WWE roster (as of 10/13/20)
Raw
Men (23): Drew McIntyre (c, WWE), Bobby Lashley (c, United States), R-Truth (c, 24/7), AJ Styles, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, Braun Strowman, Matt Riddle, Jeff Hardy, Keith Lee, Ricochet, Elias, Sheamus, Angel Garza, Humberto Carillo, Drew Gulak, Tucker, Dabba-Kato, Titus O'Neil, Akira Tozawa, Riddick Moss, Arturo Ruas, ErikWomen (8): Asuka (c), Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, Lacey Evans, Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce, Lana
Men's tag teams/factions (5): The New Day (c), The Hurt Business, The Miz & John Morrison, Retribution, Lucha House Party
Women's tag teams (2): Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax (c), Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke
SmackDown
Men (15): Roman Reigns (c, Universal), Sami Zayn (c, Intercontinental), Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, Big E, Aleister Black, Apollo Crews, Otis, Murphy, Kalisto, Lars Sullivan, King Corbin, Shorty GWomen (8): Bayley (c), Sasha Banks, Bianca Belair, Carmella, Natalya, Tamina, Zelina Vega, Billie Kay,
Men's tag teams (4): The Street Profits (c), Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, Rey & Dominik Mysterio
Women's tag teams (1): The Riott Squad
Undrafted
In pools but not selected: Andrade, Mickie James,Not in draft pools: Becky Lynch, Jimmy Uso, Ivar, Sonya Deville, Edge, Jinder Mahal, Samoa Joe, Mojo Rawley, The Forgotten Sons, Bo Dallas, Big Show, John Cena, Bill Goldberg, Ronda Rousey, The Undertaker
My Thoughts:
I'm not going to dwell deeply into the full results of both Friday Night SmackDown! and Monday Night RAW as I thought both shows were extremely mediocre as padding for this poor excuse of a draft lottery for both nights.
I just thought that this draft was ultimately a complete waste of time when the only thing that they did was merely change people over from Monday night to Friday night and will continue the same storylines/angles on the other show. Isn't the point of the draft is to create fresh new match-ups? The only thing that they are doing is merely taking the same shit from one show and moving it onto the other and vice versa. Perfect example? Seth Rollins and Murphy moving to Friday Night SmackDown!, only for Rey Mysterio and Dominik to join them shortly thereafter. We're not going to see an end to this storyline anytime soon are we? Dominik has been great in the ring for his last few PPV performances, but they don't need to continue pushing the envelope with this storyline. Move Dominik to NXT before people turn on the kid well before he's a seasoned veteran to properly be his father's successor. I want to see Dominik rise up through the ranks, starting from the bottom, and win the Cruiserweight Championship just like his father did on WCW. Too bad Shaul Guerrero couldn't be his manager for a match on NXT's Halloween Havoc show later this month. That would have been one hell of a throwback. WWE definitely missed the boat on booking Rey Mysterio against Ricochet in this company too, especially how good that match was over in Lucha Underground.
Speaking of other great Mysterio matches that we have not seen a proper conclusion to... Why the hell didn't Andrade and Mysterio didn't get a proper blow off to their feud at WrestleMania? Those guys were killing it at one point last year.
The best draft decision for both nights was splitting up the New Day, even though if you look on social media for the fan reactions, you would think that Ole Yeller died or something. I don't know if it was a shoot or not (much like Jim Ross being drafted to SmackDown! back in 2008), but I think that this was the best thing for Big E's future. Look at this way. Big E and Sheamus put each other through hell and then some in that Falls Count Anywhere match on Friday Night SmackDown!. Even though I thought those bumps in this match on and off the car windshield were just as stupid as the multiple powerbombs on the hood of a car and several bumps onto the windshield during AEW's match between Best Friends and Proud & Powerful, I won't deny that it added to the sheer brutality of this match. WWE is starting to paint the picture of Big E standing on his own as serious competitor and the last thing that he needs is to be throwing the corny catchphrases and back to acting like a traveling goof with the rest of the New Day. I groaned with absolutely disgust when all three of them reunited following Big E's win Friday night. Big E doesn't need to be hindered by being tied to the hip with them right now. Splitting the New Day up via the draft was the best course of action, despite it being absolutely moronic when Monday Night RAW was able to draft both Retribution and the Hurt Business collectively with their 4-5 members with a single draft pick, but only wanted two members of the New Day instead. That stupidity in terms of logic is besides the point, the fact of the matter is that Big E needs to distance himself from the rest of the New Day right now. It's sink or swim time in terms of this singles experiment and I think he has what it takes to ascend past the "forever mid-card" scene that he and the rest of the New Day seemed to be cursed to remain at for their entire careers - that is until a string of good luck and unique circumstances allowed Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania last year. Let's see if lightning can strike twice and Big E can find himself into a similar situation - not by some fluke from a random injury that sidelines someone else who was intended to be in that main event spot, but by the fact that he belongs there in the first goddamn place and was the actual plan instead of a massive publicity stunt.
I facepalmed when the Street Profits and the New Day were backstage during RAW and merely swapped belts to each other after finding out that they were going to be on opposite brands. I can't even take credit for this idea, so shout out to my good friend Randy for this one for a MUCH better option instead of just swapping the belts out between the two teams: "Cesaro & Nakamura keep there belts. Kofi/Woods get drafted. The Profits lose there belts to Roode/Ziggler. Roode/Ziggler stay on Raw. Profits go to Smackdown. Profits say to Cesaro & Nakamura remember that time we beat you in the brand to brand invitational? We more than earned a shot at your belts. Have The Profits win at HIAC." WWE makes this shit far more convoluted than it needs to be. K.I.S.S. = Keep it simple, stupid.
Even though Ricochet and the Hurt Business are remaining on the same brand of Monday Night RAW, I thought the finish to their match on Monday night was absolutely brilliant and was a great homage to the late Eddie Guerrero, whose 53rd birthday (if he had lived to see it) was over the past weekend. After Apollo Crews' 14th loss to a member of the Hurt Business, I was glad to see him drafted to SmackDown!. Maybe they will do something constructive with him over there instead of feeding him to the Hurt Business in a repeat of the same episode of Monday Night RAW from week to week.
I don't understand the point of drafting Mandy Rose to RAW a few weeks ago when RAW wasted one of their picks to keep her on the same show. Pairing her up with Dana Brooke (who seems to be looking healthy again after whatever the hell was going on with her face bloating out earlier this year like Miss Piggy) isn't going to do anything for either of them, especially not as a tag team in that poor excuse of a women's tag team division. I won't lie though, I couldn't tell you a damn thing that came out of Mandy's mouth during that MizTV/Dirtsheet segment on RAW, but I got a nice eye full of oogling her lovely legs on display. Her and Dana didn't do too bad as a team later that night against Lana and Natalya's makeshift team, but that show was at blond overload at that point. I was glad to see that Natalya and Liv Morgan got drafted to SmackDown! to dilute that overload a bit, even though RAW got Alexa Bliss and Peyton Royce in return.
Speaking of Alexa Bliss, I LOVED that double team Sister Abigail by her and The Fiend onto Andrade and Zelina Vega. As a comic book nerd/dork, I can EASILY see the Harley Quinn influences in this descent into madness that Bliss is undergoing, but holy shit these people can't be serious to having a woman telling a guy to "Let Him In" on their so-called PG programming. I can't speak for anyone else but my mind goes straight into the gutter when I hear her say that. I'm anxious to see how far they take that pairing in the coming months, but it's sad to see Zelina and Andrade split further and further apart. Zelina is being sent to SmackDown! with her real life husband Solid Snake...err Aleister Black, where I hope he is going to be used better than that hot garbage that they were doing for him over on RAW. Meanwhile, Andrade is currently still floating around as a free agent. I hope the rumor is true about him being sent back down to NXT, possibly to feud with Santos Escobar or to join his Legado del Phantasma stable. I wouldn't mind seeing Charlotte Flair being paired with her real life fiancee to be his mouthpiece for here on out. That would be a welcome change of pace for him.
Back to Lana for a second though. When I heard about her getting jobbed out to Nia Jax for the last few weeks and going through the commentary table, I honestly thought it was just as funny as Bane constantly breaking Batman's back in the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special(s). To see her get put through yet another table at the end of RAW (following her and Natalya's split earlier in the show) only to win the dual brand battle royal to win the future title shot against Asuka for the RAW Women's Championship, was something straight out of left field in my eyes. And here I thought they were jobbing her out after her husband (Miro/formerly Rusev) is over on AEW Dynamite and Twitch burying the company at every opportunity - yet this company claims that they aren't petty. Yeah fucking right...
I'm not going to lie, but I had it pegged that Charlotte Flair was going to close out RAW as the mystery final entrant into that battle royal. Color me shocked as all hell that Lana of all people won the goddamn thing instead though.
I have to wonder though, but would it have killed them to separate Bayley and Sasha Banks for a few months by drafting them onto separate brands? I doubt people would care to see that match as a WrestleMania main event next year after how long that this has been dragged out, but I shook my head that they couldn't leave enough alone to do that match on SmackDown! to merely setup the Hell in a Cell match that we all knew that was already set in stone. A title match wasn't necessary. They could have done an in-ring segment to the same result with a pull-apart. I hope they don't turn this feud into the redundancy that was Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch for what felt like the better part of two years at one point before Ronda Rousey was added into the equation.
Bianca Belair to SmackDown! was a wise choice. She has room to grow there and establish herself among the few women that's already on that brand. A match between her and Sasha Banks is money and I wouldn't be surprised if we see that before the year is even done with. Carmella just came back, so that's a no-brainer that she was sticking around. I think the Riott Squad could do well on that brand away from RAW too. Billie Kay being on the blue brand away from Peyton Royce gives them both chances to establish themselves away from being tied to the hip in the IIconics gimmick that I never was too much of a fan with, save for a few backstage moments on NXT. Tamina on SmackDown! is a no-brainer too, given the emphasis on the Samoan Dynasty/lineage surrounding Roman Reigns' family tree right now. I doubt they are going to do much with Natalya but she's always a solid veteran worker to keep matches going like a well-oiled machine that is an asset to any women's division that she's a part of. If it were up to me, I would round out that roster with the addition of Mickie James once she's recovered from her current injury.
On the other end of the spectrum, I think it's rather interesting that they separated Naomi from the other Usos - namely her husband, Jimmy Uso (who's still currently injured). I'm guessing that they are going to move the Usos to RAW once their current feud with Roman Reigns wraps up. If not, I doubt it's going to hurt Naomi to be on her own as she never was too tied to the hip with them on WWE programming anyway outside of a few minor feuds. MVP was teasing on Twitter that he was considering extending an invitation to have her be a part of the Hurt Business. I don't think that would be a bad idea as it would breathe new life into Naomi's character as I think she's ran the course with her "Feel the Glow" gimmick for the last few years.
The biggest missed opportunity in this draft was the fact that they didn't have a single NXT call-up nor sent anyone back down to NXT to help pad that roster. It's looking like NXT had that great push/elevation into the build to Survivor Series last year, only to win and absolutely nothing of merit to come out of that victory over both brands. I was almost positive that Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae were SmackDown! bound and Rhea Ripley would be heading to Monday Night RAW, but given the returns of Toni Storm and Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver a week ago, I'm not complaining about holding off Rhea's call-up for a few more months.
All in all, I can't say that I'm overly enthusiastic about the state of both RAW and SmackDown! following these moves with the 2020 WWE Draft. I already don't watch the weekly episodic programming for RAW and SmackDown! to begin with and I seriously doubt that these roster changes will make me invest any time in watching them in the near future outside of highlights or clips of interest that float by on social media and/or YouTube.
