SmackDown recap & reactions: The Draft

This year was no different.

It started on Friday Night SmackDown this week and immediately we got a surprise — Paul Heyman announcing Roman Reigns has withdrawn himself from eligibility because he is on hiatus and won't return for some time. I suppose the idea was to create intrigue in someone else getting the number one pick (he's been it for years now) but The Bloodline would still go as a faction.

Perhaps a message on their place in the hierarchy without him?

Sure enough, they were not the first pick, which went to Bianca Belair. The second pick was actually Jey Uso, even ahead of the likes of Seth Rollins, which I suppose makes sense if only because he's the next challenger to the world heavyweight championship. But it just feels a bit goofy considering we know the reality outside of the kayfabe.

Carmelo Hayes was called up as a first round draft pick, making history as the first NXT star drafted in the first round, or so they said. It's the kind of thing you can tell they did so they could say that as opposed to it making any sense for them to actually do such a thing.

That, among many other issues we've beaten on for years now, is why the draft, at least for WWE, will always be a mostly silly exercise, especially considering they hardly stick to the brand split concept anyway.

They did address some issues from year's past, like actually showing us inside the War Room for Raw and SmackDown. They also did a ticker this year, periodically updating everyone on who was drafted and who was still eligible but not leaving it up the entire show so it wasn't distracting. Those are improvements worth mentioning.

Still, doing draft picks around an actual show doesn't make a lot of sense to me and I think they'd be better off simply making a special out of it some weekend on Peacock or even YouTube. Make it a special event instead of a standard episode of television.

WWE didn't have much time to build out a proper program for new Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes following WrestleMania 40. They spent a couple weeks on Rhodes building to a future big money match with The Rock before finally moving on to finding the first challenge — none other than longtime industry veteran AJ Styles, who defeated LA Knight to earn the right.

So what angle would they take on making things interesting, beyond simply a title match between two top stars?

Styles made mention of this being two Georgia boys getting together for a first ever match between them. They had to travel down the same roads, proving themselves outside of WWE before they could prove themselves inside it. Of course, AJ also mentioned getting advice from Dusty Rhodes, because there is no such thing as someone going up against Cody and not mentioning "The American Dream."

Hey, he had one hell of an impact on the industry, both in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes.

Styles closed by saying the weight of the championship isn't just leather and gold and we'll find out if Cody can carry it come Backlash.

Good enough, I suppose.

Rhodes' response? The challenge isn't winning the title, it's keeping it and they'll have a level playing field at Backlash and he doesn't view this as a "dream match" but rather a "must win." It's a straight up competition, folks, between two guys who respect each other and just want to be champion.

Like I said, good enough, I suppose.

Rhodes wasn't done after this on this show, though. No, he was challenged to a match by Carmelo Hayes, who was drafted in the first round in what they wanted to present as a monster deal. They headlined the show in what turned out to be a pretty strong TV match with the champion elevating a young talent on a big night for him. Cody sold like hell for him and gave him respect on the way out.

They also held a few good camera angles, with Hayes looking on at Rhodes celebrating on the turnbuckle. That's going to come back around again someday.

The future is bright indeed.

To close the evening, AJ showed up to tease like he was going to attack Rhodes from behind but instead they stared each other down before yet another handshake.

All the rest

• The LWO defeated Legado del Fantasma in a blink-and-you-missed-it match, despite the fact that there was a commercial break in there. I'm not sure how that works. Maybe I was too distracted by the damn ticker. Anyway, the match was simply a way to get Santos Escobar hitting the scene to reveal Elektra Lopez found the security footage of Dragon Lee being attacked weeks ago and it turns out it was Carlito all along! Having been caught, Carlito pushed Lee into Rey Mysterio, gave him a backcracker, and then ran out through the crowd. This got over well enough.
• Cedric Alexander was the latest wrestler to get squashed by Bron Breakker, who buzzed his head I suppose to make his spear even more deadly. More velocity. I'm a big advocate for smashing a guy over via squashing folks like this, so I'm endorsing what they're doing here.
• The Bloodline arrived to this show late, and Solo Sikoa was upset they hadn't been drafted yet. Paul Heyman had to inform him of Roman Reigns removing himself from the pool early when Kevin Owens attacked from behind and a big brawl broke out. That brawl made it out to the ring and wouldn't you know it, Owens got an assist from an ally in his feud with Logan Paul, Randy Orton. That's the same Randy who has been working with Sikoa on house shows, and the fans absolutely blew the roof off for him showing up here. They didn't get much time to do anything more but this sets things up for the future.
• Tiffany Stratton interrupted Naomi's title match against Bayley last week, so Nick Aldis booked her in a number one contender match against Naomi with the winner moving on to Backlash. Naturally, they did yet another non-finish with Nia Jax, who was drafted to the blue brand on this show, sneaking in to attack Bayley sitting ringside. Ultimately, Nick Aldis gave both women the title shot and left Jax out. Gee, I wonder how that is going to play out!
• I'd just like to state that I couldn't be a bigger fan of Karrion Kross yelling at people while AOP crush everyone. More, please!

These Draft shows really aren't very good and it's because they can't be with how they're formatted.

Grade: C-

Your turn.