WWE Draft: Big Break Down On Which Brand WWE Superstars May Be Going To

WWE will be going through a brand split very soon. This is a huge situation for WWE as they begin to separate the rosters. This Tuesday on the first live WWE SmackDown of a new era, WWE will be drafting various superstars to the different WWE brands. For the longest time, WWE did not give us much information on what would occur in the draft. No one really knew the rules about the draft and how things would go.

According to WWE.com, the rules are as follows.

WWE RAW will have the first overall pick, so Commissioner Stephanie McMahon will have dibs on the best WWE Superstar available in her eyes. Most would imagine that she would go with the WWE Champion, whomever that happens to be after RAW tomorrow night. Dean Ambrose, the current champion, will face off with Seth Rollins for the title. Whoever wins most likely will end up being draft number one overall.

Another interesting rule has to do with the shows themselves. Due to SmackDown being a two-hour show and RAW being a three-hour show, for every two picks SmackDown receives, RAW will get three picks. So that means Stephanie may have a bit of an advantage over her brother Shane McMahon due to the fact that she can pick more people and maybe get a couple in a row. On top of this, tag teams can be drafted as a unit. There is a rule that trumps this, saying that if a commissioner or general manager wants only one member of the team, they can draft them without their partner.

The most interesting part of this is that WWE has made it clear that six draft picks will come out of the WWE NXT brand. This could include tag teams, as again, they do count as a unit. They could also include the major stars of the show or anyone they want for that matter. This means we’re guaranteed to see a debut from the NXT brand very soon.

So what does all of this mean? It means that some major decisions are going to be made with a lot at stake for both brands. It does appear that WWE RAW will have the biggest advantage, but smarter pics on Shane’s end should allow him to top his sister at the end of the day for sure.

An interesting note going into this is that there are a few things that many caught onto. The Lucha Dragons are not listed as a tag team, meaning we could be seeing the end of the group as Kalisto will more than likely get drafted higher than many expect while Sin Cara does not. Paul Heyman is not listed as a partner with Brock Lesnar either, which means both men could interestingly be drafted to different brands. While this is not expected to occur, it could occur if the company felt they wanted to keep the two apart for some reason.

WWE has also listed The Wyatt Family as singles workers who all could be drafted individually. Injured stars are not listed for draft, so Luke Harper may get to pick where he wants to go.

Many want to know how the draft will go, and who will end up going to each brand. It is pretty difficult to know exactly where people will end up going. However, after much research and time I have managed to put together a top ten list for each roster which will be explained.

For WWE RAW….

Seth Rollins
Charlotte
Kevin Owens
Rusev(Lana)
Kalisto
Bray Wyatt
Roman Reigns
Bayley
Big Cass
Finn Balor

For WWE SmackDown….

John Cena
Dean Ambrose
Cesaro
New Day
Shinsuke Nakamura
AJ Styles(w/The Club)
Sami Zayn
American Alpha
Sasha Banks
The Miz(w/Maryse)

Some would wonder why the list does not include the likes of Randy Orton, who has yet to make his return and Brock Lesnar, who is a part-timer. Both will compete at WWE SummerSlam and will show up on their own brand at their own time. They are out for their respective reasons, and will most likely not get drafted right off. However, both men are eligible even still. That does not mean that neither person will be without an affiliated brand, but it does appear that this could be the case for the time being.

While the names mentioned above are in no particular order, what we can expect are these particular names to most likely end up going to the particular brand listed above them. The reasons are pretty simple. Stephanie is a heel and will naturally lean toward more heels than babyfaces. I feel that Seth Rollins will take the WWE Title off of Dean Ambrose on WWE RAW, which means he would be the first overall pick. On top of this, he is very worthy of such a pick considering he is considered the best overall worker in the company.

She will also lean toward the women, so we can expect her to draft WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte where she would take the title to WWE RAW. She would also draft Bayley out of WWE NXT to help with the brand the women’s division. Due to a lot of the champions being heel by this time, drafting Rusev for the WWE United States Title made sense, but did lean her very heel heavy. This will possibly change in the trade area or supplemental part of the draft.

With the possibility of Triple H becoming the GM of RAW, it would make sense for Finn Balor to end up here as he could be watched and possibly given a bigger opportunity under his care. The Game would not have as much control on the SmackDown roster but would for RAW. Therefore even though The Club would be without Balor, it would be good for Balor’s career for him to be on WWE RAW rather than WWE SmackDown despite Club affiliations.

Meanwhile Shane McMahon would lean face heavy considering his run as a face right now. He will need heels, which he will get as Stephanie gets her faces. However, he would be getting The Miz for his IC Title and The Club. He may draft The Club over AJ Style, but regardless we can be pretty sure AJ goes to SmackDown with or without his boys. Shane would also take the WWE Tag Team Titles with The New Day. He would then draft popular NXT tag team American Alpha to help with this.

It is likely that both RAW and SmackDown get extra titles to supplement the loss of the tag or women’s titles, which is why you may see some weird names on certain brands.

Along with all of this, we know that WWE wants to add drama to the draft this year. It seems obvious considering they are filming a big draft documentary for the WWE Network. As a result, we can expect some interesting things to occur. My feeling is that Big Cass will get drafted top ten by Stephanie and Enzo Amore won’t be paired with him officially as Stephanie will want just him. She may end up with Enzo in the supplemental, but the drama of Big Cass being picked without Enzo would be a huge blow to fans watching at home and add for drama in the documentary.

On top of this, there is a good shot that Roman Reigns gets drafted late. Being drafted at all is a big deal, especially by the person who called you an embarrassment. Many believe it would be very easy for him to go heel at some point there, but with the huge amount of heels on the show, someone would have to turn. Seth Rollins seems to be the best person for this role, but it is uncertain if WWE will make the jump to force either of these things.

As of now, the WWE Draft is shaping up to be a lot of fun. However, it is unknown exactly what WWE will do for sure. As mentioned above, there are some good guesses and indications that WWE may go with. Despite this, we will still have to watch and find out for sure this Tuesday on WWE SmackDown Live.

[Image via WWE]