2009 DRAFT News: Backstage News & Rumored Trades

Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The final decisions for the WWE Draft will be made the week of WrestleMania. Vince McMahon will have extended creative meetings for the show and where the show leads.

Triple H is a lock for a move to Raw to continue his feud with Randy Orton. As previously reported, Triple H was moved to Smackdown to increase the ratings and with the recent change to MyNetworkTV, they may not be a network in September. The general feeling is that it would be a risk to weaken the Smackdown brand by having all the top stars on Raw, but it would also not benefit the company by having John Cena or Randy Orton on a show averaging 2.0-2.2 ratings.

Rey Mysterio will be moved back to Smackdown to increase the Hispanic demographic. He has not affected the demographic on Raw, but Smackdown has suffered since his departure. They were number one or in the top ten with Mysterio, but since he left in June they have been in the top ten once.

Jeff and Matt Hardy are expected to stay on Smackdown. There's a chance Edge will move to Raw and Chris Jericho to Smackdown. Batista could move to Smackdown if Triple H is indeed returning to Raw. Management offered Shawn Michaels in the past to move to Smackdown but he turned it down since the tapings conflict with his Wednesday religious commitments.

Jim Ross could return to Raw's announcer booth since internal reviews for Michael Cole have not been good, however, if they stick with Cole on Raw then do not expect an announcer change to happen for a long time.