WWE General Discussion Thread

[Powder]

See, I was thinking MJF, but assuming that AEW is legit and has staying power, and all signs are saying that it is not going anywhere, I would think that MJF is not going anywhere for 2 major reasons.

1. He is the future of AEW.
2. He is too small for Vince.


I was thinking that Wardlow would jump ship. He has the size and look that Vince loves.

[Oliver]

He might well be the future of AEW, but even then if WWE came looking I think he would happily 'jump'. I don't think he's too small, either, 6' (I think?) and 225lbs. He'd fit right in. Plus he's a promo/charisma guy with a steady but unspectacular in ring style - he's arguably more made for the current WWE landscape than the current AEW one.

[PEN15v2]

I think people are going to be surprised when people jump from AEW to WWE. It likely won't be indy darlings, the insane fandom AEW fans have towards Khan is not going to be matched by every AEW wrestler who feels underutilized. And MJF is definitely someone WWE will open their wallets for. I think Dean Ambrose is possible too. Not that "can't wait to jump", but he's been out of the main event scene since Omega won the title, and there might be a desire to conquer the place that originally wasted him for bigger money.

This is where AEW feels cult-like. The first AEW wrestler to sign with WWE will be considered a traitor to the Khananites.

[PEN15v2]

To Smackdown

1. Universal Champion Roman Reigns
2. Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair
3. Drew McIntyre
4. New Day's Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods
5. Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss
6. Hit Row (NXT North American Champion Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Top Dolla, Ashante "Thee" Adonis & B-Fab)
7. Naomi
8. Jeff Hardy
9. Aliyah
10. Drew Gulak
11. Mace
12. Mansoor
13. Mustafa Ali
14. Toni Storm

To Raw

1. WWE Champion Big E
2. Bianca Belair
3. Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle)
4. Edge
5. WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Rhea Ripley & Nikki A.S.H.
6. Keith "Bearcat" Lee
7. Rey & Dominik Mysterio
8. Austin Theory
9. Akira Tozawa
10. Alpha Academy (Otis & Chad Gable)
11. Apollo Crews & Commander Azeez
12. Doudrop
13. Drake Maverick
14. John Morrison
15. Nia Jax
16. 24/7 Champion Reggie
17. R-Truth
18. T-Bar
19. Zelina Vega

Free Agent - Brock Lesnar


Who is Left undrafted
On Raw

• AJ Styles and Omos
• Angel Garza and Humberto Carillo
• Bobby Lashley
• Cedric Alexander
• Damian Priest
• Elias
• Goldberg
• Gran Metalik
• Jaxson Ryker
• Jinder Mahal
• Karrion Kross
• Lince Dorado
• The Miz
• MVP
• Omos
• Ricochet
• Shanky and Veer
• Sheamus
• Shelton Benjamin
• Titus O'Neil
• Viking Raiders
• Asuka
• Alexa Bliss
• Dana Brooke
• Eva Marie
• Lacey Evans
• Nikki ASH
• Reckoning
• Rhea Ripley
• Shayna Baszler

On Smackdown

• Angelo Dawkins
• Cesaro
• Dolph Ziggler
• Finn Balor
• Kevin Owens
• Jey and Jimmy Uso
• Montez Ford
• Rick Boogs
• Robert Roode
• Sami Zayn
• Seth Rollins
• "King" Shinsuke Nakamura
• Bayley
• Becky Lynch
• Carmella
• Liv Morgan
• Natalya
• Sasha Banks
• Shotzi
• Tamina
• Tegan Nox

I suspect the following switches may happen:

• Becky to Raw
  • With some sort of title switch with Charlotte, unfortunately. Hopefully not the full switch like we saw last year with the tag titles, but make it a storyline version somehow... and if it does happen
• Seth Rollins to Raw
  • Married to Becky who is likely moving over, so he will as well
• Alexa to SD
  • Time off or not, without Bianca there are no babyfaces of value on SD. But, there are some NXT options, like:
• Io Shirai (and maybe Zoey Stark) to SD
• Legado del Fantasma to Raw
• LA Knight... not sure which brand

Dark horse possibilities

• Karrion Kross to SD
  • He's been built on Raw without a program, just running through the midcard who are staying on Raw (so far with Hardy being the exception) - so he has less options to work with, but could move to SD and have fresh meat to chew through
  • Potential to turn face vs Roman
• AJ Styles (and Omos) to SD
  • As Powder has messaged me about, SD needs babyfaces, and AJ would be a solid face (and if they are inclined, would be great to mic battle Heyman due to their backstage heat)
• Dakota Kai
• Ember Moon
• Xia Li (or Tian Sha as a stable, though not sure how that will work on main roster)

I gotta say, it feels like the Fox broadcast got the biggest news, as there isn't much star power left to draft. And of those left over, I don't see Bobby Lashley, The Miz, and Priest leaving. It leaves Becky, Seth, and Sasha as the only real names left to possibly move. Unless somehow someone gets drafted back after moving on Friday.


Oh, and Liv Morgan is useless.

[Powder]

You made 1 mistake. Nikki ASH and Rhea were drafted to RAW.



And, I could see Lashley getting drafted to SD, and here is a possibility:

Lesnar beats Roman at the Saudi show by Heyman officially turning on Roman or Roman squeaks by Lesnar with interference from the Usos and then Lesnar beats Roman at the Rumble, (or Lesnar retains at the Rumble).

Lashley wins the Rumble and almost immediately challenges Lesnar for WM.

The Rock comes back to challenge Roman at WM, for the TRUE Head of the Table position.

[PEN15v2]

Thanks, the places I was copying and pasted needed major editing and I missed those.

I'm personally uninterested in both those ideas, but I know Rock returning is a good business move. I still don't see the value of Brock vs Lashley at ManiaI'm not against the idea, but I truly feel it's a bigger deal to online fans than it is as mainstream appeal. Either way, with Brock as a Free Agent, nobody has to move. He can come to them whenever he pleases.

[Team Farrell]

I know that they want to save some big things for TV tonight. I know that's why. But in a world where this is all real, how has Becky Lynch, one of the biggest stars in the entire business of professional wrestling and SmackDown Women's Champion not been drafted?

If she's going to Raw, I actually would have given some thought to drafting her first to Raw, and leave the question open as to where Big E is going to land.

[Powder]

Or just have the draft on night only. and make all the changes then.

[Team Farrell]

Yes, but they serve two masters in NBC/Universal and FOX. So I can definitely see why they've got to spread the love. Unless they can come up with a different annual ratings drawing concept to give to one, and keep the Draft on the other.

[PEN15v2]

I know that they want to save some big things for TV tonight. I know that's why. But in a world where this is all real, how has Becky Lynch, one of the biggest stars in the entire business of professional wrestling and SmackDown Women's Champion not been drafted?

They set up that it wasn't the whole roster that was available on night one. The problem is they don't announce who is available on each night, to keep it a surprise. But it makes this obvious list of people who were ignored.

[Team Farrell]

Wait, what? That's some of the silliest stuff I've ever heard.

Yeah, let's just do the one night King of the Ring on three hour Raw, and give Smackdown the entire Draft show.

[Oliver]

The problem that I have - and I'm not sure of how much a real problem it is, exactly - with doing the draft 'live' on TV is that the first rounds naturally have all the big choices. So you get early pops and things for Becky being drafted, but by the end of the show when you're doing the 'big' final round, you get picks like Ridge Holland that nobody is going to lose their minds for.

WWE has sometimes tried to work around that - they've had the show where Cena got drafted to one brand in round one, but was then drafted back by the end of the show, for example - but to maintain some kind of logic over the draft structure, it has to be that way.

Doing the whole roster on one show would at least mean that if you do four rounds like they did on Smackdown (and then shoved everything else on Talking Smack or online or whatever) you'd end up with the first two Smackdown rounds and the first two Raw rounds. Beyond round 4 on Raw there wasn't really an interesting pick made by either brand, and the biggest move was probably Carmella to Raw (considering nobody else moved except for Carillo/Garza).

[Buzzard Guts]

On a completely different note, a Hall of Famer like Goldberg should never be out in a position where he NEEDS a win like he has.

[Powder]

In regards to the draft...why hasn't the WWE been able to use the NFL, and to a lesser extent the NBA and NHL draft as a guide?

Why hasn't there been any type of trades for draft picks in 20 years?

For instance, when a wrestler gets hurt, i.e. Sasha Banks prior to SummerSlam, there could have been a really cool opener to the the SDWC match where Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville came out to the ring and said something along the lines of:

"As many of you know, Sasha Banks is injured and is out for the SDWC match. So Sonya and I needed to find a suitable replacement for Sasha. So we put our heads together and we made a trade with RAW. In exchange of a first round and a third round draft pick, SD has obtained...." cue Becky's music and let the rest play out exactly as SummerSlam did.

BUT, it makes why Becky is on SD relevant. When she went out with her pregnancy, she was a RAW Superstar, and the RWC. So she was still a RAW star.


Not only that type of thing, but have some trades during the draft. Like, Roman wanted the Usos to be drafted to SD, but they get drafted to RAW in the first round. Then Roman calls Heyman and says for him to fix this. The Heyman orchestrates a trade. Like the Street Profits and a later round pick for the Usos.


Drafts, have trades all the time. Use that and make it fresher.


Yes USA and FOX can have who they want on their shows, but the WWE can write the story on how they get there.

[Prime Time]

My guess is because they think that's going to be too complex for all bar the superfans to worry about following it.