Unless my San Francisco 49ers are playing in the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft is my favorite sporting event of the year. When it comes to people who aren’t being paid for it, I can just about guarantee you that nobody loves the NFL Draft more than I do, nor do they put as much time into it when it comes to studying tape, doing research, and everything that comes with it.
That’s part of the reason why I get so excited when WWE announces they’re doing another edition of their own Draft. Yes, it’s not quite the same thing as the NFL version, but the Draft nerd in me still enjoys seeing it.
I sat and watched every second of this year’s WWE Draft, including the supplemental picks on Smackdown Lowdown and Raw Talk. I’ve analyzed every pick from every round, looking at the short-term and long-term ramifications. After going through everything in my head, I have come to one final conclusion.
WWE has held a Draft on 17 different occasions, and they still don’t know what the hell they’re doing.
They’ve tried several different “formats” through the years, and none of them really mattered. That’s difficult to fathom, considering WWE is in complete control of who is chosen, where they’re going, and why they’re going. This isn’t the Draft of a “real sport” where the league has no idea what’s going to happen.
Before I go any further, let’s do a quick review of every selection that took place this year, shall we?
The Bloodline (Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa & Paul Heyman) Stays On Smackdown
Cody Rhodes Stays On Raw
Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair Goes From Raw To Smackdown
Becky Lynch Stays On Raw
The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) Go From Raw To Smackdown
Imperium (Intercontinental Champion Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci) Go From Smackdown To Raw
Edge Goes From Raw To Smackdown
Matt Riddle Stays On Raw
Bobby Lashley Goes From Raw To Smackdown
Drew McIntyre Goes From Smackdown To Raw
The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson & “Michin” Mia Yim) Goes From Raw To Smackdown
The Miz Stays On Raw
Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai & Iyo Sky) Goes From Raw To Smackdown
Shinsuke Nakamura Goes From Smackdown To Raw
NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre Go From NXT To Smackdown
NXT Women’s Champion (at the time of the Draft) Indi Hartwell Goes From NXT To Raw
Apollo Crews Goes From NXT To Raw
Candice LeRae Stays On Raw
Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville Stays (Green) & Goes (Deville) To Raw
Dexter Lumis Stays On Raw
Hit Row (Top Dolla, Ashante “Thee” Adonis & B-Fab) Stays On Smackdown
JD McDonagh Goes From NXT To Raw
Lacey Evans Stays On Smackdown
Maximum Male Models (Maxxine Dupri, Mah-Say & Man-Swah because I’m not typing all those stupid characters) Stay On Raw
Natalya Goes From Smackdown To Raw
The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar & Valhalla) Go From Smackdown To Raw
Zoey Stark Goes From NXT To Raw
Smackdown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley Stays On Raw
United States Champion Austin Theory Goes From Raw To Smackdown
Seth Rollins Stays On Raw
Charlotte Flair Stays On Smackdown
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn Stay (Owens) & Go (Zayn) To Raw
The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) Stay On Smackdown
The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio) Stays On Raw
The Latino World Order (Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde & Zelina Vega) Stays On Smackdown
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez Go From Smackdown To Raw
Asuka Goes From Raw To Smackdown
The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) Go From Smackdown To Raw
The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Butch & Ridge Holland) Stay On Smackdown
Trish Stratus Stays On Raw
Karrion Kross & Scarlett Stay On Smackdown
Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler Go From Smackdown To Raw
LA Knight Stays On Smackdown
Braun Strowman & Ricochet Go From Smackdown To Raw
Shotzi Stays On Smackdown
Bronson Reed Stays On Raw
Pretty Deadly (Kit Wilson & Elton Prince) Goes From NXT To Smackdown
Alpha Academy (Chad Gable & Otis) Stays On Raw
Rick Boogs Goes From Raw To Smackdown
Katana Chance & Kayden Carter Go From NXT To Raw
Cameron Grimes, who I am legally and contractually obligated to mention almost broke my leg at an independent wrestling show several years ago, goes from NXT to Smackdown
Akira Tozawa Stays On Raw
Dana Brooke Stays On Raw
Emma Goes From Smackdown To Raw
Grayson Waller Goes From NXT To Smackdown
Indus Sher (Jinder Mahal, Veer Mahaan & Sanga) Goes From NXT To Raw
Johnny Gargano Stays On Raw
Los Lotharios (Humberto & Angel) Go From Smackdown To Raw
Nikki Cross Stays On Raw
Odyssey Jones Goes From NXT To Raw
Piper Niven Stays On Raw
Riddick Moss Goes From Smackdown To Raw
Tamina Goes From Raw To Smackdown
Tegan Nox Goes From Smackdown To Raw
Xia Li Goes From Smackdown To Raw
Next, the following names are now free agents, free to appear on both Raw and Smackdown…
Brock Lesnar
Baron Corbin
Dolph Ziggler
Elias
Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander
Mustafa Ali
Omos & MVP
Von Wagner
Xyon Quinn
Finally, the following names weren’t included in the pool of wrestlers who were able to be selected, and are “status unknown” when it comes to their future brands, if any…
Alexa Bliss
Aliyah
Big E
Bray Wyatt & Uncle Howdy
Carmella
Gable Steveson
Logan Paul
R-Truth
Randy Orton
Robert Roode
Shanky
Tommaso Ciampa
Now that we’ve gone through the selections, I have ten things on my mind after everything we’ve seen on WWE programming over the last week-plus. These things won’t be listed in any particular order, but they’re all important in the grand scheme of things as I watch WWE move forward with new rosters.
The Television Presentation, As A Whole, Needs A Lot Of Work: When you watch a professional sports Draft on television, one thing you’ll notice is the shots of the “war room” that each team has. That’s usually a room at the team headquarters or the stadium/arena they play at, and you’ll see damn near every front office employee there. The team owner, the various coaches, scouts, general managers, and so forth, all putting their heads together to decide on who to pick and why to pick them. Obviously, with only Raw and Smackdown making picks, you’re not going to cut to the “war room” of each brand over and over and over and over again. Actually, the bigger problem there is that there couldn’t be a “war room” for the shows even if you wanted to. Is Adam Pearce supposed to make the pick for one brand, then sprint to another room and make the pick for the other brand, then sprint back to the first room, and on and on for the entire show? Say whatever you want about WWE having a General Manager for Raw and Smackdown, but it helped things immensely at Draft time. 2002 was entertaining because Ric Flair (picking for Raw) and Vince McMahon (picking for Smackdown) were truly competing against each other, arguing, and “stealing” picks from the other brand. That’s just one example, but it’s the kind of thing that makes viewing the WWE Draft a lot more fun. Give me a reason WHY Raw is drafting Wrestler A and WHY Smackdown is drafting Wrestler B.
I get the desire to have various “legends” randomly show up to deliver picks. We see that a lot in the NFL Draft, where teams will have a representative, usually a Pro Football Hall Of Famer that played for the team or a celebrity superfan, come to the podium and announce a selection. It’s usually harmless fun, but I don’t need WWE “tipping” picks and basically spoiling things to a certain degree before a pick is even made. Shawn Michaels is out? Oh, it’s time for some NXT names to be chosen. I can’t even imagine the outrage that would burn through social media if the NFL brought out Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban to announce the #1 overall pick for the Carolina Panthers, and it was revealed to be Alabama Quarterback Bryce Young. Stop that shit.
I’ve seen some people say that WWE should have some sort of expert panel discussing the picks, making predictions, and all of the things that you see when you watch the NFL Draft on ESPN or the NFL Network. That would be a tough sell. Sure, it would help fill some of the three-hour air time for Raw and two-hour air time for Smackdown, but there are a bunch of deserving wrestlers who already have a hard enough time appearing on television. Can you imagine how difficult it would be if we got Peter Rosenberg, Booker T, Kayla Braxton, and Wade Barrett were talking for ten-plus minutes in between picks?
Overall, though, there are just some tweaks here and there that could go a long way for WWE when it comes to making the Draft entertaining to watch.
Those Were Some Strange NXT Call-Ups: If you were to ask viewers of NXT which wrestlers they assumed were getting called up in the Draft, I think it’s safe to say Bron Breakker was going to be on almost every list. Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of his, you have to admit that he seems to have everything WWE would look for in a main roster performer. Had Carmelo Hayes been unsuccessful in beating Bron for the NXT Title, Melo would’ve made those lists, too. Grayson Waller? Sure. Apollo Crews? Yeah. Pretty Deadly? Of course. The Creed Brothers? Makes sense. Ilja Dragunov? Yup. Tyler Bate? Go for it. There’s a few more, but those would probably be the main names you’d see time and time again in the predictions.
While Waller, Crews, and Pretty Deadly did get called up, that was it for the aforementioned names. Bron not getting selected might be the single biggest surprise that happened during the Draft. The fact that he wasn’t moved up, but Odyssey Jones, Von Wagner, and Xyon Quinn were? What?!? Indi Hartwell, Alba Fyre, and Isla Dawn were also major surprises, but only because they were champions in NXT at the time, but more on that later.
People like Dragunov and Bate have ready-made feuds (or partnerships, if you want to get spicy) with Imperium, but they didn’t get called up. Even without the Imperium connections, Dragunov and Bate are two of the best in-ring performers on the planet today. Putting them in front of bigger audiences, many of whom would be seeing them for the first time, seems like it would be a great idea. I’m not sure what the hell Xyon Quinn is supposed to be doing on Raw or Smackdown, and this is coming from someone who likes Xyon Quinn. I just don’t get it.
I’m Not Sure The Women’s Division On Raw Could Be Any Bigger: You might want to sit down for this, but, uh… there are 25 women on the current Raw roster. TWENTY FIVE. Even if you subtract Valhalla and Maxxine Dupri, who are managers/valets/whatever you want to call them, that’s still 23 women. If you remove Carmella (pregnant), Indi Hartwell (ankle injury that may or may not keep her out of action for long), and Alexa Bliss (missing for any number of reasons, depending on where you’re reading your news), that’s still 20 women. If this were a women’s wrestling promotion, that would be a decent amount of people on the roster. For it to be the amount of women strictly confined to Monday Night Raw is absolutely asinine.
You can make whatever claims about WWE and the “women’s revolution” that you want, but that’s way too many women for the company to deal with on one show. If you go back through the last five episodes of Raw, when the company was fully using the rosters of both Raw and Smackdown, you have the Raw After WrestleMania episode that featured one women’s tag match (that didn’t happen until the third hour) and six other women appeared to do promos or get featured in backstage segments. The next week saw two women’s matches, featuring a total of seven women, with four other women making appearances. A week later, there were two women’s matches, featuring six total women, with seven other women making appearances. The next week had one women’s match, featuring a total of six women, with two other women making appearances. Most recently, there were two matches (one was a mixed-tag) that featured a total of six women, with eight other women (although six of them were names from the past announcing Draft picks or the Draft picks themselves) making appearances.
What’s my point? With three hours to use every Monday night, and with pretty much every woman on the roster available, WWE was only able to use a handful of women every week. Oh, and almost without fail, it was the exact same women wrestling and exact same women making appearances, week in and week out. There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that most of the women on Raw are going to get any sort of regular television time, let alone get to wrestle semi-regularly. It’s a very strange decision on WWE’s part.
Most Of The “Free Agents” Are Absolutely Unnecessary: I really like the stories behind Brock Lesnar and Omos being listed as free agents. Brock was already a storyline free agent, and it was announced that he renegotiated his contract to keep that free agent status moving forward. Similarly, Omos is a free agent because MVP negotiated that perk for him so that Omos, a “special attraction” like Lesnar, can choose where he wants to go next. Like it or not, those two instances make sense, and could actually provide for some entertaining television at some point.
Beyond that, though? Does anybody truly care about what show Baron Corbin or Elias are on? Are you really looking forward to seeing where Von Wagner or Xyon Quinn land? When was the last time Mustafa Ali was presented as anything important enough to make his home brand matter? The same goes for Dolph Ziggler, actually. Good wrestler, bad wrestler, in between… it doesn’t matter. It’s all about the optics, and how someone is made to look by the company, and there’s simply too many names who have been made to look bad on the free agent list.
Please, For The Love Of Joe Pesci, Stop Passing Titles Back-And-Forth: One of the worst things WWE has done when it comes to their Drafts is taking a champion from one brand, shipping them off to the other brand, and then taking the “matching” champion from the second brand and shipping them off to the first brand, essentially “trading” titleholders. It’s cheap as hell, tacking on extra title reigns to a wrestler’s career, and it’s a terrible way to end a reign that has gone really well. Bianca Belair’s current Raw Women’s Title reign is a prime example of that. She’s going to end up having a 400-day reign come to an end because she had to hand the title over to Rhea Ripley, who is the Smackdown Women’s Champion that was officially drafted to Raw.
The most frustrating part about this is how easy it would be to avoid. Keep Bianca on Raw and Rhea on Smackdown. Have Bianca and Rhea drop their titles before the Draft to someone brand-specific, although in this case, that would’ve put an end to a reign for Rhea that was only a month old. Have one Women’s Champion that can appear on whatever show she wants. That’s three options right off the top of my head, with no thought put in whatsoever, and WWE still decided to go with a different option that everyone seems to hate.
As we’ve seen in the past, this isn’t just an issue with the Women’s Titles. We’ve seen it with the Tag Team Titles in the past. In a different year, and under different circumstances, we’ll probably see it with the World Titles. I hate it so much. So, so much.
Roman Reigns Has Some Fun New Challengers, But Beyond That, Smackdown Is Kardashian Shallow: As I mentioned in last week’s Power Rankings, I love that Bobby Lashley and AJ Styles are now members of the Smackdown roster, as they can both be tremendous challengers for Roman’s Undisputed WWE Universal Title. Whether they’re able to dethrone Reigns isn’t the point. The fact that they’re both new challengers that are legitimate threats, and will be well received by the WWE Universe, is the point.
Let’s go beyond that, though. Who are the “main event players” on Smackdown? Besides Reigns, and beyond the assumption that Styles and Lashley will be there, you have… Edge, who has been defeated by Reigns approximately 47 times. There’s Big E, who has been defeated by Reigns multiple times, and who might not even wrestle again, anyway. Bray Wyatt? Ha! Nice one. Next. There’s Sheamus, who has been pinned by Sheamus during this title reign (albeit in a tag team match). What about Rey Mysterio? The fans would totally buy a return to the main event for Rey, but he was also defeated by Roman during this title reign. That might be it. Everyone else isn’t even close to being viewed at that level (LA Knight, Austin Theory, Karrion Kross, etc.) or will require some twists and turns in their story down the road (Solo Sikoa, either of The Usos, etc.).
Let’s go beyond that, though. What about Austin Theory’s United States Title? Who will be the main contenders there? We’ve seen the Theory/Lashley story told a billion times, and there’s no need to keep that going right now. If Styles isn’t in the main event picture, this could work for him. This seems “beneath” Edge. Big E, as I said, might not even wrestle again. Bray Wyatt? Ha! Nice one. Next. Sheamus is always a contender for something, so I guess you could have him in this spot. Like Edge, this almost seems “beneath” Rey Mysterio, although to a lesser extent. LA Knight would be a good choice to be a midcard champion, but as of now, that would require a heel vs heel situation (although I am a strong believer that he should turn face as soon as possible). Same goes for Karrion Kross and Solo Sikoa, as well as Grayson Waller. What about Santos Escobar? He’s more than talented enough for this type of spot, but he also hasn’t been booked to win a match since Bill Clinton was the President Of The United States. Butch? Ridge Holland? Butch hasn’t won a singles match on television in almost six months, and Ridge hasn’t even COMPETED in a singles match on television in almost ten months, with his last win in a televised singles match coming almost 14 months ago. Cameron Grimes? He’s always an option, but it remains to be seen how he’ll be booked on the main roster, or how the WWE Universe will respond to him.
I would like to point out that I’m not saying the match quality on Smackdown is going to suffer. Again, I’m only talking about how WWE treats the aforementioned wrestlers, and how we, the fans, are supposed to view them and accept them in particular roles. From the top on down, a lot of this is the inevitable issues that will arise when you have a champion that is as dominant as Roman Reigns has been for the last 1,000-ish days. He beats everyone over and over again, generally pushing them down the proverbial ladder. Now, you have “tier one” performers who are viewed as “tier two” performers, “tier two” performers who are viewed as “tier three” performers, and so on.
Grayson Waller Is One Of The Biggest Winners Of The Draft: This one, of course, is a bit of a continuation from the previous entry. Not only is Waller one of the more electric in-ring performers in the company, as well as a heat magnet with tons of charisma, he steps foot on the Smackdown brand with much clearer path ahead of him than a lot of NXT call-ups would otherwise have.
Should WWE want to do a heel vs heel match for the United States Title, it really wouldn’t take much time at all for Waller to be at that level. I doubt that’s the direction the company wants to go in, at least right away, but that still works out well for Waller. As I said, a lot of the face midcard acts on Smackdown are damaged in one way or another, providing a lane for Waller to build success in.
I’m certainly not saying he’s going to be in contention to beat Roman Reigns in 2023, but he has the potential and the opportunities before him to surprise a lot of people and become a spotlight player on Friday nights. Putting him on Raw would present more roadblocks for initial success, and that could lead to any possible growth being stunted right away. As it is, don’t be surprised if Waller is at least contending for the United States Title sooner than later.
NXT Needs To Figure Out What They Want To Do With Their Titles: When we found out that the NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions, Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre, were drafted to Smackdown, the obvious conclusion was that they would drop the titles on the way out the door before officially debuting on the blue brand. Then we heard that they would be defending the titles against former champions, Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, everyone nodded their heads in unison because we figured that we were correct.
Then… Chance and Carter were drafted to Raw the night before their title shot. That was quite the wrench thrown directly into the plans everyone thought they were going to have. The champions would go on to retain their titles in that match, and are now in the weird window with one more episode of NXT between now and their official start on Smackdown. That might not matter much, though, because the rumor is that Dawn and Fyre will bring their titles with them to Smackdown, still able to appear in NXT and defend the titles on Tuesdays. Does that mean NXT talents who weren’t drafted to Smackdown could appear on Smackdown to challenge for the titles? Who knows? At this point, I’m not even sure WWE knows, because it sure doesn’t seem like they’ve thought this one through.
That brings us to the NXT Women’s Title, with Indi Hartwell holding the title and getting drafted to Raw. Would she get to do the same as the tag champs and defend her title on multiple brands? No. She would not. On last week’s episode of NXT, she cut a promo to announce that she was heading to Raw and that NXT would be holding a tournament to crown a new Women’s Champion. Now, to be clear, we all know that Indi is dealing with an ankle sprain and is possibly going to miss some time. That’s not what her promo was about, though. It was a chance for her to say her farewells to NXT and the NXT fans, with no real mention of being injured. To make it even more confusing is that it’s a sprained ankle. Not a fractured ankle, broken ankle, torn knee ligament, or any other injury that we know will keep someone on the shelf for months at a time. A sprained ankle, even of the high variety, is something that professional athletes have returned from in a couple weeks. Yes, it might take longer than that, but sometimes it’s even less time. In the Divisional Round of last season’s NFL Playoffs, Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain, missed the last few minutes of the first half, then returned to the field for the second half and continued playing for the rest of the postseason. I’m not saying that Indi Hartwell will or won’t miss time, but chances are, this isn’t something that’s going to keep her out of action for months on end, forcing the company’s hand to take the title from her. I’ve even seen some people speculate that Indi forgot to talk up her injury in the promo, as it seemed like the situation was tailor-made for one of those “unfortunately, and injury is forcing me to relinquish my title” babyface promos, but it never quite happened that way. I’m not sure if that was the case, but whatever it was, it left a confusing message.
This is just another situation where it doesn’t seem like a ton of thought went into WWE’s decision making. If we’re going to have champions specific to the NXT brand, those champions should defend their titles on… oh, I don’t know… NXT, perhaps? There’s no need for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions to defend their titles on Smackdown because WWE already has its own Women’s Tag Team Champions that are capable of appearing on Smackdown to defend the titles. Fucking wild concept, I know. Just for shits and giggles, though, I want Roman Reigns to make a random appearance on NXT to make an open challenge and defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Title against someone like Tony D’Angelo or Josh Briggs for absolutely no reason.
The Women’s Division On Smackdown Is In Trouble: Remember all that stuff I said about Roman Reigns, his potential challengers, and the overall depth of the Smackdown men’s roster? Well, it’s even worse for Bianca Belair and the rest of the women’s division.
It’s safe to say that Bianca Belair is one of the few women on the WWE roster who are positioned as being head and shoulders above the other women in the company. Since winning the 2021 Royal Rumble, Bianca has been one of the most dominant wrestlers in the business. Not one of the most dominant women. One of the most dominant wrestlers, period. Who are her biggest challengers on Smackdown? Charlotte Flair is always a threat to be a champion, but she seems to be wrestling less and less these days, with injuries piling up, but also because she has admitted that she wants to see about potentially doing auditions for television shows and movies like so many other wrestlers have done recently. How about Asuka? Sure, I suppose, but Asuka has only defeated Bianca one time, and that was six years ago at an NXT house show, back when Asuka was in the middle of the longest NXT Women’s Title reign ever, and when Bianca was nowhere near ready for the spotlight that she has taken on in recent years. Bayley is still a big star, but she is also 0-4 against Bianca in title matches on pay-per-view.
Beyond that, what do we have? Are you going to buy Zelina Vega beating Bianca? Tamina beating Bianca? Lacey Evans beating Bianca? Aliyah beating Bianca? Shotzi beating Bianca? Mia Yim beating Bianca? There are internet favorites like Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky, but in the WWE hierarchy, they’re below Bayley, who can’t beat Bianca. At this rate, it’ll just be Bianca and Charlotte feuding with each other until the 2024 Draft, passing the Smackdown Women’s Title back and forth a bit in the meantime.
There Was A Whole Lotta Nothing When It Came To The Hype Surrounding The Potential Split Of Teams & Stables: Whenever a WWE Draft is announced, what do you hear about ad nauseam on commentary for weeks until the Draft has finally come and gone? That every tag team or stable on the roster is in danger of being split up. Brotherhoods torn apart! Best friends saying goodbye! Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
Well, what happened in the Draft this year?
Even before it actually began, we knew some bullshit was afoot. When WWE revealed the pools that wrestlers would be selected from on each night, one thing that immediately stuck out was that almost every tag team or stable in the company was listed together, and therefore, would be drafted together. The only real exception to that was The Bloodline, where Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, and Paul Heyman were drafted to Smackdown, and we were left to wait three days to see The Usos get drafted… to Smackdown. The Street Profits were paired together. Imperium was grouped together. The O.C. was a four-for-one selection. Damage CTRL was grouped together. Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn were put together. Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville were a pairing. Hit Row was together. Maximum Male Models were a group. The Viking Raiders were kept together. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are still doing their thing. The male members of The Judgment Day were placed together, and they were conveniently drafted to the same show that the group’s female member was drafted to earlier in the same night. All five (!!!) members of The Latino World Order were chosen together. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez were kept as a team. The New Day are still chugging along. The Brawling Brutes are still looking to have banger after banger after banger after banger after banger together. Karrion Kross and Scarlett are still doing whatever they’re doing. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler are still running up an astronomically high eye makeup tab together. Braun Strowman and Ricochet are still a team. Pretty Deadly are still pretty and, apparently, deadly. Alpha Academy are still looking like the number ten when they stand side-by-side. Katana Chance and Kayden Carter are still raving about as a duo. Indus Sher is now in dis bitch on Monday nights. Los Lotharios are still on the roster, surprisingly enough. Riddick Moss and Emma weren’t drafted together, but they still ended up on the same show. Every face wrestler who made up The Way in NXT is back on the same show. Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch weren’t drafted together, but they’ll continue working together on the same show.
Are you getting the point?
One of the only pairings/groups that split up in the Draft is Elias and Rick Boogs, and technically, that might not be true, as Elias is a free agent and could easily end up on Smackdown with Boogs.
That’s it? Seriously?!?
Look, I’m not saying every team should be split up and go on to become nothing but singles wrestlers, but come on, this was just dumb. People like Corey Graves were annoying as all hell on commentary with their “THIS COULD BE THE LAST TIME WE SEE INSERT-TEAM-HERE TOGETHER” lines every five minutes on the shows leading up to the Draft. To do that, only to turn around and make sure that none of those splits happened? What the fuck was the point?!?
Hey, speaking of wondering what the fucking point was, I have a BONUS THOUGHT, bringing the overall total to 11 this time around. Don’t ever say I didn’t do anything for you.
The World Heavyweight Title Tournament Is Already A Joke And It Hasn’t Even Happened Yet: What was the biggest point of the entire 2023 WWE Draft? The single biggest catalyst that led to introducing this year’s Draft in the first place? It was WWE’s way of getting a World Title of some sort on Monday Night Raw, without having Roman Reigns lose one, or both, of the titles he has been holding forever and a day now. Get a Draft put together, give Raw its own World Title again, and draw a line in the sand with the rosters that usually get played with fast and loose during WrestleMania season. Simple enough.
So… we had the Draft. Raw got its own roster. Smackdown got its own roster. A tournament was announced, with the winner of said tournament becoming the brand new World Heavyweight Champion at Night Of Champions in three weeks. Makes sense.
Would anyone like to explain to me why WWE announced that Smackdown wrestlers will be competing in the tournament to crown a new World Heavyweight Champion on Raw?
Anyone at all?
WHAT IN THEE ENTIRE FUCK WAS THE POINT OF THE DRAFT, YOU FUCKING FUCKS?!?
We’re getting two Triple Threat Matches on Raw (involving Shinsuke Nakamura, Seth Rollins, The Miz, Cody Rhodes, Finn Balor and Damian Priest), with the winners of said matches facing each other later that night. Four days later, we’ll get two Triple Threat Matches on Smackdown (involving Sheamus, Edge, Bobby Lashley, Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles and Austin Theory), with the winners of said matches facing each other later that night. The “Raw winner” and the “Smackdown winner” will go on to face each other at Night Of Champions, and the winner of that match will be crowned the new World Heavyweight Champion.
This is easily one of the most mind-meltingly stupid moves I can ever remember in wrestling. We’re not talking about WWE putting this Draft together and then moving their own goalposts months down the road. They do shit like that with every Draft. This is WWE putting a Draft together, announcing when the selections officially go into play, and then, before those moves have even gone into play, moving their own goalposts to completely bypass everything that happened during the Draft. Again, I say…
WHAT IN THEE ENTIRE FUCK WAS THE POINT OF THE DRAFT, YOU FUCKING FUCKS?!?
I’m not saying that a certain decrepit old bastard is making the decisions here, but I’m not not saying it, either. This has his fingerprints all over it. If he has nothing to do with this, it’s the kind of thing that can single-handedly change the way people view Triple H’s tenure in charge of the creative decision making for the company.
What’s next? Roman Reigns attacks one of the Smackdown guys, enters the tournament himself, wins his Triple Threat Match, wins the semi-final match later in the show, then wins the match at Night Of Champions to add the World Heavyweight Title to his collection? We’re only one step away from that happening. Some of you will immediately chime in that there’s no chance any Smackdown wrestler wins the tournament. Why make it an option in the first place, though? This is the type of “accidentally shoot yourself in the dick, and then, when someone asks you to re-enact what happened, you accidentally shoot yourself in the dick again” decision making that we’ve seen WWE do for years and years. Just when you think they’ve gotten over that hump, they go and shoot themselves in the dick again. It’s such an easily preventable move, and yet, it keeps happening.
To quote the great philosopher Randal Keith Orton… stupid, stupid.
Now that the WWE Draft is over, what are your thoughts on what we saw, didn’t see, and are set to see in the near future? As always, hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Weekly Power Rankings
Bad Bunny vs Damian Priest: Completely overbooked in the best possible way. There’s not much more to say that I didn’t already say in my Backlash review column. A true love letter to the people, and wrestling, of Puerto Rico.
Ticket Sales For All In: When AEW announced they were running a show at Wembley Stadium, we had no idea what the seating arrangement was going to be and just how much of the stadium would be opened up for the show. There were debates on just how many tickets sold would equal a “successful” day for the company. Here we are, only a few days after the initial ticket pre-sale, and we’re approaching the 70,000 tickets sold mark. At this point, there’s no excuse for them not to top the 100,000 tickets sold mark, filling the stadium up completely (counting floor seating). On a related note, with the ticket sales for London, the crowd in Puerto Rico for Backlash, and the crowd in Montreal for Elimination Chamber, can we get a petition started for WWE and AEW to not do shows in the mainland United States anymore? AEW can sell all those tickets for Wembley Stadium, but last week’s episode of Dynamite in Baltimore had approximately 20% of the tickets unsold as of five hours before the show, with a capacity setup of just over 5,000 seats. WWE can have shows in front of rabid fans outside of the mainland United States, but continue to hold episodes of Raw and Smackdown in cities like Birmingham, Alabama or Tulsa, Oklahoma or Grand Rapids, Michigan or Hershey, Pennsylvania or Wichita, Kansas or Laredo, Texas or Evansville, Indiana or Lincoln, Nebraska or Des Moines, Iowa or Lafayette, Louisiana and so on. Obviously, I’m not 100% serious about the ban on the mainland United States, but I think times like this should make both WWE and AEW put more thought into where they do, and don’t, hold shows in the future. More special events in different places would be greatly appreciated.
Bianca Belair vs Iyo Sky: They went on first in front of a red hot crowd, so they already had that going for them. The surprising crowd reaction, with the face getting almost 100% of the boos and the heel getting almost 100% of the cheers, only seemed to motivate the women and push them further. So much fun.
Dragon Lee vs JD McDonagh: A super fun “goodbye” to NXT for McDonagh. With Dragon Lee not being involved in the Draft, you have to assume that he’s on a short list of names who will be the next NXT Champion, or at the very least, the next NXT North American Champion. He’s on fire right now.
Cody Rhodes vs Brock Lesnar: Using that oh-so-wonderful 20/20 hindsight, this shouldn’t have been the main event of Backlash. It was a really good match, but it was never going to top Bad Bunny vs Damian Priest. There was a lot of physicality here, which was appreciated, and that includes the hard way blood from Lesnar after busting his head open on an exposed turnbuckle. The ending of the match leaves the door open for a rematch should the company decide they want to go in that direction. That’s fine with me.
Orange Cassidy, Adam Cole, Roderick Strong & Bandido vs Daniel Garcia, Jake Hager, Matt Menard & Angelo Parker: Two things here… one, the Jericho Appreciation Society is the worst, and two, at least I don’t have to repeat the same thing about Orange Cassidy’s title like I do every other week.
Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & Matt Riddle vs The Usos & Solo Sikoa: In a lot of “normal” events for WWE, this could be a perfectly acceptable main event. It was definitely hurt because it had to follow Bad Bunny vs Damian Priest, though. That isn’t the fault of the men in this match, and they still went out and had a really entertaining six-man tag. If it was focused more on the match itself and less on furthering the next chapter of the drama within The Bloodline, I think it would be graded higher by a lot of people, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless.
Dominik Mysterio: Heat. Pure, unadulterated heel heat. That’s what Dom is getting in every city he visits. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.
Seth Rollins vs Omos: Omos is set to turn 29 eight days after this column is posted, and his debut match was less than four years ago. I think he’s only going to get better at this “monster” thing, but he does a lot of things really well. He’s a lot quicker and more athletic than a lot of wrestlers his size, he sells well when it calls for him to do so, and his offense looks believable. He isn’t ever going to be a workhorse wrestler, but that’s fine, because he shouldn’t be one. As a “special attraction” type of wrestler, he can be very successful in the future.
Mark Briscoe vs Preston Vance: Vance has almost gotten lost in the shuffle since turning heel on The Dark Order, but half the AEW roster is currently lost in the shuffle, so it was almost to be expected. He’s too good for that, and hopefully he can have more opportunities on television like this to show that to people who doubt him.
Rey Mysterio & Zelina Vega vs Dominik Mysterio & Rhea Ripley: Furthering the family issues between Rey and Dom? Check. Building Zelina up as a challenger for Rhea? Check. Keeping the crowd hot? Check.
Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar & Zelina Vega vs Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio & Rhea Ripley: Furthering the family issues between Rey and Dom? Check. Building Zelina up as a challenger for Rhea? Check. Keeping the crowd hot? Check.
Seth Rollins vs Solo Sikoa: The more I watch Solo, the more I’m amazed that he has been able to make his Umaga tribute work. Not that I thought he was terrible. That’s far from the case. He’s just doing a tribute to someone who was two inches taller than he is, and at least 100 pounds heavier than he is, but he’s doing a great job with it. He’s a very believable badass that continues to have a bright future.
Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre vs Katana Chance & Kayden Carter: Forget the stupid idea of putting main roster draftees against other main roster draftees in a match for NXT titles that are going to be defended on the main roster. The match itself was fun. I do think that Chance and Carter would’ve been better representatives as the champions, but I can’t complain too much.
Will Washington: Unless you’re one of those tribalistic incels, this is a really cool hire for AEW. Will is one of the very first wrestling podcasters, going way back before it was the “in” thing and everyone had one. After busting his ass and building his brand on multiple sites, he is now AEW’s Wrestling Administration Coordinator. He will have his hand in the company’s live events, social media, creative (!!!), public relations, and Lord knows what else. As I said, unless you’re one of those dorks who shits on everything AEW does because you think Triple H is going to knock on your door one day, this is the type of hire you should love. Will is, through and through, one of us. He’s a fan that was able to turn his ability to speak his mind online into a job with one of the biggest wrestling promotions on the planet. He’s going to do great work, as he always does.
Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh & Sonjay Dutt Visit The Briscoe Chicken Farm: Short, stupid, harmless fun. In a good way. I still laugh at the way Mark Briscoe yells “BOY” after Jeff Jarrett says that Mark has a “cute little girl.” I’m also still laughing at Satnam Singh basically being a 7’2″ babysitter for Big Murph Briscoe.
Trick Williams: Not only did he get to cut a really good face promo, but Apollo Crews put him over huge in a segment later in the show. He might not be Carmelo Hayes in the ring, but NXT officials clearly see something in him, because he gets a ton of screen time and has been able to be a “mouthpiece” for Melo for the man’s time with the brand. He is barely 18 months into his wrestling career, and if he keeps getting better in the ring, we might be looking at a major star in the future.
Darby Allin & Jungle Boy vs MJF & Sammy Guevara: AEW went to Point Z to get from Point A to Point B, but they finally gave us the “Four Pillars” match at Double Or Nothing that we all knew was coming. Now, we have less than three weeks for Darby, Sammy, and Jungle Boy to save their asses because they’re being destroyed on the microphone out there.
Ricky Starks vs Juice Robinson: It wasn’t all that long ago when it seemed like Ricky Starks was going to be the “next big thing” in AEW. He’s still putting in good work. It just seems like the booking focus has shifted to several other places right now. Perhaps he’ll still get his chance once Double Or Nothing is over. As for Juice Robinson… don’t even get me started. His arrival and time in AEW has been nothing more than a popcorn fart so far. He’s only making the log jam in AEW worse.
Pretty Deadly: As expected, they were selected in the Draft, headed for Smackdown. They’ve earned it. Their entertaining character work should have no problem translating to the main roster. We’ll just have to see if that translates to any sort of push, or if they’ll just be your usual comedy act in WWE that doesn’t really advance anywhere.
This Week’s Playlist: “Pissy” by Gucci Mane, Roddy Ricch & Nardo Wick… “Chambea” by Bad Bunny… “Unfamiliar” by Currents… “I Found The Dark Side Of Heaven” by Like Moths To Flames… “Hit Like This” by Dropout Kings… “Dark Energy” by Dropout Kings… “Fighter Jet” by Dropout Kings… “Demons” by Dropout Kings… “Lights Out” by Dropout Kings & DED… “Hey Uh” by Dropout Kings… “Wither” by In Fear… “To The Hellfire” by Lorna Shore… “Heritage” by Distant & Will Ramos… “Wobble Wobble” by 504 Boyz… “What It Do” by Paul Wall, Chamillionaire & 50/50 Twin… “Who I Am” by The Diplomats… “Dipset Anthem” by The Diplomats… “I Really Mean It” by The Diplomats… “S.a.n.t.a.n.a.” by Juelz Santana… “Crunk Muzik” by The Diplomats… “Certified Gangstas” by Jim Jones, The Game, Cam’ron & Bezel… “What A Wonderful World” by Iam Tongi… “Stuck On You” by Iam Tongi… “Don’t Let Go” by Iam Tongi… “The Sound Of Silence” by Iam Tongi