God Bless 'Em for Trying, but The Draft Show Feels Flat Every Year

Yeah, this didn't feel forced or anything
Find courtesy of @GesusKriest

So, RAW started out last night with a big battle royale between the wrestlers... err, entertainers on the RAW and Smackdown brands. It was a decent tilt (although the WHC #1 contenders BR from Smackdown two weeks ago was better), and it had the superstars from either brand banding together to help get their brand draft picks.

And that's what was totally wrong with the picture.

For every other day out of the year except for the Draft and for about a week leading up to Bragging Rights, no one really gives a flying shit about brand loyalty. Hell, several wrestlers, including Wade Barrett, who was in that battle royale, have had heat with their respective GMs. Furthermore, why should Evan Bourne and Sheamus team up for anything when the two have spent the last year beating each other up (mostly Sheamus wailing on Bourne, but bear with me here)? Additionally, why should I think that any two random babyfaces care about teaming up, when the art of the face save has been pretty much abandoned in WWE lately? I mean, how many times have you seen a heel beat the crap out of a face, and that's it? If guys don't care enough about watching each others backs, then why should they care if they're on the same brand?

The WWE asks me to suspend disbelief a lot, and I do. I mean, I've been trying lately not to be one of those hypercritical Internet know-it-alls who points out every little flaw in the logic, but at the same time, this is a big leap of faith they're asking me to take. I find it very hard that most of these people have an attachment to the brand they're on, especially a guy like The Big Show, who gets shunted back and forth each year, that they'd cheer for someone coming to the brand that they've feuded with recently, that they really don't care enough to make sure they're not getting jumped or, in the case of a guy like Orton coming to Smackdown, a guy who will probably leapfrog them in the pecking order to get a title shot.

Comradery isn't something you can just pretend happens arbitrarily and have discerning adults swallow it like it's ice cream. It needs a solid build, and much like other things WWE Creative have tried let fly without a proper build, it comes off as forced, flat and fake. If you're going to do the Draft next year (and they definitely will keep doing this until they put an end to brand extension), then do it right. Don't make it come off forced, and don't insult my intelligence.

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