Draft results

[KaiserGlider]

RAW

Seth Rollins
Charlotte (WWE Womens Champion)
Finn Balor
Roman Reigns
BROCK LESNAR
The New Day (WWE Tag Team Champions)
Sami Zayn
Sasha Banks
Chris Jericho
Rusev w/ Lana (WWE United States Champion)
Kevin Owens
Enzo Amore & Big Cass
The Club (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson)
WEEEEELLL it's the Big Show!
Nia Jax
Neville
Cesaro
Sheamus
Golden Truth
Titus O'Neil
Paige
Darren Young
Sin Cara
Jack Swagger
The Dudley Boys
Summer Rae
Mark Henry
Braun Strowman
Bo Dallas
The Shining Stars
Alicia Fox
Dana Brooke
Curtis Axel

Smackdown

Dean Ambrose (WWE Champion)
AJ Styles
John Cena
Randy Orton
Bray Wyatt
Becky Lynch
The Miz w/ Maryse (WWE Intercontinental Champion)
Baron Corbin
American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan)
Dolph Ziggler
Natalya
Alberto Del Rio
The Uso Brothers
The coffee-fearing Kane
Kalisto
Naomi
The Ascension
Zack Ryder
Apollo Crews
Alexa Bliss
Breezeango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze)
Eva Marie
The Vaudevillans
Erick Rowan
MOJO Rawley
Carmella

[Kreashko]

Welp, that does it. That draft was shit and I am now officially done with the WWE. I can't stand mediocrity and that's all it is anymore.

There's so many things wrong with that draft it's not even funny...

[chuway]

Have no idea why they're splitting up the Wyatts.

[Str8Shooter]

I didn't think it was a great draft, but I'll have to see some actual episodes of the shows before I can rip it completely. Definitely some strange things throughout though.

- Splitting Anderson & Gallows from AJ. I knew it was possible but they were just hitting their stride as a heel trio. Now AJ is on his own as a heel against Cena and Orton, that worries me. Maybe we get the "Balor Club" with Finn on Raw, but more likely Finn as a babyface against them.

- Owens and Zayn on the same show. They've been hyping up the Battleground match as their "Final Battle" so to speak for weeks, and now they'll be on the same show? And with how thin the shows are now, it'll probably be a month tops before they're in a ring together again. Why not split them for now?

- Splitting the womens division between shows. What happens on the show that doesn't have the belt? Another Women's title? Is there even enough women? Even with Bliss and Jax and Carmella? I fear A LOT of rematches and repeat matches amongst the women.

- The NXT Picks. What the?? I don't see the kayfabe reason that guys like Nakamura or Joe don't get picked. I mean I get they want some star power down there, but why would anyone pick Mojo Rawley over them? And poor Bayley gets passed over by 3 WOMEN!! I'm holding out hope Bayley is Sasha's partner on Sunday, which I think she has to be at this point.

[Westcoastvibes]

Spliting the wyatts and the club is idiotic.
The wyatts need each other to survive, bray is not bray without sheep and the sheep are not sheep without the shepherd.

The club.... why even pair them to begin with? They should have just postponed the club thing until later and let aj build his wwe image as a singles act.

And holy shit, when you list out the wrestlers per show its apparent that wwe needs more fucking people and this brand split is looking thin

[SlightlyJames]

Have no idea why they're splitting up the Wyatts.

Harper probably going Smackdown so it's pretty much just solo Strowman.

[Twister]

I can't believe Nia Jax got picked over Bayley ffs.

[SlightlyJames]

I can't believe Nia Jax got picked over Bayley ffs.

Feel like there's a decent chance Bayley is Sasha's mystery opponentpartner on Sunday.

[Twister]

Yeah I'm hoping the same, it would be awesome.

[DBSoT]

This draft was horribly done. Raw;s roster is above Smackdown by quite a margin. The Smackdown main event scene is fine with Cena, Styles, Orton and potentially Wyatt, but the mid-card is as gross as could be. Who is Miz going to feud with for his IC title?

- Orton - no way he drops to the IC title after facing Lesnar
- Bray Wyatt - I am not even sure his character likes championships
- Dolph Ziggler - Dolph and Ryder have essentially switched places on the roster
- Zack Ryder - I guess, but is it believable that he wins the IC after losing his US title feud
- Corbin - Heel
- Apollo Crews - Possibly, but he really needs a character because I am slowly losing interest

The other issue of this draft is the excess of titles on Raw. I know it is a longer show, but why have the tag, women, US and cruiserweight titles on one show. Let's assume that Ryder beats Rusev (hopefully not) at Battleground, than it evens out a bit, but now you have the issue of no midcard belt on Raw. Not to mention, look at the tag teams on Smackdown.

- America Alpha - This is the one great team. They are awesome, but who will they feud with that is interesting.
- Vaudevillians - They have been reduced to nothing on the main roster. Also Simon Gotch, allegedly, got into a fight with Sin Cara before the draft. So he may get suspended.
- The Usos - Does anyone even care anymore?
- The Ascension - Their name is now an oxymoron
- Ryder and Mojo Rawley - This is likely to happen after Ryder loses to Rusev. They may even add Dolph to complete the Bro trifecta.

I could forgive all of this if there was some logic behind most of these picks, but there really isn't. Smackdown is suppose to be the "Wrestling" show. This is by Shane and Daniel Bryan's admission. So why on earth would get people like Eva Marie, Mojo Rawley, Baron Corbin, The Ascension, Alex Bliss, Carmella and Erick Rowan? They are all still developing their ring work. Also how could you (kayfabe) logically not take Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Aries, Itami, Revival, etc. They are all way further up on the card in NXT. Hell, I don't know the last time I saw Eva Marie or Mojo Rawley wrestle on a NXT Takeover. This also goes back to the thought that Vince won't let his flagship show be overshadowed. He still looks at Smackdown as 2nd tier, so he puts all of the (in-development) NXT wrestler on that show to develop.

And I haven't even gotten to the fact Zayn and Owens should have been split, Cesaro is fucked on Raw, Finn Balor will have a ceiling on Raw with Reigns and Rollins at the top and Nia Jax is closer to the Women's title than Becky Fucking Lynch!

[prophet]

Yeah this wasn't a great result for a lot of reasons. First one being that the Women's Division should have stayed exclusively on RAW, the division isn't big enough to be split; gotta feel for Becky, not sure how I'm supposed to care about what she's doing when she's wrestling people like Natalya, Dana Brooke and Carmella.

Someone raised a good point about American Alpha too; who are they supposed to feud with on Smackdown? Not a lot of options. The difference in talent between the shows is flat-out bizarre. Wrestlers that struggle to stand out (Cesaro/Neville types) should have been put on the apparent 'wrestling' show rather than lumped in with the greater competition on RAW.

I'm hoping the Smackdown guys emulate the brand when the first draft happened. Rally together as a unit, determined to stick it management who have put them on the 'B' show, and make their show the better one. Eddie, Angle, Benoit, Jericho, JBL, Mysterio etc... those guys worked hard to build Smackdown up and I'm hopeful the new roster can do the same. I'm rooting for Smackdown to succeed more than I am RAW...but RAW has Rollins, Owens, Balor, Zayn, Cesaro, Neville, Sasha, New Day...pretty much the dream crop.

Are they bringing back the Cruiserweight division for RAW as well? I think I read that. God. The talent the roster will have with the CWC guys on is a joke and will make Smackdown's roster look even more average by comparison. They better have a plan for the blue brand going forward because they haven't got off to the best start.

[Str8Shooter]

Are they bringing back the Cruiserweight division for RAW as well? I think I read that. God. The talent the roster will have with the CWC guys on is a joke and will make Smackdown's roster look even more average by comparison. They better have a plan for the blue brand going forward because they haven't got off to the best start.

Raw having the Cruiserweight Division is overkill at this point. I'm hoping with the seeming disparity between the brands, they'll have Shane and Bryan "steal" the Cruiserweight Division from Raw somehow to help them out.

[KaiserGlider]

When the draft was first announced, I was dreading it. Then I realized how deep the roster is and thought that perhaps... maybe... possibly... they could make it work. And now I remember why I was dreading it.

The whole purpose behind this seems to be to boost Smackdown's ratings a bit by getting Cena and Orton on there (and Styles too, I'm sad that he won't be able to wrestle all the good people that are on Raw). Raw should have gotten a more loaded roster than Smackdown, but there just isn't much to work with there at all. Look at the top 4 guys on Smackdown: Styles, Ambrose, Cena and Orton. Who is waiting for Cena vs Orton part XVIII? Cena in particular has feuded with almost everybody and their grandmother by now, I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to come up with opponents for him on that roster.

Having the "women's" division on Raw and the "divas" division on Smackdown would be ok with me if advertisers want them to have females on every show - but if that's what they were going for, then why is Becky Lynch on Smackdown? Half the tag teams are on one show. Splitting The Bullet Club this early, while weird, can be salvaged if they align with Balor on Raw... but there was no fallout from it, no reaction from Styles losing his henchmen. I don't even need to go into the Zayn/Owens thing, that's been discussed already. It seemed like such a no-brainer to put them on separate shows. I don't see any good coming from splitting the Wyatts because I have no faith in Bray or the writers somehow turning push #345 into the one that finally goes somewhere. Luke Harper? Maybe has a future. But that's 1 out of 4 at best.

One thing I really liked was Balor getting drafted so early, made him seem like a big deal. But he's the only big name from NXT to come over. I get that NXT is a big draw for the Network. But WWE has to look at the big picture and ask themselves if it's worth maintaining NXT's star power if it fucks over the main roster. They have to ask themselves what would happen if they put the top NXT guys on Raw/Smackdown, use them to build good PPV cards that people want to see, and yet still maintain NXT's level of quality using just the rookies/up-and-comers. Maybe the TNA guys like Joe, Aries, and Roode aren't going to the main roster because they don't want a full-time schedule, or it's something in their contracts. I don't know.

I feel like it's only gonna be a matter of time before they decide to end the brand split again.

[Str8Shooter]

Yeah the thing about NXT is they're WWE and can pretty much always find people to bring in to stack the top of the card there anyway. They could bring in Adam Cole and The Young Bucks soon enough, Roderick Strong is likely on his way soon too. They could bring back Eric Young if they want. And that's not including the guys they have, like Bobby 'freaking Roode, who hasn't even been on NXT TV yet, who could be instant main eventer. And Hideo Itami who just returned from injury. Austin Aries is still around and has more to give there.

They could have easily brought up Nakamura and Joe if they wanted.