8 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2006
7. Losing Randy Orton In April Was A Huge Blow
Vicious and unnecessary promo lines aside, it's safe to say that Orton was valuable to SmackDown. He'd been one of the top names on the brand since moving in the 2005 Draft, but all of that changed shortly after WrestleMania 22. Randy was suspended in April for 60 days and then returned in June on Raw.
He'd prove to be a big miss for the rest of 2006 over on Fridays, that’s for sure.
As mentioned in another article, WWE dropped the ball on a natural lengthy rivalry with old Evolution stablemate Batista, but they badly needed someone like Randy to keep star power high on SmackDown generally. Poor Smackers looked every bit the ‘B’ show when Vince McMahon was favouring Raw by making moves like this. 'Oh, SmackDown needs Randy Orton? Well they can't have him!'.
Apparently, the boss man believed that Randy had done enough seasoning away from flagship brand Raw. It was time to bring him back to the 'A' show and go from there. The fact he hadn't even completed one full year on SmackDown didn't mean a thing to McMahon - he was moving wrestlers around the board like chess pieces, but that didn't do much to make the Draft feel special (surprise, surprise).
From his April suspension onwards, Orton left a huge gaping hole on the blue team that was noticeable when binging certain episodes. It might be why dudes like Tatanka were brought back in to go over top names like Booker T. That is not a joke.
Do you remember the not-so-iconic comeback of...