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WWE Draft Rules Revealed For Huge July 19 Live Smackdown Broadcast

By John Canton • Published 17th July 2016
TJR Wrestling

World Wrestling Entertainment released the rules that will be in effect for Tuesday’s live Smackdown draft. Here’s what they posted on WWE.com about it with some of my additional notes immediately following.

The rules for the WWE Draft are as follows:

  • Raw has the first overall pick
  • Since SmackDown Live is a two-hour show and Raw is three hours, for every two picks SmackDown Live receives, Raw will receive three picks
  • Tag teams count as one pick unless a Commissioner/General Manager specifically only wants one member of the team
  • Six draft picks will be made off the NXT roster

The list of current WWE Superstars eligible for the WWE Draft will be as follows:

Male Superstars

  • 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)
  • Dean Ambrose – WWE Champion
  • Demon Kane
  • Dolph Ziggler
  • Erick Rowan
  • Jack Swagger
  • John Cena
  • Kalisto
  • Kevin Owens
  • Mark Henry
  • Neville
  • Randy Orton
  • Roman Reigns
  • Rusev (w/ Lana) – United States Champion
  • Sami Zayn
  • Seth Rollins
  • Sheamus
  • Sin Cara
  • The Miz (w/ Maryse) – Intercontinental Champion
  • 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)
  • The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) – Tag Team Champions
  • The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso)
  • The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch)

Female Superstars

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

Additional Notes:

*Brock Lesnar is listed as available to be drafted despite his interesting weekend with a potential failure of a drug test prior to his UFC victory last weekend. He was originally booked for the Tuesday Smackdown show, but it’s not known if he’ll be there with his advocate Paul Heyman.

*The Undertaker is not listed. That’s because he’s likely not going to wrestle another match this year after the win at WrestleMania. If he wrestles at WrestleMania next year they can just stick him on Raw the month before like they usually do.

*They left off the names of some injured performers like Nikki Bella. No word on when she’ll return from her neck/back injury, but it shows that they are focusing on the people that are healthy right now. Other injured stars not listed are Emma (back) and Luke Harper (knee).

*The three active Wyatt Family members are all listed together. Since Raw gets to pick three people in a row, perhaps they will have Stephanie McMahon pick all three of them to keep the group together.

*Announcers are not listed here, but they are likely to be assigned to one brand or the other as well. That will likely include the ringside announcers as well as interviewers and in-ring announcers.

*Six draft picks from NXT is very interesting. I like that they are limiting it a bit too.

I’m looking forward to it on Tuesday night. Tired of waiting. Let’s go.