WWE Draft

The WWE Draft Lottery (also known as the WWE Draft) was an annual event held by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), in which a few members of its brands, RAW, SmackDown! and ECW, were moved to another brand.

History

March 2002 (Brand Extension)

In early 2002, the World Wrestling Federation announced they would be executing what they called a brand extension. The entire WWF roster would be split into two separate brands, each with their own exclusive show and champions: RAW and SmackDown! This was their "Plan B" in response to the failed "Invasion" storyline, which, would it have been successful, would have seen a revived World Championship Wrestling (and perhaps Extreme Championship Wrestling) promotion operating under the auspices of the WWF. Proponents of the brand extension claimed that this would allow mid-card talents more opportunity to move up the card, while critics claim that the roster split would lock most wrestlers to one show, which may be the one they do not watch regularly.

This would begin with a "draft" to be held live on the March 25, 2002 edition of RAW in State College, Pennsylvania. It was set up like a normal sports draft, in that each brand would take turns selecting one wrestler from the WWF roster at a time (with exceptions made for tag teams and multiple-member factions). The RAW brand was represented by on-screen "owner" Ric Flair while SmackDown! was represented by real life owner, Vince McMahon. It was decided that the WWF Undisputed Champion and the WWF Women's Champion would be eligible for competition on both brands, and should either title holder lose their title, they would become a talent exclusive to the show that they lost the belt.

McMahon won a coin toss to determine who would choose first. The WWF Undisputed Champion (at the time, Triple H) and the WWF Women's Champion (at the time, Jazz) are eligible for competition on RAW and SmackDown! Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon were ineligible for the draft due to their match that night with Triple H for the WWF Undisputed Championship. The nWo were traded as a group. Billy & Chuck were traded as a group (due to their status as WWF Tag Team Champions).

The initial 20 picks (10 for each brand) were announced throughout the live RAW broadcast. The others were chosen via lottery and announced on WWF.com following the broadcast.

Steve Austin was ineligible due to a "contract stipulation" which allowed him to choose which brand he wished to compete on himself. The next week, on April 1, he would sign with RAW, stunning Vince McMahon (after making him think he was signing with SmackDown! as an April Fool's Day joke), then stunning Ric Flair when Flair took some of his beer before actually signing the RAW contract.

SmackDown! (Vince McMahon)	RAW (Ric Flair)
The Rock	The Undertaker
Kurt Angle	nWo (New World Order) (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, X-Pac)
Chris Benoit	Kane
Hulk Hogan	Rob Van Dam
Billy and Chuck	Booker T
Edge	The Big Show
Rikishi	Bubba Ray Dudley
D-Von Dudley	Brock Lesnar
Mark Henry	William Regal
Maven	Lita
Billy Kidman	Bradshaw
Tajiri	Steven Richards
Chris Jericho	Matt Hardy
Ivory	Raven
Albert	Jeff Hardy
The Hurricane	Mr. Perfect
Al Snow	Spike Dudley
Lance Storm	D'Lo Brown
Diamond Dallas Page	Shawn Stasiak
Torrie Wilson	Terri
Scotty 2 Hotty	Jacqueline
Stacy Keibler	Goldust
Christian	Trish Stratus
Test	Justin Credible
Faarooq	Big Boss Man
Tazz	Tommy Dreamer
Hardcore Holly	Crash Holly
Val Venis	Molly Holly
Perry Saturn	N/A

When Triple H lost the Undisputed Title to Hollywood Hogan, he became a SmackDown! exclusive wrestler. When Jazz lost the WWE Women's Championship to Trish Stratus, she became a RAW exclusive wrestler.

June - October 2002

In time, the storyline involving McMahon owning SmackDown! and Flair owning RAW was dropped after an impromptu match between the two on RAW in June 2002, where the winner would be the sole owner of the entire WWE. McMahon won the match with help from Brock Lesnar. He then assigned general managers to each brand. In a move that surprised many fans, Eric Bischoff was named RAW's general manager, while Stephanie McMahon, the force behind ECW in the "Invasion" storyline, was made SmackDown!'s GM.

McMahon then declared all contracts open for a short period of time. Brock Lesnar, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and The Undertaker switched to SmackDown!, while Stacy Keibler, The Hurricane, Randy Orton, Christian, Lance Storm, Test, Chris Jericho, and Triple H switched to RAW.

Later still, The Big Show was traded to SmackDown! in a storyline dispute with Eric Bischoff. His trade was used to explain the sudden appearance of brand new RAW talent in need of a fresh start and was later sold to wrestling fans as a 5-for-1 trade in which Big Show had been traded to SmackDown! in exchange for D-Von Dudley, Al Snow, Maven, Ivory, and Val Venis. As seen on WWE Rebellion 2002, SmackDown! also received the services of Booker T for that night only.

The special privileges of the WWE Undisputed Championship and the Women's Championship were also lost with the decision to make Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar exclusive to SmackDown! and the declaration that the Women's Championship would be exclusive to RAW. Since RAW did not have their own world champion during the time, Bischoff declared Triple H (the number one contender to Lesnar's title) the first World Heavyweight Champion.

March 2004 (Draft Lottery)

In 2004, two years after the brand extension (and one day after WrestleMania XX), McMahon made the announcement that a second draft was to occur the next week on the March 22, 2004 edition of RAW in Detroit (which he claimed was a natural complement to "It all begins again," the catchphrase of WrestleMania XX). This was the first formal draft where each show could take talent from the other show and would be susbstantially different from the one two years prior. This would be a draft via lottery, where the two general managers from each brand would randomly select six Superstars from the other roster (although, as part of the storyline, the randomness of the lottery is disputed). Anybody from either roster, including champions, divas, announcers, and even general managers, would be eligible for the draft. After the draft, there would be a midnight deadline set to allow the general managers to make any additional trades. After the draft was over, many fans expressed disappointment that there weren't more high ranking wrestlers traded. However this draft lottery was a flop as the only big superstar traded (Triple H) was swaped back to RAW as a part of a trade which included The Dudley Boyz and Booker T. It did not build up to the hype as low key performers such as Rene Dupree, Mark Jindrak, Nidia, Rhyno and Tajiri, and non-wrestlers such as Paul Heyman and Theodore Long (a former referee and then manager of Rodney Mack and Jazz) were traded.

SmackDown! (Paul Heyman)	RAW (Eric Bischoff)
René Duprée	Shelton Benjamin
Mark Jindrak	Nidia
Triple H	Rhyno
Rob Van Dam	Tajiri
Theodore Long	Edge
Spike Dudley	Paul Heyman

Paul Heyman immediately quit after being drafted to RAW. Due to Smackdown! now not having a general manager, McMahon extended the deadline for additional trades until 9 p.m. EST the next day. At that time, Kurt Angle was announced as SmackDown!'s new general manager, and he revealed the following trades:

SmackDown! (Kurt Angle)	RAW (Eric Bischoff)
The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) and Booker T	Triple H
Rico and Miss Jackie	A-Train and Chuck Palumbo

June 2005 (Draft Lottery)

Another draft lottery was announced in 2005. Unlike the previous year, the draft would instead take place over editions of RAW and SmackDown! from June 6 to June 30 instead of one night. This Draft Lottery was a huge success as some higher-ranking superstars were traded including World Heavyweight Champion Batista and WWE Champion John Cena, resulting in the two top championships switching shows.

RAW (Eric Bischoff)	SmackDown! (Theodore Long)
John Cena (June 6)	Chris Benoit (June 7 - aired June 9)
Kurt Angle (June 13)	Randy Orton (June 14 - aired June 16)
Carlito (June 20)	Muhammad Hassan and Daivari (June 21 - aired June 23)
The Big Show and Rob Van Dam (June 27)	Christian and Batista (June 27 - aired June 30)

On the last two days of the draft, each brand was allowed to draw two names. John Cena's being drafted resulted in the WWE Championship, formerly a SmackDown! title, becoming exclusive to RAW, gave RAW both of WWE's top titles (the other being the World Heavyweight Championship). Batista being drafted resulted in the World Heavyweight Championship becoming SmackDown! exclusive. Muhammad Hassan and his manager Daivari were traded as a unit, giving SmackDown! six picks in reality.

The following people were traded at midnight on July 1 (agreed upon by general managers, not lottery):

RAW (Eric Bischoff)	SmackDown! (Theodore Long)
Danny Basham	Simon Dean
René Duprée	Sylvain Grenier
Chavo Guerrero	Candice Michelle
Mark Jindrak	William Regal
Kenzo Suzuki and Hiroko	Steven Richards

However, Mark Jindrak and Kenzo and Hiroko Suzuki were all released a week later, never having debuted on RAW. (Jindrak, however, would get tryout matches with the WWE the following year.) Doug and Danny Basham failed to make an impression as single wrestlers and were mainly used on WWE's sister shows Velocity and Heat. Chavo Guerrero bleached his hair white and changed his gimmick to Kerwin White, a whitewashed golf player, but after just two months his uncle Eddie Guerrero died and Chavo re-debuted on SmackDown! as himself, beating John Bradshaw Layfield.

Due to negative publicity, UPN ordered WWE to keep the controversial Muhammad Hassan character off of their network. As a result, WWE dropped the Muhammad Hassan and Daivari characters and Hassan (Mark Copani) was supposedly "killed off" at the Great American Bash when the Undertaker drove him through the entrance ramp with a Last Ride powerbomb; Daivari would also be removed from the SmackDown! roster. Copani was sent back to WWE's Ohio Valley Wrestling only to be released a month later. Daivari was sent to WWE's Deep South Wrestling for a few months before reappearing on RAW and SmackDown! afterwards as the manager of Kurt Angle.

2007 Draft

On the May 28 2007 edition of RAW, Shane McMahon announced that there will be another Draft Lottery on June 11 2007 on a special 3 hour edition of RAW. For the first time in WWE history, the Draft Lottery will occur with all three brands. Shane McMahon made it clear that no one was exempt. It is currently unknown how many people will be moved.

Trivia

• Daivari has gone through the most roster changes of all WWE alumni (6): RAW (2), SmackDown! (3), and ECW (1)
• The following wrestlers are the only ones to have been on all three brands: Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, The Big Show, The Great Khali, Daivari, Rene Dupree, Sylvain Grenier, Danny Basham, Stevie Richards, Test, and Al Snow.
• Ric Flair and Funaki are the only currently hired superstars in WWE to have been with their brand since the beginning without changing rosters or being released.
• Rob Van Dam is the only wrestler to have been traded in every official draft or draft lottery. During the March 2002 Brand Extension draft, he was drafted to RAW; during the March 2004 Draft Lottery, he was drafted to SmackDown!; during the June 2005 Draft Lottery, he was drafted again to RAW; and he was drafted to ECW during the 2006 ECW draft.

References

WWE Draft 2007 Confirmation