The WWE Draft serves as a time for major excitement for all WWE fans. In the age of the brand split, the draft serves as a reset or ‘season premiere’ for their weekly shows following the ‘season finale’ that is WrestleMania. Who will move to RAW? Who will move to SmackDown? Will anyone move up from NXT? The draft gives each brand’s roster a much-needed shake-up and unforgettable moments always happen.
The history of the draft is rather tumultuous, having gone through countless tweaks and overhauls in its format and presentation since its debut in 2002. The calendar has even omitted it in the years since its inception.
Despite this, when the Draft is good, it can be as consequential a night as there can be in WWE. With the second half of the 2024 WWE Draft set to unfold tonight on RAW, let’s discuss the 5 best WWE Drafts in its storied history.
2002 WWF Draft Lottery
Sometimes you simply cannot beat the original. The birth of the first WWF (at the time) draft began a year earlier in the Spring of 2001. This was when WWF purchased long-standing rival, WCW. With that acquisition, the WWF also inherited most of the WCW roster. Minus a few very notable omissions (but that is a story for another time).
With a now bloated roster with the influx of WCW and ECW talent, the WWF decided to embark on an invasion storyline pitting the WWF against ‘The Alliance’ of WCW and ECW.
The angle failed despite its obvious promise and that now left the WWF with a lot of superstars on their books but not enough TV time to go around. Eventually, the WWF decided in early 2002 to split RAW and SmackDown into separate brands with separate rosters. They announced a Draft Lottery to split the rosters.
So on the 25th March 2002 edition of RAW, the first ever WWF Draft took place. Ric Flair made the picks for RAW, and Mr. McMahon made them for SmackDown. They televised 10 rounds of the draft on RAW, while WWE.com conducted the remaining rounds randomly via lottery following RAW.
The talent selected in this first draft is surely the best any WWE draft has had to offer. SmackDown’s first pick was The Rock. RAW’s first pick was The Undertaker. Here are the rest of the picks for the draft:
The draft, and subsequently the brand split, were a major success in freshening up the product of the soon-to-be WWE. Each show had a distinctive look and identity. RAW with the iconic ‘Across The Nation’ intro had the feel of a show/ This is where serious action took place and the biggest superstars fought. SmackDown had the timeless SmackDown first stage, as well as a focus on superb in-ring talent and debuting new stars. Within 4 months of the brand split, Randy Orton, Batista, John Cena and Rey Mysterio all debuted on the blue brand.
The first WWE Draft ushered in a completely new era of WWE programming with the brand split. It set the foundations for which the Ruthless Aggression era would thrive and thus has to be in the top 5 drafts in WWE history.
2005 WWE Draft Lottery
The 2005 WWE Draft is the most consequential in WWE history. Following skipping a year in 2003, the WWE Draft returned in March 2004, with a new format. Every superstar and on-air personality’s name was placed into a lottery machine and randomly selected to move the brand.
The 2004 WWE Draft was mostly insignificant, barring the shock drafting of Triple H to SmackDown from RAW. Despite this, RAW traded him back the day after the draft, ensuring he would not appear on Thursday nights.
Therefore, To ensure the staying power of the spectacle and maintain the excitement of such a night, the 2005 draft needed to be a big hit.
Once again, there was a slight tweak to the format, with the 2005 draft taking place over 4 weeks in June. They decided each draft pick randomly via lottery once again, but they did not televise it. Ten picks happened on the whole, but each one was arguably huge.
The first draft pick of 2005 certainly set the tone for the rest of the draft. On the June 6th, 2005 episode, WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to Raw. The pick finalised his rise to the top of the company and he embarked on a legendary run as a RAW superstar.
Other draftees included: Kurt Angle, Big Show and Rob Van Dam to RAW and Randy Orton and Christian to SmackDown.
However, with John Cena now on RAW, it left SmackDown with no world champion, as the World Heavyweight Championship also resided on RAW in the hands of Batista.
On the June 23rd episode of SmackDown, the last night of the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, General Manager Teddy Long announced the creation of a new world title named SmackDown! Championship. A week later, JBL would win a 6-man elimination match to become the first SmackDown! Champion.
Unfortunately for the former WWE Champion, his ‘valiant’ victory was in vain. Teddy Long announced the last lottery pick to be the reigning World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, fresh off ending his rivalry with Triple H in a brutally brilliant Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance. Pretty lucky isn’t it?
Both these picks ushered in new eras in the history of each show. Cena and Batista would enjoy lengthy title runs as the respective faces of RAW and SmackDown for the rest of 2005.
This draft cemented a new future in WWE, with Cena and the Animal at the forefront of it. The results of WrestleMania 21 and the draft were certainly dignified. The 2005 draft was incredibly important and memorable, making stars transcend into superstardom.
2008 WWE Draft
In the wake of the impeccable 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, the next two years were a disappointment.
To call the 2006 WWE Draft a draft is like calling a tiny molehill Mount Everest. They made 2 picks to inject the recently rebirthed ECW brand with some much-needed star power. As a result, on the May 29th 2006 episode of RAW, the ‘draft’ occurred, with Paul Heyman representing ECW.
The picks they received were big names, Rob Van Dam and Kurt Angle. But each had fairly torrid times in the land of extreme. RVD would become WWE Champion a month after the draft after cashing in on John Cena at One Night Stand 2006. However, he lost the title to Edge on the July 3rd episode of RAW. This ended his reign in less than a month. He had been arrested the night before for speeding and drug possession.
In terms of Kurt Angle’s ECW run. He would only wrestle 5 times on ECW TV before leaving the WWE in August.
The 2007 Draft introduced a new format once more, with superstars battling each other to win picks for their brand. However, the names selected in the 2007 draft left a lot to be desired. After all, probably the most successful pick was The Great Khali moving to SmackDown. He became the World Heavyweight Champion a month after in July 2007. That’s pretty damning.
Therefore, once again the 2008 WWE Draft needed to truly deliver and shake things up. It certainly did so. Held on the June 23rd edition of RAW. 11 televised picks were made in the same format as the 2007 draft.
The show kicked off with a bang with Rey Mysterio being drafted to RAW for the first time. Then, Jeff Hardy moved to SmackDown, where he would finally realize his superstar potential, ending 2008 as the WWE Champion.
The list of names that changed shows was truly star-studded. CM Punk, Mr. Money in the Bank, Batista, and reigning ECW Champion Kane are all headed to RAW. SmackDown did just as well with the acquisitions of Umaga, Mr Kennedy and the WWE Champion, Triple H. Hell, even the commentators switches brands with Jim Ross moving to SmackDown (much to his surprise and displeasure) and Michael Cole heading the opposite way to RAW.
Overall, the 2008 draft highlighted a return to form and importance for the concept, after languishing for a couple of years. Monumental draft picks seriously shook up the foundations of the WWE at the time. The WWE Champion moved shows for the first time in 3 years. The shaking up was evident as soon as the week after on RAW, with CM Punk cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Edge to become the World Heavyweight Champion for the first time.
2016 WWE Draft
Following years of subpar drafts in 2009, 2010, and 2011, they ended the brand split in August 2011 along with the draft. However, as we all know, history often repeats itself, even in wrestling.
5 years later, WWE found themselves with the same problem which birthed the first draft in 2002: a bloated roster. As a result, the WWE decided to revive the brand split in 2016 and with it the draft. On the premiere of SmackDown Live on the USA Network on July 19th, 2016, they held the 2016 WWE Draft.
The draft returned to its roots, with the respective GMs and commissioners (Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley on RAW, Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan on SmackDown) making their selections on the stage. It brought back that true ‘sports’ feeling that the 2002 draft mastered so well, mimicking the various drafts that occur amongst all the major American sports each year.
With the draft, like in 2002, each brand was able to construct its own identity once more. RAW seemed to focus on the bigger current superstars with Seth Rollins, Charlotte Flair, Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar being in their top 5 selections. Although, RAW did produce the shock of the draft, selecting NXT star Finn Bálor as their fourth pick.
SmackDown Live embraced its ‘land of opportunity’ mission statement. While they did select true superstars of the business Randy Orton and John Cena, they invested in newer stars who had more to prove. This included WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt and a plethora of future SmackDown Women’s Champions Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss and Carmella.
The 2016 draft gave the WWE product of the mid-2010s a much-needed coat of new paint and introduced a welcome freshness across the company.
2019 WWE Draft
Despite of the huge success of the 2016 WWE Draft, the company once again shifted away from the tried and tested formula to unsurprisingly diminished returns.
In 2017, WWE introduced the ‘Superstar Shake-up’, which saw superstars randomly appearing on the opposite brand without any real explanation or justification as to why. It left a lot to be desired in terms of the showcase that was the WWE Draft. This continued in 2018 and 2019.
To further confuse viewers, the WWE introduced the ‘Wild Card Rule’ following the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up. This often-perplexing rule meant that up to four superstars could appear on the opposing brand’s show. ut unsanctioned appearances were to be punished. However, the company rarely, if at all, enforced the rules, meaning wrestlers were just showing up on either Raw or SmackDown, thus flying in the face of the brand split.
WWE needed to differentiate the two shows once more.
With SmackDown’s move to FOX, the WWE Draft was reintroduced in October 2019, spanning over two episodes of SmackDown and RAW. The format mostly followed that of the 2002 and 2016 editions, with a slight twist. With the draft being split over two shows, the roster was split into two pools.
Furthermore, this was the first time that the TV networks that each show was on, Fox for SmackDown and the USA Network for RAW, had an influence on draft selections and thus brand identity. This allowed the draft to have a renewed energy along with a sense of logic behind each selection. For example, SmackDown and Fox were keen to draft major stars such as Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.
Each show also received separate stage sets and new branding to truly usher in a new era for each show. This was key since the RAW and SmackDown stages had been identical since 2008.
While the product at the time remained mostly poor, the 2019 WWE Draft was perhaps the most unique draft since its rebirth in recent years.
With Night 1 of the 2024 WWE Draft taking place this past Friday on SmackDown, Night 2 looks to shake up the current roster even more tonight on RAW.
Image Credit: Twitter / @SEScoops
