By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

After all was said and done, sixteen talents switched roster and one quit as a result of the big "Draft Lottery" this week. The biggest gains for Raw are Edge and Shelton Benjamin, two wrestlers with top tier singles potential. Smackdown's biggest gains are Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and The Dudleys.

The draft lottery, which drew a two-year-high rating for Raw of 4.5, appears to be a great success story. The ratings pop indicates that many viewers who normally just watch Smackdown went out of their way to tune in to Raw. Even moreso it indicates that many viewers who watch Raw maybe two out of four weeks went out of their way to make sure this was one of the shows they watched.

The star of the show may have been now-former Smackdown G.M. Paul Heyman, who put on one of his best performances as a WWE talent, yet ironically it was his send-off for now. Heyman gloated or threw fits, depending on the name he drew or the name Raw G.M. Eric Bischoff drew. When Bischoff drew Heyman's name, he quit rather than work for Bischoff. The plan is for Heyman to be repackaged as a manager within several weeks, although nothing is definitely planned. While there is talk of eventually trying to relaunch an ECW brand with Heyman a central part of it, it is not currently anything more than an idea floating out there for future consideration.

Kurt Angle has been named as Heyman's replacement as G.M. He received good news on his neck situation. He will not require more surgery. He will require more rest and from now on greater care will be taken to avoid impact on his neck. Because he won't be wrestling as often for the foreseeable future, the G.M. role utilizes his name value and mic talents to their fullest, similar to Steve Austin's role on Raw.

Triple H made sure he was a centerpiece of the draft week by being moved to Smackdown as part of the initial draft, then traded back to Raw for three wrestlers. Since Hunter is WWE's top full-time healthy star, it made sense to treat his involvement as a big deal. By having his name drawn, it added a major name into a mix of otherwise mostly mid-carders and future potential stars. By trading him back to Raw later in the week, it put Angle in a position to make a major trade off the bat as part of his new role as G.M. and also made Hunter the centerpiece of both shows in one week.

The draft affects the wrestlers personally, as many of them now have to find new packs to travel with and new schedules for family life. Although only 16 talents were part of the draft and subsequent trades, each switch affects a number of other wrestlers, also, both in terms of whom they travel with and also in terms of potential slot openings on the roster.

The wrestlers who were part of the draft were told ahead of time on Monday afternoon. The draft picks were not otherwise communicated to the wrestlers as management again stressed to wrestlers their desire for storylines not to leak. Management is still smarting over word of Chris Benoit's Royal Rumble title victory leaking weeks ahead of time and they wanted to avoid that happening with the draft. Triple H and Shawn Michaels, who are part of the booking process at production meetings, knew the plans ahead of time, but otherwise wrestlers were kept in the dark until the day of the show. Those involved in trades also were told individually, also an attempt by management to keep the draft plans quiet until they wanted the news revealed.

WWE announced the Smackdown trades on WWE.com around the same time they were announced at the Smackdown tapings on Tuesday night in Grand Rapid, Mich. In other words, WWE didn't even want independent websites breaking news from the Smackdown tapings before their website announced it.

With Brock Lesnar departing and no major name being switched to Smackdown to replace him, that gives ample opportunity to Booker T (newly turned heel), Mark Jindrak, and Rene Dupree to earn top heel positions as singles wrestlers if management likes what they see. Edge comes out of the draft clearly being positioned for a top feud against Hunter after he finishes with his program with Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels.

KELLER ANALYSIS: ·Random Thoughts: I'd like to see the Draft Lottery become an annual event. With the ratings pop it drew, I expect it will become an annual event. The March 22 Raw felt like something really special because both rosters were present. Of course, if the brands were never split, there would be no way to create "special nights" like that because everyone would be used to everyone being on every show, so I see the ratings pop as a strong endorsement of the brand split. The strong buyrate for WrestleMania also is an endorsement of the brand split as the inter-brand matches may have made WM feel more special than it otherwise would have...

I was surprised that Randy Orton or Batista didn't end up on Smackdown. It would have been a perfect set up for a future match between Hunter and either Orton or Batista after the Smackdown wrestler felt he had established himself on his own and didn't need Hunter anymore. That would also open a slot in Evolution for a new members, which could have been Mark Jindrak or Maven, both of whom were once slated to be part of the heel group...

The treatment of Hunter during draft week did seem like a way to boost his image as being the biggest star is the promotion. Unlike three months ago or one year ago, there's no longer any debate that he is the biggest star. Only Undertaker, a part-timer, remains a more tenured main eventer on the roster. With Kurt Angle, Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, Bill Goldberg, and Mick Foley out of the full-time main event picture, Hunter is the top dog. That said, it would have done wonders for Booker T's rep to have him traded straight up for Hunter. Why not? It's not as if it would hurt Hunter's drawing power. Throwing in the Dudleys as part of the trade made it seem that Booker wasn't in Hunter's league. WWE shouldn't be giving off that impression if they're moving Booker into a top heel slot now...

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE FLASHBACK: Kane character debuts 18 yrs. ago today in first-ever Hell in a Cell match - Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

HIAC FLASHBACK: Kane beats Undertaker in HIAC match 5 yrs. ago today, plus Randy Orton vs. Sheamus for WWE Title

ROH FLASHBACK: The aftermath of Joe vs. Kobashi 10 years ago today