Storyline wise, Vince pulled strings to get the nWo drafted as a unit. Billy and Chuck were drafted together because they were the tag champs. The Dudley’s tried to win the titles the Smackdown before the draft to ensure they stayed together, and when they lost, it was played up that they were in danger of being split the following Monday. TLDR; No team was safe outside of the tag champs. nWo was an exception due to Vince.
Do you really think anything will make WWE build long term stories? At this point 2 weeks is the longest they can take any story before its changed, dropped or forgotten.
@@ZDiddy7777 oh, absolutely not. This is pure fantasy booking territory here. This is all under the assumption that WWE's booking improves, which seems like it's not going to happen any time soon.
Wwe doesn't know how to do long term storytellin anymore..... The longest a fued last now is 3-4 weeks tops with a PPV every month to blow off the fued in some huge shiitt way
i really loved this brand split. Raw and Smackdown had their own identities, Raw was the entertainment in Sports Entertainment, Smackdown was the Sport in Sports Entertainment
And was better than Raw , HHH did nothing to being in viewers new rising talent besides only two wrestlers randy and batista benefit from HHH reign of terror
And now 20 years later, the only ones from the initial televised picks still active/semi-active in the company are Edge (after being retired for 9 years), Brock Lesnar (after leaving the company for 8 years) and more recently Lita. Everyone else, including all of the untelevised picks have either left the company (many going to AEW), retired or passed away.
The 2002 WWF draft was probably the only one I liked due to it being a fresh concept at the time. From that point forward however future iterations of the draft were trash.
There were moments in the 2016 (I think?) draft. Namely Finn Balor getting the third pick overall. What could’ve been if he hadn’t taken that barrier bomb from Rollins…
Stacy Keibler would Return to Raw in August 12th 2002 in one of my personal Favorite Raw Moments all because of Jerry Lawler's Commentary that was pure Genius.
I think that once the initial 2002 draft had settled and later that year when each brand had a definitive rosters, they both began to have really distinct identities and it helped to elevate and give time to some of the superstars who would have perhaps struggled to get spotlight had the top guys been featured on all shows. It also meant that when we got the occasional cross-brand match, that it felt more special. I remember at WM 21 in 2005 when we got Angle vs HBK in what felt and was an absolute dream matchup, made even better in my opinion by the fact the brank split had been largely unchanged for nearly 3 years at that point. It also allowed a chance for characters like JBL to feature in the main event and become world champions. I think these days, part of the problem is that generally as consumers, we want things now and can switch off a lot quicker. Storylines back then used to very often span many months and really culminate with a big payoff, whereas now it's a lot more thrown together. I do enjoy the draft and re draft concept and initially enjoyed the 2005 draft where you got guys like Kurt Angle and Cena go to RAW and Batista to SmackDown. Apart from the odd cross promotional match or Survivor Series, the superstars would stay on their show. Today, superstars cross over whenever the booking feels like it. We also have such frequent drafts and with so many superstars that no-one seems to stay on one show long enough to feel like its meaningful. When they did the great big draft right before last years Survivor Series, it was hard to buy into the idea of brank supremacy when these superstars had been on the other brand only a few weeks ago. It's just the way things are going at the moment - there's less build up or logic, in favour of putting together the higher profile matches and getting larger scale appeal, whether that's using older, part time guys in the top spots or relying more on celebrity involvement. Anyway, a tangent there sorry aha..
Right now I would rather have Raw and SD back on the same channel but give both brands separate writers and separate backstage workers so each show can have its own flare
I like the original split as both shows had a distinct identity. Raw was sports entertainment, while SD was more on wrestling. And as Jack mentioned, we associate Brock Lesnar more on SD same as the Smackdown Six and The Undertaker and even the Doctor of Thuganomics version of John Cena. Raw will always be Jericho, as well as Triple H and his Evolution stable. I think it would be nice to have that distinction still today. Different shows, different flavors.
It was established prior to the draft that the Tag Champions, Billy and Chuck would be drafted together and the nWo had pulled strings with Vince to make sure they were drafted as a unit. All other stars would be drafted individually.
17:13 No, what's very silly is the fact that when the two tag titles were unified, WWE chose to abandon the lineage that went back almost 40 years in favor of the lineage that began with Mr. TNA & Capt. CTE.
When the video got to the Dudley Boyz split, it made me think that The New Day getting separated makes even less sense. So you can draft a trio of wrestlers, a tag team, and an individual member to split up a team, then why only draft Big E and not the other two? But, on the other hand, the fans' reaction with the next year's draft when The New Day were reformed only to be immediately broken up again was totally worth it. That was a brilliantly-played d*ck-move on WWE's part! Lol!
Also I think WCW being its own show with Shane really owning the company and without the power hungry older guys keeping themselves on top and not pushing the younger stars would have worked. Also you would have got better writers that would book a better show. Then you could switch wrestlers from time to time
I used to appreciate the draft. Now that I look at it in retrospect, it was too much for a lot of things like championships and talent. There were too much championships, and there's even been more since 2016 that it just confuses some of the history books as to which "tag" or "world" championship was won. Over the years, large numbers of talent have been acquired only to be wasted and released. Then there were the dumbest moments that refuted the draft like Cena in 2011, the Wild Card Rule, ECW '06, and the fact that anyone would just transfer brands in the remainder of 2002. I get that it was all done in a way to give all the talent TV time, but it all did not turn out to be right.
They stuck with these rosters for like 2 weeks lol. When the dust settled a few months later they ended up with Raw being Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Flair, Austin, Kane, Jericho, Steiner, Nash, Goldberg, Batista, Orton, Booker T, RVD and others and Smackdown being Undertaker, Angle, Big Show, Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, Rikishi, Chris Benoit among others. The WWE roster was so good 02-03 that both shows were stacked.
What didn't help the draft outside of Rock leaving to do more films. 2002 was plagued with injuries, also when the draft was done no one in WWE knew that Steve Austin was going to leave three months into this new venture. Austin was probably going to be World Champion if he hadn't left.
Trust me 02 was a slightly simpler time. And yes, putting the wrestlers' fate in the hands of a dreaded dial-up Internet connection was not the smoothest move by WWE.
I love Austin, I really do, but the more stories I hear about him in the later part of his career. Well I think if anyone else acted in that way they would be ridiculed. It seems like he became a bit of a mark for himself. But he was the best to ever do it, so if anyone can get away with it, it's him.
Chris Benoit was drafted to Smackdown in 2002 yet he wrestled on Raw until August 2002 when he and Eddie Guerrero migrated to Smackdown in exchange for Chris Jericho and The Un-Americans. Also, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker jumped ship to Smackdown despite being on Raw, forcing Eric Bischoff to bring back the Big Gold Belt and give it to Triple H who was supposed to be the challenger to Brock Lesnar’s WWE title. Big Show, after doing nothing big on Raw except doing J-O-Bs every night, jumped ship to Smackdown and make a comeback by challenging Brock Lesnar for the WWE title in exchange for D-Von Dudley who returned to Raw and reunite with Bubba Ray after flopping as a deacon!
If you look back on it, the 1st picks for both brands were misses. Rock only appeared for Smackdown on the summer of 2002 and the spring of 2003. Then he left for Hollywood. Undertaker became the undisputed champion in May. But after he lost it in the summer, he junped to Smackdown quickly.
The best draft was the 2005 draft. Done for a month, two wrestlers on RAW and two on Smackdown every week, there was excitement and big surprises, like Smackdown without a world champion for a month due to the surprise John Cena draft to RAW and ending with the Batista draft to Smackdown. That should be the model of the draft and not pretend that the wrestlers are not already in their respective brands, as they do now.
The only reason we got the Raw VS Smackdown and the draft is because, Vince wanted to actually make a WWE and WCW separate brand that was like Raw VS Smackdown. However, because WCW came from TimeWarner, nobody wanted to touch or put the WCW brand on their television lol. So that’s why Vince did the whole Raw VS Smackdown thingy 🤷🏼♂️
Undertaker’s legendary death glare is one thing that is notable during the 2002 WWE Draft as well as Rock’s verbal castration of Mr McMahon. Speaking of unforgettable reactions during WWE Drafts, who could forget Triple H’s spit take when he knew that he would be working Tuesday nights instead of continuing his Reign of Terror and harass Chris Benoit just to get his precious* back and Jim Ross’ disappointed look when he got drafted to Smackdown, probably thinking that Vince McMahon just drafted him in an epic troll move.
Having 2 world title back in early 2000s was good but as you got older and looked back. It was not good for the main event cause it was the same people and it was limited. If one gets injured they didn't have much time to recover. They should have had all champions do both shows which would keep it fresh.
I think the brand extension was great, without it a lot of people would of never been world champions and able to show their talent..maybe we wouldnt of seen Eddie, Benoit, edge, jbl, Booker t, etc as wwe champions without it....I also liked when they had the joint PPVs and a raw/smackdown superstar has an interaction (lesnar/goldberg at 2003 survivor series which led to the royal rumble and no way out 2004)
Wish WWF would have done a draft and a hard split (NO dual branded PPVS/events) right off the bat instead of the invasion storyline. There are definitely faults with the brand split but since they did it anyway that was the time to do it.
what you said about cell phones in 2002 is so right. I remember so clearly when flip phones started having cameras and everyone was like yeah, look at my 1 megapixel haha thats what kids of today dont realize, scarcity, less options, we appreciated things more naturally because of it. rather than a billion movie options on netflix we rented the same wrestlemania from the movie store over and over haha
They got the Big Gold Belt back, albeit it has a redesign of having the WWE logo take center stage instead of the iconic “World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship” name. “Hey, since Roman doesn’t show up much often to defend his straps-uhhh, we’ll bring back the Big Gold Belt-uhhh and it would be given to the brand that Roman won’t be showing up-uhhh!”
Crazy how it's gone to complete shit now. I used to watch it all the time and stoped in 2015, haven't watched it since no interest no more. Like others I know
imagine if Austin didn't retire in 03 and rock didn't go to Hollywood and stayed through out the ruthless aggression era as full time workers from 02 to like 09ish
Ideally there would have been a proper WWF/WCW draft featuring all the top stars from both companies from the Monday Night Wars. Both brands could have kept their identities and most of their top talents with only a slight mix up. For example, both GM's having a maximum of 5 stick or twist picks from both brands. Imagine Rock moving to WCW or Goldberg moving to WWF to feud with Austin. Moving forward new talents like Cena, Orton, Lesnar and Batista would have emerged in either brand. Interactions between brands would be limited to Wrestlemania.
Just a thought. Wouldn't it make more sense like the games and the first draft if they did the change up after wrestlemania then in October randomly before Survivor series. I know September is the fresh start of Smackdown, but to me after mania would be the best time to do it. As well throw nxt in there.
Whoever thought(*Cough* Vince *Cough*) it was a good idea to split apart the dugleys was a f*ckin idiot. They were too good of a team to be split up and neither of them were ready to be singles stars, and least not until they joined TNA 5 or so years later.
In 2002, I had the SideKick 2 Cell Phone! It legit was mindblowing! & inwas fortunate toneven get one especially at a younger age(16)! I never really like the Draft/Split! Always thought it was a bad move
@@yuuung3 naww man I remeber going to freshman year already annoyed with you sidekick flippers I went to freshman year 2003 so 2002 would be about right
How did the brand split sound like a bad idea when you got all this Talent from these companies that went bankrupt or close their doors because of mismanagement you would have to have a draft otherwise everybody wouldn't get their chance to be on TV so it was a good idea
Pretty sure the reason why Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley were unable to be drafted together was because brand were allowed just one team pick, Raw got the nWo while SmackDown gained Billy, Chuck and Rico.
Hey Cultaholic, is this missing from the "The Story of" playlist you guys made? It's latest was Sean O Haire, and I thought this was supposed to be on the list as well...
WWE Draft The WWE Draft is hosted by the two newest introduced talent with Shane as the owner of RAW and Stephanie as the owner of Smackdown with Eric Bischoff representing RAW and Paul Heyman representing Smackdown. Stone Cold Steve Austin is the first selected for RAW while The Rock is the first selected for Smackdown,with the two of the biggest stars being selected first in the draft. Triple H is the second choice for RAW and Kurt Angle is the second choice for Smackdown,with The Game and The Olympic Gold Medalist being on two opposite shows. The Dudley Boyz is selected for RAW with Los Guerreros being selected for Smackdown,with The Dudley Boyz raising hell on RAW and Los Guerreros raising hell on Smackdown. Randy Orton is selected for RAW and John Cena is selected for Smackdown with the Mcmahons taking interest in the future with Orton and Cena. Batista is selected for RAW and Mark Henry is selected for Smackdown with The Animal showing his dominance on RAW while the Worlds Strongest Man shows his dominance on Smackdown. Jeff Hardy is selected for RAW with Matt Hardy being selected for Smackdown with The Hardy Boyz being no more but this leaves the question of where Lita will go? The Womens Division is selected for RAW with the Cruiserweight Division is selected for Smackdown,with Lita going where Jeff Hardy is to the upset of Matt Hardy.
I stopped watching wrestling right around when Stone Cold was the main guy. I had no idea there was a "draft" and that Raw and Smackdown were two different "organizations."
@Rschr101 Brock didn't injure him initially, but during the match where he violently kicks Kurt off an ankle lock made me cringe... Kurt immediately grabs his neck in a "omg that almost paralyzed me" kind of way.
Stone cold had every right to shit on wwe booking of course creative got piss and try to play him losing to brock in a throw away kotr tournment match on raw & lose glad austin was outspoken
Draft rules make no sense because if you can draft a team or faction, that should be consistent. Why wouldn’t you want both Dudleyz on your brand? Instant credibility to a division. It’s just confusing how certain rules matter at specific times.
Get rid of the draft.......make Survivor Series the PPV to "draft" talent. Have three or four 4v4 or 5v5 matches and the winning team gets to select a member of the losing team to join their brand. Simple. Imagine a winning team picking a hot superstar from another brand to switch shows.
Jack you didn't mention that Regal had the European championship when he was drafted. How could you forget about the European championship Jack?! (I mean to be fair WWF forgot about it too till they had it gulped up by the IC title)
Like it was stated in the video, the first draft as messy as it was, at least it was not as messy or nonsensical as it would become later like in the late 2000's.
Storyline wise, Vince pulled strings to get the nWo drafted as a unit. Billy and Chuck were drafted together because they were the tag champs. The Dudley’s tried to win the titles the Smackdown before the draft to ensure they stayed together, and when they lost, it was played up that they were in danger of being split the following Monday.
TLDR; No team was safe outside of the tag champs. nWo was an exception due to Vince.
@@DeanMoxley87 I literally started the explanation with “Storyline wise”. You should learn reading comprehension.
I think the draft should be every two years instead of every year.
That way you can build up some proper long-term storylines.
Either that, or just don't swap round 30 superstars per brand every year.
Do you really think anything will make WWE build long term stories? At this point 2 weeks is the longest they can take any story before its changed, dropped or forgotten.
@@ZDiddy7777 oh, absolutely not. This is pure fantasy booking territory here. This is all under the assumption that WWE's booking improves, which seems like it's not going to happen any time soon.
Wwe doesn't know how to do long term storytellin anymore..... The longest a fued last now is 3-4 weeks tops with a PPV every month to blow off the fued in some huge shiitt way
I enjoyed the way they did the draft back in the day with matches and the winners show got the pick
Love the Norm Macdonald reference
Beat me to it! This reference was meta
I miss norm :(
i really loved this brand split. Raw and Smackdown had their own identities, Raw was the entertainment in Sports Entertainment, Smackdown was the Sport in Sports Entertainment
And was better than Raw , HHH did nothing to being in viewers new rising talent besides only two wrestlers randy and batista benefit from HHH reign of terror
Tremendous video, Jack! Yet again a period in which I wasn’t as regular a view as nowadays. Great learning more about the draft.
Dear graphic designer, I really appreciate your work. I especially liked the moving split RAW/SmackDown background at 16:17
Lot of research goes into these lists, I can't imagine!
Great job as always, lads.
And now 20 years later, the only ones from the initial televised picks still active/semi-active in the company are Edge (after being retired for 9 years), Brock Lesnar (after leaving the company for 8 years) and more recently Lita. Everyone else, including all of the untelevised picks have either left the company (many going to AEW), retired or passed away.
‘ The hardcore title moved to Raw when Raven beat Maven, sadly not in New Haven’ lmao 👏🏽
Wow. 20 years ago. Amazing how it feels like yesterday...
More of these WWE history lessons please! They’re really interesting.
One of my favorite pieces of comedy I ever heard was that Norm visit on Conan!! Awesome reference
The 2002 WWF draft was probably the only one I liked due to it being a fresh concept at the time. From that point forward however future iterations of the draft were trash.
2004 was pretty cool also
Such a creep honestly you make my skin crawl
@@Muhammedalshabea Oh look, someone's trollbot broke and it's now replying to random comments with total non-sequiturs
@@BigEvil6686 summer of punk 2011 was great till HHH fucked it up
There were moments in the 2016 (I think?) draft. Namely Finn Balor getting the third pick overall. What could’ve been if he hadn’t taken that barrier bomb from Rollins…
I was 30 days old when the draft took place!
Stacy Keibler would Return to Raw in August 12th 2002 in one of my personal Favorite Raw Moments all because of Jerry Lawler's Commentary that was pure Genius.
The split helped kill the show. Austin and Rock leaving didn't help but making HHH the focus of the company drove mainstream fans away.
I love how concerned they were with leaks in the beginning. Now, someone just accidentally posts it on the website, and nobody really cares.
Good to hear your voice Jack, happy to see you have work.
I think that once the initial 2002 draft had settled and later that year when each brand had a definitive rosters, they both began to have really distinct identities and it helped to elevate and give time to some of the superstars who would have perhaps struggled to get spotlight had the top guys been featured on all shows.
It also meant that when we got the occasional cross-brand match, that it felt more special. I remember at WM 21 in 2005 when we got Angle vs HBK in what felt and was an absolute dream matchup, made even better in my opinion by the fact the brank split had been largely unchanged for nearly 3 years at that point. It also allowed a chance for characters like JBL to feature in the main event and become world champions.
I think these days, part of the problem is that generally as consumers, we want things now and can switch off a lot quicker. Storylines back then used to very often span many months and really culminate with a big payoff, whereas now it's a lot more thrown together. I do enjoy the draft and re draft concept and initially enjoyed the 2005 draft where you got guys like Kurt Angle and Cena go to RAW and Batista to SmackDown. Apart from the odd cross promotional match or Survivor Series, the superstars would stay on their show. Today, superstars cross over whenever the booking feels like it. We also have such frequent drafts and with so many superstars that no-one seems to stay on one show long enough to feel like its meaningful.
When they did the great big draft right before last years Survivor Series, it was hard to buy into the idea of brank supremacy when these superstars had been on the other brand only a few weeks ago. It's just the way things are going at the moment - there's less build up or logic, in favour of putting together the higher profile matches and getting larger scale appeal, whether that's using older, part time guys in the top spots or relying more on celebrity involvement. Anyway, a tangent there sorry aha..
Jack’s videos are easily my favourite part of Cultaholic. He’s class on the weekly podcast as well
Right now I would rather have Raw and SD back on the same channel but give both brands separate writers and separate backstage workers so each show can have its own flare
I like the original split as both shows had a distinct identity. Raw was sports entertainment, while SD was more on wrestling. And as Jack mentioned, we associate Brock Lesnar more on SD same as the Smackdown Six and The Undertaker and even the Doctor of Thuganomics version of John Cena. Raw will always be Jericho, as well as Triple H and his Evolution stable. I think it would be nice to have that distinction still today. Different shows, different flavors.
It was established prior to the draft that the Tag Champions, Billy and Chuck would be drafted together and the nWo had pulled strings with Vince to make sure they were drafted as a unit. All other stars would be drafted individually.
17:13 No, what's very silly is the fact that when the two tag titles were unified, WWE chose to abandon the lineage that went back almost 40 years in favor of the lineage that began with Mr. TNA & Capt. CTE.
When the video got to the Dudley Boyz split, it made me think that The New Day getting separated makes even less sense. So you can draft a trio of wrestlers, a tag team, and an individual member to split up a team, then why only draft Big E and not the other two? But, on the other hand, the fans' reaction with the next year's draft when The New Day were reformed only to be immediately broken up again was totally worth it. That was a brilliantly-played d*ck-move on WWE's part! Lol!
I didn't have upn at the time so I never got to watch SmackDown at that time. It was a sad day for me. Half the roster was just gone for years.
Also I think WCW being its own show with Shane really owning the company and without the power hungry older guys keeping themselves on top and not pushing the younger stars would have worked. Also you would have got better writers that would book a better show. Then you could switch wrestlers from time to time
This was the beginning of the end imo.
The real beginning of end Was The Start of Pg Era due to krispen wah death and linda McMahon election
100%
I used to appreciate the draft. Now that I look at it in retrospect, it was too much for a lot of things like championships and talent. There were too much championships, and there's even been more since 2016 that it just confuses some of the history books as to which "tag" or "world" championship was won. Over the years, large numbers of talent have been acquired only to be wasted and released.
Then there were the dumbest moments that refuted the draft like Cena in 2011, the Wild Card Rule, ECW '06, and the fact that anyone would just transfer brands in the remainder of 2002. I get that it was all done in a way to give all the talent TV time, but it all did not turn out to be right.
😂😂😂yeah ok then tough guy, you keep talking like that and see what happens buddy
They stuck with these rosters for like 2 weeks lol. When the dust settled a few months later they ended up with Raw being Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Flair, Austin, Kane, Jericho, Steiner, Nash, Goldberg, Batista, Orton, Booker T, RVD and others and Smackdown being Undertaker, Angle, Big Show, Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, Rikishi, Chris Benoit among others. The WWE roster was so good 02-03 that both shows were stacked.
What didn't help the draft outside of Rock leaving to do more films. 2002 was plagued with injuries, also when the draft was done no one in WWE knew that Steve Austin was going to leave three months into this new venture. Austin was probably going to be World Champion if he hadn't left.
Trust me 02 was a slightly simpler time. And yes, putting the wrestlers' fate in the hands of a dreaded dial-up Internet connection was not the smoothest move by WWE.
I love Austin, I really do, but the more stories I hear about him in the later part of his career. Well I think if anyone else acted in that way they would be ridiculed. It seems like he became a bit of a mark for himself. But he was the best to ever do it, so if anyone can get away with it, it's him.
He was #1 and Vince started treating him like #2 in 2002. Cant blame Steve for walking out.
Not to mention his failing health.
Chris Benoit was drafted to Smackdown in 2002 yet he wrestled on Raw until August 2002 when he and Eddie Guerrero migrated to Smackdown in exchange for Chris Jericho and The Un-Americans. Also, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker jumped ship to Smackdown despite being on Raw, forcing Eric Bischoff to bring back the Big Gold Belt and give it to Triple H who was supposed to be the challenger to Brock Lesnar’s WWE title.
Big Show, after doing nothing big on Raw except doing J-O-Bs every night, jumped ship to Smackdown and make a comeback by challenging Brock Lesnar for the WWE title in exchange for D-Von Dudley who returned to Raw and reunite with Bubba Ray after flopping as a deacon!
3:04 CULTAHOLIC IS A CUSTOM KEEB ENTHUSIAST. LETS GO
If you look back on it, the 1st picks for both brands were misses. Rock only appeared for Smackdown on the summer of 2002 and the spring of 2003. Then he left for Hollywood. Undertaker became the undisputed champion in May. But after he lost it in the summer, he junped to Smackdown quickly.
The best draft was the 2005 draft. Done for a month, two wrestlers on RAW and two on Smackdown every week, there was excitement and big surprises, like Smackdown without a world champion for a month due to the surprise John Cena draft to RAW and ending with the Batista draft to Smackdown. That should be the model of the draft and not pretend that the wrestlers are not already in their respective brands, as they do now.
The only reason we got the Raw VS Smackdown and the draft is because, Vince wanted to actually make a WWE and WCW separate brand that was like Raw VS Smackdown. However, because WCW came from TimeWarner, nobody wanted to touch or put the WCW brand on their television lol. So that’s why Vince did the whole Raw VS Smackdown thingy 🤷🏼♂️
The Dudley’s on screen response is the only thing I remember from this draft
Undertaker’s legendary death glare is one thing that is notable during the 2002 WWE Draft as well as Rock’s verbal castration of Mr McMahon.
Speaking of unforgettable reactions during WWE Drafts, who could forget Triple H’s spit take when he knew that he would be working Tuesday nights instead of continuing his Reign of Terror and harass Chris Benoit just to get his precious* back and Jim Ross’ disappointed look when he got drafted to Smackdown, probably thinking that Vince McMahon just drafted him in an epic troll move.
Having 2 world title back in early 2000s was good but as you got older and looked back. It was not good for the main event cause it was the same people and it was limited. If one gets injured they didn't have much time to recover. They should have had all champions do both shows which would keep it fresh.
Thank you for making this video!
SHOUTOUT LUTHER 🤪👈 DPDUB
Talk about a stacked roster , you had 24 legit superstars where as today they have about 5-6
You only call them legit because of nostalgia
I think the brand extension was great, without it a lot of people would of never been world champions and able to show their talent..maybe we wouldnt of seen Eddie, Benoit, edge, jbl, Booker t, etc as wwe champions without it....I also liked when they had the joint PPVs and a raw/smackdown superstar has an interaction (lesnar/goldberg at 2003 survivor series which led to the royal rumble and no way out 2004)
I remember the draft effecting me as a kid. I didn’t have cable so I was team smack down and couldn’t watch raw.
Wish WWF would have done a draft and a hard split (NO dual branded PPVS/events) right off the bat instead of the invasion storyline. There are definitely faults with the brand split but since they did it anyway that was the time to do it.
What the hell do you know anyway!? talking tough on the net
what you said about cell phones in 2002 is so right. I remember so clearly when flip phones started having cameras and everyone was like yeah, look at my 1 megapixel haha thats what kids of today dont realize, scarcity, less options, we appreciated things more naturally because of it. rather than a billion movie options on netflix we rented the same wrestlemania from the movie store over and over haha
18:38 The best era for championships. I wish these were brought back; screw the color coded, cookie cutter belts we have now
They got the Big Gold Belt back, albeit it has a redesign of having the WWE logo take center stage instead of the iconic “World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship” name.
“Hey, since Roman doesn’t show up much often to defend his straps-uhhh, we’ll bring back the Big Gold Belt-uhhh and it would be given to the brand that Roman won’t be showing up-uhhh!”
Who ever wrote Ric Flair being introduced as co owner was a genius!!!
Crazy how it's gone to complete shit now. I used to watch it all the time and stoped in 2015, haven't watched it since no interest no more. Like others I know
Almost 20 years ago. Where does the time go?
imagine if Austin didn't retire in 03 and rock didn't go to Hollywood and stayed through out the ruthless aggression era as full time workers from 02 to like 09ish
I do this often. If only.
This is awesome I personally love this time of wrestling
Checkout 8:34; Raw had a far better roster from the get go, especially considering Vince got to choose first!
This shows how bad the draft is today! It doesnt make sense when u got everyone still showing up on other shows
Ideally there would have been a proper WWF/WCW draft featuring all the top stars from both companies from the Monday Night Wars. Both brands could have kept their identities and most of their top talents with only a slight mix up. For example, both GM's having a maximum of 5 stick or twist picks from both brands. Imagine Rock moving to WCW or Goldberg moving to WWF to feud with Austin. Moving forward new talents like Cena, Orton, Lesnar and Batista would have emerged in either brand. Interactions between brands would be limited to Wrestlemania.
Great video
Just a thought. Wouldn't it make more sense like the games and the first draft if they did the change up after wrestlemania then in October randomly before Survivor series. I know September is the fresh start of Smackdown, but to me after mania would be the best time to do it. As well throw nxt in there.
And this is where most people stopped watching the train wreck that the WWE turned into
Whoever thought(*Cough* Vince *Cough*) it was a good idea to split apart the dugleys was a f*ckin idiot. They were too good of a team to be split up and neither of them were ready to be singles stars, and least not until they joined TNA 5 or so years later.
The only positive to come from that was the debut of Batista as Reverend D Von's Deacon
Only thing is that devon was drafted by vince and Bubba Ray was drafted may ric flair😂
In 2002, I had the SideKick 2 Cell Phone! It legit was mindblowing! & inwas fortunate toneven get one especially at a younger age(16)! I never really like the Draft/Split! Always thought it was a bad move
Sidekick 2 came out in 04
You did not have that 😂😂why are you freaks out there lying on the internet! 😂😂😂😂😂
@@yuuung3 naww man I remeber going to freshman year already annoyed with you sidekick flippers I went to freshman year 2003 so 2002 would be about right
How did the brand split sound like a bad idea when you got all this Talent from these companies that went bankrupt or close their doors because of mismanagement you would have to have a draft otherwise everybody wouldn't get their chance to be on TV so it was a good idea
Pretty sure the reason why Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley were unable to be drafted together was because brand were allowed just one team pick, Raw got the nWo while SmackDown gained Billy, Chuck and Rico.
No mention that Stephanie McMahon was also bizarrely in that Undisputed Title Match during the broadcast?
I am just going to keep this simple...
...The draft is dumb, and is still dumb today!
The brand split killed my interest in wrestling back in the day, I was never immersed in the storylines like before.
Same.
Alot of people had the same experience
Hey Cultaholic, is this missing from the "The Story of" playlist you guys made? It's latest was Sean O Haire, and I thought this was supposed to be on the list as well...
Hard to believe it's been 20 years.
This was the beginning of the end.
I was at that RAW show. Lesnar ran right by us to get into the ring to f5 Rikishi.
The last great draft was when cena went to raw the first time and smack down got buatista
WWE Draft
The WWE Draft is hosted by the two newest introduced talent with Shane as the owner of RAW and Stephanie as the owner of Smackdown with Eric Bischoff representing RAW and Paul Heyman representing Smackdown.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is the first selected for RAW while The Rock is the first selected for Smackdown,with the two of the biggest stars being selected first in the draft.
Triple H is the second choice for RAW and Kurt Angle is the second choice for Smackdown,with The Game and The Olympic Gold Medalist being on two opposite shows.
The Dudley Boyz is selected for RAW with Los Guerreros being selected for Smackdown,with The Dudley Boyz raising hell on RAW and Los Guerreros raising hell on Smackdown.
Randy Orton is selected for RAW and John Cena is selected for Smackdown with the Mcmahons taking interest in the future with Orton and Cena.
Batista is selected for RAW and Mark Henry is selected for Smackdown with The Animal showing his dominance on RAW while the Worlds Strongest Man shows his dominance on Smackdown.
Jeff Hardy is selected for RAW with Matt Hardy being selected for Smackdown with The Hardy Boyz being no more but this leaves the question of where Lita will go?
The Womens Division is selected for RAW with the Cruiserweight Division is selected for Smackdown,with Lita going where Jeff Hardy is to the upset of Matt Hardy.
I remember when Biscoff and Stephanie were also fighting over Brock Lesnar,
Jack says potential but Vince was thinking Profit 📈
Just glad 2k22 is bringing it back to the games.
Austin chose raw
I stopped watching wrestling right around when Stone Cold was the main guy.
I had no idea there was a "draft" and that Raw and Smackdown were two different "organizations."
I’ve always hated the draft
Thanks 🙏
The 2002 draft is the only good and ionic draft of all timeeee
Kurt Angle lasted the entire year (barely), making it to WM 19 on March 30th before taking time off due to injury.
Thanks to Brock.
@Rschr101 Brock didn't injure him initially, but during the match where he violently kicks Kurt off an ankle lock made me cringe... Kurt immediately grabs his neck in a "omg that almost paralyzed me" kind of way.
RAW just gave it to HHH but Flair wasn't having that and so it was Flair vs HHH and HHH triumphed.
Watching this video made me wonder, what do Wrestlers do when they're injured for several months or even more than a year? How are they making money?
Norm Macdonald ftw
The day wreslting died
They could have split the mid card and have the main eventers be available for storylines in both brands.
11:43 - 12:25 Yup. Super weird
Stone cold had every right to shit on wwe booking of course creative got piss and try to play him losing to brock in a throw away kotr tournment match on raw & lose glad austin was outspoken
Draft rules make no sense because if you can draft a team or faction, that should be consistent. Why wouldn’t you want both Dudleyz on your brand? Instant credibility to a division. It’s just confusing how certain rules matter at specific times.
11:05
It's not like Jeff Hardy can drive...
Oof....
Get rid of the draft.......make Survivor Series the PPV to "draft" talent. Have three or four 4v4 or 5v5 matches and the winning team gets to select a member of the losing team to join their brand. Simple. Imagine a winning team picking a hot superstar from another brand to switch shows.
Jack you didn't mention that Regal had the European championship when he was drafted. How could you forget about the European championship Jack?! (I mean to be fair WWF forgot about it too till they had it gulped up by the IC title)
idk why but i've always preferred smackdown
Ric flair choosing the undertaker shocking
Who is here after triple H announcement of the draft on smack down
Like it was stated in the video, the first draft as messy as it was, at least it was not as messy or nonsensical as it would become later like in the late 2000's.
Lack of discipline & true distinction to the quote brands makes it overall lackluster ✌️
Why does he keep saying everything was convoluted I was 12 when this happened and followed the story line just fine 😂
SmackDown eventually created a Diva's title for the women
Flair was a perfect co-owner. If worked properly, the WWE could've got mileage out of it.