OO Column: Online Onslaught by Rick Scaia (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWE, WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Divas, RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania

ONLINE ONSLAUGHT
FLASH: The 2009 "Mini-Draft"? (or, 15 WWE Stars Change Brands in Another Shake-up)
June 30, 2009

by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OOWrestling.com

In a move that underscores (1) that WWE does realize that something's broken on RAW and wants to fix it, and (2) that they might not necessarily be entirely clear on how to do that and are really making everything up as they go along, 15 stars were shuffled among the RAW/SD/ECW rosters last night. The announcement of the trade was made on RAW and attributed to Trump pulling off the deal before he sold the show back to Vince

The trade resulted in each brand getting 5 fresh stars. The net effect definitely appears to be a gain for RAW. But perhaps even more obvious is that the ECW roster has been gutted; I mean, that's what the show is there for (to develop new stars and give them their first exposure), but this REALLY leaves them in a tough spot. REALLY tough.

For your edification, here's the handy-dandy color-coded list of the transferred stars, with each brands five newcomers listed in descending order of talent/value (as determined by me, which I'll explain in a big-ass OO Column on Thursday, so be sure you come on back for that full analysis):

To RAW	To SD	To ECW
Jack Swagger Evan Bourne Gail Kim Mark Henry Alicia Fox	The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya Neidhart) Matt Hardy Finlay	Shelton Benjamin William Regal Goldust Bella #1 Bella #2

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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH. He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.