Another WWE Draft is in the books and fans all over the globe are scouring their social media timelines and their favorite news sites (hopefully, this one) to find out where their favorite superstars ended up.
Unfortunately, what they’ll discover is that not a whole lot has changed, and a draft that was touted as shaking WWE’s foundation to its core has amounted to nothing more than re-arranging the furniture in your living room.
You know the feeling, when you move the couch from one side of the room to the next. It makes it feel like you have an entirely new living room, right? But we all know it isn’t. It’s the same place you’ve spent countless hours binging your favorite television programs like before.
And outside of a number of NXT call-ups and Cody Rhodes being selected to a different show than Roman Reigns, the latest WWE Draft came and went without making a dent in that foundation that was supposedly in jeopardy.
The real shame of it is that there is so much potential with a draft. There are a number of stories WWE could tell with it. Maybe an NXT prospect surprisingly shoots up the board. Maybe a grizzled vet unexpectedly slides down and we see them waiting in the locker room a la Will Levis. Anything is honestly better than what it is today, which is WWE just shuffling the deck of cards with which it is mostly already familiar.
There could be logic and reason behind a brand’s decisions. We could learn each brand’s tendencies or motivations. To borrow from the NFL, the Eagles have been know to invest in the trenches under general manager Howie Roseman. Maybe we could have one of the brands lean more towards bigger guys while another favors high flyers. Maybe one brand is looking to bolster its women’s division or tag team division.
Instead, what we don’t get any of that. WWE just lazily moves wrestlers from the red show to the blue show and vice versa. The moves largely mean nothing and they won’t have a real effect on anyone’s career — at least within the framework of WWE’s storylines.
It’s not like there isn’t an appetite for draft content. Having worked in sports media professionally for over a decade, I can safely tell you that people absolutely eat it up. No matter the league, draft content is a moneymaker for most web sites, television networks, sports teams, etc. A draft is seen as a prime moneymaking opportunity for anyone involved.
The NFL and NBA have turned their drafts into primetime television events that draw millions of viewers. Having worked for an NFL team in the past, I could tell you the draft is the offseason’s biggest event by far — and nothing else comes close. My wife and daughter pretty much didn’t see me from Thursday through Saturday during my stint in the NFL.
Those same narratives and troupes other sports leagues use to generate interest in their respective drafts could be replicated by WWE.
But here we are, in the aftermath of another draft, where we’re all looking at who landed where, which also won’t matter in a few months time because WWE will eventually have people appear on both shows. WWE has done this multiple times in the past and it has already given itself the out by saying certain wrestlers can transfer between each show. Is this similar to the transfer window in soccer? Is there any logic behind it all?
Nope. It’s just a mechanism for WWE to lazily move wrestlers in between each show instead of sticking to the whole point of the draft, which is to make wrestlers exclusive to one show. You know, like it did during its first draft way back in 2002. Adding the transfers is essentially the extent of the company’s effort to apply some sort of logic to the situation.
Obviously, that isn’t nearly enough.
Maybe next year, WWE will take its time and attempt to make the draft slightly compelling. Given WWE’s track record, my hopes are not high.