This week’s episode of Friday Night Smackdown featured the first part of the WWE Draft, which will continue on Monday Night Raw. In between matches and events like the return of Lars Sullivan and the (temporary) reunification of the New Day, Stephanie McMahon came out to a podium in the Thunderdome and announced Raw and Smackdown’s draft picks, which came in four rounds over the course of the show.
Tonight’s draftees were taken from a pool of Superstars who were eligible specifically for this first part of the draft. On Monday, draftees will come from a separate pool. So while it might seem at first glance like a slight that Sasha was drafted tonight and Bayley wasn’t, for example, that’s actually just part of how they’re doing things.
The biggest news from tonight is that Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are going to Raw (even though they just won the Smackdown Tag Titles), while Big E is staying on Smackdown. This means they finally did it and they broke up the New Day. At least it looks like Xavier and Kofi are staying together as a tag team, and hopefully this leads to a big solo push for Big E.
Also of note is Seth Rollins joining Roman Reigns on Smackdown. It’s only a matter of time before those two run into each other again. On the other hand, if you were hoping Seth moving shows means his feud with the Mysterio family is over, I regret to inform you that Rey and Dominik were also drafted to Smackdown.
Here are the full lists of who was drafted to which show tonight, in order:
RAW
- Drew McIntyre
- Asuka
- The Hurt Business (Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Cedric Alexander, and MVP)
- AJ Styles
- Naomi
- Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax
- Ricochet
- Mandy Rose
- The Miz and John Morrison
- Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods
- Dana Brooke
- Angel Garza
SMACKDOWN
- Roman Reigns
- Seth Rollins
- Sasha Banks
- Bianca Belair
- Jey Uso
- Rey and Dominik Mysterio
- Big E
- Otis
Of the Superstars who were eligible to be drafted tonight, that leaves Humberto Carrillo, Elias, Drew Gulak, Tucker, Mickie James, Lucha House Party, Murphy, and Shorty G undrafted, presumably making them free agents. Mickie James is currently recovering from a broken nose, so her absence makes some sense. Tucker of Heavy Machinery appeared on the show tonight, and discussed the fact that Otis was drafted while he wasn’t. We’ll see if that leads anywhere.
Here’s the pool of performers who will be eligible for the draft on Monday Night Raw:
- Andrade
- Bayley
- Aleister Black
- Alexa Bliss
- Daniel Bryan
- Carmella
- King Corbin
- Apollo Crews
- Nikki Cross
- Dabba-Kato
- Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode
- Erik (of The Viking Raiders)
- Jeff Hardy
- Billie Kay
- Lana
- Keith Lee
- The Miz & John Morrison
- Riddick Moss
- Natalya
- Titus O’Neil
- Randy Orton
- Kevin Owens
- R-Truth
- RETRIBUTION (Mustafa Ali, T-BAR, MACE, SLAPJACK, RECKONING & RETALIATION)
- Matt Riddle
- The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan)
- Peyton Royce
- Arturo Ruas
- Sheamus
- Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro
- The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)
- Braun Strowman
- Tamina
- Akira Tozawa
- Zelina Vega
- Bray Wyatt
- Sami Zayn
I’ll be back Monday Night to let you know who’s going to which brand, who’s staying where they are, and who gets left out.
