Re: Triple H Drafted to smackdown in 04
The real time to send Triple H to Smackdown was in 2005. Cena should have come to Raw but Batista should have also stayed. I get that WWE wanted both shows headlined by the two biggest stars, and it obviously worked since they both led successful tours for several years, and became huge names for the WWE. Not to mention, if Batista had stayed on Raw, Cena probably wouldn't get that 2 year push steamrolling everyone, and may have faltered under Batista who was more universally cheered, but I always thought it was stupid sending Batista to Smackdown.
One of the reasons the backlash to Cena happened was because they brought him to Raw and fans didn't want to accept him as the top guy. Had Batista stayed, you wouldn't get that problem because he'd be your number one while Cena is a close number two. You just go the Austin/Rock route with them, and it'd probably stop fans from feeling Cena doesn't deserve the top spot since he wouldn't have been rushed into it. Batista was easily the biggest star in the WWE at the time, was coming off a huge feud with Triple H which was probably the best drawing feud they had since Rock/Hogan 4 years prior, and going to Smackdown was a step down. Everyone loved him at the time. I think Triple H would have been fine on Smackdown for a while, and more importantly, they could have built the Batista/Cena feud better with an encounter at Wrestlemania 22 first. They could have kept them both as champions, and had them face each other WM22.
They could have transitioned from Batista to Cena more naturally that way, and maybe even avoided a backlash. Wrestlemania 22 they could face off for the first time, and WM23 could be the rematch where Cena finally goes over. From there they could send Batista to Smackdown and bring Triple H back to Raw. It'd have been a much smarter move, and I bet we wouldn't have got that 50/50 crowd split with Cena that has fucked up so much of the fan dynamic until today.