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WWE Draft 2019 kickstarted on this week’s Friday Night SmackDown. While some Superstars were retained by their original brand, others were moved to a new roster. Becky Lynch was announced as the No.1 draft pick overall and she will continue to rule the RAW women’s division.
As per the rules, RAW could pick three Superstars for every two Superstars picked by SmackDown. To kickstart the show, Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns locked horns while representing RAW and SmackDown respectively.
However, their match was interrupted by The Fiend who emerged from underneath the ring and took out Rollins with a Mandible Claw. As a result, The Architect won via disqualification and RAW got the opportunity to go ahead of SmackDown for their Superstar picks.
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There were a total of twenty names including six factions who discovered their fate at the T-Mobile Arena last night. Here we have discussed each brand and their draft picks to determine the winner on the first day.
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RAW
The red brand retained RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch who was also the No.1 pick in the WWE Draft this year. The first round also saw the likes of The OC and Drew McIntyre stay back on RAW.
Other Superstars who will continue to be on the RAW roster included Ricochet, Natalya and Bobby Lashley. Both Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross were separately drafted to RAW which opens questions about the future of their tag team.
Kevin Owens and Randy Orton are the two Singles Superstars who will bid adieu to the blue brand as they are now set to move to RAW. Additionally, the Street Profits have officially been announced as part of the RAW roster, thereby making them the only NXT call-up of this draft so far. They will join The OC (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) and The Viking Raiders in the RAW tag team division.
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SmackDown
Friday Night SmackDown may have only two picks in each round but they ensured that they made the best use of their opportunity. The biggest name that is set to grace the SmackDown roster is ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt.
That explains why he didn’t win the Universal Title. At SmackDown, Wyatt will now look for a new prey and hopefully, this time he will win a championship soon.
But Bray Wyatt is not the only one who is eager to get his hands on a title. Yes, that’s right! The Monster Among Men Braun Strowman has also been drafted to SmackDown.
Another big name arriving on the blue brand is that of ‘The Legit Boss’, Sasha Banks. And now that Bayley has arrived in a new gimmick and is once again the SmackDown Women’s Championship, it will be interesting to see how WWE Creative books these two Horsewomen going forward.
SmackDown wasted no time in retaining the ‘Big Dog’ Roman Reigns who will continue to feature on Friday nights.
After her feud with Natalya, Lacey Evans is now set to appear on SmackDown from next week. Additionally, the tag teams that were drafted to the blue brand include Heavy Machinery and Lucha House Party. They will soon join SmackDown Tag Team Champions, The Revival.
Free agents
Not all WWE Superstars were drafted last night. Few names such as Cesaro, Shorty Gable, EC3, Eric Young, Heath Slater, Tamina, Sin Cara, B-Team, Drew Gulak, Akira Tozawa, and Humberto Carrillo remained unpicked, thereby making them free agents.
Once the 2019 WWE Draft concludes, the above-mentioned Superstars can sign with either brand.
Conclusion: RAW vs SmackDown
As forced as the boardroom scenes may have appeared, it was exciting to see both FOX and USA Network involved in the WWE Draft this year. The executives making a major call instead of general managers of respective brands came like a breath of fresh air.
With SmackDown’s move to FOX, both channels want the best names for their roster. Among the 20 picks made on the night, only eight were for SmackDown as opposed to 12 for RAW.
Despite that, SmackDown managed to construct a promising roster on Day 1 itself. They may have fewer names but all of them can be utilized to the best of their potential given that SmackDown shows are shorter than RAW.
Moreover, with the likes of The Fiend, Sasha Banks, and Braun Strowman moving to the blue brand, the Friday nights are bound to be action-packed. They still have Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar who are massive draws.
RAW has a plethora of talent and sometimes, they go unnoticed for weeks. SmackDown’s shorter duration will benefit WWE Superstars who have struggled to find themselves in promising feuds. The red brand has Superstars such as Becky Lynch and Kevin Owens but they still need to ensure that the rest of the roster boasts of enough credible names for the aforementioned duo to work with.
Hence, SmackDown appears to be in the lead after the conclusion of the first part of WWE Draft 2019. But will they continue to add more exciting names or will the tides turn in the favor of RAW on Monday night? Only time will tell.
