WWE draft

The WWE draft, called the WWE Superstar Shake-up since 2017, is a process used by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE to refresh its rosters. The draft was first used during the brand extension of 2002, though it was officially incepted and used in 2004. Since the inception of the process, it has been referred to as the WWE draft lottery (2004–2005) and later simplified to the "draft" (2007–2011). Starting in 2005, the draft took place during the month of June; it was held in April between 2009 and 2011. After that, WWE terminated the brand split and promotion of interbrand competition from 2011 to 2016.[1]

On May 25, 2016, due to SmackDown moving to Tuesdays and to a live broadcast starting July 19, necessitating a brand extension, WWE announced that the draft would be returning.[2] It would later be announced that the 2016 WWE draft would take place on July 19 during SmackDown's first live broadcast, which was also the first time that the draft took place on SmackDown.[3] From 2017, the draft was relabeled as the WWE Superstar Shake-up as instead of a traditional draft, the general managers of Raw and SmackDown can trade and make deals between their respective talent.[4]

History

Initial split

Divas Champion Maryse (left), Women's Champion Melina (center), and Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair (right) are the only female champions who were drafted in history.

During the 2002 draft, Undisputed WWE Champion Triple H and Women's Champion Jazz were ineligible to be drafted as, at the time, their respective services were deemed available to both brands. The rest of the champions, however, were eligible to be drafted to either brand's roster. The first half of the draft was televised live on TNN for two hours, as part of the WWF's flagship program, Raw.[5] The second half was conducted over the Internet on the WWF's official website, WWF.com.[6] There were thirty draft picks, with sixty wrestlers drafted overall by co-owners of the WWF, onto their respective brands, Raw and SmackDown.[7] The remaining wrestlers were divided randomly in a draft lottery, with each brand receiving a grand total of thirty wrestlers.[8]

A draft did not occur in 2003, with the second official draft occurring in 2004. The draft took place live for two hours on WWE's flagship television program, Raw on Spike TV.[9] Post-draft trades were announced on WWE's website, until midnight on March 22, 2004.[10] There were twelve draft picks, with nineteen wrestlers overall switching between the promotion's two brands: Raw and SmackDown. During the draft lottery, the General manager of Raw, Eric Bischoff, and the General manager of SmackDown!, Paul Heyman, stood on opposite ends of the stage on the Raw set, where they drafted six wrestlers randomly via two machines. At the conclusion of the draft, the two GMs would then be allowed to trade anyone on the roster until Midnight EST, which was later extended until Tuesday night after Heyman resigned.[11] Every WWE employee was eligible to be drafted, including injured wrestlers, commentators, champions, and general managers.[10]

During the 2005 draft, WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to Raw and kept his championship. General Manager Theodore Long announced that a new SmackDown Championship was to be created but the idea was abandoned when World Heavyweight Champion Batista was drafted to SmackDown, bringing the title with him. There were ten draft picks and an eleven-person trade conducted between the promotion's two brands: Raw and SmackDown, where twenty-two wrestlers were drafted and traded overall.[12] The draft took place on WWE's two-hour television programs, Raw, which aired on Spike TV, and SmackDown!, which aired on UPN.[13] Post-draft trades were announced on WWE's website.[12][14] The draft picks were announced each Monday on Raw and each Thursday on SmackDown! from June 6 to June 30.[13] Each draftee was drafted at random.[13] Like the previous year, all WWE personnel were eligible to be drafted.[13]

Addition of ECW

There was no Raw and SmackDown draft in 2006, however, ECW became a third brand. The draft featured ECW representative Paul Heyman receiving two total draft picks from the existing SmackDown and Raw rosters for the newly created ECW brand.[15][16]

During the 2007 draft, ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley was stripped of the title after being drafted to Raw. The first half of the draft was televised live for three hours on World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship program, Raw on USA Network.[17][18][19] The second half of the draft, or the "supplemental draft", was conducted over WWE's website, WWE.com, for four hours on June 17, 2007 as draft picks were announced at twenty-minute intervals.[20] There were twenty-three draft picks, with twenty-seven wrestlers drafted overall, between the promotion's three brands: Raw, SmackDown, and ECW.[17][21] For the televised half of the draft, each brand's draft pick was determined by nine matches, one being a battle royal for two draft picks, where wrestlers from their respective brands wrestled to earn a draft pick.[22][23] The supplemental draft, however, was conducted randomly, with each brand receiving random draft selections. Raw and SmackDown! received five random draft picks, while ECW received three random draft picks.[20] The televised draft picks were randomly selected by a computer that was shown on the Raw titantron.[24][25] Every WWE wrestler from Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW was eligible to be drafted.[26]

During the 2008 draft, Matt Hardy was drafted to ECW with his United States Championship, Triple H was drafted to SmackDown with his WWE Championship, and Kane was drafted to Raw with his ECW Championship. The draft took place live for three hours on Raw.[27] Every WWE employee was eligible to be drafted.[28] Similar to the 2007 draft, wrestlers from each brand competed in matches to win a random draft pick for their brand. Draft picks were kayfabe selected at random via a computer that was shown on the Raw titantron.[29] Like the previous year, a supplemental draft took place on June 25, where draft selections were randomly conducted.[30]

During the 2009 draft, Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo), Divas Champion Maryse, United States Champion MVP, and WWE Champion Triple H were drafted to Raw, while Women's Champion Melina and Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio were drafted to SmackDown. The draft took place over two days: the first day was televised live for three hours on April 13; the second part, the "supplemental draft", was held on April 13. The first day was broadcast on WWE's program Raw, and the supplemental draft was available on the Internet, at WWE's official website. The televised portion was held in Atlanta, Georgia, at Philips Arena. The 2009 draft marked the third time that the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands were featured in the draft; wrestlers, general managers and commentators were all eligible to be drafted from the company's roster. For the televised half, matches determined which brand received a random draft selection. During the supplemental draft, brand and employee selections were made at random. Overall, 36 draft selections were made, the most since the original draft in 2002 (which featured 57 selections). Twelve selections were made on television; six were made by Raw, five by SmackDown, and one by ECW. All of the draftees were wrestlers: 28 males (10 drafted on television) and 8 females (2 drafted on television).

Disbanding of ECW

Before the 2010 draft, the ECW brand was disbanded, and therefore the draft was once again only Raw and SmackDown. During the draft, Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) were drafted to Raw. The draft took place over two days: the first day was televised live for three hours on April 26, and the second part, the "supplemental draft", was held on April 27.[31] The first day was broadcast on WWE's Monday night program Raw, and the supplemental draft was available on WWE's official website.[31] The televised portion was held at Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia.[32]

During the 2011 draft, United States Champion Sheamus was drafted to SmackDown. The draft aired live on Raw, for two hours in Raleigh, North Carolina from the RBC Center. As a standard for previous drafts, most on-air personnel were eligible to be drafted.[33] A continuation of the draft took place on WWE's official website at 12:00pm Eastern time on the following afternoon.[34] SmackDown received 16 additional members to its roster while Raw received 13. For the first time in draft history, two of the draft picks consisted of the same wrestler (John Cena) being selected to SmackDown with the first pick and back to Raw with the last televised pick.

With the end of the first brand extension in August 2011, no drafts were held until the brand extension was brought back in 2016.

Second split

During the 2016 draft, SmackDown drafted WWE Champion Dean Ambrose and Intercontinental Champion The Miz (along with his wife Maryse), while Raw drafted Women's Champion Charlotte, United States Champion Rusev (along with his wife Lana), and WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day.

During the 2017 WWE Superstar Shake-up, Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose and the championship moved to Raw, while United States Champion Kevin Owens and the championship moved to SmackDown.[4][35]

The 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up occurred on the April 16 and April 17 episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live, respectively.[36]

Drafts

No. Year Date(s) Brands
1 2002 March 25 Raw, SmackDown
2 2004 March 22 Raw, SmackDown
3 2005 June 6–30 Raw, SmackDown
4 2006 May 29 ECW
5 2007 June 11 Raw, SmackDown, ECW
6 2008 June 23 Raw, SmackDown, ECW
7 2009 April 13 Raw, SmackDown, ECW
8 2010 April 27 Raw, SmackDown
9 2011 April 25 Raw, SmackDown
10 2016 July 19 Raw, SmackDown
11 2017 April 10–11 Raw, SmackDown
12 2018 April 16–17 Raw, SmackDown

References

  1. ↑ "Ad Age's 40 Under 40 in Marketing, Agencies, and Media: Stephanie McMahon". Advertising Age. Crain Communications. Retrieved 2013-03-19.
  2. ↑ Steinberg, Brian (2016-05-25). "WWE's 'Smackdown' Will Move To Live Broadcast On USA (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  3. ↑ "WWE's destiny to be determined during SmackDown's LIVE premiere". WWE. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  4. 1 2 WWE.com Staff (April 3, 2017). "Mr. McMahon announces WWE will "shake things up" next week on Raw and SmackDown LIVE". WWE.com. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ Zimmerman, Christopher Robin (March 26, 2002). "WWE Draft 2002 Recap". Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
  6. ↑ "WWE Raw (March 25, 2002) Recap". WrestleView. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
  7. ↑ "WWE 2002 Draft Results". PWWEW.net. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
  8. ↑ "WWE Raw (March 25, 2002) Results". PWWEW.net. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
  9. ↑ Tylwalk, Nick. "RAW:Draft day an unpredictable night". Canoe:SLAM Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
  10. 1 2 "The 2004 WWE Draft Lottery". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2004-04-25. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
  11. ↑ "WWE 2004 Draft Lottery". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
  12. 1 2 Waldman, Jon. "WWE announces trade to finish Draft Lottery". Canoe: SLAM! Sports. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "2005 WWE Draft Lottery". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2005-06-13. Archived from the original on 19 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  14. ↑ "RAW and SmackDown! agree to a 11-person deal". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2005-06-30. Archived from the original on 19 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  15. ↑ Williams III, Ed (May 29, 2006). "Heyman gets Draft picks". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
  16. ↑ Williams III, Ed (May 29, 2006). "Will Triple H join the Mr.McMahon Kiss my Ass club". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
  17. 1 2 McAvennie, Mike (2007-06-11). "One wild night". WWE. Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  18. ↑ "Media Advisory – WWE(R) to Hold Historic Draft". WWE Corporate. 2007-06-07. Archived from the original on 2008-01-06. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  19. ↑ "Raw Recap: Draft night rocks the WWE". USA Network. 2007-06-11. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  20. 1 2 Dee, Louie (2007-06-17). "2007 Supplemental draft results". WWE. Archived from the original on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  21. ↑ "2007 Full Draft Results". Online World of Wrestling. 2007-06-17. Archived from the original on 9 January 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
  22. ↑ "OWoW's Live Coverage of the WWE Draft". Online World of Wrestling. 2007-06-07. Archived from the original on 3 December 2007. Retrieved 26 December 2007.
  23. ↑ "Cena vs. Edge to kick off WWE Draft night". WWE. 2007-06-11. Archived from the original on 7 January 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  24. ↑ "Raw Results (June 11, 2007)". WWE. 2007-06-11. Archived from the original on 15 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  25. ↑ Martin, Todd (2007-06-12). "WWE Raw report:Draft results". Wrestling Observer. Archived from the original on 6 January 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
  26. ↑ Difino, Lennie (2007-05-28). "Drafting Change". WWE. Archived from the original on 20 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  27. ↑ "Monday June 23, 2008 (All times are US/Eastern)". USA Network. Archived from the original on 5 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
  28. ↑ Burdick, Michael (2008-06-19). "Demolition Draftin'". WWE. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  29. ↑ Sitterson, Aubrey (2008-06-23). "A Draft disaster". WWE. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  30. ↑ "WWE Supplemental Draft". WWE. Archived from the original on 26 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  31. 1 2 "2010 Supplemental Draft today at Noon ET". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  32. ↑ "WWE Presents the 2010 Draft on Monday Night Raw TV". Richmond Coliseum. April 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-03-30. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  33. ↑ "The WWE Draft's biggest moment's". WWE. 2011-04-18. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  34. ↑ Bishop, Matt (2011-04-26). "Live coverage: 2011 WWE Draft". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  35. ↑ Keller, Wade (April 3, 2017). "KELLER'S WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW 2/3: The most remarkable opening ten minutes of Raw in history, perhaps, as crowd berates Reigns". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
  36. ↑ Keller, Wade (April 9, 2018). "KELLER'S WWE RAW REPORT 4/9: The Day After WrestleMania 34 Edition with Reigns-Lesnar and Rousey fallout". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
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