WWE releases Draft rules: how it impacts NXT & a clue on Undertaker's status

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Josh Nason | @joshnason | Jul 17, 2016 3:22 pm


With WWE's Draft impending on Tuesday, one of the big talking points is how many talents we can expect to see get drafted from NXT. Until Sunday, we figured the entire roster there was eligible, but in a post on WWE.com, we learned that isn't the case.

The following rules were announced:

- The RAW roster has the first overall pick.

- To compensate for the fact RAW is a three hour show and Smackdown is a two hour show, RAW will get three picks for every two Smackdown picks.

- Tag teams will count as one pick unless Shane McMahon/Stephanie McMahon or their GMs specifically indicates they want only one member of the team.

- Six picks will be made off the NXT roster

The company also released the roster of WWE talents eligible to be drafted in alphabetical order:

Male

AJ Styles
Alberto Del Rio
Apollo Crews
Baron Corbin
Big Show
Braun Strowman
Bray Wyatt
Brock Lesnar
Cesaro
Chris Jericho
Darren Young (w/ Bob Backlund)
WWE Champion Dean Ambrose
Demon Kane
Dolph Ziggler
Erick Rowan
Jack Swagger
John Cena
Kalisto
Kevin Owens
Mark Henry
Neville
Randy Orton
Roman Reigns
US Champion Rusev (w/ Lana)
Sami Zayn
Seth Rollins
Sheamus
Sin Cara
I-C Champion The Miz (w/ Maryse)
Titus O’Neil
Zack Ryder

Tag Teams

Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze)
Enzo and Cass (Enzo Amore and Big Cass)
Gallows and Anderson (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson)
Golden Truth (Goldust and R-Truth)
Shining Stars (Epico and Primo)
Social Outcasts (Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel and Heath Slater)
The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)
The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley)
Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)
The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso)
The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch)

Female

Alicia Fox
Becky Lynch
WWE Women's Champion Charlotte
Dana Brooke
Eva Marie
Naomi
Natalya
Paige
Sasha Banks
Summer Rae

Glaringly absent from the list: The Undertaker. However, Brock Lesnar is eligible to drafted although they didn't include Paul Heyman's name with him as they did other managers and valets.

[Big Red Machine]

I don't like the thing about NXT. It would have been better to keep those a surprise until they happen. Setting a number that you have to pick makes it feel more like the GMs are being forced to pick some developmental guys when the feeling they should be going for is "WOW! This guy is so good that the Shane/Steph thinks he is ready to be on the main roster!"

[Big Red Machine]

And here I was hoping that the draft would lead to the end of the Social Outcasts. But alas...
At least this also means that the Dudleys will stay together this time.

[NWK2000]

WHAT IF HEYMAN IS ONE OF THE GMS?????????

[Big Red Machine]

WHAT IF HEYMAN IS ONE OF THE GMS?????????

That is a possibility I had not considered. He's probably the person you want leading the "change" show when Shane gets bored and decides to quit.

[cero2k]

And here I was hoping that the draft would lead to the end of the Social Outcasts. But alas...
At least this also means that the Dudleys will stay together this time.

interesting that the Wyatts are not considered a Tag Team, maybe they will break them up once again.

[Big Red Machine]

And here I was hoping that the draft would lead to the end of the Social Outcasts. But alas...
At least this also means that the Dudleys will stay together this time.

interesting that the Wyatts are not considered a Tag Team, maybe they will break them up once again.

An idea that would be so incredibly stupid after the way it worked out last time that I'm certain they will do it. When has WWE ever learned from their mistakes in the past?

It's not impossible to do something good with it, but you'd need someone else with Bray's charisma, which WWE doesn't have in the group right now. (What you would do is have a Wyatt Family faction on both shows, but have Bray's stay heel while the other one slowly turns babyface by helping people instead of being psychos, have each faction recruit some new dudes, do an angle in the Rumble and then build up to a match at WrestleMania. Like what they should have done with Nexus.)

[Big Red Machine]

The more I think about it, the more I hate the "tag teams and manager/wrestler pairings can be drafted as a unit" rule. The point of the draft is to create a shake-up of the landscape. If you keep all of your units together you aren't shaking things up so much as you are just splitting the things you had before up into arbitrary groups. It's not a brave new world: just two smaller old ones.

[cero2k]

just noticed that the Lucha Dragons are no longer a team

[Big Red Machine]

just noticed that the Lucha Dragons are no longer a team

Which is even stupid because having only one of them drafted would be a perfect explanation for why they are no longer a team... but instead we get that lazy WWE off screen "they're not a team anymore because someone decided that they're not a team anymore." It's amazing how right when they have the tools sitting right in front of them, they STILL don't use them.