The WWE had its annual draft this past Monday night. Let’s take a look at who got switched around and I’ll comment on how it will affect my viewing of the various programs.
Note that this doesn’t include the Supplemental Draft that is supposed to happen on Wed.
[If you haven’t seen me mention it before, last July I decided to track my viewing time of Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and Friday Night Smackdown to see if there were any trends that would give me an indication of the quality of the programming. Less viewing = lower quality or less interesting, in my opinion. You can see this data on the TV Viewership Stats page.]
The following WWE “Superstars” have moved to Monday Night Raw:
+MVP
+Big Show
+Matt Hardy
+Triple H
+The Miz
+Maryse
and the following are leaving Raw:
–Melina
–Kane
–Chris Jericho
–Rey Mysterio
Other than maybe Maryse, I really don’t care too much about watching any of the people that were added. As far as those that are leaving, I watched Jericho, but I’m pretty much over the gimmick. Mysterio will be missed (well, not really missed since he’s just on another station).
Since the “don’t cares” will be taking up airtime on Raw, and Mysterio gone, I’m guessing my Raw viewing will go down. (see graph below – click for a larger view).
Raw Viewing Before 2009 Draft
The following WWE “Superstars” have moved to ECW:
+Vladimir Kozlov
and the following have left ECW:
–CM Punk
Since I generally like Kozlov’s gimmick, but not as much as Punk, I have to say ECW will hold steady or go down slightly. My viewing of ECW has gone up in the last several weeks, partly because of the return of Evan Bourne, and partly because of talent from the other two shows turning up.
ECW Viewing Before 2009 Draft
The following Superstars are going to Friday Night Smackdown:
+Melina
+CM Punk
+Kane
+Chris Jericho
+Rey Mysterio
and the following are leaving Smackdown:
–MVP
–Big Show
–Matt Hardy
–Triple H
–Vladimir Kozlov
–Maryse
With CM Punk and Mysterio heading to Smackdown, my viewership will probably stay the same or go up slightly (considering Kozlov is moving). The others that left are “don’t cares”. Smackdown viewing has been all over the map, but there were a couple of weeks where it didn’t get recorded, so I don’t know if that explains it bouncing around (I just used the previous week’s numbers in both cases).
Smackdown Viewing Before 2009 Draft
I’ll update this later in the week after the Supplemental Draft takes place.
