| Cena was a great pick as far as starting the draft off with a strong name. It doesn’t get much stronger then the Smackdown champion and it sells the idea that we can expect anything in the draft.
That being said, and assuming he won’t be traded back to Smackdown before the draft is over, I have a feeling his big reception will not last. For one thing on the weaker Smackdown roster Cena was big news. Now on Raw he is among much bigger company, which once the hype of his being traded wares off will be less and less of a big deal.
Also lets face it in Raw a main event push means you get to feud with Triple H for one to five months before being forgotten and buried in the midcard IC title division. If Triple H stays on Smackdown I predict Cena will get a feud with Triple H, likely once the Batista/HHH feud ends. It will last a while and maybe even have some good wins for Cena against Trips. Then he will lose the final payoff match and end up never again getting such a high profile program.
I am not trying to be a conspiracy theorist. But in the last few years we have seen the same thing happen to Jerrico, Steiner, Benoit and probably someone else I forgot, and I am expecting it to happen to Batista once Triple H eventually beats him. Orton avoided that fate so far, but he also ended up injured and his ready made feud with Batista is only a main event feud if Batista is still a top tier guy by that time. And it is far from certain he will be.
I really think six months from now we will be remembering Cena’s jump to Raw as the beginning of the end for his main event push.
Of course maybe Cena will get lucky and Trips will get the World Title and move to Smackdown and have “build them up then tear them down” feuds with the top tier of Smackdown. But somehow I doubt it.
On one last note while I get they had to move a top tier guy to Raw for the initial draft pick, I hope they plan some good draft picks for Smackdown. Beacause Smackdown needs Cena a lot more then Raw does. And if they aren't planning to compensate then Smackdown will be in a world of trouble. |