They'll push it up eventually though. They'll sign a whole bunch of cruiserweights or give Shane more talky time if they need to.

Hornswoggle will make his long anticipated return to the WWE.

I agree with Ruien. Women should be exclusive to Raw. By giving Raw 3 picks to SD 2 already is setting the precedent that Raw is still the superior show. SD needs to be 3 hours as well in my opinion.

I don't really think giving Raw extra picks makes SmackDown look inferior. It makes sense. I always assumed they would be given a larger roster because they have an extra hour to fill. If you split the roster right down the middle you'd actually wind up with SmackDown guys struggling to get booked.

I do think it's kinda dumb to arbitrarily award Raw the first pick and it probably should have been a "coin toss" or something but whatever.

I would like to see the Women's division exclusive to Raw with SmackDown bringing in cruiserweights.

So based on what the article says it sounds like it'll go Raw-SD-Raw-SD-Raw and then repeat.

I can't imagine they do the entire draft on TV, so just assuming they give SmackDown 10 picks on the live broadcast I could see it shaking out like this:

Raw: Seth Rollins
SmackDown: John Cena
Raw: Roman Reigns
SmackDown: Dean Ambrose
Raw: Brock Lesnar

Raw: Randy Orton
SmackDown: AJ Styles
Raw: Charlotte
SmackDown: The New Day
Raw: Kevin Owens

Raw: Sami Zayn
SmackDown: Rusev
Raw: The Miz
SmackDown: Chris Jericho
Raw: Sasha Banks

Raw: Bayley
SmackDown: Finn Balor
Raw: Bray Wyatt
SmackDown: Gallows and Anderson
Raw: Alberto Del Rio

Raw: Cesaro
SmackDown: Sheamus
Raw: Apollo Crews
SmackDown: Enzo and Cass

I think that covers most of the "big names" that WWE would want to have picked on the actual broadcast along with a few NXT picks to pop the crowd. It doesn't sound like champions float so it would make sense for Raw and SmackDown to shy away from women's wrestlers/tag teams once they lose that championship...although I would assume Raw would end up creating their own tag belts in this scenario while SmackDown will add the Cruiserweight Title or something eventually.

It feels somewhat ridiculous for the WWE Champion to not be picked first (unless Rollins wins it on Raw) but given that Stephanie seems to hate Ambrose she could just play the odds that drafting Rollins and Reigns will secure the championship for Raw at Battleground. We all know they're creating a second World Title anyway.

U guys remember when HHH got drafted to SD and they traded like 9 people to get him back

lol @ raw getting more draft picks than SD, so typical

Haha ya. Wasn't it a bunch of scrubs and Booker T though?

Booker and The Dudley Boyz. 3 for 1.

Oh sweet, New Legacy Inc will be doing not-live commentary. might have to wait until they upload that and watch it with them in the background.

Even if they did, there will probably still be a supplemental draft like in years past, and possibly trades too.

I believe the whole roster is going to be "drafted" like that, just some of it will be off TV, so when they divide up the non-TV picks, they'll still be keeping it 3-2 in terms of numbers of wrestlers.

I'm just not a fan of the 3 to 2 picks model. Just sounds dumb to me when you are trying to have the two shows compete against one another and they are already making Raw more important than SD. I could care less about the third hour and could have been easily filled by having the Women exclusive to Raw.

Still don't really see how it makes SmackDown seem less important. It's logic. There are 5 hours of TV a week, and Raw is 60% of it so splitting the roster along those lines makes sense.

Maybe they could have had each show make 10 picks and THEN have Raw get 3 for every 2...but that complicates things. And when you consider that Raw will probably take a guy like Lesnar who will rarely ever appear it's not a big deal.

To me to have the brand split be successful you have to have 2 brands that are equal but different. It just feels to me that Raw will still be treated as the superior show. They get more picks as well as the first pick. It might turn out alright but I'm just not a fan of the rules they have for the draft. Wish Smackdown was going to be 3 hours so they wouldn't have this situation.

Just noticed the Lucha Dragons got randomly disbanded as a team based on WWE's list.

Was thinking they'd have the best shot at getting broken up and the WWE didn't even bother to wait for the draft to do it.

I want Dolph Ziggler to be the very last person drafted.

Mr. Irrelevant.

tpww watching the brand split like

http://i.imgur.com/SPD2rvm.gif

tpww be watching the brand split like

http://abload.de/img/ibcggxvja2hweik3ujt.gif

tpww watching the brand split like


http://i.imgur.com/KLU5SgJ.gifp

I'm imagining a segment where Steph announces her pick and she's like "My next pick is..." and Kurt Angle's music hits as the crowd go banana. Kurt makes his way out and Steph is like "Shane, I guess you're wondering how I made this happen!?".

Shane's like "Well Steph, if I had to guess, you signed Kurt to a contract earlier today so that he'd be available to draft tonight."

Steph's all smug and then it comes to Shane's pick. "Y'know, they say that we McMahons are more alike than we know. My next pick is..."

And then, say, Goldberg comes out.

Maybe not Goldberg but who's bigger than Angle? Maybe you do someone smaller than Angle so that Shane can use Kurt to trump Steph.

Between a recent picture from a NXT house show and the Observer being able to confirm at least one name, bulk of the NXT callups for the draft might have been leaked.

According to the Observer, is expected to be a NXT draft pick baring a sudden change.

Image from a recent house show had its own "Curtain Call"-like moment for certain wrestlers.

WWE have posted a video of the Lucha Dragons explaining that they purposely chose to enter the Draft as singles competitors.

Guessing that they'll have Wyatt cut some creepy promo later about how he's letting the fates decide if his Family should stay together or be set free.

On WWE.com, the photos they use for RAW and SmackDown could very easily end up being the fixed rosters for those shows:

http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/shows_hu...f3984fcd7b.jpg

John Cena could easily be left as the stalwart on the flagship. Bray Wyatt and Kevin Owens could very easily be given pushes as his antagonists. ADR can do whatever they want ADR to do. Charlotte and Becky could ground the female division on Mondays.

http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/shows_hu...Sub_Header.jpg

The New Day could provide some merch movers for the Tuesday show. Ambrose and Reigns could be the big singles stars. Dolph Ziggler can be doing...whatever. Paige and Sasha Banks can be your featured female players.

http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/shows_hu...2910c680b7.jpg

There's also no reason these six couldn't be the NXT talent called up. Seems likely that American Alpha would be in there though. I imagine Samoa Joe would end up on the same show as John Cena (RAW in this case), Finn Balor will end up on the same show as AJ Styles (probably RAW), Shinsuke Nakamura would end up on the show opposite Kota Ibushi (SmackDown seems likely), Bayley is the goody-goody hero girl for SmackDown and Asuka provides fresh blood on RAW. Austin Aries is a cruiserweight for the RAW side of things, but he could come later.

Something I'd like to see in the draft:

Kevin Owens or Chris Jericho is seen entering Stephanie McMahon and/or Mick Foley's office on SmackDown. They want to talk about something. At some point during the draft, probably when RAW has got two picks, Stephanie reveals that Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho have elected to be drafted as a tag team. Owens & Jericho get drafted to RAW, as well as a pick to supplement either the women's or cruiserweight division.

Shane and Daniel Bryan take this in stride and announce that their tag team -- Sami Zayn & Cesaro -- are coming to SmackDown.

slik be posting like

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps17078424.gif

Finn Balor and RAW mesh well together with their color schemes. Dude is on that Jean Claude Van Damme/HBK type of hype right now.

Whatever brand doesn't get the WwE champion should Draft Nakamura and Joe and have whoever wins that match at takeover become the new "brand" Champion and face the non winner out of Rollins/Ambrose the next night at Summer slam.

NXT has their title elevated and start a tourney or whatever for new champion.

I am still pretty meh after the draft. I don't see enough top end and high mid card talent to see this brand split work in the long run. I look at the lists of the rosters and its just bland. Too many bland talent now in a bigger role.

Weirdly enough, one of the things I am most excited about is the idea of The Miz and Daniel Bryan interacting.

Rhyno and Curt Hawkins confirmed to be among the first batch of former wrestlers arriving for the new Brand Split era.

Supposedly Rhyno and Hawkins will be a tag team, which is random as fuck. But I like both guys enough so good on them for getting back to the main roster if it ends up being official.

That doesn't sound appealing at all.

There's plenty you could do with Hawkins. Set up a deal with Ryder and Rawley where Mojo is the Angel and Hawkins the devil on Ryder's shoulder. The Hype Bros wrestle with honour but consistently lose where as Hawkins cheats to win (behind Ryder's back?) leading Ryder down a darker path because he "needs to win".

Or Ryder catches on and goes with Mojo, leading Hawkins to align with The Ascension and sets them on The Hype Bros.

Or a Hawkins/Slater team?

Who wouldn't be excited for the eventual Hype Bros/Gore Brahs feud?

I want Curt Hawkins to be teaming with Zack Ryder. Mojo Rawley should be reinventing himself in NXT still. He could be a great top heel down that way. Rhyno would be a good "bodyguard" for Dolph Ziggler.

Still want Heath Slater to beg Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon for a slot on SmackDown, Bryan to give Slater a shot at the IC Title, and Slater to pull off the upset.

If there is anybody on the roster who could pull off being an upset champion, it's Heath Wallace Slater.

Well, yeah, ideally Rawley hasn't been called up but he has been so we have to do something with him.

I fucking hate the Hype Bros.

NOID AIN'T HYPE!!

I could dig a Hawkins/Slater team

Feel like that's "not big enough" for Slater, though. Need a better way to get him on a show since he's a free agent.

Feel like Slater could "snap" and become "super legit"/bad ass submission machine....

Can be the "JBL" of the draft split..... where all of a sudden he gets a character change and is pushed to the moon.

I hope Heath Slater stumbles upon Jinder Mahal during his travels too.

Slater should go on a WWE-recorded excursion to different places in the world, bringing back with him a bunch of guys who had been in WWE previously, to form a new group to replace the Social Outcasts. It could be quite hilarious, and give legitimate reasoning behind some talents who didn't accomplish a whole lot being brought back.

The Dragon and The Hawk.

Kinda smacks of late 2007, early 2008 with the whole Edgeheads thing...not sure I want to see that ever again.

Loved the Edge Heads but that time has passed. Hawkins has been working for GFW and held the TNA Tag Team titles last year when GFW invaded TNA. Wouldn't mind him returning and teaming with Ryder. Could have Ryder turn heel on Mojo and team with Hawkins. Hardly recognized him on Impact last year, has gotten old.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A..._-7IyrJT0hRxuM

He's 31.

Hawkins & Ryder now have distinct personalities.

I'd also be okay with the WWE signing Justin Gabriel back and putting him back with Heath Slater, but there are probably better things the WWE can do with Slater.

I know he's not old but he just looked super young in WWE. Could be the hair cut as well.

Yeah, he does look older. He was 24 when he was heavily featured on WWE programming.

Man, Zack Ryder should be way better than he is now with all that time on the roster.

According to PWI, WWE might be considering allowing a few wrestlers from each brand to appear on the other brand shows with next week planned for that to happen and maybe extend for a few more weeks till Summerslam.

Oh god fucking Mojo Riley? I can't be the only one that hates that dude.

*points at KIRA*

HE AIN'T HYPE!!!

UGH.

(He ain't hype)

Nope you are not

I will say, though, one thing I did enjoy about the Edge-Heads was their theme ("In the Middle of it Now").

Already!?

Orton and Brock are the only ones unless they do more inter-brand matches. Guess it depends on what they're doing with the World Title, Women's Title, and Tag Titles. Have they said whether those titles are brand exclusive or not?

I assume they are exclusive to the show that drafted them. The WWE title will go to Raw if Rollins or Reigns wins.

This was Curt Hawkins' theme for the rest of his run with the company. That highlights the amount of exposure he got, doesn't it?

I've got a feeling that Carlito will be joining the WWE very soon to align with The Shining Stars to do battle against The New Day.

I'd be "cool" with that.

That would actually be a very entertaining match. New Day should go over, but make The Shining Stars credible by having a hard fought contest. Have them trade victories and culminate @ Summerslam in a 3v3 title match.

Not without Gertner here.

So one of these supposed "equal" brands will be without any world champion? Not that it matters, even if both brands each have their own world title, Raw will still be treated as the premier brand. Always has been, always will be, as long as Vince is in charge. I don't even have a problem with Raw being treated superior in theory, just don't pretend like Smackdown brand and titles are somehow equal to Raw despite the obvious evidence to the contrary.

It more or less is the holder of the title. If Cena is the SD champ and Reigns is the Raw champ Dena will be looked at as the superior champion by most. I think Raw comes out Battleground as the WWE title that will leave SD to create new World, Tag, and Women's championships.

It seems like they are setting things up so that the WWE Title ends up on RAW and then SmackDown will create its own belts, but I'm actually not sure they won't just implement floating champions but the champion has a home. So if Roman Reigns wins the WWE Title at SummerSlam, he'll appear on SmackDown, but when he loses it he goes back to RAW. I imagine it's very up in the air.

Creating belts puts SD heavily on the back foot vs Raw who will have all the lineage of the current belts. I can see Roman being pinned by both Ambrose and Rollins, leading to them splitting the belt. At least that way they can claim that the lineage splits.

Would love for Ambrose to pin Reigns and have Steph go on a rampage on how Reigns cost Raw the title.

I think Vince is probably fine with Smackdown being equal now. He was totally justified before. Smackdown was pre-taped, on a lesser channel and much of the time on a worse night. You had to treat Raw as the REAL A show. With Smackdown being live Tuesdays on USA now there's no reason Vince should show preference to Raw. They are equal now.

And I really hope they have floating belts. As much as I do want the brands to not interact, it's WAY better to have one world champ, one tag champ and one divas champ to rule those divisions instead of watering it all down by having one champ who only rules half the company and another who rules the other half. The two world champion era was shit for so many reasons.

Carlito is basically the only chance in hell The Shining Stars have of anybody giving a fuck about them.

I'd be up for a Carlito return.

I was expecting all those Shooting Star vignettes where they were walking around PR to end with them saying something like "This is the shining star of the Caribbean", and then you'd hear "Now that, that's...cool" and Carlito would be sat on a lounger or something.

They'd have done well to establish that from the beginning. Now it might come across as "Well SD has no champs so now all champs will defend on both brands". Or I guess you could just have Vince come out and say "You think you drafted the championship but you only drafted the [/i]current[/i] champion."

According to the Observer, WWE is currently considering changing some plans in regards to Smackdown.

Randy Orton and not Cena nor Ambrose is being pegged as the top face for the brand and could affect plans for Cena-Styles being the early cornerstone feud for the brand.

Main reason is due to Cena wanting a very reduced schedule going forward to the point he might now be considered as a part-time wrestler for the WWE. Also Cena's company is working on more side projects which might be why Cena wanted less travel dates.

Something like that would actually work really well. :y: