The 2020 WWE Draft begins on October 9th on Friday Night SmackDown and will continue on the 10/12 edition of Monday Night RAW. FOX Sports provided more details on the WWE Draft and how it will unfold this year. Stephanie McMahon, like last year, will preside over this year’s Draft and announce the picks.
Here are the rules for the Draft:
• More than 60 Male Superstars, Female Superstars and Tag Teams have been placed into The 2020 WWE Draft
• Since Friday Night SmackDown is a two-hour show and Monday Night RAW is a three-hour show, for every two picks SmackDown has, RAW will get three picks
• Tag Teams still count as one pick unless FOX or USA Network (in conjunction with WWE Officials) wants to pick one Superstar from the team
• Any undrafted Superstars will immediately be declared free agents and be able to “sign” with the brand of their choosing
The talent pools were revealed as well and here are the respective talents that’ll be available to draft on Friday and Monday:
Friday Draft Pool
Asuka
Sasha Banks
Bianca Belair
Dana Brooke
Humberto Carrillo
Elias
Angel Garza
Drew Gulak
Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker)
The Hurt Business (Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Cedric Alexander and MVP)
Mickie James
Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado)
Drew McIntyre
Murphy
Rey & Dominik Mysterio
Naomi
The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)
Roman Reigns
Ricochet
Seth Rollins
Mandy Rose
Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax
Shorty G
AJ Styles
Jey Uso
Monday Draft Pool
Andrade
Bayley
Aleister Black
Alexa Bliss
Daniel Bryan
Carmella
King Corbin
Apollo Crews
Nikki Cross
Dabba-Kato
Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode
Erik (of The Viking Raiders)
Lacey Evans
Charlotte Flair
Jeff Hardy
Billie Kay
Lana
Keith Lee
The Miz & John Morrison
Riddick Moss
Natalya
Titus O’Neil
Randy Orton
Kevin Owens
R-Truth
RETRIBUTION (Mustafa Ali, T-BAR, MACE, SLAPJACK, RECKONING & RETALIATION)
Matt Riddle
The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan)
Peyton Royce
Arturo Ruas
Sheamus
Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro
The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)
Braun Strowman
Tamina
Akira Tozawa
Zelina Vega
Bray Wyatt
Sami Zayn
What will happen if the Raw women’s champion is traded to Smackdown or vice versa?
Will the championships swap names but keep the lineage or would they retain the same names & it just be a bit odd?
Interesting that wrestlers on the shelf like Elias and Erik of the Viking Raiders are in the pools, but Ivar (also out for surgery) and Jimmy Uso are not. No sign of the Forgotten Sons either.
All of this would be interesting if they could stick to it beyond a month. I’d even allow interbrand matches now and again on shared PPVs. It shouldn’t be that hard.
It is, and last years draft sucked. This is an example of where having a “GM” or someone represent the brand really does make a huge difference. I’d even take Shane and Stephanie or just Stephanie, not that I want that either.
It’s going to be a mess and make no sense because the guy running it (Vince) has never watched a real sports draft and doesn’t understand how they work
Thank God Andrew Thompson is all over this story because WWE has made no attempt to explain this to their viewers on their 5+ hours of weekly television.
He’s been working on RAW Underground and I’ve also seen him on Main Event.
Also, I fully expect Vince to completely screw up a couple of storylines in the process. Like I’m already trying to prepare myself to the idea the The Fiend and Alexa Bliss will be on 2 separate brands, despite joining forces officially only last week.
The Draft wont matter when this “Brand to Brand Invitational” gimmick is still around.
Or that Mandy Rose was drafted to RAW a month ago.
Or that Dana Brooke was sent to RAW before the draft for no real reason.
Or that whoever is drafted will get to put on their new brands t-shirt and feud against their former brand for no reason whatsoever (other than “Bragging Rights”)?
It’s a long winded way for me to say that the Draft doesn’t matter when this company will have talent going back and forth less than two weeks.
And I don’t count the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, even though I think one should.
Not in the last decade… Likely longer. It has helped upper card guys cement into a solid main event status in the past. But not many undercard guys moving up.
I feel like late 2000’s was the last time… Edge getting a solid main event run. Booker getting a chance on top. Finlay having a run.
