What was the purpose for the Draft swerve?

[Stuntz]

Now with the main Draft done and over with, what was the reasoning for Vince throwing the curveball with Cena?

I've been contemplating on this for the last hour or so and the only thing that makes sense is the IWC. Think about it for a minute......First 15 minutes of the show and Raw looses John Cena. The board here went a little crazy with posts. With the majority of us who didnt think he was going anywhere were stumped, I know I was, especially with him and the Rock's year long push going on.

Fast Foward to the middle of the show, just enough time for everyone to digest the fact that Cena is no longer a part of Raw, BAM Orton is Drafted. The Forum absolutely went nutz for a monday night, my opinion only. Most were talking about the downfall of Raw and all the good talent going to the pre recorded B show. I will admit I got caught up in it and took some time off the forum to collect my thought on the situation without anyone elses input.

Now going into the last 15 minutes when the final match was made, I had a feeling something was up. If you paid attention to the draft pics as they were flashing by the new draftees were on their new respective rosters, which made me think "What are the possibilities for a first time redraft on the same night?" especially after Raw was pretty much decimated of top faces.

Miz wins the match by pinning Cena(which will create great heat) with help of coarse, and Cena surprisingly for the most part is drafted back to Raw. This made literally think "Vince you dirty mother fucker"

Now, I know that alot of people say Vince doesnt care or pay attention to the IWC, however, I think he may have done this just to get us going on the rants that we so willingly go on. When the majority of the IWC thinks something like Orton going to Smackdown, I think he pulled the wool over our eyes, even though it was for a short time, and was laughing at us behind the scenes.

Either way it was a genius move and very climatic, which doesnt happen much anymore.

Your thoughts?

 

[Mustang Sally]

The purpose of the swerve?...........Irony.

Here you had the three bad guys celebrating their victory and acting as if they were the lords of all creation......only to learn that their own actions were the cause of bringing Cena back to the brand where they figured they'd be ruling the roost without him.

This is the kind of thing WWE has done so well over the years. I never saw it coming and have to salute Vince McMahon and his Creative team.

 

[Reddog1146]

Usually, i can see what is going to happen next when i watch WWE but i did not see cena getting drafted twice in one night happening in a million years. I laughed when i thought of the irony, the heels just brought back the guy they just beat and got their butts handed to them. It was a great move but i was a bit disappointed, smackdown and raw could have used more superstars but they wasted two of the limited slots on the cena curveball but it was a great move like i said before.

 

[neildittmar]

Not trying to play Mr. KnowItAll here, but my first reaction when Cena got drafted was "it won't last." I immediately remembered the draft when HHH moved to Smackdown, never wrestled a match, and was then traded for 3 other guys. As Paul Heyman put it to JBL: "the only reason you were WWE champion for a year was because HHH didn't want to work Tuesdays"

So true, so true.

I actually thought that we'd see much the same thing with Cena's "brand switch", though I thought it'd get played out a bit longer and obviously with a more "face" type of flavor. Something like the RAW audience wants him back on the show so badly, complete with petition to bring him back, etc.

But no, Vinnie certainly swerved us by having Cena "make history" by changing brands twice in one draft. I'm sure this is how the double-switch will be promoted both now and in the future. He's the only guy to have done it by my knowledge, which makes Cena all the more special, which is what WWE ultimately wants anyway.

As far as an answer to the why question... to essentially promote an "anything can happen" theme to the draft. Even though nothing really changed after all, the purpose of the draft (in addition to moving talent around) is to hit that element of surprise so lucrative in the profesional wres... sports entertainment world.

 

[dwith]

I believe that it's just to make the soap opera more intriguing... Don't forget that they have hired a soap opera writer to write their script's, and strange things alway happen in the soap's to keep you wanting ang watching. Wait till you start seeing characters dieing on one show just so they can be changed into a new character on the other show..Vey sad state of affairs for wrestling in general (everyone know's that their girlfriends and wives always say that wrestling is a man's soap opera) but for God's sake don't embrace it, and change a wrestler's title to SOAP OPERA ACTION STAR..No matter what these guy's are athletes and wrestler's..

 

[sabataged]

I thought for sure it was going to be the Undertaker. I thought maybe he was going to end his last year with WWE on RAW taking on Del Rio, Miz, and Punk. All new feuds for him. Then they threw in a swerve with Cena. I was taken completely off guard.

 

[RD_21]

As far as I am concerned the reason they did it was to make a big FU to the Cena haters. I know there's some irony to it and all and it may push the Cena/Miz feud to another place, but man just thinking about a Raw without Cena for a while make me wet my pants. I don't know about you but I personally need a break from Cena and I may achieve it by turning my tv off on monday nights or doing something else now. I may even start to watch Smackdown! again now that Sin Cara is there, just lame that Punk and the Miz are still on mondays because they are the only good thing in WWE at the moment imo at least on Raw (well the Truth heel turn seem interesting so far).

In the end I am a sucker for wrestling and I will probably keep watching it but I would have enjoyed it 10x more if Cena when to Smackdown!

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

To stir up excitement for the beginning of the show but for me it was a bad move by the WWE and not realistic in the sense of randomness (well let's face it the draft being seen as random was never realistic to begin with).

It really did nothing but piss me off. Not because Cena is back on RAW in less than two hours, but it made the opening Battle Royale and Main Event a waste of time. They needed to make the draft picks meaningful especially since RAW took too much time on the R-Truth and Cole/JR/King segments.

They could have capped it off by having a real draft pick maybe drafting Taker to RAW or at least have some top names from the Supplement Draft get picked on TV. So far the Supplement Draft has Swagger and Bryan drafted ... that would have been awesome to see on TV.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

I knew it was too good to be true for John Cena to go over to Smackdown. This isn't the first time something like this has happened though. A few years ago, Triple H was drafted to Smackdown only to jump back over to RAW in pretty much the same night. It's stupid.

 

[xsKiitz]

I understand them wanting this whole 'anything can happen' mentality to the WWE draft, but I was utterly disappointed with the ending of Raw..

It just seems that everything just falls into place for Cena. The WWE revolves around this man. I mean, they're trying so hard to make Cena constantly in the spotlight. Not giving anyone else a turn to shine. If Cena's involved, he'll be the highlight 300% more than the next guy.

EC chamber, does nothing, gets lucky and wins the whole thing.
Wrestlemania, has to get screwed to have any chance of losing.
Raw gauntlet match, gets chosen to come out last, by chance.. and walks his way into a title match.
Raw draft, happens to get drafted twice. Out of every fucking person on both rosters, he's the lucky one who gets drafted twice. I'm just through with having any believability in anything that this man is associated with. It's ridiculous.

As for the draft, it was a big surprise to start Raw off with Cena going to Smackdown, which I was beyond happy with. It would be a new change, a complete refresh of both brands. Throughout the entire mainevent I was contemplating who else could possibly be drafted. I thought Punk, but with Orton and Cena apparently on SD, there'd be no way he'd go too. I was really stumped as to who it could be, so I just gave up and waited for the secret to be revealed.
..after that I just said fuck this and closed Windows Media Player and here I am. I can't believe they wasted 2 damn draft picks just to show us how lucky Cena is.

It's just silly now..

-

 

[Rowdy Robby Piper]

At first I thought that it was a ratings move for SyFy; and that the idea of Cena going after/calling out/etc. The Rock on his old show/stomping grounds would be a cool idea. But then the idea was slowly sinking in..."Would they really put Rock/Cena storyline on the B-Show?" Can you say I Bring It...via tape delay?

Well played move with Cena/the draft WWE...well done.

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

Its not because of the IWC. Vince doesn't give a shit about the IWC and he pays no attention to it because A. The IWC doesn't know shit B. Its just a tiny sliver of his audience C. The IWC doesn't know what it wants and D. The IWC is impossible to please. That said, the swerve was just for a little shocker at the end of the show. I knew something would happen because I knew Cena and Orton had to be split up.

 

[hollowpoint]

I have to say that I was impressed with how it all played out. I don't absolutely agree with how they did it, but I think the WWE was going strictly for shock value and they got it. When Cena got the first pick, everyone was out of their seats. The sheer possibility that he was going to the Blue Brand drove people nuts. The only thing I hated was in doing this swerve, it took away two possible picks for either brand. There was no way they would take Cena off of Monday nights. Orton headlining one show and Cena the other just makes too much sense.

 

[fenfool]

My wife walked in when Cena was drafted...she asked about it, I said he'd be back on Raw before the night was over. He's the top draw, you want him on your 3.5 show, not the 1.5 show. But it was meant to draw people in, you move your biggest guys early, you get people to watch. I think it was an interesting move on the part of the WWE.

 

[TheBWO]

Anyone who is anyone knows that Cena is the anchor of RAW.....say what you want...but he is. Not by my choice, but Smackdown is and always will be the grade B competition, and until Cena gets older and younger, more charasmatic wrestlers come down the RAW pike, he won't go anywhere. People go to RAW because it's live....anything can happen, Smackdown gets edited a shitload of times when someone botches a move...who wants to see that? People bring bank to the show, to spend on merchandise. Anytime you see Cena move to Smackdown like last night, rest assured that he will be back within a week. Just like HHH, ...he was drafted, and then "off camera" ---"ohh...he was drafted back" or whatever bullshit that was. Smackdown got Orton...that was enough.

 

[McCoy]

As john cena was drafted tosmackdown i had sighs of relief afterrr i marked out....well because john cena was officially off of raw. And during the 6man tag i came up with my guess for the next pick and i knew it had to be huge because the last pick always is, sooo i guessed that it would either be hhh going to smackdown or the undertaker finally going over to raw. But i was wrong it was just john cena and i believe the swerve was probally to keep the casual wrestling fan hooked on the rest of the show or it could simply be vince getting at the iwc.

 

[gd]

Yes, I agree. The whole show was clearly booked so that multiple posts would be generated on fantastic forums, such as these, over a 2 hour span, and more posts on the topic, such as this one. That is surely what Vince, and the entire WWE, do and should care about the most. It quite obviously was a ploy to generate forum posts and not anything to do with providing an entertaining show.

 

[Coco]

Anyone who thinks this was about getting you to rant so insiders could laugh at you is laughable. How arrogant and self-important can you be? Making Cena the first draft pick of the night created an "anything can happen" feeling so you felt compelled to commit a full two hours to Raw. The final swerve got Cena back where he belongs while making history with the first person to be drafted twice in one night, reinforcing that ANYTHING can happen. It might seem like a cheap ploy, but it doesn't bother me. A smart way to book two hours of television. As for "limited slots," what are you on about? If they'd wanted, they could have made the battle royal worth five picks. The slots aren't limited. People switch brands out of creative necessity regardless of how many times they bait and switch with Cena.

Honestly, some of you people are thick.

 

[whoopin' ass]

the only reason for the swerve was to create drama, which it failed at miserably. just think about it for a second - what would be the point of the draft if, in theory, every person who gets drafted away from their original show could get drafted back to it in the same night? the draft would be useless if the people being drafted were automatically added to the draft pool and allowed to be part of the draft again. they did it because they wanted to make it "a first" - someone gets drafted twice on the same night and ends up back on their original show. also, having cena drafted first makes people wonder who else might go. the moment orton was drafted, you knew one of them would come back. it was a stupid idea - an old school bait-and-switch. but should we have been surprised? Triple H got drafted and never even appeared - instead we got that massive 5-8 person trade to get him back to Raw. Flair was drafted, appeared once or twice then disappeared until his retirement angle started - on Raw. don't bother trying to make sense of it, you will just get a headache.

 

[Jackal960]

It's a different version of what WWE does to add interest on the show. To give examples:
Cena is booked to win against Orton. Why not add a stipulation if Cena loses he will leave Raw, or
Mysterio is booked to win against Jericho. Why not add a stipulation if he loses he will get unmasked, or
X is booked to win the match. Why not add a stipulation if he loses he will retire

On all these cases it draws more interest to the show/match although it was never going to happen in the first place.

 

[berlinbrawler]

I guess it was the WWE's idea of a belated April Fool's joke.
And I bought it, alright. First I was just astonished that they had done the unthinkable, then I thought they were nuts for drafting Orton as well. Yes, Edge left a big hole on Smackdown, but talk about overcompensation!
So, ok, we had a laugh. I guess that was the point. That and that Cena put over being on Smackdown as if it were the most awesome thing since sliced bread. He was going quite over the top cheering with the Smackdown roster. I guess that was supposed to make the viewers think that if Cena feels so enthusiastic about Smackdown, there must be a reason for it...

 

[AngryCenaFan]

WWE does not care about internet fans, really to me it was just lazy writing/booking and nothing more. it's typical of the current WWE product

 

[berlinbrawler]

Ultimately I guess it was designed to make the draft seem more special than it really was. The Cena announcement in the beginning had an awe-effect and set the tone for the rest of the night. It seemed anything could happen.
Take Cena away from last night and what's left is pretty much what you'd expect to happen.

 

[Richard]

People are looking to much into this when it's really quite simple.

Probably the only reason Cena was drafted back and forth was to emphasize that with the WWE draft, anything can, could and will happen such as big stars being drafted, getting drafted twice, anything. Being drafted back and forth wasn't supposed to have any deep meaning which needs analyzing. That's it. Very simple.

 

[TheKingHustla]

I think it was predictable. The Cena pick happened too early. Cena is the biggest name in the WWE right now, why would he be drafter first? It didn't make sense to me. Then when I saw him on the draft screen after I just assumed he would go back to Raw anyway. It was a nice touch but It seems like Raw got even stronger with the draft so Cena should have went to SD. I mean, yeah they got Orton but they lost ADR, Rey, Big Show and Edge (not to the draft) so their entire main event picture is gone. They even lost Kofi in the second draft (So they lost everyone who earned them drafts?) Does that mean that Orton is going to own SD? I'd rather them send Cena, keep Orton on Raw, and let it work out that way. Cena needs a change anyway.