WWF RAW - March 25, 2002 Full Breakdown - First Ever WWF Draft - Official End Of The Attitude Era

Rock picked by Vince McMahon as the number 1 draft pick in WWF history to head the SmackDown brand with Rock leading Penn State crowd in special send off to McMahon from RAW followed by Ric Flair picking Undertaker as number one choice for RAW in first ever Draft in wrestling television history seeing the intrigue of the new concept driving RAW to a near record TNN viewership Steve Austin not eligible to be drafted due to a contract clause as the storyline reason to take him out of the draft due to political issues with Austin and WWF management still in a creative dispute after walking out unannounced on the RAW & SmackDown TV tapings last week taking him out of selection to prevent him getting second billing with Rock drafted at number one building to a hyped decision segment for his signing between Flair & McMahon next Monday Triple H vs. Chris Jericho vs. Stephanie McMahon WWF Undisputed title main event Rock/Hulk Hogan vs. nWo`s Scott Hall, Kevin Nash & X-Pac in Rock & Hogan`s promoted last match on RAW against the reuniting original Wolfpac chosen by Flair as the top heel group on RAW in first WWF match Hulk Hogan picked as the 7th overall pick in a surprise placement with him chosen by Vince McMahon to SmackDown to start gradual build up to the eventual Hogan vs. McMahon feud Kurt Angle vs. Rob Van Dam IC title Chris Benoit drafted at number 3 for SmackDown with Benoit starting in ring training at the WWF`s HWA developmental territory next Monday targeting mid May return Brock Lesnar takes out Rikishi before European title match against William Regal with Lesnar hyped as future major player in draft selection being picked by both McMahon & Flair WWF using the draft to revamp the TV product including splitting the Dudleys for the first time in their career with Bubba & D-Von picked separately for RAW & SmackDown along with title holders being chosen in high profile spots during the live RAW broadcast including Billy/Chuck & Maven with the rest of the picks advertised for the company website right after RAW goes off the air Booker T/Christian vs. Edge/DDP Mr. Perfect vs. Tazz Jeff Hardy vs. Billy Gunn Trish Stratus vs. Ivory Jazz at WWF New York with her set to appear on both shows along with Triple H as current top title holders RAW & SmackDown brands set to feature separate divisions with planned hardcore & cruiserweight titles to be as different as possible while still being written under the same creative team with the RAW brand set for a visual makeover starting next week in the final show under the classic Attitude/RAW Is War logo/arena setup Triple H responds to questionable placement of the WrestleMania 18 title match going last in a WWF.com interview pretending to begrudgingly accept the spot for the tradition of the WWF title despite underwhelming crowd reaction after heavily pushing for the match to go last behind the scenes while Chris Jericho pushed for the match to be placed second from the top to not follow Rock/Hogan TNN-UPN Viacom conflict with major stars now exclusive to one brand seeing the company loading up the wider reach/usually more watched network television program with the two biggest mainstream stars in Rock & Hulk Hogan along with a strong support crew with most of the top individual TV draws in the company placed on SmackDown to almost guarantee Steve Austin being drafted to RAW with him also advertised to headline two house shows against RAW`s Undertaker during the week after still not being seen since WrestleMania Vince McMahon roster meeting hours before RAW went on the air on Monday afternoon saying that the draft selection order is storyline-based with no reflection on standing in the company’s hierarchy after political maneuvering with curiosity of who in the top headliners tier gets picked first with the company working around it by taking out Austin, HHH & Jericho for different reasons Final RAW broadcast with the full WWF roster spiking to record levels with major curiosity over the new Draft concept drawing an 8 month high 5.4 rating with over 7.35 million viewers in the fourth most watched broadcast in TNN history driven by a huge second hour averaging over 7.77 million viewers in the second most watched full hour in the network`s 19 year history only behind the 10-11:09pm hour built on Rock`s TV return after 4 months on July 30, 2001 with 8.06 million driven by the Rock/Hogan vs. nWo tag & HHH/Jericho/Stephanie title match both drawing in the 8-8.5 million viewers range to start the brand extension with massive momentum on a night that can be called the official end of the Attitude Era. #WWF #WCW #MondayNightWars #WCWNitro #WWFRAW #Wrestling #VinceMcMahon #RAW #Nitro #WrestleMania #WWE #Rock #Austin #Hogan #Savage #McMahon #Bischoff #Mankind #Flair #Hall #Nash #Goldberg #nWo #WWF #WWFATTITUDEERA #Hulkamania #SmackDownvsRAW #Attitude #RuthlessAggression #KurtAngle #HBK #HHH #SmackDown