What will the brands look like after WWE’s draft?
One of the most exciting staples of the WWE calendar has returned. With SmackDown moving to Fox, a hard brand split is being implemented once again. That means Raw and SmackDown will draft their own separate rosters for the foreseeable future. Starting Friday and continuing Monday, the men and women of WWE will be split up over both shows.
With a draft on the way, we couldn’t help but have a mock draft. Two of our writers, Kaden Hanafi and Justin Hix, took the reigns of the two shows to draft against one another. The rules for the draft were as follows:
- 20 picks each
- Stables & tag teams can be selected as a unit
- All champions are available
- No one from NXT is available, since NXT is now close to a third main-roster brand
- “Special attraction” guys like Tyson Fury & Cain Velasquez are unavailable
With those instructions, Kaden (SmackDown) and Justin (Raw) gave us their draft picks. SmackDown had the number one pick overall. Check out their picks, and then read their roster rationale down below.
Rounds 1-5
- SD: Brock Lesnar
- Raw: The Fiend
- SD: Becky Lynch
- Raw: Charlotte
- SD: The O.C. (A.J. Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows)
- Raw: Seth Rollins
- SD: Braun Strowman
- Raw: Shinsuke Nakamura
- SD: Ricochet
- Raw: The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder)
Rounds 6-10
- SD: New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods)
- Raw: The Usos (Jimmy & Jey)
- SD: Baron Corbin
- Raw: Kevin Owens
- SD: Asuka & Kairi Sane
- Raw: Sasha Banks
- SD: Buddy Murphy
- Raw: Roman Reigns
- SD: Drew McIntyre
- Raw: Aleister Black
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Rounds 11-15
- SD: Bayley
- Raw: Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
- SD: Rey Mysterio
- Raw: Randy Orton
- SD: Samoa Joe
- Raw: Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar)
- SD: Rusev
- Raw: Cesaro
- SD: Heavy Machinery (Tucker & Otis)
- Raw: Ali
Rounds 16-20
- SD: Daniel Bryan
- Raw: Rowan & Harper
- SD: The Miz
- Raw: R-Truth
- SD: Carmella
- Raw: Lacey Evans
- SD: Andrade & Zelina Vega
- Raw: Naomi
- SD: Sami Zayn
- Raw: Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler
SmackDown GM Kaden’s Draft Breakdown
Since I was given Smackdown, I wanted more of a sports feel which is why I picked Brock Lesnar instead of the Fiend Bray Wyatt as my first overall pick. I also wanted the WWE Championship over the cursed Universal Title. The next important factor was drafting strong women to lead the brand. That is why I took Becky Lynch, Bayley, Asuka and Kairi Sane, and Carmella.
Another factor to consider was tag teams, which I feel like I have the much better tag division. I have the two main factions, The OC and the New Day, along with Heavy Machinery. With the OC also came the US Championship. I selected multiple strong contenders for this belt, such as Ricochet, Buddy Murphy, Rey Mysterio, Daniel Bryan and Andrade. Smackdown will utilize the US Championship as it’s workhorse belt, similar to the IC belt.
Now to the big belt. I have chosen many contenders that are on the bigger side to challenge Lesnar, such as Braun Strowman, Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Samoa Joe, Rusev, and the ultimate underdog Sami Zayn.
Raw GM Justin’s Draft Breakdown
Final Thoughts
Those are the foundations of Kaden & Justin’s rosters post-draft. Who do you think had the better draft? Let us know on Twitter at @FPC_Wrestling, or in the comments below.