One year removed from WWE’s latest brand split, the company is planning to hold another draft in the fall.
It was first reported by Fightful Select that the company has been planning for a draft with the dates continually changing with the current target set for October.
POST Wrestling was informed that they are currently planning to hold the draft over two dates in October, although we were told those dates could change.
The last draft took place in October 2019 over the course of two nights, including WWE’s second week on Fox for Friday Night SmackDown.
While the brand split did create two distinct rosters between Raw and Friday Night SmackDown, there has been plenty of crossover over the past year including a brand-to-brand invitational rule that has not been referenced in months.
The Draft doesn’t do anything for me anymore. There’s no mystique or fanfare because wrestlers swap brands without reason all the time throughout the year. None of it will matter because the matchups will only be fresh for a few weeks.
Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I remember the Draft having a lot more fanfare 10-15 or so years ago. There’d be online rumors everywhere, forums debating who should go where, etc. And I know they were never great, but now it feels soulless. The 2016 one, sans Stephanie, was okay. But the most recent one was dreadful.
At the end of the day we can keep hoping these brands become more unique and distinct, but it feels as though WWE doesn’t even have the star power for two shows as is. Nobody is presented as special enough. It doesn’t matter if Daniel Bryan goes to Raw or Seth Rollins goes to Smackdown. Seems like a bandaid. And I know they need to switch things up every so often, but I’m not sure the brand split works with the product as is.
I think they have the talent do it easily, its the booking of the talent that hurts them.
Agreed though with your sentiment, all the draft does is usually switch all the babyface or all the heels. Nothing feels special.
Yeah, they have like 70-80 wrestlers under their employ. They could easily do two distinct shows if 20% of them were presented better. But, they need a long rehabilitation process for so many. Talent for sure is there, there’s just so much near-irreparable damage
Rollins going to SmackDown might actually be the only different and slightly interesting draft that could happen. Don’t think he’s been a SmackDown wrestler before. Can’t remember if he even appeared on SmackDown since the return of the brand split. A Rollins/Bryan feud would actually be good.
Well, if Rollins goes to Smackdown, his options as a heel are Braun, New Day members, Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy, Matt Riddle, and Roman. Riddle and Bryan are exciting, but given they are the only two options, it’d burn out quick. Roman and Braun he’s done to death, and Jeff isn’t that compelling. So yeah, it’d be fresh to an extent, but the limited options make the overall issues more apparent.
This just reinforces how little they understand what their problems are and how devoid of ideas they are. A sticky plaster on a wound that requires 100’s of stitches.
The recent drafts have just felt to me like WWE’s way of handing their audience a literal ranked list of who their big stars are. They are logic-defying (even for wrestling), intelligence-insulting events seemingly written by people who have watched the NFL Draft and taken notes, but don’t actually understand what they’re watching.
This company can’t get out of its own way. If Shane is a “draw”, why are they announcing this with only about six hours notice? If he’s not, then why are they bringing him back at all? So we can watch terrible 20 minute matches where he’s made to look stronger than most of the full-time roster?
Full credit for the Shane surprise return a few years ago, which was awesome. But I’m fairly confident that this is not going to be that.