On the heels of the Draft Lottery, which ended last night when Christian and World Heavyweight Champion Batista went to Smackdown, WWE.com has announced the follwing trade:

Smackdown sends...

Chavo Guerrero
Danny Basham
Kenzo Suzuki w/Hiroko
Mark Jindrak
Rene Dupree

...to RAW for...

Candice Michelle
Simon Dean
Steven Richards
Sylvain Grenier
William Regal

So that's the end of the Basham Brothers and the possibility of a reformation of the original La Resistance. In general, I don't know why WWE bothers with tag team wrestling anymore.

To me, the key components of this trade are Regal, Dupree and Suzuki. All three can be solid mid-card heels right now, something RAW desperately needs, and Dupree's potential is still pretty limitless. Regal is an extremely versitile performer. He can work with a variety of opponents, he can threaten the big titles, he can manage, he can give an interview, he can be an on-camera authority figure; there's little Regal can't do as a heel. I'm one of the few people who like Kenzo Suzuki. I think if they book him seriously, he can be a force in the mid-card.

As for everybody else in this trade, their basically flotsam. I can't imagine Chavo Guerrero isn't pissed to be taken from the Cruiserweight division. I wanted to see Trish Stratus, Victoria, Hurricane and Tajiri go to Smackdown so all the cruiserweights and wrestling women would be on one roster, but apparently that's not a priority.

-JJJ

Mwahahahha!

Regal goes to Smackdown, eh?

Regal...Heidenreich...

Mwahahahahhahahahah!

Could the return of Eugene mean the unthinkable?

Eugene and Heidenreich w/ Regal managing!

But seriously, The tag situation is really crap. Why break up the Bashams and not try for the real La Resistance? I can hardly tell the Bashams apart. They need to build these guys as tag teams FIRST. They split em too early and there's no hope of them working as singles...

So Suzuki and Hiroko go to Raw. What odds they team him with Tajiri to do a lame "evil foreigners" team AGAIN.

Chavo really got screwed. On Raw he'll literally have no reason to be there.

I don't really like Simon Dean, but I though he and Maven might have had some lame potential. Apart, Maven goes back to having no real role to play (He is still on Raw right?)

Seems odd to announce this whole trade online. The draft was mildly amusing on TV. You'd think breaking this news there would be better. But then I guess these are all bottom and mid-card guys that they don't care to promote at all...

I was actually hoping for Smackdown to become an ECW show. This whole brand split is a bit old and more than ever like a pointless contrived rivalry.

But I still watch. Especially since it's summer, hell WWE and cable series are the only new stuff on!

SpyMagician