Pumpkin spice season, sweater weather, and the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft are upon us, the latter beginning on October 1’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown. The draft picks had implications for the directions of both SmackDown and Monday Night Raw, as WWE seems to be going head to head with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in earnest by trying to make its content more exciting and showcase its most popular performers more dynamically.
Despite his recent special appearance on Raw in a six man tag teamed with Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso, Roman Reigns was the top pick drafted to remain on the blue brand. His “Tribal Chief” storyline has been the pillar of the brand, and a revitalizing force in WWE as a whole, throughout 2021. Brock Lesnar loomed throughout the broadcast, as momentum builds for October 21’s Crown Jewel. Keeping Reigns, whose career has reached great heights as of late, on the show where his popularity has been so well crafted was a smart move.
However the Saudi Arabia event plays out between Lesnar and Reigns, it seems that once Lesnar moves on, Reigns’ next antagonist will be Drew McIntyre, drafted to SmackDown from Raw. Whilst McIntyre, like Reigns, experienced a career renaissance and zenith in 2019 and 2020, his momentum began to flounder after losing the WWE championship to Bobby Lashley. Reigns’ storyline has been generous, giving moments of glory to Kevin Owens, Bryan Danielson, Edge, and Big E, as Reigns’ challengers. McIntyre and Reigns had a pay per view match in 2020, but if his interview segment with Kayla Braxton is any indication McIntyre is eager and seething to take up a storyline similar to Kevin Owens’s going into 2021’s Royal Rumble, designating himself as the man to humble Reigns. In his autobiography A Chosen Destiny, McIntyre admitted to being fascinated by Reigns: both are the same age, both grew up hero worshipping Bret Hart – hopefully McIntyre’s long held desire to work with Reigns and their similarities will lead to good chemistry in a longer storyline than they had in 2020.
As for the women’s division, Charlotte Flair may be the reigning Raw women’s champion but this seems soon to change, yet again, as she is coming to SmackDown; with a bang, judging by her interruption of Becky Lynch’s own intervention in Bianca Belair’s and Sasha Banks WrestleMania 37 rematch.
It’s too soon to call if drafting Bianca Belair to Raw is a bad call. The seeds of a storyline between Belair, Lynch, Banks, and Flair were sewn compellingly on October 1. Flair and Belair’s fates are known, and they will not be on the same brand going forward. However, Lynch and Banks were not included in the first round. The women’s division has a lot to look forward to, with Belair, Banks, and Lynch’s triple threat on the card for Crown Jewel, and the long hoped for King of the Ring equivalent tournament, Queen’s Crown, set to begin on October 8. SmackDown is where Belair grew into a dynamic performer and beloved champion – while it stands to reason that her charm and skill would be good for Raw, will the troubled red brand be good for her? Time will tell.
Early reports suggested that NXT talent would not be involved in the Raw/SmackDown draft. However, this proved not to be the case. In an unexpected move, the Hit Row stable of NXT were drafted to SmackDown: B-Fab, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Ashante Thee Adonis, and Top Dolla. The hip-hop inspired ensemble have been engaged in a front-burner rivalry with Legado Del Fantasma for some months now, which extends to B-Fab’s enmity with Legado’s Electra Lopez. While this is a rise along the ranks for Hit Row, it seems to indicate that NXT’s roster is going to continue to skew towards incoming new arrivals. Another NXT refugee will be Austin Theory, the last pick of the night, drafted to Raw.
Theory, the lovable dunce of The Way, has been absent from NXT for some time, and has worked several dark matches before tapings of the main roster shows since summer 2021. His number was finally called – but, will he retain his meathead persona on the red brand? Raw already has Riddle prowling the corridors; effecting a Ted Theodore Logan, Esquire drawl and prattling about doughnuts and the misadventures of his pet rabbit – where would that leave Theory’s dim character, especially without the Archie to his Jughead, Johnny Gargano? Like Keith Lee, whose transformation into a new character inspired by pioneering African American wrestler Bearcat Wright is confirmed by his draft to Raw, change is presumably in order for Theory.
The draft continues on October 4’s Raw, wherein Paul Heyman will seemingly make an appearance to plead for The Usos to be “undrafted” and kept at Roman’s beck and call on SmackDown. SmackDown has had a banner year, while Raw’s latter 2020 and 2021 so far were nothing short of an ego death, a dark night of the soul in which, by its end, its apparent that something needs to change. Some of its more exciting selections, like Big E and Edge, could be that change, depending on who is sharing the roster with them by the end of October 4’s announcements.
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