9 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2004

Truthfully, WWE chiefs have been on and off annoying everybody with the Draft for decades now. At its best, the Draft can shake things up and lead to some legit fresh matches on Raw, SmackDown and NXT. Sadly, 2004 called, and it threatened to destroy the excitement around WWE's semi-regular refresh jobs forever.

If anybody needed further evidence that SmackDown was the ‘B’ show next to Raw’s ‘A’ tier status back then, then they only needed to glance at the results of the 2004 version. Triple H was moved to SmackDown from Raw, but didn’t actually appear on the blue brand before WWE scrapped his switch quickly and pretended it never happened. 

Further to that, so-called "top picks" for team blue included the likes of Rene Dupree, Mark Jindrak and Spike Dudley. Admittedly, Rob Van Dam and The Dudley Boys were in the mix too, but yeah…SmackDown got screwed over here. Why they felt the need to have Hunter look all shocked as he contemplated leaving Raw at all is a mystery. That was never management's intention, so they were merely playing with fans by booking something they weren't going to follow through on.

Yuck.

Let's be honest, Dupree, Jindrak and Spike were rotten choices to go from Raw > SmackDown as supporting actors to 'The Game' anyway. That'd barely make up a passable Survivor Series team, let alone a roster worth bragging about generally. Try to Draft Jindrak in SmackDown vs. Raw and you'd be fired on the spot. Probably. A special cutscene would play ridiculing you, then you'd be asked to return the game without getting a refund.