Mission 016: Another Draft Looms

Mission 016 – Another Draft Looms

Hello, once again, my fellow wrestling fans! I have returned after most of the wrestling world took a hiatus in the wake of ULW’s Easter Evil. But, here we are back at it, and right about now ULW’s “Sunday Insane Intensity” special is wrapping up, but we will discuss more about ULW at another time.

Right now, let’s focus on what the competition showed us this past week!

First, with the Dual Dominion Championship, a hilarious backstage segment on Dynamite between R-Truth and Ryback (wherein Truth mistook Ryback for Triple H) led to Truth advancing to the next round on Chaos the other night! This continues the wave of success for the aging Truth (who claims to have been with WWE since 2002 despite the company not existing until 2023…). Loved all of this and I look forward to more chaos from this crossover partnership between WWE and AEW!

Speaking of Triple H, Mr. Levesque was presented with a unique problem as he sought advice on how to handle the Rock versus Roman affair. The advice he sought? From the disgraced former CEO of the company, the deranged Mr. Murrey himself! What kind of a madman substitutes having a real career with pretending to run a toy wrestling promotion? Sheesh! How far the mighty have fallen!

Anyways, Murrey was so consumed with protecting the reign of “Murreyverse Asuka” that he couldn’t have cared less about the fact that the Rock is looking to seize control of WWE via an inexplicable powergrab which kind of came out of nowhere. I am intrigued to see where this is headed, though. Rock and Roman promises to steal the show when they do go toe to toe (as Night Two of Wrestle Empire DIRECTLY competes with AEW’s next installment of Genesis)!

WWE managed to debut 3 stars in the span of 20 minutes on Raw as Tyler Bate, Zoey Stark, and Kayden Carter all made their first appearances. Bate and Dunne united to form the “New Catch Republic” while Stark and Carter joined Natalya in challenging Asuka for her Women’s Championship at Wrestle Empire. I do NOT expect any of the women in this to topple Asuka, but I do expect the New Catch Republic to make a major impact in the tag division!

Finn Balor advanced in the Dual Dominion Title tournament, and then the Rock and Solo spilt up with Solo joining the reformed Bloodline! How in the world is the Rock going to seize control now?!

In closing my thoughts on WWE for the week, I only ask that WWE never take the Intercontinental Title from Doc Brown…er, Chad…because the more I get to see of these shenanigans, the better!

Back to AEW, we saw a nice little vignette for the returning Aleister Black. I don’t really have a good idea as to where this is headed, with so little time left in the season, but I am excited to see.

Another debut took place on Monday, but with AEW bringing in Shelton Benjamin! Benjamin is a top star of the industry, and I suspect that his new feud with Swerve will wind up serving both of them well. Meanwhile, Dominik survives yet again…but for how long???

Before I get to my favorite part of the week, I just want to highlight the great bout put on by Cody and Gunther. This was a fantastic match to end the show for Dynamite, but in no way in a million years could this have sufficiently followed up on the continuing High Minded saga. This past week saw the reveal of Lady Love/Jill Woodstrum/Crock’s son “Young Crock”, much to the dismay of his new stepfather, “Midgey”.

Lady Love said in an interview on Friday that she was disappointed with her husband’s reaction, but that she had faith that Young Crock and Midget Hogan spending quality time together would help them bond. I can’t wait for THAT!!

Lastly, devoid of a preview for ULW in this week (you can see the cards on the website, if you want), I just want to make a comment or two about the 2025 Draft and Starrcade:

After a proposal was submitted by Cash Mouse Entertainment via Lawrence Mason (because Lenny still doesn’t trust anyone but his inner circle), BWM Inc. and Triple H Era Inc. both agreed to the updated draft terms.

What’s in it?

Well, each company still has the ability to exempt 20 active superstars and 10 legends, but now there is a cap of 25 members of administrative that can be exempt (this is meant to prevent an abusive runaway situation wherein a company hypothetically designates dozens of people as being part of the administration while also recognizing that the administrative body is an essential chunk of the company which must be protected).

This year will also feature 20 fewer guaranteed rounds. From what I understand, this is because last year’s draft was crafted around the fact that a new era was beginning, therefore a bigger shakeup was required. Moreover, it is noteworthy that WWE (under Murrey’s leadership at the time) dipped out of the draft before all 50 rounds were finished. This was permitted mostly because WWE’s talent had been sufficiently exposed through the previous rounds.

So, this year only has 30 guaranteed rounds, but the stakes are actually a little higher. How so? First of all, instead of increasing the number of picks in each group of rounds after 20 rounds, this time, it will be increased by one pick every 10 rounds for the first 30 rounds. From there, participating companies will continue to enjoy three picks. Secondly, last year saw the order of the draft re-decided after each second, but this was a decision made in the moment, and was not part of the original agreed-upon-rules. This year, before each section, the order will be decided, and it will essentially be a part of the rules.

Starrcade, just as in the past few years, will feature no more than 9 matches (with 2 guaranteed from each company, and up to 3 interpromotional matches), with the order being determined based on draft order. I can honestly say that I am beyond stoked about this year’s WOW Week, but I don’t want anyone to sleep on the draft. Despite having almost half as many guaranteed rounds, the exposure is more intense since the number of draft picks increases before the participants get exhausted and run out of ideas.

This is going to be fun!

Until our next Quest, this has been Johnny with yet another mission!