The following are the new WWE Raw and Smackdown Live rosters coming out of the 2016 Draft that was held on July 19, 2016.
WWE Raw Roster
Seth Rollins
Charlotte
Finn Balor
Roman Reigns
Brock Lesnar
New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E, Xavier Woods)
Sami Zayn
Sasha Banks
Chris Jericho
Rusev (w/Lana)
Kevin Owens
Enzo Amore
Big Cass
Luke Gallows
Karl Anderson
Big Show
Nia Jax
Neville
Cesaro
Sheamus
Golden Truth (R-Truth and Goldust)
Titus O’Neil
Paige
Darren Young
Sin Cara
Jack Swagger
The Dudley Boyz
Summer Rae
Mark Henry
Braun Strowman
Bo Dallas
The Shining Stars
Alicia Fox
Dana Brooke
Curtis Axel
WWE Smackdown Live Roster
Dean Ambrose
AJ Styles
John Cena
Randy Orton
Bray Wyatt
Becky Lynch
The Miz (Maryse)
Baron Corbin
American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan)
Dolph Ziggler
Natalya
Alberto Del Rio
The Usos
Kane
Kalisto
Naomi
The Ascension
Zack Ryder
Apollo Crews
Alexa Bliss
Tyler Breeze and Fandango
Eva Marie
The Vaudevillains
Erick Rowan
Mojo Rawley
Carmella
These rosters are not even close to balanced. I was hoping for SD to be where the New Era was going to celebrated and elevated. They got Del Rio, Ziggler, Miz, Kane… Meh. Raw got the Cruiserweights and the Womens division… Just very poorly thought out. Zayn and Owens on the same show?!? WTF! No Bailey? WTF again! I’m very disappointed. I can’t even put into words my disdain for Vince McMahon.
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Smackdown brand has better top faces in John Cena, Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose.
Raw has Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar and perhaps Finn Balor as it’s top babyface headliners. Reigns should be a heel. Brock is never around and Balor needs to get over with main audience. Perhaps Zayn could be thrown into the mix.
Smackdown live events are going to out draw Raw.
so that new japan stuff is pretty good…
WWE suckers people with this so-called “Brand Competition” BS than never fails to screw over Smackdown in each and every single draft.
WWE should just eliminate Smackdown if there’s never going to be any real balance.
They need to split up the assets in a more meaningful way here. They SHOULD have drafted all the women to Smackdown and all the Tag Teams to Raw. Raw is also getting the cruiserweight division; but, they have the extra hour to fill anyway.
Why split up the women, who have ONE belt and why split up the tag teams, who have ONE belt (well, one PAIR)????