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Right, so I’ve been advocating for the draft to return for ages so with it happening next week I guess I should go ahead and make some predictions. They really haven’t given a whole lot of information about how the draft will work and who will be eligible, but they’ve been hinting at teams potentially being split up which leads me to believe that they won’t be drafted together with the possible exception of The New Day.
Speaking of them, they also haven’t said if champions will be eligible or not. My gut instinct tells me that at minimum the WWE Champion, Women’s Champion, and Tag Team Champions will float between brands. But with the rumors of there being two World Champions again, they’d need to come up with some weird loophole like they did in 2002 to lock the champion onto one show. Also all of the promo materials in the lead up have implied that everybody is eligible, so I’ll go with that.
The original draft show featured each show making 10 picks with the rest being conducted via lottery after the show. I’m thinking it’ll be something similar if only because it’s tough for me to imagine every jobber on the roster getting picked on TV. 10 picks per brand on the live SmackDown, and then a lottery will take place on the WWE Network after.
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Shane and Steph squabble over who should get to pick first, knowing full well there is only one World Champion. Vince, somewhat surprisingly, awards the first pick to SmackDown to try to let the new live show hit the ground running only to then turn right around and tell Stephanie she’ll get to make two picks in a row immediately after.
This means that WWE Champion Dean Ambrose is drafted to SmackDown with the first pick of the draft while Stephanie takes Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, stating this gives her brand the best chance at claiming the WWE Championship at Battleground. I expect that to happen, and the now title-less SmackDown will bring back either a blue version of the WWE Championship or the Big Gold Belt.
SmackDown’s second selection is none other than John Cena, marking his first night as a SmackDown-exclusive wrestler since 2005. Raw counters with Brock Lesnar, who the announcers on Raw hinted was eligible and is a huge draw despite his sporadic appearances. Shane drafts AJ Styles, bringing his rivalry with Cena to the blue brand. Raw then takes Randy Orton, meaning the buildup to his SummerSlam clash with Lesnar will take place exclusively on Raw.
Given the competitive nature of the two brands, it would be logical for there to be a run on titles, right? Well…logic doesn’t always prevail in WWE land, but let’s do it anyway. The New Day dance their way over to SmackDown. Charlotte is selected by the Raw brand. Rusev is tabbed for SmackDown, and finally The Miz goes to Raw. SmackDown has three titles to Raw’s two, but that will be changed once Rollins or Reigns wins the WWE Championship. If they are hellbent on keeping the shows totally separate, Raw can add its own set of Tag Team Titles again. SmackDown, rather than having its own Women’s Champion, will eventually can bring back the Cruiserweight Championship and use the CWC as a pipeline for new talent.
Sami Zayn is Shane’s next pick, which means the only logical counter would be Kevin Owens going to Raw to build their Battleground match as a final encounter (although I somehow, someway doubt this will be their last meeting and that they will “fight forever”).
Just flying through the next few picks, Chris Jericho to SmackDown to give them another veteran presence. Cesaro to Raw to help work some long matches to fill the three hour telecast. Baron Corbin to SmackDown which gives the rookie a rub just for being drafted in the first place. Apollo Crews to Raw for much the same reason. Sheamus to SmackDown because, let’s face it, WWE don’t want Sheamus to be viewed as irrelevant enough to not get picked at all.
Stephanie’s final selection is Bray Wyatt, meaning he won’t be tormenting the New Day anymore after Battleground (and after that horrible Final Deletion ripoff, that’s probably for the better). Shane wraps up his draft with Big Cass, again making a rookie seem like a really big deal but also giving a reason for people to tune in to the lottery on the WWE Network to see if Enzo will stay with him.
LOTTERY:
Yeah, I can’t be fucked with going through the whole roster since so many of these midcarders are interchangeable at the moment. I will say that it makes sense for Darren Young to go to Raw and Zack Ryder to SmackDown so that they’ll be on the same show as the guys they’re facing at Battleground, meaning one or both of those stories can continue after the PPV as needed.
In terms of tag teams Enzo stays on SmackDown with Cass, and Anderson/Gallows are on SmackDown as well to stay as AJ’s backups. I think most of the teams will stick together on one show or another but they’ll have a few token breakups just to put across the randomness of the draft. The Lucha Dragons are probably the “big” split with Kalisto going to SmackDown and Sin Cara to Raw. This kinda leaves nothing for Sin Cara to do with no tag team partner and no Cruiserweight Title, but he’s pushing 40 and the character in general has flopped so I think he’s just holding Kalisto back at this point. I still wouldn’t mind Luke Harper going to SmackDown with the rest of the Wyatt Family being on Raw.
Most of the women conveniently end up on Raw where the Women’s Championship is. If they do put any women on SmackDown, I’d just pick someone like Emma who is injured and will be out for a while so it’ll look like a random draft pick but they can figure out what to do with her later and it will also keep her on the same show as Ryder. I guess Alberto Del Rio would be assigned to Raw too to stay with Paige.
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