2019 WWE Draft

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The WWE held a draft beginning with Friday Night Smackdown on Fox last Friday October 11th and culminating on the USA network during Monday Night Raw this past Monday October 14th. The event was a ratings attention grab and promised to be a monumental shift in the course of the WWE. Every wrestler in two different pools was available for each “brand” to draft during each of the two shows. What we saw was underwhelming and ever changing.

 On the Smackdown night of the draft, there was a match between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to determine if Smackdown or Raw would get the first pick. Since the format was already given that Raw would get 3 picks for every 2 Smackdown picks, it only made sense for Raw to get the first pick rather than have an order of Smackdown-Raw-Smackdown-Raw-Raw for the draft picks. The most disappointing part of this decision was that Rollins won by disqualification due to an attack from under the ring by the “Fiend” Bray Wyatt. Rather than having someone take a clean pin, Rollins and Raw benefitted from being jumped.

 On Monday Night Raw, there was another match to once again determine who would get the first pick of the night. Predictably, Raw won again, but at least Becky Lynch was able to get a clean pin on Charlotte Flair in this match.
The picks on both shows felt underwhelming and the flow was definitely off. No champions were drafted to the opposite brand from the one their belt had been representing in the first place and there were not enough big movements when you consider this was an open draft rather than just the usual “Superstar Shakeup.” Unfortunately, the draft felt a lot more like the usual Shakeup results with more pomp and circumstance along with fake war rooms and “executives” from each network. The intent was there, but the results felt flat.

 The WWE current policy of trying to not split up couples also made things a bit anti-climactic. Once Becky Lynch became the #1 overall pick for Raw during the Smackdown broadcast, you knew her fiance Seth Rollins would stay on Raw during the Raw broadcast. Similarly, once you saw that the company made the bold move of moving Charlotte to Raw, you knew her boyfriend Andrade would also be going to Raw. Since Andrade and his business manager were announced to stay as a tandem together, you also knew her husband Aleister Black was moving to Raw as well.

 Some of the surpises we did see were more of the head scratcher variety. It didn’t make sense to have Rey Mysterio stay on Raw when he’s been involved in the Brock Lesnar-Cain Velasquez feud that has been playing out on Smackdown. It also didn’t make sense to move Kevin Owens off of Smackdown just after he had vanquished Shane McMahon from that show.

 The overall impression of the latest draft was that it was too predictable definitely not must see TV. Hopefully now that the rosters are set and we will not see wrestlers moving from show to show on a weekly basis, the long term result will be worth all of it.

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