{"id":101868,"date":"2021-10-05T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=101868"},"modified":"2022-04-01T17:36:35","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T21:36:35","slug":"raw-redemption-2021-wwe-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/10\/05\/raw-redemption-2021-wwe-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Raw Seeks Redemption in 2021 WWE Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>October 4\u2019s <em>Monday Night Raw<\/em> continued the 2021 draft, which began on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/10\/01\/wwe-draft-2021-updates\/\" target=\"_self\">October 1\u2019s <\/a><em>Friday Night SmackDown.<\/em> SmackDown\u2019s draft featured some smart choices, such as retaining <strong>Roman Reigns, Jimmy, <\/strong>and <strong>Jey Uso, <\/strong>who\u2019ve been such a boon for the brand throughout latter 2020 and 2021 so far, but also some surprises like drafting <em>NXT <\/em>stable <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/10\/01\/hit-row-drafted-to-smackdown\/\" target=\"_self\">Hit Row<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Raw\u2019s choices, however, seem to hint at a stab at redemption for the troubled brand. 2020 saw <em>World Wrestling Entertainment<\/em>\u2019s flagship television product posting some of the lowest ratings in its existence, whilst 2021 saw the rapid ascendence of <em>All Elite Wrestling<\/em> as a true competitor for the hearts, minds, and remote controls of pro wrestling fans. Outpacing <strong>Chris Jericho\u2019s<\/strong> prognostications that it would take four to six more months for AEW\u2019s flagship show <em>Dynamite<\/em> to outstrip Raw in ratings, Dynamite beat Raw in the ratings race for two consecutive weeks in September 2021.<\/p>\n<p>With the drafting of <strong>Becky Lynch, \u00a0Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, the Street Profits, <\/strong>and <strong>Bianca Belair <\/strong>back to Raw from SmackDown, it seems Raw is trying to recapture some of its pre-and early Pandemic momentum. Its slump began during the crowdless era, especially during its ThunderDome at Amway Center broadcasts, which were hampered by long scripted segments, such as those from <strong>Alexa Bliss\u2019s<\/strong> funhouse. Much of the 2019, early 2020 lineup are back on Raw.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair have a heated exchange: Raw, Oct. 4, 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WqscLPwNdxU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Becky Lynch\u2019s feud with Bianca Belair has carried over from SmackDown. As the October 4 broadcast wound down, Belair was working an athletically robust and energetically paced match with <strong>Charlotte Flair, <\/strong>with Lynch on commentary. Lynch eventually interrupted the contest, and was herself then attacked by <strong>Sasha Banks, <\/strong>killing two birds with one stone by alluding to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwe.com\/shows\/wwe-crown-jewel\/smackdown-womens-champion-becky-lynch-vs-bianca-belair-vs-sasha-banks\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">upcoming triple threat<\/a> for the SmackDown women\u2019s championship between Banks, Belair, and Lynch at <em>Crown Jewel.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Street Profits and <strong>The New Day<\/strong> were holding the Raw and SmackDown tag team championships, respectively, when both teams were drafted to opposite brands in 2020. They respectfully traded championships. However, doubling down on Raw\u2019s recent reliance on tag team wrestling, the two teams now seem headed for a respectful comic feud which will most likely result in some credible and engaging matches.<\/p>\n<p>Rollins and Edge will both be bound for Raw when the draft\u2019s changes take effect after Crown Jewel. It\u2019s a safe bet that, like Belair and Lynch, their SmackDown feud won\u2019t lose much momentum in relocating to Raw.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Seth Rollins is elated to be back on Monday nights: Raw, Oct. 4, 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/swwAwhamnss?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Balor and Owens, however, are coming back to Raw with no clear path ahead of them. Their last adversaries on the brand, <strong>Aleister <\/strong>(now Malakai)<strong>\u00a0Black<\/strong> for Owens and <strong>Bray Wyatt <\/strong>for Balor, have both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wrestling\/2021\/07\/31\/wwe-bray-wyatt-released-from-contract\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">parted ways with WWE<\/a>. Owens has had precious little to do on SmackDown for some time, despite an exhilarating program with Roman Reigns in late 2020 and early 2021 which culminated in their very entertaining <em>Royal Rumble <\/em>match, that saw them making use of the ThunderDome\u2019s various equipment as weapons against each other<em>.<\/em> The best use of his talents Raw creative could find for October 4\u2019s Nashville, Tennessee broadcast was to deliver a single stunner to <strong>Akira Tozawa. <\/strong>As for Balor, the strange ending to his <em>Extreme Rules <\/em>match with Reigns was never addressed on SmackDown, and the video package announcing his arrival to Raw seemed to suggest that he has reverted to his \u201cPrince\u201d persona as his primary character rather than the \u201cDemon\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these imperfections, \u00a0these draft picks that have made an impact on Raw in the recent past stand a good chance of helping the brand hit the reset button as it tries to re-establish itself as the premier destination for exciting pro wrestling content on TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 4\u2019s Monday Night Raw continued the 2021 draft, which began on October 1\u2019s Friday Night SmackDown. SmackDown\u2019s draft featured some smart choices, such as retaining Roman Reigns, Jimmy, and Jey Uso, who\u2019ve been such a boon for the brand throughout latter 2020 and 2021 so far, but also some surprises like drafting NXT stable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3715,"featured_media":101769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26,4,3],"tags":[163,1445,224,107,111,1724,1723,73,390,77,76,1441],"class_list":["post-101868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-becky-lynch","tag-bianca-belair","tag-bray-wyatt","tag-chris-jericho","tag-finn-balor","tag-jey-uso","tag-jimmy-uso","tag-kevin-owens","tag-new-day","tag-roman-reigns","tag-seth-rollins","tag-street-profits"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}