following any orders and crashing parties.

With Kennedy going over as well, is there a possibility of a little requiem in the future of DX?

In Conclusion: Night of Champions

Despite the moves, the matches will happen as scheduled. With the exception of Cody Rhodes, Hardcore Holly, and Chris Jericho, everything is set for this Sunday.

The way this master plan is set up: Either Edge or Triple H will lose their World Titles this Sunday night. If this doesn't happen, expect SmackDown! to be invaded by members of both RAW and ECW.

In conclusion, this draft was pretty good, but it could have been better. They could have used the same format they used in the first WWE Draft. They could have picked 12 on the show then more picks after the show was done. That worked out pretty well.

But in regards to the future of WWE: It's lookin' good right now. Something tells me that in regards to this week's Pro Wrestling Top 25, TNA might be playing second fiddle to WWE this week.

So let's see who really won in the Draft. Let's see if La Familia has finally met their Achilles Heel in the form of 12x World Champion.