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WWE News on Why Certain Wrestlers Were Drafted to Raw and Smackdown, Paul Heyman Influence, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 15th October 2019
TJR Wrestling

The WWE Draft is complete in terms of the televised draft picks on Smackdown and Raw last night. There’s still the matter of several free agents and there could always be some trades too.

Dave Meltzer went on his Wrestling Observer Radio Show (available for subscribers) with Bryan Alvarez this morning and had some interesting notes about this year’s WWE Draft.

  • Meltzer mentioned that Raw’s Executive Director Paul Heyman got all the wrestlers he wanted besides Brock Lesnar. The feeling was that Smackdown had to get Lesnar since he’s a mainstream star. This was especially true for Buddy Murphy and Aleister Black who Heyman is very high on.

  • Carmella and R-Truth were broken up because the USA network wanted the 24/7 title, which was their idea. Carmella is dating Smackdown announcer Corey Graves, so she had to go over there.

  • Meltzer noted that there was no plan originally to have a draft at all, instead WWE would have just gone with the rosters that were established during the Superstar Shakeup in April. Meltzer speculates that the draft was added as a way to try to boost ratings.

  • The Miz was originally scheduled to be drafted to Smackdown. However, after the draft was leaked online The Miz was changed to Raw.

  • One wrestler that Smackdown did get that made Smackdown Executive Director Eric Bischoff happy was Baron Corbin, who Bischoff is very high on.

  • The WWE is hoping that Humberto Carrillo can break out as the next Hispanic star. He’s on Raw.

  • Meltzer was surprised with both Cain Velasquez and Rey Mysterio going to separate shows and Chad Gable being drafted to Smackdown. It’s worth pointing out that Velasquez hasn’t been assigned to Smackdown yet, but that’s the only show he’s appeared on so far.

  • Luke Harper was not drafted to either show and there are no storyline plans for him at this time.

  • AOP are expected to be on Raw even though they were not drafted by either show.

This part of the Wrestling Observer Radio show was posted on their Youtube page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIWMOz9IbU0

Matt’s Musings: Some interesting notes from Meltzer on what was a pretty eventful draft. Hopefully, WWE can stick to the decisions they made and won’t try to intermingle and switch up these rosters to much in the upcoming months.