WWE DRAFT 2005

Man, I loved the draft lottery. I've said many times that WWE needs to split the two shows up again and bring it back.

I hated the idea of the brand extension from the start. I had been watching 10 years at that point and something changed that night and while I still love wrestling, a part of it left that night. The draft was the coolest part of the brand extension, but 1 cool night a year isn't worth the brand extension the rest of the year.

I guess part of me was bitter too. I went to the very first WWF Brand Extension show. It was a Raw and everybody who I paid months in advance to see, (Angle, Christian, Edge, Hurricane, Maven, Hogan, Jericho etc were drafted to Smackdown, and I was treated to a Kane v. X-Pac main event and seeing guys like Shawn Stasiak, Spike Dudley, Justin Credible, Big Bossman, etc. It left a bad taste in my mouth. The RVD v. Booker T match with the surprise return of Eddie Guerrero saved that show. WWE never needed a brand extension, it was their way of trying to convince us that there was still a "wrestling war" when all it was was a joke. WWE never needed it. All they needed to to do was book thier talent better.

I loved the brand split when it first happened because it made sense with the huge roster at the time. There were enough big names at the time and the fact that the WWE kept each roster exclusive to their brand for the most part from 03-06 made it that much better. I began to hate it a few years ago when all of a sudden both roster showed up on both shows. Devalued the titles and made the brand split stupid. It can work, but they have to go back to making stars exclusive to one brand.

As for the 2005 draft, I wasn't a fan of it. At the time it was clear that it was the beginning of the WWE making SmackDown the "B" show. From 02-04, SD had this vibe that it was on par, if not better than Raw. This draft changed that IMO. Raw got Cena, Angle, and Big Show, who had all been big names for SmackDown from 02-03. They also got RVD who people were dying to see return, and a red hot heel in Carlito.

As for SD, they got Batista which was fine, but also got Orton and Christian, who had both come off looking pretty bad in feuds w/ HHH and Cena, so their credibility wasn't that high at the time. Benoit was alright, but he spent barely a year on Raw and still had more potential feuds on Raw. Muhammad Hassan was a great pickup for SD, but the fact that he was gone a month later wasted that pick as well. The draft just seemed completely one sided IMO.

This was the only Draft Lottery I can remember vividly. It really did shake things up, and made both shows fresh again. Man, 2005 was a fun year.