WWE Hell in a Cell 2020 (Oct. 25, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Hell in a Cell (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on October 25, 2020 (originally November 1) at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the twelfth event under the Hell in a Cell chronology and featured WWE's virtual fan viewing experience called ThunderDome.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Randy Orton defeated Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell match to win the WWE Championship for a tenth time. Two other Hell in a Cell matches were also contested on the card: in the opening bout, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso to retain the Universal Championship, which was also the first time an "I Quit" match was contested inside the structure, while Sasha Banks defeated Bayley to win the SmackDown Women's Championship, ending Bayley's title reign at 380 days; this also made Banks WWE's fourth Women's Triple Crown Champion and third Women's Grand Slam Champion.

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Singles Match for the WWE 24/7 Championship

R-Truth (c) defeated Drew Gulak

Hell in a Cell "I Quit" match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) def. Jey Uso

Since Jey quit, he and his brother Jimmy Uso have to take orders and acknowledge Reigns as The Tribal Chief or The Usos and their immediate families will be exiled from the Anoa'i family.

As a WRESTLING match, I'm sure there's people out there who flat out hated this match as there wasn't much of that here. In reality, this match was a master class in STORYTELLING. That was entirely the point here. They were knocking the point home with their performance(s) as these characters - from Jey Uso's determination and personal resolve not to give up to Roman Reign's firm standing under his new idealogy as the Tribal Chief of the Anoa'i family. The trash talking and taunting throughout this match was pure excellence, but I could have done without the referee asking who is going to give up after every single move. I could have done without any commentary calling this match as well because Michael Cole does absolutely NOTHING to add to these matches. If this was a normal pinfall/submission match, Jey Uso would have been pushing up daisies within the first few minutes of this match after Roman hit the first of many Spears. Instead, he kept toughing it out and proving to the WWE Universe that he can hang with the Tribal Chief. The Usos are decorated multiple time WWE Tag Team Champions, but people tend to forget that they are two excellent individual workers in the ring and can hold a candle to any modern tag team in the world, whether it be The Revival/FTR, The North (Ethan "All Ego" Page & Josh Alexander), The Young Bucks, or even their cousins in New Japan Pro Wrestling, The Guerillas of Destiny. If Jey's going to continue doing singles matches then he needs to add something new to his arsenal that is a little more heavy-hitting. The vast majority of his offense is stuff that I can't buy any main eventer on WWE's roster NOT kicking out of. That being said, he put in enough of a convincing effort to show that he was going down swinging.

I wanted to hand Roman Reigns AND Jimmy Uso an Oscar for their performances towards the end. They really had me caught up in the story here and truly painted the picture plain as day for solidifying Roman's heel turn. Where the fuck was THIS Roman Reigns when Vince was shoving Reigns down our throats a few years ago? If he came out there every week with this heel demeanor instead of fighting the backlash to his babyface run, then people would have been eating out of his hands by the time it was all said and done. I loved the finish too, where Reigns held the already injured Jimmy Uso into the Body Scissors until Jey Uso was forced to say he quit to spare his own twin brother's health and physical well-being.  

Where the hell did they dig up the Wild Samoans from? Still made for a nice image post match for them to formally crown him the Tribal Chief of the Anoa'i family. 

Singles Match

Elias def. Jeff Hardy by disqualification

As SOON as I heard the strum of Elias' guitar I went to the bathroom because I didn't give a flying fuck about this match in any shape nor form. Explain to me why the hell is Elias feuding with Jeff Hardy when Sheamus is the one who ran him over in that feud that put Elias on the shelf? This is just so fucking goddamn stupid. 

Singles Match for the Money in the Bank contract

The Miz (with John Morrison) def. Otis (contract holder) (with Tucker)

I've liked Otis since his Heavy Machinery days back on NXT and even up to the Mandy Rose storyline that climaxed at WrestleMania, but even I think this whole debacle about the Money in the Bank briefcase was fucking stupid. This wasn't a bad match, it's just hard to care about this stupid storyline. 

Like I was telling a friend when I was watching the match live, I thought that they telegraphed Tucker's turn a little TOO obvious because the cameras gave it away when they kept focusing on the briefcase on the floor after Morrison dropped it. After that, you could notice that Tucker kept eyeing it on the floor and making sure he was in position for the moments that followed. So when he clobbered Otis with the briefcase, I wasn't surprised as I figured that's how they were going to explain why the hell did they split up Heavy Machinery during the WWE Draft earlier this month. 

What I did like though, was the post-match interview with Tucker backstage. The guy delivered a decent promo and Otis busted up the interview after Miz & Morrison joined like he was the Incredible Hulk on PCP. THAT was the reaction I was hoping he was going to after after Dolph Ziggler ruined his date with Mandy Rose instead of moping around like a fucking loser for weeks on end. If this means we get HULK SMASH Otis instead of the childish goof that he's settled into then I'm all for it. 

Hell in a Cell match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Sasha Banks def. Bayley (c) by submission

For as long as WWE has been milking this split and dragging this out, I thought that they should have headlined the show, especially with Roman and Jey getting their business out of the way first and foremost. 

Let me get this out of the way first: This match was easily the best thing on the entire show, BUT I don't think that it was anywhere as good as Sasha and Bayley's two iconic TakeOver matches, so let's just not even go there. 

With that out of the way, they lost me on the narrative here the moment Sasha kicked Bayley's beloved steel chair out of the ring and after less than 3-5 minutes they were pulling out more chairs from underneath the ring. Would it have killed them NOT to have more chairs underneath the ring to sell the narrative? Bayley using the chair to break Sasha's neck was the tale of the tape and played into the finish in a clever manner that I think that one decision here diminished the story that they were trying to tell with this match. 

My other problem with this match was all of the unnecessary bumps around the corners of the steel steps in the corner at ringside. You only have a VERY narrow margin for error and these women were toying around in that area for several minutes. You could have taken all of those spots out and this match would have STILL been a classic. It was completely unnecessary in my eyes. I'm sure Sasha Banks saw the opening match and was convinced that they weren't going to top that on a narrative level, so she was going to bump her ass off instead. I'm not going to leave Bayley out of that either as I'm sure she went along with all of this stuff too and was just as onboard with it as Sasha was when they were pitching ideas for this. One of the stupidest bumps of the entire match had to be that back bump where the base of Sasha's skull hit the steel chair wedged into the corner. Sasha oversold the momentum from that move just to hit it as hard as she could too. I could do nothing but shake my head at that one. If she's still wrestling in another 3-5 years, I'll be surprised. 

I couldn't help but laugh where this match stopped to a crawl as Bayley attempted to duct tape some kendo sticks together at ringside to put them together in some sort of makeshift bridge. She gave up halfway into this arts and crafts project after muttering to the official, "My hands are too sweaty, can you do it for me?" I was surprised that they couldn't edit that out, especially when I could hear that as plain as day over the fake crowd noise. That created an awkward as hell moment in the middle of this match where not even the commentary team could provide a sensible cover-up for that. 

I think this was the point in the show where I literally asked out loud, "What is up with this company and so many kendo sticks all of a sudden over the past year?" Between the assault to Dominik in the Mysterio family drama and Seth Rollins and so many "extreme rules" matches on their programming as of late, I don't understand what is with their fascination with that as a weapon. I wasn't even too crazy about it during the height of the ECW days and I definitely haven't been made into a fan of it in recent years. It just seems like WWE are using that as PG era substitute for chair shots from the Attitude Era, given what we know in hindsight about concussions today from blows to the head. 

20+ minutes later and things come down to a boil where Bayley kicks out of Belly to Bayley on the ladder followed by Sasha kicking out of normal Belly to Bayley served back to her in rebuttal. The finish came down to Sasha looking in the Banks Statement with the chair wrapped around Bayley's head while Sasha's stomping over the base of the chair to add more pressure - a VERY clever call back to their TakeOver match, where Sasha was stomping on Bayley's broken hand to force her to submit. That was some good shit there, pal, but it would have spoken volumes if they hadn't used any other chairs in this match up to that point. 

In the end, I was glad to see them FINALLY take that belt off of Bayley even though there's some people who were butthurt that they went with that decision. It was obvious that they weren't going to separate them in the Draft, so there wasn't any way that they were going to delay this to WrestleMania next year. Sasha was the only person that SHOULD have taken that title off of Bayley after the story that they have been telling for what feels like the last FIVE years when it's probably been two years at the most on the main roster. 

Now the only question that's left is whether or not can Sasha Banks keep it past the first title defense? Her title reigns have become infamous at this point for how comically short they have been on the main roster. 

Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship

Bobby Lashley (c) def. Slapjack by submission

This match was made during the show, where Retribution chose a member of the Hurt Business to face against a member of their factor that the Hurt Business selects. The former Shane Thorne tried as he might, but he was ultimately no match for "The Almighty" Bobby Lashley. The most hilarious thing about this match or rather the post-match attack was that Lashley fought off ALL of the members of Retribution on his own before the rest of the Hurt Business could even come out there. Boy, WWE doesn't give a flying fuck about this Retribution thing anymore, huh?

They have treated this idea poorly from the start and I can't say that I'm surprised to see them getting "jobbed out" when they never were really over to begin with. The best course of action would be to book the Hurt Business vs. Retribution at Survivor Series, with the losing faction being forced to disband. Scrap this whole Retribution thing, but maybe keep Dio Madden and Dijak aligned with Mustafa Ali. I think they could work something with those two. Send the others back down to NXT. 

Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Championship

Randy Orton def. Drew McIntyre (c)

Going into this main event, Orton and Drew already had a lot going against them with the two HIAC matches that proceeded this. What else could they do that could stand out that hasn't already be done in the previous two matches. 

They started things off early with Orton getting the jump on Drew during his entrance, disguised as one of the cameramen. I think wrestling Twitter lost their minds for a bit to see Orton wrestling in PANTS for the first few minutes of this match because of that. It wasn't long though because he discarded the pants and was down to the normal attire that we're used to seeing Orton wrestle in. 

As for this match as a whole, I didn't think it was bad, but it's just really THERE for the latter part of this show. Nothing overly exciting happened outside of the cock-tease that they were going to do something off the top of the cell, only to climb back down shortly afterwards. My suspension of disbelief was killed the moment that I saw the foot holes and stands jutting out from the side of the cell where Orton and Drew were going to brawl upon before one of them took that fall through the commentary table below. That honor ended up going to Drew McIntyre as he was a fan of Shawn Michaels' infamous HIAC bump through the commentary table and sought out to do the same tonight. Drew managed to be bleeding from the mouth as a result, but I could just go "Meh..." at this as after everything we've seen Sasha and Bayley throw at each other earlier tonight, these two guys couldn't even get a little color to play up the "brutality" that these cage matches are known for. 

That being said, I loved the finishing sequence of this match. When Orton clapped after evading the Claymore, I stood up and applauded that RKO counter. That was a thing of beauty. If Drew had kicked out of that, I would've been pissed. Orton won his 14th World title reign and I don't see any harm done to Drew McIntyre. You could easily start the slow build to have Drew chase towards the title again for WrestleMania season when (hopefully) events around the world are able to bring fans back in a safe capacity. Drew had a decent title reign for the last few months. The deciding factor is going to be whether he rises back up into challenging for said title or settles back into being forever mid-carder like Kofi Kingston following losing his World title last year. The guy eliminated Brock Lesnar in the Royal Rumble match AND beat him clean at WrestleMania. I doubt WWE are going to put that much of an investment into him to waste. 

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Afterthoughts:

The match that SHOULD have headlined tonight's show. On a side note, this was a pretty sweet poster for promoting the match.

I didn't notice this until several podcasters and other fans mentioned this on social media, but we are EXACTLY at the same place in WWE's booking a decade ago when Randy Orton had the WWE Championship going into Survivor Series, where The Miz had the Money in the Bank briefcase. It would be pure insanity to put the belt on Miz at this point after taking it off of Drew McIntyre, BUT it would be a pretty fun tease to have people guessing. Just have Miz cash it in that night and lose. It doesn't have to be anything more than that. 

As of this posting (11/4/20), it seems that they are setting Orton to defend against the threats of both Drew McIntyre and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt after he faces Roman Reigns for brand supremacy/bragging rights at Survivor Series. I wouldn't have a problem with that as long it doesn't have to have anything to do with that god-awful House of Horrors Match that Bray and Orton had at WrestleMania a few years ago. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Jey Uso has fallen in line over SmackDown and has turned heel to serve under the Tribal Chief while Sasha Banks is set to defend against Bayley for the SmackDown! Women's Championship, with the winner facing RAW Women's Champion Asuka at Survivor Series. Bayley already posed the same question that I did too, questioning the fact that Sasha has the ability to win titles, but does she have the ability to hang onto them. Nice little jab there. I should clarify that I don't flat out hate Bayley's heel turn, but it ultimately feels hit or miss to me. That promo from the HIAC fallout episode of SmackDown was great stuff from her. I still felt like Sasha Banks is at her best being heel, but whatever, WWE wants to push her as a babyface while advertising her upcoming appearance in season two of The Mandalorian on Disney+, so I'll put up with it. The match for WrestleMania on the SmackDown! women's end of things needs to be a heel Sasha Banks defending against Bianca Belair though. Nothing else in that division currently would interest me more since they blew their loads on the Sasha/Bayley match. 

Without a shadow of a doubt, Sasha Banks and Bayley stole the show with the match of the night in terms of in-ring action, but I don't think that people should discredit Reigns vs. Jey Uso either, despite the fact that it was more of a narrative than an actual competitive match. The stuff that WWE is currently doing with Roman Reigns' heel turn is the best thing going in this company right now across all three brands. There's no arguing that fact. 

WWE Draft 2020 Night 1 & Night 2 (Oct. 9 & 12, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

The 2020 WWE Draft was the fifteenth produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions that began on the October 9, 2020 edition of Friday Night SmackDown and concluded on the October 12, 2020 edition of Monday Night Raw. Both shows were broadcast from the Amway Center (aka WWE "Thunderdome") in Orlando, Florida with SmackDown airing on FOX and Raw on USA.

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WWE roster (as of 10/13/20)

Raw

Men (23): Drew McIntyre (c, WWE), Bobby Lashley (c, United States), R-Truth (c, 24/7), AJ Styles, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, Braun Strowman, Matt Riddle, Jeff Hardy, Keith Lee, Ricochet, Elias, Sheamus, Angel Garza, Humberto Carillo, Drew Gulak, Tucker, Dabba-Kato, Titus O'Neil, Akira Tozawa, Riddick Moss, Arturo Ruas, Erik

Women (8): Asuka (c), Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, Lacey Evans, Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce, Lana

Men's tag teams/factions (5): The New Day (c), The Hurt Business, The Miz & John Morrison, Retribution, Lucha House Party

Women's tag teams (2): Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax (c), Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke

SmackDown

Men (15): Roman Reigns (c, Universal), Sami Zayn (c, Intercontinental), Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, Big E, Aleister Black, Apollo Crews, Otis, Murphy, Kalisto, Lars Sullivan, King Corbin, Shorty G

Women (8): Bayley (c), Sasha Banks, Bianca Belair, Carmella, Natalya, Tamina, Zelina Vega, Billie Kay,

Men's tag teams (4): The Street Profits (c), Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, Rey & Dominik Mysterio

Women's tag teams (1): The Riott Squad

Undrafted

In pools but not selected: Andrade, Mickie James,

Not in draft pools: Becky Lynch, Jimmy Uso, Ivar, Sonya Deville, Edge, Jinder Mahal, Samoa Joe, Mojo Rawley, The Forgotten Sons, Bo Dallas, Big Show, John Cena, Bill Goldberg, Ronda Rousey, The Undertaker

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My Thoughts:

I'm not going to dwell deeply into the full results of both Friday Night SmackDown! and Monday Night RAW as I thought both shows were extremely mediocre as padding for this poor excuse of a draft lottery for both nights. 

I just thought that this draft was ultimately a complete waste of time when the only thing that they did was merely change people over from Monday night to Friday night and will continue the same storylines/angles on the other show. Isn't the point of the draft is to create fresh new match-ups? The only thing that they are doing is merely taking the same shit from one show and moving it onto the other and vice versa. Perfect example? Seth Rollins and Murphy moving to Friday Night SmackDown!, only for Rey Mysterio and Dominik to join them shortly thereafter. We're not going to see an end to this storyline anytime soon are we? Dominik has been great in the ring for his last few PPV performances, but they don't need to continue pushing the envelope with this storyline. Move Dominik to NXT before people turn on the kid well before he's a seasoned veteran to properly be his father's successor. I want to see Dominik rise up through the ranks, starting from the bottom, and win the Cruiserweight Championship just like his father did on WCW. Too bad Shaul Guerrero couldn't be his manager for a match on NXT's Halloween Havoc show later this month. That would have been one hell of a throwback. WWE definitely missed the boat on booking Rey Mysterio against Ricochet in this company too, especially how good that match was over in Lucha Underground. 

Speaking of other great Mysterio matches that we have not seen a proper conclusion to... Why the hell didn't Andrade and Mysterio didn't get a proper blow off to their feud at WrestleMania? Those guys were killing it at one point last year. 

The best draft decision for both nights was splitting up the New Day, even though if you look on social media for the fan reactions, you would think that Ole Yeller died or something. I don't know if it was a shoot or not (much like Jim Ross being drafted to SmackDown! back in 2008), but I think that this was the best thing for Big E's future. Look at this way. Big E and Sheamus put each other through hell and then some in that Falls Count Anywhere match on Friday Night SmackDown!. Even though I thought those bumps in this match on and off the car windshield were just as stupid as the multiple powerbombs on the hood of a car and several bumps onto the windshield during AEW's match between Best Friends and Proud & Powerful, I won't deny that it added to the sheer brutality of this match. WWE is starting to paint the picture of Big E standing on his own as serious competitor and the last thing that he needs is to be throwing the corny catchphrases and back to acting like a traveling goof with the rest of the New Day. I groaned with absolutely disgust when all three of them reunited following Big E's win Friday night. Big E doesn't need to be hindered by being tied to the hip with them right now. Splitting the New Day up via the draft was the best course of action, despite it being absolutely moronic when Monday Night RAW was able to draft both Retribution and the Hurt Business collectively with their 4-5 members with a single draft pick, but only wanted two members of the New Day instead. That stupidity in terms of logic is besides the point, the fact of the matter is that Big E needs to distance himself from the rest of the New Day right now. It's sink or swim time in terms of this singles experiment and I think he has what it takes to ascend past the "forever mid-card" scene that he and the rest of the New Day seemed to be cursed to remain at for their entire careers - that is until a string of good luck and unique circumstances allowed Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania last year. Let's see if lightning can strike twice and Big E can find himself into a similar situation - not by some fluke from a random injury that sidelines someone else who was intended to be in that main event spot, but by the fact that he belongs there in the first goddamn place and was the actual plan instead of a massive publicity stunt. 

I facepalmed when the Street Profits and the New Day were backstage during RAW and merely swapped belts to each other after finding out that they were going to be on opposite brands. I can't even take credit for this idea, so shout out to my good friend Randy for this one for a MUCH better option instead of just swapping the belts out between the two teams: "Cesaro & Nakamura keep there belts. Kofi/Woods get drafted. The Profits lose there belts to Roode/Ziggler. Roode/Ziggler stay on Raw. Profits go to Smackdown. Profits say to Cesaro & Nakamura remember that time we beat you in the brand to brand invitational? We more than earned a shot at your belts. Have The Profits win at HIAC." WWE makes this shit far more convoluted than it needs to be. K.I.S.S. = Keep it simple, stupid.

Even though Ricochet and the Hurt Business are remaining on the same brand of Monday Night RAW, I thought the finish to their match on Monday night was absolutely brilliant and was a great homage to the late Eddie Guerrero, whose 53rd birthday (if he had lived to see it) was over the past weekend. After Apollo Crews' 14th loss to a member of the Hurt Business, I was glad to see him drafted to SmackDown!. Maybe they will do something constructive with him over there instead of feeding him to the Hurt Business in a repeat of the same episode of Monday Night RAW from week to week. 

I don't understand the point of drafting Mandy Rose to RAW a few weeks ago when RAW wasted one of their picks to keep her on the same show. Pairing her up with Dana Brooke (who seems to be looking healthy again after whatever the hell was going on with her face bloating out earlier this year like Miss Piggy) isn't going to do anything for either of them, especially not as a tag team in that poor excuse of a women's tag team division. I won't lie though, I couldn't tell you a damn thing that came out of Mandy's mouth during that MizTV/Dirtsheet segment on RAW, but I got a nice eye full of oogling her lovely legs on display. Her and Dana didn't do too bad as a team later that night against Lana and Natalya's makeshift team, but that show was at blond overload at that point. I was glad to see that Natalya and Liv Morgan got drafted to SmackDown! to dilute that overload a bit, even though RAW got Alexa Bliss and Peyton Royce in return. 

Speaking of Alexa Bliss, I LOVED that double team Sister Abigail by her and The Fiend onto Andrade and Zelina Vega. As a comic book nerd/dork, I can EASILY see the Harley Quinn influences in this descent into madness that Bliss is undergoing, but holy shit these people can't be serious to having a woman telling a guy to "Let Him In" on their so-called PG programming. I can't speak for anyone else but my mind goes straight into the gutter when I hear her say that. I'm anxious to see how far they take that pairing in the coming months, but it's sad to see Zelina and Andrade split further and further apart. Zelina is being sent to SmackDown! with her real life husband Solid Snake...err Aleister Black, where I hope he is going to be used better than that hot garbage that they were doing for him over on RAW. Meanwhile, Andrade is currently still floating around as a free agent. I hope the rumor is true about him being sent back down to NXT, possibly to feud with Santos Escobar or to join his Legado del Phantasma stable. I wouldn't mind seeing Charlotte Flair being paired with her real life fiancee to be his mouthpiece for here on out. That would be a welcome change of pace for him. 

Back to Lana for a second though. When I heard about her getting jobbed out to Nia Jax for the last few weeks and going through the commentary table, I honestly thought it was just as funny as Bane constantly breaking Batman's back in the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special(s). To see her get put through yet another table at the end of RAW (following her and Natalya's split earlier in the show) only to win the dual brand battle royal to win the future title shot against Asuka for the RAW Women's Championship, was something straight out of left field in my eyes. And here I thought they were jobbing her out after her husband (Miro/formerly Rusev) is over on AEW Dynamite and Twitch burying the company at every opportunity - yet this company claims that they aren't petty. Yeah fucking right... 

I'm not going to lie, but I had it pegged that Charlotte Flair was going to close out RAW as the mystery final entrant into that battle royal. Color me shocked as all hell that Lana of all people won the goddamn thing instead though. 

I have to wonder though, but would it have killed them to separate Bayley and Sasha Banks for a few months by drafting them onto separate brands? I doubt people would care to see that match as a WrestleMania main event next year after how long that this has been dragged out, but I shook my head that they couldn't leave enough alone to do that match on SmackDown! to merely setup the Hell in a Cell match that we all knew that was already set in stone. A title match wasn't necessary. They could have done an in-ring segment to the same result with a pull-apart. I hope they don't turn this feud into the redundancy that was Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch for what felt like the better part of two years at one point before Ronda Rousey was added into the equation.

Bianca Belair to SmackDown! was a wise choice. She has room to grow there and establish herself among the few women that's already on that brand. A match between her and Sasha Banks is money and I wouldn't be surprised if we see that before the year is even done with. Carmella just came back, so that's a no-brainer that she was sticking around. I think the Riott Squad could do well on that brand away from RAW too. Billie Kay being on the blue brand away from Peyton Royce gives them both chances to establish themselves away from being tied to the hip in the IIconics gimmick that I never was too much of a fan with, save for a few backstage moments on NXT. Tamina on SmackDown! is a no-brainer too, given the emphasis on the Samoan Dynasty/lineage surrounding Roman Reigns' family tree right now. I doubt they are going to do much with Natalya but she's always a solid veteran worker to keep matches going like a well-oiled machine that is an asset to any women's division that she's a part of. If it were up to me, I would round out that roster with the addition of Mickie James once she's recovered from her current injury. 

On the other end of the spectrum, I think it's rather interesting that they separated Naomi from the other Usos - namely her husband, Jimmy Uso (who's still currently injured). I'm guessing that they are going to move the Usos to RAW once their current feud with Roman Reigns wraps up. If not, I doubt it's going to hurt Naomi to be on her own as she never was too tied to the hip with them on WWE programming anyway outside of a few minor feuds. MVP was teasing on Twitter that he was considering extending an invitation to have her be a part of the Hurt Business. I don't think that would be a bad idea as it would breathe new life into Naomi's character as I think she's ran the course with her "Feel the Glow" gimmick for the last few years. 

The biggest missed opportunity in this draft was the fact that they didn't have a single NXT call-up nor sent anyone back down to NXT to help pad that roster. It's looking like NXT had that great push/elevation into the build to Survivor Series last year, only to win and absolutely nothing of merit to come out of that victory over both brands. I was almost positive that Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae were SmackDown! bound and Rhea Ripley would be heading to Monday Night RAW, but given the returns of Toni Storm and Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver a week ago, I'm not complaining about holding off Rhea's call-up for a few more months. 

All in all, I can't say that I'm overly enthusiastic about the state of both RAW and SmackDown! following these moves with the 2020 WWE Draft. I already don't watch the weekly episodic programming for RAW and SmackDown! to begin with and I seriously doubt that these roster changes will make me invest any time in watching them in the near future outside of highlights or clips of interest that float by on social media and/or YouTube.