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2016 WWE draft

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The 2016 WWE draft was the tenth draft, and first since 2011, produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. It took place on July 19 during the live premiere of SmackDown on the USA Network in the United States broadcasting from the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Contents

Background

On the July 11 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon appointed Shane McMahon as the commissioner of SmackDown and Stephanie McMahon as the commissioner of Raw. The following week on the July 18 episode of Raw, the commissioners introduced Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan as the general managers of Raw and SmackDown, respectively.

The rules of the draft were posted to WWE's website on July 17. They were the following:

  • Raw received the first overall draft pick.
  • For every two draft picks for SmackDown, Raw received three picks (due to Raw being a three-hour show, while SmackDown is two hours).
  • Tag teams counted as one pick (unless a commissioner/general manager specifically only wanted a single member from the team as their pick).
  • Six draft picks had to be made from the NXT roster; title holders could not be picked.

    • SmackDown Live

    The following is the list of wrestlers who were drafted on SmackDown Live.

    WWE Network

    The following is the list of wrestlers who were drafted on the "WWE Draft Center Live" special on the WWE Network.

    Undrafted

    Several wrestlers remained undrafted mainly due to injury or inactivity, most of which eventually went to a brand. The chart is organized by date.

    Notes

  • Tag teams/stables broken up as a result of the draft were The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan to SmackDown, Braun Strowman to Raw, Luke Harper who went undrafted, due having suffered a knee injury before the draft, but has since been signed by SmackDown), The Club (AJ Styles to SmackDown, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson to Raw), and The Social Outcasts (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel to Raw, Heath Slater who went undrafted but has since been signed by SmackDown).
  • Of the six NXT draft picks, two were made by Raw (Finn Bálor and Nia Jax), the other four were made by SmackDown (American Alpha (Jason Jordan and Chad Gable), Alexa Bliss, Mojo Rawley, and Carmella).
  • After the results at Battleground, Raw was the home of three WWE titles (WWE Women's Championship, WWE Tag Team Championship, and United States Championship), while SmackDown was the home of two WWE titles (WWE Championship and Intercontinental Championship). The WWE Universal Championship was introduced for Raw on July 25, 2016; the WWE Championship was subsequently renamed to WWE World Championship (it was reverted to WWE Championship in December 2016). The WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship and WWE SmackDown Women's Championship were unveiled on August 23, 2016; Raw's Women's and Tag Team titles were subsequently renamed to reflect their exclusivity to Raw. The new WWE Cruiserweight Championship was then unveiled for Raw on September 14, 2016, and as of November 29, 2016, it is defended on Raw and the cruiserweight-exclusive show 205 Live.

    • Response and aftermath

    Following the brand extension draft, former WWE wrestlers made their return to WWE and sided with either Raw or SmackDown. Within the next month, Jinder Mahal and Brian Kendrick debuted on Raw, while Rhyno and Curt Hawkins joined SmackDown. Shelton Benjamin was announced to return on SmackDown, but his return was put on hiatus due to a torn rotator cuff, which required surgery. In September, Raw draftee Jack Swagger moved to SmackDown. Various competitors from the Cruiserweight Classic also signed contracts with Raw due to being a part of the cruiserweight division. Former NXT Women's Champion Bayley joined Raw after her final match at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II. Former WCW and WWE wrestler Goldberg returned to Raw to answer Paul Heyman's challenge to wrestle Brock Lesnar in a rematch from WrestleMania XX.

    On November 29, 2016, a new show called 205 Live premiered. The new brand exclusively features WWE's cruiserweight division. The division was formerly exclusive to the Raw brand, but is now shared between Raw and 205 Live, and wrestlers from the division occasionally appear on NXT.

    As a result of the reintroduction of the brand extension, the July 19 Draft episode (and the first live episode) of SmackDown on Tuesdays gained a viewership by 2.2 rating with 3.17 million viewers (compare to Raw's rating with 3.04 million viewers on the previous night), and was SmackDown's highest rated episode since December 2010.

    References

    2016 WWE draft Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA