By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE.com released the following draft pools for wrestlers who are either eligible to be drafted on Friday Night Smackdown or Monday’s Raw.
Friday Night Smackdown – Oct. 11
Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch
Roman Reigns
The O.C. (United States Champion AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson)
“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
Drew McIntyre
Randy Orton
Sasha Banks
Ricochet
Braun Strowman
Bobby Lashley
Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross
Lacey Evans
The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar)
Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder)
Natalya
The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins)
Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado)
Cesaro
Kevin Owens
Humberto Carrillo
Akira Tozawa
Sin Cara
Eric Young
EC3
Chad Gable
Heath Slater
Drew Gulak
The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel)
Tamina
Raw – Oct. 14
WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair
Titus O’Neil
Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (with Sami Zayn)
Aleister Black
The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E, Xavier Woods)
Daniel Bryan
Bayley
Luke Harper
Erick Rowan
The Miz
Ali
King Corbin
Elias
Raw Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler and Bobby Roode
Samoa Joe
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane)
Rusev
Cedric Alexander
Rey Mysterio
R-Truth
Carmella
AOP (Akam and Rezar)
Heavy Machinery (Tucker and Otis)
Apollo Crews
Andrade
Liv Morgan
Jinder Mahal
Buddy Murphy
Mojo Rawley
No Way Jose
Dana Brooke
Shelton Benjamin
Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder
The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce)
Sarah Logan
Fire and Desire (Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville)
Drake Maverick
Powell’s POV: It’s refreshing to see rules and structure for the draft. The two pools concept is a really good approach, as a straight up draft of everyone in one pool would have meant that all the top wrestlers would have been drafted on Smackdown while the Raw show would have featured the leftovers. Join me for live coverage of WWE Friday Night Smackdown as the show airs on Fox at 7CT/8ET.
This is very confusing for me. I don’t understand. Only a certain number of Superstars will be drafted on Smackdown and then on Raw?
I’m a bit confused as well, but can someone confirm this? On Friday, Fox drafts who they want on Smackdown from that first list. Anyone not drafted becomes eligible for Raw and would be added to that list. Anyone not drafted by USA goes back to Smackdown.
I think!!
I think both RAW and Smackdown will draft on both shows. They’ll both pick from the first group on Smackdown, and then from the 2nd group on RAW. Basically no one one has a “brand” right now.
If stars can’t cross brands though, how will the Women’s tag titles work though? They’ve only got one set.
In a mere matter of weeks this will all be forgotten about anyway. You’ll have “the wildcard” coming back into effect with everyone showing up everywhere because Vince can’t remember what brand someone is on from one day to the next or just gets an idea to have them work an angle with someone on another show.