The Katz Files – Arnie Katzenjammer
The Draft: Myths and Reality

The Kingfish Arnie Katz doesn’t blink in his hard-edged commentary on WWE Draft Day.

Here’s a genuine pro wrestling riddle: What is the worst RAW of the year and is also the most compelling and important RAW of the year?

The answers, which I could probably hear you all shouting if I opened my office window, is: “The Three-Hour Draft Show!” The realignment of the rosters is a major event that will affect RAW, Smackdown and the pay per views well into the fall. Yet the show is also light-years from “must see TV.”

The first thing to know about the Draft (or “Draft Lottery” as they sometimes call it in an effort to be a trifle more honest) is that it is neither a Draft or a Lottery.

It is not a Draft, because no one actually picks anyone. It is not a Lottery, because the results are pre-determined, just like every pro wrestling show. What’s actually taking place is that WWE will move its contracted wrestlers around in a way the promotion feels will lead to exciting storylines and match-programs on for both RAW andSmackdown.

The matches to determine which show will get the next “pick” are generally meaningless in themselves and they lead to absolutely nothing. Let’s say a representative of Smackdown wins one of those contests. Then what? They simply announce that a random drawing has sent whomever they want to move over to Smackdown. If the wrestler happens to be any of several WWE stiffs, Smackdown has “won” nothing. The real winner is RAW, due to having rid itself of a less talented performer.

The answers will most likely fill up a lot of air-time with alleged strategic analysis. That’s nothing more than a bunch of meaningless puff, a total waste of everyone’s time. Since there is no strategy for dealing with (in terms of the show) a random drawing, there’s nothing either show can do that would logically give them an advantage in this three-hour marathon.

No one could ever accuse WWE (or TNA, for that matter, if packing the maximum into every minute of every show, but the Draft Episode of RAW is space-filling crap of the worst type. If any wrestling show cries out for recording on your DVR, DVD recorder or VHS video tape machine, this is the one. There’s probably less than an hour of legitimately entertaining and informative content, what with all the bogus draft analysis and matches without context or significance.

Another problem is that some of the new assignments are so far beyond coincidence as to defy credibility. What can you say after seeing two members of a tag team get transferred in separate moves or something equally unlikely.

Since WE makes the same mistakes every single year on the Draft episode of RAW, you might be tempted to believe that there’s nothing else they could do.

Not true.

Whist hey could do, after throwing the Fear of Vince into the creative team, is spend a couple of hours more booking this vital show. Specifically they need to have the General Managers of the two shows pick — yes, actually draft – the wrestlers somewhat in the manner of the annual NFL and NBA drafts.

The matches should be used to earn one or the other promotion extra picks and the matches themselves should be more tightly booked to give some of the transferred talent a jump-start on a program in their new home.

Doing things the right way would take a little longer, but the resulting show would be much more compelling for the fans. They could even include a trade or two in which the shows either swapped wrestlers after initial assignment or traded a newly acquired talent for a couple of draft picks from the other show. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to hold a supplemental free agent draft, featuring the guys on NXT and anyone else WWE planned to add to one of its rosters.

They could film a video of that and insert it into that week’s Smackdown to round out a week of momentous changes. The matches on Smackdown could be booked to showcase the new talent for the draft rivals.

This is a very simple, straightforward plan for energizing Draft Day. All it needs is an extra shot of dedication and an additional jolt of creativity. And no WWE weekly TV show is more worthy of that extra effort.

That’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with another installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising pro wrestling column. I hope you’ll return to join me – and, please, bring your friends.

– Arnie Katz
Executive Editor
crossfire4@cox.net
(4/26/10)