Revisiting The 2016 WWE Draft

 Photo credit: pwtorch.com

July 19, 2016, a beautiful Tuesday night in the wrestling world. WWE’s “B show” Smackdown was FINALLY going to began airing LIVE every week and for the first time in five years, a WWE Draft was taking place, reigniting the brand split WWE had from 2002-2011. There was a lot more optimism going into this split than the previous one because of the fact Smackdown was going to no longer be aired on tape delay, and the fact that WWE had a much deeper roster this time around.

But, here we are three years later, and the brand split is basically dead with the Wild Card Rule in place. What went wrong with this brand split though is not the topic of this article. I am going to simply go through EVERY pick that took place in the 2016 draft over the next couple of days and determine if the pick was a good one, similar to how other sports analyse drafts years after they happen. Check back daily for updates!

 

July 15- Rounds 1 and 2

RAW No. 1 Pick: Seth Rollins

RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley picked “The Architect” Seth Rollins as the first overall pick in the 2016 draft, and I would say it has worked out well for the red brand. Rollins worked as a heel up until September of 2016 when he turned face, and he’s never looked back. Rollins is the current top face on RAW, holding the Universal Championship for three months until Brock Lesnar cashed in the Money in the Bank at Extreme Rules. He also has won the Intercontinental Championship and the RAW Tag Team Championships in the last three years, both on multiple occasions. 

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 1 Pick: Dean Ambrose

With their first pick in the 2016 WWE Draft, Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Daniel Bryan selected the WWE Champion Dean Ambrose to be the leader of “the land of opportunity”, but I would say McMahon and Bryan struck out on this one. Ambrose only held the WWE Championship until September, where he would lose the strap to A.J. Styles and never regained it. He was the Intercontinental Champion going into Wrestlemania 33, but he was shipped off to RAW two weeks later in the first-ever Superstar Shakeup. Considering Ambrose was only a member of Smackdown for nine months, and that he is now in AEW, Smackdown’s No. 1 pick must be considered a bust.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 2 Pick: Charlotte

This pick has Stephanie McMahon written all over it. Mrs. McMahon wanted to ensure that her women’s division was the best it could be, so she drafted the Women’s Champion at the time to run the division, and I would say it was a great pick. Even though Charlotte got shipped over to Smackdown in the first-ever Superstar Shakeup just like Ambrose, Charlotte’s RAW career was a lot more memorable than Ambrose’s Smackdown one. During her ninth month reign as the queen of the RAW women’s division, Charlotte had a great rivalry with Sasha Banks over the RAW Women’s Championship.

The two ladies main evented RAW several times and competed in multiple first-ever women’s matches, including the first ever Women’s Falls Count Anywhere, Hell In A Cell and Iron Woman matches. After she was finished with Banks, Charlotte moved on to Bayley to finish off her RAW tenure. Overall, Charlotte has won eight Women’s Championships, four on each brand, but her heel work on RAW in 2016 I would argue is the best work she’s done, and she never really has felt comfortable to me on Tuesday nights.

Good Value: Yes  

 

Smackdown Live No. 2 Pick: A.J. Styles

As soon as “The Phenomenal One” landed on the blue brand, he dubbed Smackdown Live “The House That A.J. Styles Built”. As previously mentioned, within two months of being on the Smackdown brand, Styles won the WWE Championship, holding it until the Royal Rumble in 2017 when he lost it to John Cena in a match that could have been the match of the year. At Wrestlemania 33, Styles beat the Smackdown Commish in a fantastic opening bout before turning face to feud with Kevin Owens for the United States Championship throughout the summer, a feud that could have been the feud of 2017. Styles’ first U.S. Title win came against Owens on the Fourth of July in Madison Square Garden at a WWE Live Event.

Once Styles was done with Owens, he moved on to Jinder Mahal. The WWE Championship was once again in Styles possession on the November 7 episode of Smackdown Live when Styles beat Mahal with the “Phenomenal Forearm”, Styles becoming the first ever superstar to win the WWE Championship overseas as Smackdown was at the O2 Arena in London that night. Styles would go on to be the face of Smackdown, and the face of WWE arguably over the next year, holding the WWE Title for 371 days and having fantastic matches with the likes of Daniel Bryan, Shinsake Nakamura, Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn. 

Styles would wrestle Randy Orton at Wrestlemania 35. This would be his last match to date as a Smackdown superstar as he was shipped to RAW in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup. Styles accomplished everything he could on Smackdown Live. I think he was the MVP of Smackdown from 2016-2019. It was time to move on to bigger and better things on RAW, including a classic Universal Championship match with Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank and a United States Championship win over Ricochet at Extreme Rules.

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 3 Pick: Finn Balor

The first NXT call up came pretty quickly in the 2016 WWE Draft when Finn Balor was drafted to RAW with their third pick. Balor and Rollins competed in the first ever Universal Championship match at Summerslam, a match that Balor was victorious in, but during the match, Rollins delivered a Bucklebomb to Balor on the outside, popping Balor’s shoulder out of place. The injury forced Balor to relinquish the Universal Championship the next night on RAW, and Balor has yet to regain the belt.

Since returning the RAW after Wrestlemania 33, Balor has been an afterthought to me. Yes, he won the Intercontinental Championship a couple of times as a member of RAW, but he has not done anything memorable. He just lost the IC Championship to Shinsake Nakamura on the Extreme Rules Kickoff, and he barely gets used on TV on Smackdown. He’s a great wrestler, but he’s just not worth the No. 3 pick to me,

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 4 Pick: Roman Reigns

While RAW ended the first round with a dud in a way with Balor, Foley and Mrs. McMahon hit the jackpot with their first pick in the second round. The “Big Dog” won every championship there is to win in WWE besides the Tag Team Championship during his time on RAW from 2016-2019. He had a Styles esc run, feuding with the likes of Rusev, The Miz, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar to name a few. 

His Ambulance Match with Strowman at Great Balls of Fire was one of the best matches I can remember him having. His whole rivalry with Strowman throughout 2017 really took him to the next level, turning him into a legitimate Universal Title contender. His match with John Cena at No Mercy 2017 was incredible. While his matches with Lesnar were not the best, him winning the Universal Title from Lesnar at Summerslam was three years in the making and great storytelling by WWE.

When he left WWE to battle leukemia in October of 2018, the quality of RAW really dropped. It showed that no matter how great Seth Rollins is, Reigns was the true alpha of RAW the last three years. His 2016-2019 RAW tenure is when he truly became a top five star in WWE.

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 3 Pick: John Cena

With their first pick in the second round and their third overall, Bryan and McMahon grabbed the 16 time World Champion. For about a year, Cena was mostly full time on Smackdown. As previously mentioned He feuded with A.J. Styles over the WWE Championship until the Royal Rumble in 2017. He defended the title the next month inside the Elimination Chamber, losing the match and the title to Bray Wyatt.

That was pretty much the end of the Cena era on Smackdown. At Wrestlemania 33, he teamed up with his former girlfriend Nikki Bella to take on The Miz and his real-life wife Maryse in a fun mixed tag match. He would then take a hiatus from WWE until the July 4 episode of Smackdown, where he returned to challenge Rusev to a Flag Match at Battleground.

Cena went on to win the match. The contest was decent. His final full-time match as a member of Smackdown occurred when he opened up Summerslam 2017, defeating Baron Corbin, who was upset at Cena for costing him his Money in the Bank opportunity.

Since, Cena has pretty much been a part-timer appearing on RAW. He did compete in the WWE Championship match at Fastlane 2018, but it always felt like just a filler spot. For the No. 3 pick, I don’t think the production equals the talent here.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 5 Pick: Brock Lesnar

If Roman Reigns was a steal for RAW at No. 4, then Brock Lesnar is the heist of the century at No. 5. “The Beast Incarnate” started off his RAW tenure by defeating Smackdown’s Randy Orton at Summerslam 2016 in a bloody massacre. He then wrestled Goldberg at Survivor Series, wrestled in the Royal Rumble before being eliminated by Goldberg and then he won the Universal Title from Goldberg at Wrestlemania 33.

With that win, Lesnar became the fourth-ever superstar to hold the Universal Champion. He held the strap for over 500 days, finally losing the title to Roman Reigns as previously mentioned at Summerslam last year. During his reign, Lesnar defended the title at the following events: Great Balls of Fire 2017; Summerslam 2017; No Mercy 2017; Royal Rumble 2018; Wrestlemania 34; Greatest Royal Rumble and Summerslam 2018. 

That is only seven events Lesnar defended the championship as he was mostly idle from WWE, making fans really start to hate him. This is where his value kicks in; he became a draw because he was arguably the most hated superstar in WRESTLING history, not just WWE because he was never around, turning him into the perfect heel because he’s such a beast. 

Fans became even more irate when Lesnar interrupted the Hell in a Cell bout between Reigns and Strowman at Hell In A Cell last year, destroying both men. Then, when Lesnar won the Universal Title back at Crown Jewel last year and only defended the title twice until he lost the strap at Wrestlemania 35 to Rollins, he became hated even more. His heat reached a maximum point arguably when he cashed in on Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules to become a three-time Universal Champion.

While Lesnar may not always be around, when he is around, he is an attraction, and it makes RAW must-see! That’s value right there.

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 4 Pick: Randy Orton

Orton did not really hit his stride on the blue brand until the fall of 2016. After his Summerslam match with Lesnar, Orton began a lengthy rivalry with the “Eater of Worlds” Bray Wyatt. 

This rivalry was booked perfectly in my opinion. For months, Wyatt pushed Orton to “follow the buzzards” with him and Luke Harper. Orton finally joined forces with the Wyatt Family near Survivor Series, helping Wyatt lead the Smackdown men’s team over RAW’s in the Traditional Survivor Series Five-On-Five Tag Team Match. Wyatt and Orton would go on to capture the Smackdown Tag Team Championships over American Alpha at TLC 2016.

At Royal Rumble 2017, the final three competitors were Orton, Wyatt and Reigns. Reigns would eliminate Wyatt before Orton tossed out the “Big Dog” to win his second Royal Rumble in eight years. When Wyatt won the WWE Championship for the first time at Elimination Chamber 2016, Wyatt begged Orton to give up his Royal Rumble opportunity in order to help him retain the title at Wrestlemania. Orton would tease helping Wyatt before he eventually turned on him by burning his house down.

Their Wrestlemania match was pretty lame but because Orton won, he was now the face of Smackdown. With Wyatt being moved to RAW in the Superstar Shakeup, their final encounter happened at Payback in a House Of Horrors non title match, which was so cool. 

Jinder Mahal cost Orton the match, setting up a championship match at Backlash between the two, which Mahal won, stunning every WWE fan in the world. While their feud was lackluster, they did have a great Pujambi Prison Match at Battleground 2017, a match Mahal won thanks to the help of The Great Khali.

Over the next several months, Orton felt irrelevant on Smackdown until he defeated Bobby Roode for the U.S. Title at Fastlane 2018 to become a Grand Slam Champion, turning heel in the process. Him and Jeff Hardy renewed their rivalry for the first time in 10 years during the summer of 2018, Orton bringing back his sadistic side, trying to rip Hardy’s ear off. Their Hell in a Cell match at the Hell in a Cell PPV last year was solid.

Orton has not done much since, but he has done a lot for the blue brand over the last three years.

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 6 Pick: The New Day

The New Day was the first tag team taken off the board in the 2016 WWE Draft. At the time, they were the WWE Tag Team Champions, a reign that would last for 483 days, the longest title reign for any tag champions in WWE history. However, after they lost the titles, New Day really did nothing the last few months that they were on RAW besides host Wrestlemania 33 before they were shipped off to Smackdown in the first-ever Superstar Shakeup, and the rest is history, so their RAW tenure has to be considered a flop.

Good Value: No

 

Breakdown(the number before the slash is the number of yes’s per round, and the number after the slash is the total number of picks per round)

Round 1:

RAW: 2/3

Smackdown: 1/2

 

Round 2:

RAW: 2/3

Smackdown: 1/2

 

Total:

RAW: 4/6

Smackdown:  2/4 

 

July 16- Rounds 3 and 4

RAW No. 7 Pick: Sami Zayn

The former “Underdog From the Underground” never found his footing on RAW the first time around as a face. He faced off with Braun Strowman in a lackluster match at Roadblock 2016 before disappearing until October of 2017, returning at Hell in a Cell as a heel to help his “bestie” Kevin Owens defeat Shane McMahon. Zayn would stay on the blue brand before coming back to RAW in the 2018 Superstar Shakeup, and he still has not fit in well on the red brand, but most of that may have to do with the fact he missed ten months while recovering from double shoulder surgery. His work on RAW in 2019 has been decent. 

Good Value: No

Smackdown Live No. 5 Pick: Bray Wyatt

I already detailed Wyatt’s Smackdown tenure while discussing Orton’s value. That’s all Wyatt did on the blue brand was have that awesome story with “The Viper”, which should mean the pick is a bust because he did not do anything else, but the story was arguably the best story on Smackdown throughout 2016 and early 2017 that it has to go in the yes column. Plus, Wyatt won his only WWE Title while on Smackdown.

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 8 Pick: Sasha Banks

What hasn’t Banks done on the RAW roster? She beat Charlotte on the first night of the “new” RAW to capture her first ever women’s championship, sparking a great rivalry with “The Queen” that I talked about when discussing Charlotte’s value. Overall, she’s won the red brand’s strap four times and even though she never successfully defended the championship, her matches with Alexa Bliss and others were solid.

In early 2019 at the Royal Rumble, Banks lost a RAW Women’s Championship Match to Ronda Rousey, but it may have been Rousey’s best match. At Elimination Chamber, “The Boss” and Bayley formed “The BossNHug Connection” to become the first-ever WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. They would lose the titles at Wrestlemania 35 to the IIconics, and we have not seen Banks since, the RAW Women’s division declining tremendously since her absence. Hopefully Banks returns soon.

Good Value: Yes  

 

Smackdown Live No. 6 Pick: Becky Lynch

It took Smackdown six picks to select their first women, and it did not go like Bryan and McMahon planned. While Lynch became the first-ever Smackdown Women’s Champion at Backlash 2016 by winning a Six Pack Challenge, Lynch would lose the title to Alexa Bliss three months later at TLC, and she almost never recovered. For the next 18 months, Lynch was an afterthought on Tuesday nights.

It was not until Summerslam of 2018 where Lynch once again became an attraction in WWE when she turned on Charlotte, and the fans got behind her. The whole Lynch-Charlotte program ended up leading to a triple threat match with Rousey in the main event of this year’s Wrestlemania for both the RAW and Smackdown Women’s Championships, a match that Lynch won by defeating Rousey, handing the “Baddest Women on the Planet” her first loss in WWE, but most of the great stuff that happened in that rivalry happened on RAW, so I am going to go off the grain and say Smackdown swung and missed with Lynch. They waited too long to push her to get good value in my opinion.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 9 Pick: Chris Jericho

The stuff Jericho and Kevin Owens did from Summerslam 2016 to Backlash 2017 on RAW was just plain comedy and entertainment. I always wanted to get on the list!

While Jericho is currently in AEW trying to stop fans from watching WWE, nobody will ever forget 2016 Jericho. It was arguably the best nine months of his career. 

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 10 Pick: Rusev(W/Lana).

When Rusev and Lana were selected with RAW’s No. 10 pick, they came in as massive heels who hated America. They had the United States Championship in their possession to show America what a true champion is like. That did not last very long, reportedly because of Donald Trump-Russia controversy.

Rusev had an ok feud with Reigns over the U,S. Title that saw Reigns throw a cake in Lana’s face, Reigns squash Rusev in a non-match at Summerslam and Reigns capturing the U.S. Title from the “Bulgarian Brute” in a Hell in a Cell Match at the Hell in a Cell PPV. That was the end of the Rusev-Lana RAW era as they moved to Smackdown in the 2017 Superstar Shakeup. That’s when Rusev Day started, and the rest is history.  

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 7 Pick: The Miz(W/Maryse).

To ensure they had a mid card champion, Bryan and McMahon, against their better judgement, selected the Intercontinental Champion Miz with their first pick in the fourth round. Miz immediately began a fun rivalry with Dolph Ziggler over the IC Title; Miz even brought back The Spirit Squad to troll Ziggler! After Ziggler, Miz would have a good short feud with Ambrose, where he would lose the IC Title to set up the match with him and Maryse vs Cena and Nikki Bella at Wrestlemania 33 as previously mentioned.

Miz would be shipped off to RAW in the 2017 Superstar Shakeup where his heel character would grow tremendously teaming up with the B-Team to face The Shield. After he lost the IC Championship to Rollins at Wrestlemania 34 in a great opening match that also featured Balor, Miz made his return to Smackdown in 2018 to fight Daniel Bryan. While the build was great throughout the summer because of their real-life hatred towards one another, their matches never really came through. The final match took place in Australia at Super Show-Down where Bryan would pin Miz in less than 30 seconds.

Once Miz was done with Bryan, he slowly began a face turn. He won the Smackdown Tag Team Titles with the Smackdown Commissioner at the Royal Rumble this year after begging McMahon to be his tag partner for months, so his dad’s dream could come true as his dad grew up idolizing The Boss’s son. They would drop the titles at Fastlane to the Usos, and McMahon would turn on Miz, attacking him and his dad in Miz’s hometown in Cleveland, setting up a Wrestlemania match between the two.

The match was one of the best Falls Count Anywhere matches WWE has put on in a while, the match ending when Miz supplexed Shane off a platform down 30 feet onto a foreign object. The match would also be Miz’s last official match as a Smackdown star to date as he once again moved to RAW in the Superstar Shakeup to continue his feud with McMahon. While Miz has switched brands every April for the past three years, he’s added value to each brand every time.

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 11 Pick: Kevin Owens

Man, what would Mrs. McMahon and Foley do from August 2016-April 2017 if they did not have Kevin Owens. While Jericho was a star alongside Owens, the “Prizefighter” had to take control of RAW for six months with the Universal Championship while Balor recovered from his shoulder injury, Owens defending the title mostly against Rollins and Reigns in good contests before he lost the title to Goldberg at Fastlane 2017. Owens would capture the U.S. Title from his former best friend at Wrestlemania 33, and he took the title with him to Smackdown during the 2017 Superstar Shakeup.

Owens returned to RAW for a short while in the spring of 2018 during the Superstar Shakeup, but he was forced to have double knee surgery in the fall after a hilarious rivalry with Braun Strowman, which featured Owens taking bumps from a twenty-foot ladder and a steel cage, along with getting run over while in a porta potty and getting his car flipped over. Owens would return in February of 2019 to the blue brand as Mr. McMahon’s appointed challenger for Daniel Bryan’s WWE Title at Fastlane, ending Owens’ RAW stint. His time on RAW will be known for his rivalry with Strowman and for his time with Jericho as Universal Champion, both of those storylines adding value to RAW. 

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 8 Pick: Baron Corbin

Corbin had some nice moments as a member of the Smackdown roster. He won the United States Championship and the Money in the Bank briefcase while having some good matches with the likes of John Cena, A.J. Styles and Dean Ambrose, but it feels like he never really took off as a major player in WWE until he moved to RAW in the 2018 Superstar Shakeup. Now, he is arguably one of WWE’s top heels.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 12 Pick: Enzo and Cass

“My name is Enzo Amore, and I am a certified G, and a bona fide stud, and YOU CAN’T TEACH THAT!

And this right here; this is Big Cass, and he’s seven feet tall, and YOU CAN’T TEACH THAT!

BADA BOOM- REALEST GUY IN THE ROOM- HOW YOU DOIN?”

Good old Enzo and Cass. These guys had so much potential, and WWE never put the straps on them. Then, Cass turned on Enzo in an interesting storyline in 2017 where for weeks Cass was trying to figure out who attacked Enzo. After they split, Enzo went on to the cruiserweight division and won the championship while Cass tore his ACL. By 2018, they were both released for different reasons.

Good Value: No

 

Breakdown(the number before the slash is the number of yes’s per round, and the number after the slash is the total number of picks per round)

Round 3:

RAW: 2/3

Smackdown: 1/2

 

Round 4:

RAW: 1/3

Smackdown: 1/2

 

Total:

RAW: 7/12

Smackdown: 4/8 

 

July 17- Rounds 5 and 6

RAW No. 13 Pick: Gallows and Anderson

The Good Brothers broke up with A.J. Styles during the 2016 draft as they headed to RAW with the red brand’s first pick in round No. 5. While Anderson and Gallows did enter Wrestlemania 33 as the RAW Tag Team Champions, their reign never felt legitimate. They just returned to RAW during the 2019 Superstar Shakeup after a forgetful year on Smackdown where they barely were used. Currently, they are heels, working alongside Styles again as they try to legitimize themselves to the WWE Universe.

Good Value: No

Smackdown Live No. 9 Pick: American Alpha(Jason Jordan and Chad Gable)

Bryan selected American Alpha with his first pick in the fifth round because he thought that Jordan and Gable reminded him of himself; great traditional wrestlers who are tag team specialists, and who can go with the best at any time. Turns out Bryan was wrong. While American Alpha did well in their first six months on the main roster after being called up from NXT, including a Smackdown Tag Team Title run, they never truly felt over, causing WWE to split the tag team in July of 2017 when it was revealed that Jordan was Kurt Angle’s adopted son(Angle was the General Manager of RAW at this point, not Foley, so Jordan was moved to RAW while Gable went on to team with Shelton Benjamin as a heel, a team that barely did anything for a year before they got broken up as well).

Honestly, it’s a shame what happened to Jason Jordan. Reportedly, he was set for a major push going into Wrestlemania 34. Now, because of his neck injury, he is working as a backstage producer for WWE and will probably never step inside the squared circle as a competitor again.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 14 Pick: Big Show

This may be the biggest flop for the RAW brand in the entire draft. I never understood this move. It’s like why Big Show? 

At this point in his career, he was winding down. There was no need to pick him with the 14th selection. Show ended up working a program with Strowman in early 2017, but that was all he did on the red brand.

Don’t get me wrong; the stuff he did with Strowman to put him over such as collapsing the ring and getting slammed out of a Steel Cage was awesome, but I doubt McMahon and Bryan were waiting in the wings to pick Show. This was a clear reach, considering he was barely used on the show, and now he is basically retired.

Good Value: No 

 

Smackdown Live No. 10 Pick: Dolph Ziggler

This one is hard to call. On the first night of Smackdown Live, Ziggler won a Six Pack Challenge, hitting a Super-kick on Styles for the win to earn himself a WWE Title match against Ambrose at Summerslam. Ziggler would lose to Ambrose before having a great feud with the Miz as I talked about when discussing Miz’s value, but after that, he went on strange hiatus’ throughout 2017.

He did win the United States Championship at Clash of Champions 2017, but he dropped it the following Tuesday on Smackdown before quitting the company because “the WWE Universe didn’t deserve him”. He returned as No. 30 in the 2018 Royal Rumble to no entrance music to “show off his skills”. He also wrestled in the Six Pack Challenge for the WWE Championship at Fastlane 2018 before leaving again.

This is where the value of this pick gets complicated. While all that on his Smackdown resume looks like value, the stuff he did alongside Drew McIntyre  on RAW from April-December was awesome. 

They were such a good tandem. His matches with Rollins for the IC Title were spectacular, especially the Ironman Match at last year’s Extreme Rules. During that run, Ziggler won the IC Championship and the RAW Tag Team Championship with McIntyre, and both championship runs were better than the IC Championship runs he had on Smackdown in 2016 in my opinion.

Then, Ziggler returned to Smackdown two weeks before Super Showdown this past June to attack the WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, reuniting a rivalry from a decade ago. Ziggler claimed that it should have been him who got the Wrestlemania moment, not Kingston. Ziggler would try to capture the WWE Title twice from Kingston, including inside a Steel Cage at Stomping Grounds, failing both times.

Ziggler has since moved on to fight Kevin Owens in a feud that looks promising. So the question is: is Ziggler’s run on RAW more valuable than everything he did on Smackdown because his RAW run was so good? I honestly think the answer would have been yes if he did not come back to fight Kingston and Owens. While the Ziggler-Kingston bouts were not the greatest thing since sliced bread, the build to both matches were great, and I already mentioned how great this feud is going so far with Owens.

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 15 Pick: Nia Jax

When Jax was called up to RAW from NXT with RAW’s 15th selection, she was portrayed as the most dominant women in WWE history, winning squash matches for weeks before eventually being challenged by Sasha Banks. Jax competed at Wrestlemania 33 in a Fatal-4-Way Match for the RAW Women’s Championship alongside Charlotte, Banks and the champion Bayley, but she did not win the title. She then went into a year-long storyline where she was Alexa Bliss’s best friend, the story ending with Bliss, who was the RAW Women’s Champion at the time, turning on Jax and forcing the “Irresistible Force” to teach Bliss a lesson by taking her title from her at Wrestlemania 34.

Jax’s title reign would not last long. After a sub-par match with Ronda Rousey at Money in the Bank 2017, Bliss cashed in her Money in the Bank contract on Jax. Jax would receive a rematch against Bliss at Extreme Rules, where she would once again come up short against “The Goddess”. For the rest of 2018, the only thing Jax would be known for is breaking Becky Lynch’s nose and giving her a concussion for real during a brawl six nights before Survivor Series when Lynch along with the rest of Smackdown invaded RAW, causing WWE to cancel the planned Lynch-Rousey match for Survivor Series and shift their entire Wrestlemania plans around.

At Wrestlemania 35, Jax and Tamina teamed up to challenge for the WWE Women’s Tag Championship, but they were unsuccessful. Since, Jax has had surgery on both of her knees and will probably be out till January 2020(possible Royal Rumble surprise?). To me, for such a “dominant superstar”, Jax has sunk on RAW instead of swim. Her title reign means nothing to me because it did nothing for her. 

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 16 Pick: Neville

The man who is now known as PAC on the Indies, Neville did really nothing on the RAW roster. In January 2017, he turned heel and became the face of 205 Live, but I did not really care to be brutally honest. He quit WWE in October after being frustrated over the way he was booked. 

While Neville did have a cool finisher, the Red Arrow, I never really cared for him. He never was going to be a major player in my eyes in WWE, so I was not upset when he quit. I’m more upset right now typing the fact that RAW just made their fourth bad pick in a row.

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 11 Pick: Natalya

Natalya is a good veteran presence to have around in the locker room, and she also is good friends with Bryan’s wife Brie Bella, so it makes sense that Natalya was drafted to Smackdown, though her stay was forgetful. She had an ok rivalry with Nikki Bella to kick off her Smackdown campaign, but it did not really help either women. She ended up winning the Smackdown Women’s Championship over Naomi at Summerslam in 2017, but her title reign was nothing special. After she lost the belt, she was an afterthought on the blue brand for the rest of her time there.

As you can see throughout the article, winning a championship to me does not make you valuable, especially in this part of the draft. I look at your totality of work throughout your time on the brand you were drafted on and decide if what you did equals the production expected from you when you were drafted. In Natalya’s case, her RAW campaign has been way more noteworthy than her Smackdown run. Monday, she won a Fatal-4-Way elimination match to earn the right to challenge Becky Lynch for the RAW Women’s Championship at Summerslam in a match that should exceed expectations.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 17 Pick: Cesaro

If you recall, the “Swiss Superman” was not thrilled when he learned he was heading to the red brand instead of the “land of opportunity”. However, he made the most of it. Foley had a vision that Cesaro and Sheamus could be main event talent on RAW, so he booked them in a best of seven against one another.

After being down 3-0, Cesaro would tie the score 3-3. In the final contest, it was a double countout. This led to Foley booking the duo as a heel tag team, and the rest is history.

Slow and steady wins the race, and that is the case with Cesaro and Sheamus. Week by week they gained more confidence and chemistry until they were fully on the same page by the end of 2016. They ended up naming their team The Bar, and The Bar ended New Day’s 483 day Tag Team Title reign as mentioned a couple days ago when talking about New Day’s value. 

For the next year, The Bar won the RAW Tag Team Championship three more times for a total of four reigns. They had incredible matches with the Hardy Boyz, including a Steel Cage Match and an Ironman Match, and Rollins and Ambrose. They moved to Smackdown in the 2018 Superstar Shakeup as they did everything they could on RAW. Over there, they only won those championships once, but they had awesome matches with the Usos and New Day once again.

In the 2019 Superstar Shakeup, Cesaro moved back to RAW while Sheamus stayed on Smackdown, ending the team. Cesaro has had some nice matches since then, including a great contest against Aleister Black at Extreme Rules, a match Cesaro would lose.  

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 12 Pick: Alberto Del Rio

Who remembers this guy? WWE strapped a rocket to Del Rio when he won multiple world championships from 2011-2013. Then he left WWE, returning in 2015 to upset Cena for the United States Championship alongside Zeb Colter at the Hell in a Cell PPV.

Anybody remember the League of Nations with him, Sheamus, Rusev and Wade Barrett? Yeah, what a disaster! I had to look up to see what Del Rio did on Smackdown because I had no clue!

Turns out he appeared only once as a member of the Smackdown roster: on August 16, he lost a match to Cena. By far, this is the worst pick in the 2016 draft to date. Yes, even worse than Neville.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 18 Pick: Sheamus

I already detailed Sheamus’ whole run post brand split when talking about Cesaro’s value. Sheamus has not wrestled since April due to a back injury.

Good Value: Yes

 

Breakdown(the number before the slash is the number of yes’s per round, and the number after the slash is the total number of picks per round)

Round 5:

RAW: 0/3

Smackdown: 1/2

 

Round 6:

RAW: 2/3

Smackdown: 0/2

 

Total:

RAW: 9/18

Smackdown: 5/12

 

July 18- Rounds 7 and 8

RAW No. 19 Pick: Golden Truth(Goldust and R- Truth)

Golden Truth was the first selection post Smackdown Live on the WWE Network. They did do a couple of funny segments where they were playing Pokemon Go in the ring, but that was it. Currently, Goldust is wrestling with his real life brother Cody Rhodes in AEW under his real name Dustin Rhodes while Truth is in a hilarious storyline surrounding Drake Maverick and the 24/7 Championship. I would say there is value here because of Truth, but I am grading the tag team, and Truth is technically a Smackdown superstar even though he rarely is on Tuesdays.

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 13 Pick: The Usos

Getting drafted to Smackdown Live may have been the best thing to ever happen to the Usos. They essentially re-debuted with a new look and a new attitude, and it saved their career in my opinion as they were starting to get a little stale. Over their two year run on the blue brand, the Usos won the straps four times and had great matches with Breezango, New Day, The Bar, American Alpha, Gallows and Anderson, the Bludgeon Brothers, among others. 

They ran the Smackdown tag division and were the best team in WWE throughout that time in my opinion. They did everything they could on Smackdown, so they moved to RAW in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup after dropping their tag titles to Bryan and Rowan to start a weird rivalry with the Revival. 

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 20 Pick: Titus O’Neil

Titus had a little bit of a run running Titus Worldwide in 2017 after he turned on Darren Young, ending the Primetime Players, but he basically is a WWE Ambassador now. For years the WWE commentators would comment how O’Neil has “all the tools”, yet O’Neil has yet to show it. He did become the first ever 24/7 Champion by scooping it up in the middle of the ring but lost it shortly after when Robert Roode pinned him on the stage. O’Neil is probably best known for his epic fail at the Greatest Royal Rumble.

Good Value: No 

 

Smackdown Live No. 14 Pick: Kane

Just like Big Show, this pick never really made sense. Kane at this point was a part-timer running for mayor in Tennessee, a race he would win. He barely made any appearances on Smackdown in 2016. In October of 2017, Kane returned to RAW as a heel to start a brief feud with Braun Strowman that ended when both men lost to Brock Lesnar in a hard-hitting triple threat match for the Universal title at the 2018 Royal Rumble.

Kane would have a couple more random appearances on RAW before returning to Smackdown in July to help his friend Daniel Bryan battle the Bludgeon Brothers, reuniting Team Hell No for the first time in half a decade. The fan-favorite tag team would lose a title match to the Brothers at Extreme Rules, which turned out to be Kane’s last match to date as a Smackdown superstar. 

He returned to RAW in September to team alongside his storyline brother the Undertaker against Triple H and Shawn Michaels(DX). The two iconic teams went head-to-head for the first-time ever at WWE Crown Jewel in Jeddah in November. DX took home the win, and Kane went back to being the mayor of Knoxville full-time. 

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 21 Pick: Paige

Paige was drafted to RAW, but she was never actually used until the night after Survivor Series in 2017 when she returned after over 18 months away from WWE due to a serious neck injury and drug-related issues. However, she did not come alone as she brought Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose from NXT with her, forming the team Absolution. The team though did not last long as at a WWE Live Event in December, Paige took a kick to the back from Sasha Banks, and she did not get up. 

The match was stopped, and Paige was taken to the back. The night after Wrestlemania 34, Paige announced on RAW that she had to retire. The next night on Smackdown Paige was named the new General Manager as Bryan was officially back as a wrestler. 

Paige would hold that title until December when the McMahon’s eliminated General Manager’s from WWE TV and put themselves in charge. Currently, Paige manages Asuka and Kairi Sane on Smackdown.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 22 Pick: Darren Young(W/ Bob Backlund)

WWE Hall Of Famer Bob Backlund tried to make Darren Young great again after he broke away from O’Neil, but it did not work. After a few weeks on RAW, Young and Backlund were quickly and quietly moved to Main Event. In October of 2017, Young was released by WWE, and Backlund stopped appearing on WWE TV all together.

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 15 Pick: Kalisto

I had to look up what Kalisto did on Smackdown before going to RAW in the 2017 Superstar Shakeup. Apparently he had a chairs match with Baron Corbin at TLC, which he lost. The feud started when Corbin cost Kalisto an IC Title match against the Miz. Kalisto has been used better on RAW as he is now in the cruiserweight division as a member of the Lucha House Party with Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 23 Pick: Sin Cara

Apparently Sin Cara being drafted to RAW was Foley and McMahon’s way of breaking up the Lucha Dragons. It did not work out well for either brand as Sin Cara barely appeared on RAW. Currently, he is a member of Smackdown though he has not been seen on the blue brand since 2018.

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 16 Pick: Naomi

Naomi got a proper title reign at the start of 2017. She defeated Alexa Bliss to win her first championship in WWE at Elimination Chamber, but she injured her knee in the match, forcing her to relinquish the championship. She would regain the strap in her hometown at Wrestlemania 33.

She would feud with Lana until Summerslam, where she lost the title to Natalya.  For the rest of her time on Smackdown, she would be involved with Mandy Rose over her husband Jimmy Uso as Rose tried to break up their marriage in an Attitude Era-like rivalry. She was shipped off to RAW alongside the Usos in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup, where she really has not done much.

This is hard to call for me. While Naomi was more relevant from 2017-2018 than ever, her feuds were ok at best, including the one with Rose. They didn’t really add value to Smackdown; Smackdown kinda added value to her. The title picture was not as exciting with her in it.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 24 Pick: Jack Swagger

Swagger only wrestled one match on RAW, losing to Jinder Mahal on September 12 before moving to Smackdown because his RAW contract “expired”. Clearly Foley and McMahon were not happy with the former Tag Team, ECW, United States and World Heavyweight Champion. Swagger would wrestle Corbin a few times on the blue brand before being released in March of 2017. 

Now Swagger is in Bellator with a record of 2-0. Good for him; I always liked him. He was a good mid carder as both a heel and a face.

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 17 Pick: The Ascension(Konnor and Viktor)

The ultimate tag team jobbers on the main roster! I guess Bryan and McMahon picked these guys just to fill out their tag roster, but then again maybe they thought The Ascension could get back to their NXT days when they were the NXT Tag Team Champions. If the latter is true, then they were dead wrong!

Konnor and Viktor only made sporadic appearances on Smackdown until September of 2017 when they turned face by forming a friendship with Breezango. The story never really went anywhere though as the Ascension was just used as characters on the wwe.com series The Fashion Files. In the 2018 Superstar Shakeup,  The Ascension were sent to RAW, but they have barely been used since.

Good Value: No

 

Breakdown(the number before the slash is the number of yes’s per round, and the number after the slash is the total number of picks per round)

Round 7:

RAW: 0/3

Smackdown: 1/2

 

Round 8:

RAW: 0/3

Smackdown: 0/3

 

Total:

RAW: 9/24

Smackdown: 6/17

 

 

July 19- Rounds 9, 10 and 11

RAW No. 25 Pick: The Dudley Boyz(Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley)

After a decade away from the company, the WWE Hall of Famers returned to WWE in August 2015 as faces, beginning a rivalry with a heel New day. After unsuccessfully winning the tag team titles, they moved on to a feud with the Wyatt Family, a feud they would go on to lose as well. Sick and tired of losing, the “brothers” turned heel in early 2016 to start a feud with the Usos, losing to the duo on the Wrestlemania 32 Kickoff Show. 

I think the Dudley’s quickly found out they were going to work out in WWE’s “new era” because the night after Summerslam 2016, exactly a year after they returned, they left the company.

Good Value: No

Smackdown Live No. 18 Pick: Zack Ryder

Ryder went to Smackdown with his Hype Bro partner Mojo Rawley. The team never really got over on the main roster, and Rawley eventually turned on Ryder in late 2017 after months of inactivity. Ryder would move to RAW in the 2018 Superstar Shakeup.

After months of inactivity also on the red brand, Ryder reunited with his friend Curt Hawkins to win the RAW Tag Team Championship in his hometown at Wrestlemania 35. The former Edgeheads would lose their titles a few weeks later to The Revival in a Wrestlemania rematch, and Ryder has only made one appearance since; he defeated Mike Kanellis on the July 15 episode of RAW. Ryder’s Tag Team Title win at Wrestlemania was his first championship win since winning the Intercontinental Championship in a Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 32.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 26 Pick: Summer Rae

She never appeared on the RAW brand due to injuries, so by default, she is the worst pick in the entire draft. Poor Summer! Hopefully, she’s doing well as I always thought she had some potential to be a solid mid card heel. Her work with Fandango in 2013-2014 was probably her best run in WWE.

Good Value: No 

 

Smackdown Live No. 19 Pick: Apollo Crews

Crews is currently on Smackdown getting beat up every week by Andrade after a forgetful two year run on RAW that saw him be on TV only because of Titus Worldwide for the most part. To be honest, I totally forgot Smackdown drafted him as he was barely on TV from July 2016-April 2017. Crews is another one of these guys that WWE always talks about as “having all the tools”, yet he never has gotten a proper push

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 27 Pick: Mark Henry

The “World’s Strongest Man” made a vow to himself that he had a lot left in the tank after being drafted to RAW with the red brand’s No. 27 pick, but the truth was he did not. Henry’s best moment as a member of the RAW roster from 2016-2017 was losing a U.S. Championship Match to Rusev. His last match in WWE was the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the Wrestlemania 33 Kickoff Show. 

Since, he has become a backstage producer and a WWE Hall Of Famer. While he is a good veteran to have in the locker room, this was another flop for RAW, their ninth straight bad pick in my opinion.  

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 20 Pick: Alexa Bliss

If you look up the definition of value, Alexa Bliss’ picture might show up in the dictionary. Little Miss Bliss instantly became the best women on the Smackdown roster in my opinion for the nine months she was there, not Lynch. She caught my eye immediately with her wrestling and promo skills, and she has only become a bigger star since. 

Currently, she is one of, if not the best heel in the women’s division. Her stay on Smackdown helped elevate her to the next level. In my estimation, she has carried whatever brand’s women’s division she has been on.

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 28 Pick: Braun Strowman

RAW kicked off round No. 10 with a bang as they brought in “The Monster Among Men” Braun Strowman, effectively ending the Wyatt Family. Strowman debuted on the “new” RAW with a new look, and he never looked back. Who could ever forget his first match with James Ellsworth?

When talking about Reigns’, Owens’ and Lesnar’s values, I mentioned Strowman a lot because he had great feuds with all three men. If it wasn’t for those feuds, Strowman may have not turned into the star he is today. I do not have time to re-write everything Strowman has done since breaking away from the Wyatt Family, but everything he did up until Summerslam 2018 was incredible. Here are some highlights I did not mention yet that happened from 2016-2018

• Teaming up with Nicolas at Wrestlemania 34
• Flipping an ambulance
• Breaking the stage/RAW announce table
• Playing a cello
• Smashing a piano over Elias’ head.

There’s so much more he did, but I do not want to make this section of the article longer than it already is. While Strowman did slide down the card in early 2019, his feud with Bobby Lashley that just ended got Strowman back on the map in my opinion. Their Last Man Standing Match at Extreme Rules was the match of the night if you ask me, not to mention the stage explosion spot during their Falls Count Anywhere Match back on the July 1 episode of RAW.

Strowman, along with Rollins, Reigns, Lesnar and Bliss arguably carried RAW from 2017-now, and they still do for the most part due even though Reigns is now a Smackdown superstar. What a find for RAW this late in the draft! If you wanna see all of Strowman’s destruction the last three years, head over to the WWE Network!

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 21 Pick: Breezango(Fandango and Tyler Breeze)

I mostly described Breezango’s whole run when discussing The Ascension’s value, along with the Usos’s value since they did take the titles off them in early 2017. However, Bryan and McMahon really did not get good value out of them. Their title reign was not exciting, and the Fashion Files stuff was mostly on wwe.com as previously mentioned. 

After Fandango suffered a knee injury in early 2018, Breeze was kept off TV completely until he moved back down to NXT in early 2019. Breezango is now reportedly a team again in NXT. 

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 29 Pick: Bo Dallas

After about a year of Foley and McMahon getting nothing out of Dallas, The Miz saved him along with Curtis Axel when he made them his managers, forming The Miztourage. The heel trio had a great rivalry with The Shield as mentioned when I was talking about Miz’s value. After Miz got shipped off to Smackdown Live in the 2018 Superstar Shakeup, Dallas and Axel stayed relevant on RAW for the next couple of months by turning face, renaming their team the B-Team(B stands for best) and winning the RAW Tag Team Championships from Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt at last year’s Extreme Rules PPV. 

They would lose the titles in September to Drew McIntyre and Ziggler, effectively ending their run on TV. They would be shipped to Smackdown in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup, but they have only been used as Shane McMahon’s lackeys when he needs reinforcement, showing the B-Team has turned heel once again. I think RAW ended up getting some value out of Dallas because of the stuff he did with Axel and Miz.

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 22 Pick: Eva Marie

Remember Eva Marie? She had so much potential as a great heel on Smackdown, but she never made it due to personal issues. She never actually wrestled on Smackdown. She appeared for a few weeks with possibly the best heel entrance ever in my opinion, and then she would have an excuse to get out of her match. 

  Good Value: No

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xayt3kp2cc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JwxifRfxzo

 

RAW No. 30 Pick: The Shining Stars(Primo and Epico)

The Colons have had a lot of gimmicks since arriving on the scene a decade ago, but The Shining Stars gimmick may have been the worst. They had a few matches on RAW with the Golden Truth, Enzo and Cass and New Day in 2016 before heading over to “the land of opportunity” in the 2017 Superstar Shakeup, where they have barely been used since.

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 23 Pick: The Vaudevillains(Aiden English and Simon Gotch)

Bryan and McMahon drafted the former NXT Tag Team Champions with the last pick in the penultimate round of the 2016 WWE Draft, and they were really just reaching with straws here, hoping to find a gem in the late rounds. I was never fond of them. Honestly, I was so happy when Gotch was released in 2017, reportedly because he was not liked by wrestlers and officials backstage.

While English found his stride with Rusev Day in late 2017, I am grading the tag team here, so I have to give Bryan and McMahon another no here.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 31 Pick: Alicia Fox 

For their first pick in the final round, Foley and McMahon decided to add a veteran to the women’s division in Fox. Fox had a little bit of TV time in 2017 when Alexa Bliss enlisted her and Mickie James as her cronies, but that is all she really has done in the last three years. 

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 24 Pick: Rowan

Rowan would appear on Smackdown Live as a member of the Wyatt Family until he tore his rotator cuff in October, missing six months of action. He returned on the Smackdown Live after Wrestlemania 33, assisting Wyatt in attacking Orton. When Wyatt was shipped over to RAW in the 2017 Superstar Shakeup, Rowan began a short feud with former Wyatt Family member Luke Harper. 

The two had an above average match at Backlash 2017 that Rowan would lose. Rowan would not appear again until November as a member of the Bludgeon Brothers alongside Harper as the two had been repackaged. Rowan and Harper would dominate the tag team division for the next eight months, including winning the Smackdown Live Tag Titles at Wrestlemania 34 in a Triple Threat Match that included The New Day and The Usos. 

In August of 2018, The Bludgeon Brothers would lose the straps to New Day in a No Disqualification Match. Rowan would not appear again until the 2019 Royal Rumble due to a torn bicep. Rowan would return at the event as himself without Harper, helping the “new” Daniel Bryan retain the WWE Championship over A.J. Styles, forming an alliance with Bryan.

After Bryan lost the WWE Title to Kofi Kingston at Wrestlemania 35, Bryan and Rowan would win the Smackdown Tag Team Titles, deeming themselves “The Planet’s Tag Team Champions”. Bryan and Rowan would lose the titles at Extreme Rules to New Day in a Triple Threat Match that also featured Heavy Machinery. Even though Rowan has not always been seen on the blue brand, he has added value to the tag team division with each teammate he has had.

Good Value: Yes

 

RAW No. 32 Pick: Dana Brooke

After breaking away from Charlotte in early 2017, Brooke would pretty much be a jobber for the rest of the year. In early 2018, Brooke became the manager of Titus Worldwide for eight months until a disagreement between the trio broke them apart. Currently, Brooke is barely getting on TV. Her most memorable moment in 2019 occurred in June when she competed in the Money In The Bank Ladder Match.

Good Value: No

 

Smackdown Live No. 25 Pick: Mojo Rawley

I already have pretty much detailed Rawley’s Smackdown career while talking about Zack Ryder. Rawley did win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the Wrestlemania 33 Kickoff Show with the help of his real-life good friend Rob Gronkowski, the star football player for the New England Patriots, but his victory did not go anywhere as is the case with every single Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. 

Rawley has not done any better since moving over to RAW in the 2018 Superstar Shakeup. I have always thought Rawley should be used on RAW more because his name has the name of the brand in it. To me, that would be a cool gimmick, but I just think WWE does not see Rawley as a main player on TV.

Good Value: No

 

RAW No. 33 Pick: Curtis Axel

RAW’s last pick has been with Bo Dallas for the last three years and since I have already detailed Dallas’ run on the red brand, you already know how I feel about the former Paul Heyman Guy of the B-Team.

Good Value: Yes

 

Smackdown Live No. 26 Pick: Carmella

After breaking away from Enzo and Cass when she was called up from NXT(she was Cass’s real-life girlfriend until the two separated in 2018), the “Moon-Walking, Trash Talking, Princess Of Staten Island” had a fun run as a heel with James Ellsworth and the Money in the Bank briefcase from 2017-2018. During that time, Mella was not afraid to tell you that she was the last pick in the 2016 WWE Draft. When she cashed in the contract on Charlotte on the Smackdown Live after Wrestlemania 34, it started a Fabulous title reign.

She had good matches with Asuka, Becky Lynch and Charlotte before losing the title to Charlotte in a Triple Threat Match at Summerslam 2018 in a match that also featured Lynch. Shortly after, Mella would turn face and form a fun friendship with R- Truth where they would entertain the crowd with dance breaks. The duo would win the 2019 Mixed Match Challenge, earning the No. 30 spots in their respective Royal Rumble matches and a vacation to Stamford Connecticut and WWE Headquarters. Mella and Truth would perform “the world’s largest dance break” at Wrestlemania 35. 

Today, Mella is busy helping Truth defend the 24/7 Championship. The good friends have arguably been the most entertaining people on RAW and Smackdown Live throughout 2019, and that is a testament to Mella being able to adapt her character. You talk about value; Smackdown Live found a gem with Mella. 

Good Value: Yes

 

Breakdown(the number before the slash is the number of yes’s per round, and the number after the slash is the total number of picks per round)

 Round 9:

RAW: 0/3

Smackdown: 1/3

 

Round 10:

RAW: 2/3

Smackdown: 0/3

 

Round 11:

RAW: 1/3

Smackdown: 2/3

 

Total:

RAW: 12/33= 36%

Smackdown: 9/26= 35%

 

 

Brandon Lewis is the Web Director for Black Squirrel Radio. Follow him on Twitter @brandonlewis_7. Email him at [email protected]