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Any wrestling fans here?

glogirl

By glogirl
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Zelig Newbie

Zelig

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Taker is a funny dude. Crowd keeps interrupting UT chanting "What?" (Austin style) when UT was on the mic. UT replies: "I tell you what, why don't you say what if you like to sleep with your own sister?" Crowd: What? OWNED :hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: zuNaEsXLgR8

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Switchblade Newbie

Switchblade

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By Dave Lagana Tale of Two Titles – WWE Draft 2005 Wrestlemania 21 was the crowning of two new heroes in John Cena and Batista. WWE had committed to these two to carry the flags of Raw and Smackdown. But you can’t have two “closing” moments on one show. Wrestlemania 21 went to Batista as he defeated Triple H; holding up the World Title surrounded by fireworks. Batista was the champion on the “A” show. Cena’s moment winning the WWE Title was muted. It look like the dye was cast on the future of the WWE. You might ask, “How come Smackdown was considered the ‘B’ show?” We never looked at it that way but there we circumstances that led to that perception. Raw was live. Smackdown was taped. Raw was first, Smackdown was second. And yes, Brian Gewirtz was head writer of Raw and I was the head writer of Smackdown. Yup, I was considered a “b” writer compared to Brian. I didn’t think that, nor did I think I was better then Brian. I simply was different. Smackdown was always wrote and produced to be “different” then Raw. But in my mind, Smackdown became a “b” show with one decision not made by anyone in WWE. UPN announced that they were moving Smackdown from Thursdays to Friday Night (story). My memory is a little fuzzy; before that announcement I believe we had a draft of the 2005 Draft Lottery. The news of the move made that piece of paper with that Draft about as useful as quality acting in an after hours Showtime movie. We were told to be prepared for a major shift. Friday and Saturday night were, and still are, considered “death sentences” for TV shows. I began to worry the 2005 WWE Draft would pain the picture that Smackdown was heading in that direction.We were called to a meeting at the McMahon house to discuss the 2005 Draft to talk about the future of Raw and Smackdown. Bruce Prichard would talk about the amount of time he and Pat Patterson would spend day after day at Vince’s house, but for this regime it was a first. I remember driving with Larry Mollin, former executive producer of Beverly Hills 90210, to the meeting and talking about the bloodbath we saw coming. RAW was already the “flagship” but this shift was going to make a seismic difference in the brands. Larry told us stories of meetings like this and how to prepare for them. Larry was great because he was the complete opposite of the type of people WWE had hired. He was experienced, had been successful and didn’t really care; he’d made his money. So as we talked on the way over, I realized we had gotten lost. This motley crew arrived late to find the rest of the team around the McMahon dining room table. We knew it was going to be ugly for Smackdown; and wondering what scraps we were going to be left. This was the chance RAW had to be licking their chops to raid the Smackdown roster. And the first pick was probably the deepest cut to the roster.The 2005 Draft Lottery was different then 2004 version – instead of happening in one night, it was going to take place over a series of weeks. The first night, first pick for RAW was John Cena who had been on a rocket ship since his first rap on Brock Lesnar. His programs with Undertaker, Kurt Angle and JBL proved he was on his way to being the “man” in WWE. Go back and watch how the crowd reacts to Cena on his debut on RAW, not only in his entrance but during the whole promo. So much would change on how the demographics of the WWE audience saw Cena but one thing never changed, people reacted to him. The story created during that draft period was that there was going to be no champion on Smackdown. The loss of talent was a bigger story at the table that day in the McMahon mansion. Smackdown was going to lose Cena, Kurt Angle, Carlito, RVD and Eddie Guerrero. Smackdown was scheduled to get Christian and Muhammad Hassan. These roster negotiations were always interesting and went to work on this really unbalanced first pass. Eddie Guerrero had just turned on Rey Mysterio. (See here) In fact, this program was talents idea and was scheduled to run through the entire summer. Eddie being drafted to Raw was going to cut the program short; that news didn’t make Eddie very happy. Negotiations kept Eddie on Smackdown to finish the program with Eddie and develop his new persona. (See here). Eddie was going to be positioned as the top heel for Smackdown going forward. Also Chris Benoit was sent to Smackdown to help replace the loss of “work rate” with loss of Angle and RVD. But who would be the hero to lead the brand?Dave Batista came to Smackdown as the World Heavyweight Champion to replace John Cena. See the full draft here. Batista had been the hottest property at Wrestlemania 21 and now was being sent to the “b” show. Some looked at the move of Batista as a “demotion” but Batista came to Smackdown with something to prove. Dave was different. He was quiet, he kept to himself but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about the product. Again, Dave was like Smackdown – he was different. JBL was different; anyone still remember APA Bradshaw? Rey Mysterio shouldn’t have succeeded in WWE but he did on Smackdown. MNM (Morrison and Mercury) were a team that wouldn’t have lasted five minutes on Raw. Smackdown accepted itself for being different. In the 4 years I spent on Smackdown, I was very proud of the talents who debuted their first, developed and became stars. Want lessons from these drafts? Look at who was drafted; what they did after but also what got them to that point. David Lagana (@Lagana) One final note about the 2005 Draft Lottery, the first ECW One Night Stand PPV took place in the middle of it. Th excitement during this period that showed the ECW fan base was still alive and kicking. We at WWE missed the boat and didn’t capitalize right away; the brand was officially relaunched in 2006. We all know how that turned out. But look at these videos to see how fun this first angle was; this includes a really hot angle with Tazz and Kurt Angle.

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glogirl Newbie

glogirl

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@GF i remember the draft in fact i liked smackdown when eddie and dave was there........... funny and was exiting... also remember that JBL business man gimmick. i was thinkin then isn't he bradshaw UT'S apprentice how he became filthy rich!!!!!!!!! dude i thought wwe was damn real then.

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