WWE recently began their annual Draft on Friday Night Smackdown.
This happened for two reasons. One, the current rosters had begun to go stale, the draft gives WWE a chance to freshen up the rosters and allow some matches to happen that haven’t been seen in a while, or ever before. The second reason is that it allows WWE to get rid of their god-awful Wildcard rule. It was universally hated, and even WWE Superstars were confused about it. It seemed as though WWE were making it up as they went along (shocking, I know) and the announcement that the Wildcard rule would be scrapped in the Draft was met with acclaim by absolutely everyone.
This article will detail 5 famous Draft picks throughout WWE history. These Draft picks were ones that got everyone talking and shook the WWE landscape to its core. There are some big names in this list. I’ll be honest, I could easily fill this list John Cena and Triple H drafts, because they have moved brands a lot. But I won’t do that (fortunately/unfortunately for everyone). As ever, these are just my opinions, and I’m bound to have missed one or two of your faves, so feel free to drop a comment underneath.
5. John Cena gets Drafted to RAW – June 6th, 2005
Kicking the article off with perhaps the most famous Draft pick. In 2005, John Cena had become WWE Champion. He was a firm favourite with the WWE fans, and had been a part of Smackdown ever since he had debuted in 2002. It seemed as though he’d be part of Smackdown forever. Consequently, it was a huge shock when he was announced as the first Draft pick for RAW in 2005.
Debuting on Chris Jericho’s talk show, The Highlight Reel, he got a thunderous reaction from the crowd, ecstatic that he was now on Monday Night RAW. After a tense conversation with Jericho, where they compared music careers (Side note: I LOVED John Cena’s rap album), he was interrupted by Christian and his ‘Problem Solver’ Tyson Tomko. Cena and Christian had a history, when Cena embarrassed Christian at the Royal Rumble that year with an hilarious rap. Cena had only been on RAW for a few minutes, and he had already set up feuds with Christian and Jericho. RAW is where Cena would remain for the next few years, winning many of his titles whilst a member of the red brand’s roster. This was a truly shocking moment, and one that remained high on peoples most memorable RAW moments for years.
4. The Rock gets Drafted to Smackdown – March 25th, 2002
This was the very first WWE Draft, and Vince McMahon had promised that the Draft would send shockwaves throughout the WWE Universe. Vince certainly did that, by picking The Rock as his Number One draft pick, bringing The Rock to Smackdown. This would be significant, as this would be the start of Rocky’s final run as a full-time superstar.
McMahon picking The Rock was huge, because in storyline sense, he screwed over The Undertaker, who he had promised to pick as his Number One pick, therefore moving him away from Ric Flair, with whom he had been feuding with at that point. However, not only did Vince pick The Rock instead of him, but Flair then chose Undertaker as his Number One Draft pick, keeping him on RAW and in sight of Ric Flair, which drove The Undertaker mad.
As said above, this was the start of Rock’s final run as a full-time superstar. After winning the Undisputed Championship at Vengeance, he then ran into Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. The fans knew he was on his way to Hollywood and booed him throughout. Lesnar beat Rock, and the rest is history. Vince picking Rock meant that The Rock could do one last run on a show he helped name, and that was Friday Night Smackdown.
3. AJ Styles gets drafted to Smackdown – July 19th, 2016
Although not the Smackdown Number One pick (That honour went to WWE Champion Dean Ambrose), AJ Styles was arguably the pick of the Draft for Smackdown, allowing The Phenomenal One to become a Smackdown exclusive star, and allowing Styles to craft some of his best work on the blue brand.
It was on Smackdown that AJ won both of his WWE Titles, first defeating Dean Ambrose at Backlash 2016 and holding the title until the 2017 Royal Rumble, losing to John Cena in an absolute classic. His second reign came at the expense of Jinder Mahal on the November 7th, 2017 edition of Smackdown. He went on to hold the WWE Title for 371 days, which is the joint eighth-longest reign in WWE history, losing it to Daniel Bryan in November 2018.
It wasn’t just the 2 WWE Title reigns. It was the fact that he had classic matches with the likes of John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan and countless others. He more than earned his nickname, ‘The Champ that runs the Camp.’ One of WWE’s best, he was already great before he went to Smackdown, but he became truly ‘Phenomenal’ in the 3 years he was on the blue brand.
2. Charlotte Flair gets drafted to RAW- July 19th, 2016
Another pick from the 2016 Draft, it was on RAW that Charlotte really crafted her legacy and became one of, if not the best, women’s wrestlers WWE have ever produced. The fact that RAW drafted her ahead of established stars like Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and Chris Jericho showed how much confidence WWE had in her, and she delivered on her promise, delivering some of WWE’s best ever Women’s matches, and winning the RAW Women’s Championship a record 4 time RAW Women’s Champion.
It was on RAW that Charlotte had a ground-breaking feud with Sasha Banks. These two had the first ever Women’s Hell in a Cell match, which was also the first time that a PPV was main evented by two females. They also had the first women’s main roster Iron Women match at Roadblock. Both matches were won by Charlotte Flair and were both excellent matches between two of the very best the WWE has ever produced.
It wasn’t just Sasha that Charlotte had great matches with whilst on RAW. She also had great matches with the likes of Natalya, Bayley, Nia Jax and Dana Brooke, solidifying her status as the best women’s wrestler WWE has ever produced.
1. Batista gets drafted to Smackdown – June 30th, 2005
I mentioned John Cena moving to RAW in the 2005 Draft at the beginning of this article as being a truly shocking moment. However, it was nothing compared to the reaction Batista got when he walked out at the end of this episode of Smackdown. You could almost feel the arena shaking in shock at this huge Smackdown moment. In hindsight, it made sense. Smackdown needed a champion, but, as I will explain in a moment, the fans didn’t expect Batista to show up.
In order to fill the hole created by John Cena moving to RAW and taking the WWE Championship with him, Smackdown GM Teddy Long held a 6 Man Elimination match to crown a new Smackdown Champion. The contenders were The Undertaker, JBL, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Christian and Muhammad Hassan. After a long and gruelling match, JBL came out victorious, and thought he was the new Smackdown Champion. However, Teddy Long came out after the match to tell JBL that plans had changed. He would now be the Number 1 contender to the latest Smackdown Draft pick, which was the World Heavyweight Champion Batista.
The crowd went nuts, ecstatic that The Animal had come to Smackdown. His greatest moments happened in his feud with The Undertaker that people remember the most, with the two big men having a great feud which contained Last Man Standing matches, Cage matches and Hell in a Cell matches.
This was the best feud Batista ever had in WWE, and it might not have happened if Batista hadn’t been drafted to Smackdown. So, those are my five picks for most famous WWE Draft Picks. As said at the beginning of the article, I’m bound to have forgotten a major pick, or picked one that you think shouldn’t be on here.
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