Yesterday, WWE officially announced that SmackDown would soon move to airing live on Tuesday nights and having its own unique roster. Monday Night Raw will also have its own unique roster, and that means the brand split is about to officially return. As of July 19, SmackDown will begin on its new night and sometime before that happens, the WWE superstar draft will take place. There has already been a lot of speculation as to which superstars will end up where.
There have been so many questions since WWE announced the new brand split yesterday, but very few answers have come. Fans want to know which show will be run by Shane McMahon and which show will be run by Stephanie McMahon. They want to know if the champions will travel both shows or simply be assigned to just one and so much more.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that it’s possible the United States Championship will end up on one brand while the Intercontinental Championship will be on the other. It’s not known if the World, Women’s, and Tag Team Championships will travel between both shows or if there will even be two world champions again.
Currently, the speculated date for the WWE superstar draft is the Monday Night Rawon July 11, but that is not set in stone. As of now, the major speculation is trying to figure out which superstars land on which show and that is where a lot of mock drafts come in.
The Wrestling Observer also stated that two world titles are quite possible with each show having its own major champion. As of now, the plan is for John Cena to be the face of SmackDown and Roman Reigns to be the face of Monday Night Raw , but what about everyone else?
FanSided believes that Seth Rollins and AJ Styles will be the next two picks for Raw and SmackDown respectively. Raw would then select Kevin Owens with the fifth overall pick while SmackDown would grab the first women’s superstar taken in the draft in the form of WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte.
Fox Sportsbelieves that the draft will beginwith Stephanie McMahon taking control of Rawand Shane McMahon running SmackDown. After that, the top five picks for both sides seem to be generally the same across most opinions.
Raw :
- Roman Reigns
- Seth Rollins
- Charlotte
- The New Day
- Dean Ambrose
SmackDown
- John Cena
- AJ Styles
- Sasha Banks
- Kevin Owens
- Sami Zayn
The interesting thing about the draft from Fox Sports is that in their top five picks, they have kept all three former members of The Shield on Raw .
Forbesis one of the only mock drafts that actually hasJohn Cena heading to Rawand Roman Reignsheading to SmackDowninstead of the other way around. The top five picks for each brand in this mock draft differ a bit from what other mock drafts have presented.
Raw
- John Cena
- Kevin Owens
- AJ Styles
- The New Day
- Dean Ambrose
SmackDown
- Roman Reigns
- Seth Rollins
- Sami Zayn
- The Wyatt Family
- Cesaro
It’s going to be quite difficult for WWE to actually separate the roster to make both Raw and SmackDown evenly matched. The main roster is absolutely gigantic now and there are so many stars who deserve to be involved in top programs, but maybe that is why the brand split is happening.
Now, they won’t have to fight for as much TV time, as the same superstars won’t be taking up both shows each week.
The brand split returning to WWE is a very big deal and one that could have a huge effect on the future of the company. Making Monday Night Raw and SmackDown two entirely separate shows/brands is going to change the face of wrestling entirely, but the McMahon family appears to have a lot of faith that it will work. Many are trying to guess who will end up going where in the WWE superstar draft, but only time will tell what the rosters will look like.
[Image via WWE]