Smark Out Moment

Following on from my previous column, today we are looking at how Raw could be booked after the draft. We've got our 10 initial draft picks (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Big Show, Apollo Crews, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler and Ryback) who have been supplemented by other draftees too and they'll appear during the column. In this scenario, the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship all belong on Raw and are up for grabs so let's see what we can do!



This pretty much writes itself out. Ambrose as the defending champion, Rollins as the chaser and Reigns the underdog in it all. As it stands, there should be no way Ambrose should lose the title any time soon – it would give him the transitional champion label and also damage the Money in the Bank win too. Rollins needs to carry on as the heel in the story line as I feel that Reigns will still play the good guy when he comes back and I'm fine with that. Putting the three together in a triple threat match so quickly however at Battleground is what worries me. This could easily have been the SummerSlam or WrestleMania main event, but I guess WWE want to keep their network subscribers. Post Battleground I'd have Ambrose still with the title on him with Rollins and Reigns doing the chasing of it to begin with but then have a major plot twist – turn Reigns heel and Rollins face. They could easily have a number 1 contenders match and even pull off the double turn during the match which would make both men look strong and give new matches/storylines for whoever comes out the loser in the match.



Owens vs Zayn could easily main event any pay per view. The chemistry is there, the history is there and the fans are interested in this happening. I hate how quickly WWE has currently breezed through this and I wouldn't suggest a match straight away between the two. Currently The Miz is champion and I see it staying that way until Battleground, at which point he could drop the title to Kevin Owens. Queue Owens having his prize fighter mentality and defending it each Raw until Zayn answers the challenge which Owens would (heelish-ly) refuse to accept and then the rivalry starts up again. Using the Intercontinental Championship this way would easily be the same way as it was used by Triple H and The Rock to help elevate them to full main event status. Sheamus, Ziggler and Ryback could easily be included in this picture to help put over the new talent – we could even see a number 1 contenders' tournament to decide who faces Owens with Zayn facing heels each round before winning it to get him over the crowd even more.



The New Day are fun as champions don't get me wrong, but we need some fresh blood. Yes, there are a lot of tag teams at the moment around who are worthy of the titles but I'd give it to (controversially) Big Show and Apollo Crews. You could have Big Show and Apollo team together for a few weeks after the draft to build up the interest in them (the old giant and the upcomer) before putting them against The New Day for the titles. Once they’ve won them they need to hold onto them for a good few months, with Crews doing the majority of work in the ring, playing on his strengths of being young and youthful partner of the team. Then when they drop the titles, it should be Big Show being the one who gets pinned. This leads to Big Show saying Crews not looking out for his team mate and the feud between those two begins, with Crews going over and Big Show retiring. Yes I'll miss Big Show but it doesn’t mean he'll be Shawn Michaels retired, he'll be The Rock retired, coming back for impact or shocks. Does that cheapen it? Maybe, but at 44 Big Show needs to starting powering down.


What else can we expect from the rest of the roster? The joys of the draft is that it guarantees fresh story lines, different ideas, different concepts happening. What I'd like to see with Raw initially is that it fully transitions to a sports entertainment show – mixing wrestling with decent story lines. The writing, planning and execution of the show is pivotal for the rest of the wrestlers on the card. I'd want to see number 1 contenders picked for each title, making it clear who is wrestling for what and long term planning of feuds – it's no good having wrestlers feud with each other for months and then a few weeks after that they are teaming with each other. Yes, injuries can't be planned for as they happen when they happen, but have some contingency in place for if things go wrong.