Supplemental Draft!

Waste of time? Nah, no way...

Well, maybe, if you've seen the Smackdown spoilers, since most of their matches feature people who are ostensibly on Raw or ECW. Whatever, we'll do this anyway.

12:01: I'm a minute late already due to having to sign up for WWE Universe to see this

12:03: Okay, the format here is a chat room hosted by Howard Finkel and some other guy, just like last year - the first pick is Mr. Kennedy going to Raw, where I honestly thought he was already. Good to know he's still sort of on the radar screen, but I hear its doubtful that he ever wrestles again.

12:09: Just in case you're wondering, there isn't even a pretend explanation of how the draft picks are being made, which is sort of nice; the logic failures implicit in the real one were bad enough.

12:11: Oh crap, Shad to Smackdown with the second pick, which probably means he gets future endeavored sooner than later. Why are they breaking up any tag team that looks promising? I mean, it's not like they're priming JTG for the big singles push or anything. There are just as many comments from WWF mods on this live chat as users, but they're trying at least.

12:15: Hey, want to follow the WWF on Twitter? Because they really want you to.

12:18: As a quick measure of company faith in Shad, one of the WWF mods ads the comment: "sometimes there's not going to be success when a tag team breaks up"

12:20: After about ten minutes of people discussing this, Finkel chimes in with "his take", which is that Cryme Tyme will now split up into singles competition. Thanks for showing up, Howard.

12:22: Third pick....Alicia Fox to Smackdown (you probably know her as the wedding planner from, um, Smackdown, but apparently she's been "DJ Gabriel"'s sidekick in ECW). No advance indication of which brand gets which pick at any point, by the way

12:28: Okay, you knew they wouldn't let the day go by without an awful logical pretense provided for the context of the draft, so here you go.....they're all in the "WWE War Room", where they don't know how many picks will be made or by whom, but they get a call when it happens. Why it's a "war room" since they have no input in the picks at all, I couldn't tell you

12:30: Oh, god. Fourth pick is Primo to Raw - yes, Primo, one HALF of their recently-unified Tag champs. Maybe this is completely random.

12:32: Didn't Primo start on Raw anyway? How did he get over to Smackdown? What's the point of this draft? There's no way any of this is going to stick, I wouldn't be shocked if they didn't even bother to update the rosters and just chose to pretend that this never happened. We get this encouraging tidbit from The Fink: "There is no respect for Tag Team Wrestling...I said it was a lost art before...it's a dead art now!! "

12:40: Mike Knox to Smackdown is your 5th pick, and Fink is hinting that the tag titles might be retired entirely. I hope he's not in the loop on this.

12:50: Joey Styles chimes in to make fun of Josh Matthews' nosebleed problem, and your sixth pick is Ezekiel Jackson to ECW! Suggested poll question for the people at WWE who've posted 8,000 polls so far: Who's had their career wrecked more by the draft, The Miz or The Brian Kendrick?

12:59: People seem to be actually commenting now, as the mods are gleefully pointing out. Your next pick is Nikki Bella to Raw, because, you know, why keep a team of identical twins TOGETHER?

1:11: Candice to Smackdown, which I guess is getting the majority of picks as a restocking from Monday's roster pillage.

1:20: Great to see commenters with suggestions like "bring back The Rock". Certainly their comment in a live chat for the "supplemental draft" will convince Rocky to give up movies and make his return. 9th pick is Zack Ryder to ECW, by the way, which makes 3 tag teams broken up today (4 if you count the lady twins)

1:39: Last two picks were Chavo to Raw, which was inevitable, and Ricky Ortiz to Smackdown

1:49: Layla to Smackdown, another one where I thought they were already on that show. There are apparently over 40,000 people in their live chat right now, but it's worth noting that theyre making suggestions like "DRAFT ORTON TO ECW" and then getting mad at the mods when this does not happen.

2:00: 13th pick is Hornswoggle to Raw? They're breaking up even nominal pairings, like an Irishman and his midget? And now I have to see that midget every Monday? Arrrrrgh.

2:10: 14th is DH Smith to ECW; did he ever see the light of TV on Smackdown? Fink notes that this is probably a "paper transaction" and that he hopes to be proven wrong, let's hope Harry doesn't get future endeavored before he gets a shot.

2:19: Biggest pick of the day and the most necessary one: John Morrison goes to Smackdown. They have quite a few quality heels now.

2:30: Okay, disaster averted with the last two picks, Carlito just got sent to Raw and this whole thing is looking a lot better. That was the 16th pick, and if memory serves me right, there were 17 or so last year. I'd have to think this is reaching its end.

2:33: It is, but not really - the mod just said there are "less than 10" picks left.

2:37: Now they say that with Pick #17 coming up, "the GMs have promised" that we won't have any more than 25 picks. Yay. 17 is...Nattie to ECW! Sweet, all three active Harts on the same brand! I'll actually watch it now.

2:48: Here's a sample comment for you:

[Comment From Lets go, ECW]
I give up. None of the writers clearly care what good fans have to say.

And this was prompted by.....Natalya going to ECW???? What is wrong with these people?

The 18th pick is Festus to Raw, because why not. Now, officially, FIVE PICKS LEFT!

2:59: Hey, alright! JTG to Smackdown with Shad! Woohoo! Four picks left, might Finlay to Raw be in the cards now? and Dolph to Smackdown, given the results from last night?

3:29: the last two picks have been Dolph Ziggler to Smackdown and The Brian Kendrick to Raw. Kendrick teaming with the Miz is an absolute CERTAINTY.

3:31: Charlie Haas to Smackdown with the 22nd pick, and we're down to the last one!

3:40: Apparently not - Hurricane Helms to ECW, and the next is the last, they promise. I hope they bring back his WCW theme for his ECW run.

3:49: Last pick is....Brie Bella. Well, they didn't exactly finish strong, but at least it's over, eh?

Final Thoughts:

I was pretty sure that they'd beef up Smackdown here, but it's the only show that actually lost roster members overall; that could be deceiving though, since the Colons will appear on any show regardless (and so will everyone else, for that matter). For better or worse, we'll get to see Morrison on his own on Fridays, and the new blood could really help ECW - I'll tune in for Helms and the Harts alone. Sure, the logic behind this was mind-numbing, but if they stick to the roster delineations, most of these could work out nicely.

Never, ever waste four hours of your life covering one of these, though.

Supplemental Draft Picks

Raw (net +3)

Carlito & Primo Colon
Mr. Kennedy
The Brian Kendrick
Hornswoggle
Festus
Chavo Guerrero
The Bella Twins

Smackdown (net -4)

John Morrison
Cryme Tyme
Mike Knox
Ricky Ortiz
Charlie Haas
Dolph Ziggler
Candice Michelle
Alicia Fox
Layla

ECW (net +1)

Hurricane Helms
Ezekiel Jackson
DH Smith
Zack Ryder
Natalya Neidhart