Orton has the potential for the best feuds of anyone on RAW or SD - Orton vs Bray, Corbin, Styles and Ambrose all have potential

no, did not @guru dave

slik analysis of main-event faces for each show

RAW:
Roman Reigns
Cesaro

maybe Big Show, maybe Brock Lesnar, maybe Finn Balor


SMACKDOWN:
John Cena
Randy Orton
Dean Ambrose


maybe Dolph, maybe Kane

RAW has a lot of guys who are tall/big...might get boring seeing big guy vs big guy matches a lot


SMACKDOWN has guys you've seen wrestle a lot already though

hmm

slik analysis over

Here's the Observer's hypothetical depth chart, I guess:

http://i.imgur.com/00DWY3u.png

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You win some, you lose some. I'm so proud of <a href="https://twitter.com/CarmellaWWE">@CarmellaWWE</a>. Love you sister. Now go moonwalk to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SmackdownLive?src=hash">#SmackdownLive</a> 👯 <a href="https://t.co/4mfPzySTwA">pic.twitter.com/4mfPzySTwA</a></p>&mdash; Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/itsBayleyWWE/status/755605590156709888">July 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Hoping Owens vs Zayn gets out of hand and forces Foley to trade KO to Smackdown. Could work out if Ryder was to beat Rusev as a fluke to give SD both the IC and US titles. Ryder would then be traded to Raw for Owens and lose the title back to Rusev.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Why Cesaro is my favorite in WWE. <a href="https://t.co/YJo8OccDo7">pic.twitter.com/YJo8OccDo7</a></p>&mdash; DTAM (@DeathToAllMarks) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeathToAllMarks/status/755590615581065216">July 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Cesaro giving zero fucks.

So who got drafted back to NXT?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2dLc5gjLmIg?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Cool to see Alexa super emotional about the surprise promotion.

ALEXA :D

God I hope she goes far.

Disappointed there weren't any surprise return drafts, like shelton benjamin or something.

Also, didn't they say a while back that NXT was no longer a developmental promotion, but it's own brand? If so, it would make sense for Baley, Shinsuke, and Joe to stay there.

BREAKING
NEWS:


JBL IS REMOVED FROM RAW

:yes::yes::yes::yes::yes::yes::yes::yes::yes::yes::yes:



New RAW Announce Team: Corey Graves, Michael Cole, Byron Saxton
New SMACKDOWN Announce Team: Mauro R, David Otunga, JBL

http://www.wwe.com/article/new-wwe-a...d?sf31321266=1

Wow! Can't believe Lawler is gone.

Maybe Lawler will do NXT or retire

Would dislike Lawler on NXT. Happy for Corey Graves. Would've liked to see him paired with Mauro.

I have "exclusive" content.

1999 Debut and 9-time Tag Team Champion?

Oh, you didn't know?

What, my friend? ( shakes head and hand vehemently)

You might be more familiar with his work when he was known as D-Von Dudley

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rsac2XDTAlw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

:lol: Nia Jax's reaction to getting drafted.

Nia Jax was a good call. Offers something unique to the women's division.

Plus, she deserves it. I don't remember the last time I saw a rookie improve that much in between matches. She must be working her ass off to improve

She's still not ready though. But I don't really give a fuck about RAW the way it's turned out, unless I hear something good about Cesaro there.

I think Heath Slater will end up winning one of the mid-card titles in a fluke to prove he belongs and end hold the title ransom to the highest bidder. Slater gets a rich guy gimmick when he is eventually signed to one of the brands.

Braun Strowman being drafted away from the rest of the family is the right move. Luke Harper will return to SmackDown soon and everything will be as it should have. Strowman might walk out on Bray and Rowan at Battleground and begin his life as a new man.

They might as well just make Becky Lynch vs. Natalya at Battleground for some sort of Women's Title.

It'd make sense for Mojo Rawley to help out his buddy at Battleground and debut in a big way. Ryder takes the US Title to SmackDown and The Miz loses the IC Title to RAW when Darren Young beats him? Ew.

Do you think Anderson & Gallows will join Finn Balor or align with someone else against him? I could see The Club joining either Rollins or Reigns to be honest. I have a feeling that the WWE Title is going to end up on RAW somehow.

I think a lot of us misunderstood what they meant when they said "NXT is a brand in its own right". What they meant was that the brand is the draw, much like WWE is the draw, rather than the individuals on the roster. I'd expect Joe,Nakamura, etc to be called up in the next 6 months.
Think it'll be hard to have Finn be heel straight off the bat. I could see G&A being the Devils on The Demon's shoulder, but would that be too similar to what they did with AJ?

To bad I enjoyed Lawlers heel work last night, and fuck Graves he sucks

They missed out having Eva Marie on Smackdown and Graves on RAW now, I'd love to hear him shit on Byron every time she comes out

Speaking of undrafted what about Emma?

Fuck, why did they have to put JBL on SmackDown? I was enjoying Lawler's return to Heelishness.

Damn. He gave a legit sports type of person interview when they are pissed about something. Calling out Shane for not drafting the best wrestler in the company is awesome. Hopefully during the first interbrand ppv Cesaro challenges anyone that Shane can throw at hin to get some revenge.

he can go back to one man band

Watching this now, those last televised picks were great in terms of hilarious delivery.

Foley: "I did something great here 18 years ago, here's Cesaro"

Shane: "We're going to add some FIRE to Smackdown, so we pick former World Heavyweight Champion <strike>Kane</strike> Alberto Del Rio"

Wait, they did the weird commercial thing for Gallows/Cena, but not the title match?

Hmm, I'm not sure. I could honestly see them helping Roman Reigns win the WWE Title in the main event of Battleground and for Mick Foley to be all "I drafted you because I believed in you!" and Reigns to be all "Pfft." Heel Reigns is what RAW really needs. Seth Rollins is getting cheered anyway, so as a scorned babyface he could work. Finn Balor can debut and wear a suit week one, wrestle a squash match week two, work something more competitive week three, and yeah -- you don't really need to do any sort of proper angle with him for over a month really.

I'm ready for Cesaro to begin the trek to villainy too.

The more I think about it, the more I am ready for Heath Slater, Intercontinental Champion.

Rich redneck gimmick with JBL constantly singing his praises on commentary.

That was actually pretty good. Cesaro isn't the best talker around, but I like how he acknowledged how he fumbles a bit, but at least gave a good-sounding reason as to why. Not caring about Stephanie and Mick Foley was also good, and they guy is fucking huge. You don't realize how imposing he is until you put him next to someone like JoJo (?). I really hope he gradually makes his way up the card. Guy is a fucking workhorse and over as hell.

http://i.imgur.com/ryZb94z.png

Helluva career so far.

He also jumped quite a few pounds.

It would be interesting to see Cesaro and Curtis Axel rejoin Camp Heyman and become sparring partners for Brock.

Brock Lesnar, Cesaro & Curtis Axel vs. Roman Reigns, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson for a Madison Square Garden Network special. It is time for Axelmania to run wild.

lol @ Kalisto to Smackdown. Hot cruiserweight division.

After losing to Kevin Owens again, I want to see Sami Zayn mocked by Bo Dallas and for them to have a feud too. You can put Owens & Dallas together as a part-time tag team called Bo-wens, because money.

He's going to be the cruiserweight that's not in the cruiserweight division, because why wouldn't you want your best cruiserweight to be somewhere else?

Good god that nervous Kalisto interview. I thought he said "make a good lucha fuck".

:naughty:

I'm sure they moved Kalisto away from the cruiserweight division on purpose, much like how they had Mysterio spend a lot of his time away from the division and that was when SmackDown still had a title.

Missing out on some potentially awesome matches though.

"I want--to make a--a--make a good--good--lucha thing? GOD DAMNIT WOOOOO"

Charlotte. She basically went from bad to good between NXT tapings.

I will watch both shows next week.

Despite the intense INTERNET negativity I feel like SmackDown might actually be the better show - but I'm curious to see what direction each program takes.

Reminded me of this. http://youtu.be/Ha7KSaIA2ss

WWE's tradition of last minute changes went as far as them not having a clue what they were doing with Bayley last night. Part of the WWE was setting up signs for the crowd to hold up while another part decided to pick someone else instead.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cnx7264XEAAwjMW?format=jpg

He is actually a 13-time tag team champion.

It's actually about D'Von Dudley.

That would be great.

WWE teasing Heath Slater might be going to EVOLVE since he didn't get drafted.

https://www.wwe.com/article/after-no...r-heath-slater

I expect Sami Zayn to show up on SmackDown as El Generico and Epico y Primo to work there as Los Matadores too.

Heath Slater wrestling all over the world and building "street cred" would be awesome.

LOL "Goddammit. Whoo!"

I'd be all in on that. In reality they could just be loaning Slater to all the promotions from which they borrowed talent for the CWC, but it would work.

That is about as good of a shoot promo anyone has every cut (by Cesaro). Tons of courage to say all of that, and so immensely eloquent as well.

Obviously it'll be ignored and most of RAW will be Stephanie McMahon putting herself over, but at least someone as great as Cesaro took a stand.

It's totally spot on too. If this "New Era" is still every episode of Raw opening with 20-minute promos from the McMahon's, then I'm out of here.

Some Mick Foley/Cesaro interaction is in order.

I imagine this will lead to a de-push for Cesaro though.

Kalisto will get a gimmick where he speaks nonsense all the time.

If it's half as funny as the end of that promo, I'm down for it.

He should have ended that promo at "get my revenge".

Yeah, Vince will almost certainly bury him at every turn now that he's presumably taken up residence in the doghouse.

Heath Slater defeats Cesaro in a "2 out of 3 falls" submission match.

I don't know if the burial will be that overt, but look for Cesaro to be given "opportunities," which he squanders time and time again. They'll ask the question "Should you believe in Cesaro?" and then answer it with "No."

I was there...it was just a random dude and female linebacker handing them out.