Wrestling Might Get Fun Again With Mick Foley As The GM Of Raw, And Daniel Bryan Running Smackdown

Just to play catch up for those who haven’t been following, the WWE is splitting their roster into two tonight, with half of the roster going to Raw, and the other half going to Smackdown. Last night Stephanie announced her pick to run Raw as none other than Mick Foley, an awesome pick. Not to be outdone, Shane announced his pick to run Smackdown as Daniel Bryan, another fan favorite.

With the brandsplit draft tonight, I’m optimistic about the future of the company, more than I’ve been in quite some time. I haven’t watched Smackdown in years, because for the most part it has been a pointless show where nothing happens. Now, instead of it just being a re-hashed Raw, it will have it’s own writers, own performers, and own championship belt (reminiscent of the last time they did the brand split a decade or so ago). Now not only is there a reason to watch Smackdown, but it seems like the show should be fun. That’s right, fun.

You see, one of my biggest gripes with WWE over the last few years is how robotic and formulaic it all has begun. Very rarely have we gotten big swerves, nevermind well-written television. But on top of that, they seem to have forgotten about good ol’ fashioned fun. The Authority angle sucked all the life out of the show (seriously, remember when “Corporate Kane” was main eventing ever single Raw? Brutallllll.) Now they have a chance to pump life back into the shows. To make it all about the personalities of the young performers. The WWE was best when they allowed their guys to be creative, to write their own promos, and to try new things.

Last night we saw a glimpse of that with the Enzo and Cass/John Cena/New Day segment. It was so perfectly executed, I could watch John Cena be the confused old man while Enzo rattles off nonsense and runs around the ring like a madman on a loop forever. And by the way, people chanting “Cena sucks” right now are trying too hard. He’s never been more likable than he is now.

So the big draft is tonight. Here are the rules:

I expect Rollins to go first to Raw, and Cena to headline Smackdown. I do not think they split up Enzo and Cass or the New Day, as they need E and C to win the belts from New Day before Big E can go on a single’s run. For the NXT people, I kinda hate they have to draft them instead of having them get big debuts. People like Finn and Bayley could get huge pops at Battleground/SummerSlam, and still might, but will probably get drafted tonight. Nakamura should get drafted, but we might have to suspend disbelief if they want to keep him in NXT. Regardless, should be a fun, cool night.