How WWE Draft 2016 Failed on So Many Levels

On Tuesday night’s episode of SmackDown Live, the WWE Draft took place, and it bombed on so many levels.

So the WWE Draft happened and I was left feeling like WWE literally has no idea what they’re doing. It’s a claim that has been made many times in the past, but with what happened during the two-hour long draft show, maybe now is actually the time that that statement is born out to be true.

I’m someone who has watched WWE, and professional wrestling in general, for more than 25 years. Some of my earliest memories of wrestling come from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, what WWE is presenting now is so far away from the thing I love. The Draft was potentially a new dawn for the WWE, but has proved that the company literally can’t even follow through on the big promises they made in the buildup.

More wwe: WrestleMania 33 Match Card Projections

Right from the top of the Draft, baffling decisions were made. With Raw having the first pick in the whole Draft, why would they not want the WWE Championship on the show? In storyline terms, it makes sense to have Seth Rollins on Raw. After all, he has a history with Stephanie McMahon and The Authority. But would anyone really pick him before picking the man who holds the biggest title in the entire company? Maybe they have faith in Rollins winning the title, but Ambrose would have been a much better bet, seen as how he actually holds the title. That was the first of many things that made no sense, to me at least.

More from WWE

There was so much anticipation of something great happening with the Shane McMahon/Daniel Bryan lead, and then they went on to pick a bunch of the elder statesmen of the WWE roster to fill the upper echelons of the card. Shane had spoken of making SmackDown the show that the up and comers, the “wrestlers”, would be part of but then picked John Cena and Randy Orton amongst his top picks. I totally understand the need to have recognisable stars on the show, to attract fans and gain ratings, but why not do that and make yourself a bunch of new stars at the same time?

If SmackDown was going to be the place where the best wrestlers called home, why did Cesaro have to wait for the latter stages of the Draft to be picked? Perhaps it’s all a ruse to turn him heel, but again that makes no sense in the grand scheme of things. Fans love Cesaro, you only have to look at how many fans turn up with “Cesaro Section” signs to TV tapings and live events to see how highly he is thought of by the fans, but the higher ups in WWE seem to have no idea what to do with him.

With Charlotte being picked as the overall No. 2 pick on Raw, in the midst taking the WWE Women’s Championship with her, why would any other woman be happy to end up on SmackDown? Why would someone like Natalya or Becky Lynch not want to be on the show where they could challenge for the biggest title that is available to them?

With any division being split like that, it only makes the people who can’t challenge for their respective belt look like a lesser prospect in the eyes of the fans. On a similar note, whilst it’s great that American Alpha was one of the call-ups from NXT, why would you not have them thrown on the show that contains the tag team titles? What do they have to fight for?

Perhaps the tag titles and Women’s title will be defended across both shows, but why would a Champion want to have to work both shows when they have been drafted to either Raw or SmackDown? If the Intercontinental and United States titles are exclusive, then so should the Tag and Women’s titles. If you want to make the fans buy into what you’re doing why would you water down each division and make certain people look like they have no direction?

With the announcement that a new Cruiserweight Division would be established on Raw (?!?), only a small handful of men who could be considered Cruiserweights ended up on the show. Sin Cara and Neville are potentially the only recognisable Cruiserweights on the roster of Raw, with many men potentially coming from the Cruiserweight Classic tournament in the coming months. Why would you announce the division was making a comeback on your biggest show when you had no intention of putting many Cruiserweights on the roster? Maybe Sami Zayn and Finn Balor will be shoehorned into the division, but both men are deserving of being in contention for the companies biggest titles.

One thing that many fans were looking forward to was the inclusion of six members of the NXT roster to the Draft. Before the show, we had no solid idea as to who those six would be, if you believe the rumors neither did the people actually writing the show, the WWE Creative Department.

More from Daily DDT

It was maybe easy to guess that Finn Balor would be one of them, as well as American Alpha and probably Nia Jax, but I can think of at least half a dozen others who are more deserving than Mojo Rawley. No offense to him, but it seems like he may only have been brought up to continue his “Hype Bros” tag team with Zack Ryder on the main roster, I give it a month before creative bombs him out.

When you think that Bayley is still down in NXT (she may still end up being Sasha Banks’ tag partner at Battleground), it’s a shocker to think that Eva Marie now calls SmackDown her new home. Bayley could be so important on the main roster, it just seems like NXT may need her more than the main roster right now.

There was so much that WWE could have done during the Draft, it appears that they may have dropped the ball somewhat right now. I’ve noted a few of the things that don’t sit right, don’t make sense or just outright make everyone look stupid.

Related Story: WWE Draft 2016 Review

The next few months are very important for WWE, the product and the wrestlers on the roster. The rest of 2016 has the potential to be a great period for WWE, we just need to see them have faith in the men and women on the roster who can achieve great things. Lets not just make the likes of John Cena and Brock Lesnar be the stars, let’s use some of the people that fans actually love to watch in the ring and go all out to make WWE interesting to watch once again. They’ve done it before and they can do it again.

Home/WWE