WWE Draft: Daily DDT’s fantasy picks for the Raw and SmackDown rosters
By Bassam Kaado
With SmackDown’s big move to Fox, all eyes are now turned to the WWE Draft, a two-night event. Daily DDT has done its own Fantasy Draft to get in on the fun.
Welcome to the Daily DDT WWE Fantasy Draft of 2019!
In this draft, two people, fellow contributor Josiah MacDonald and myself, went head-to-head to build the best roster for our respective brand. Josiah drafted for Raw, and I drafted for SmackDown.
Here are the rules we followed:
All WWE championships are vacated. Each brand will book who they want to be their brand champion. A coin was flipped to decide who drafts first. The loser gets to choose which championship they want on their brand: the Intercontinental or the United States championship.
Both brands will take turns drafting a superstar. If they choose to draft a tag team, they forfeit their next pick. If a superstar has a manager, they will come with the pick. Each brand was also allowed to draft one NXT prospect.
Raw won the coin toss, drafting first. SmackDown chooses to have the Intercontinental Championship.
The draft went as followed:
Raw (Josiah) and SmackDown (Bassam)
- Daniel Bryan
- AJ Styles
- Brock Lesnar
- Drew McIntyre
- Shinsuke Nakumara
- Kevin Owens
- Asuka
- Becky Lynch
- Bayley
- Charlotte Flair
- Adam Cole
- Aleister Black
- Finn Balor
- Andrade
- Roman Reigns
- Sami Zayn
- Samoa Joe
- Bray Wyatt
- Kairi Sane
- Ember Moon
- Ricochet
- Kofi Kingston
- Chad Gable
- The Good Brothers
- Sasha Banks
- Nikki Cross
- Alexa Bliss
- Rey Mysterio
- Buddy Murphy
- The Revival
- The New Day
- War Machine
- The Usos
- Seth Rollins
- Bianca Belair
- Randy Orton
- Ali
- The Hardyz
- Rowan and Harper
- Cedric Alexander
- Braun Strowman
- Ruby Riott
- Iiconics
- The Authors of Pain
- Cesaro
- Lacey Evans
- Heavy Machinery
- Rusev
- Liv Morgan
- Robert Roode
- Dolph Ziggler
- Mandy Rose
- Sonya Deville
- Naomi
- Bobby Lashley
- EC3
- Eric Young
- Apollo Crews
- Shelton Benjamin
- Baron Corbin
- Curt Hawkins
- Sheamus
- R-Truth
- Drake Maverick
- No Way Jose
- The B-Team
- Sarah Logan
- Carmella
- Titus O’Neill
- The Ascension
- The Colons
- Zack Ryder
- Heath Slater
- Elias
- Mojo Rawley
- Nia Jax
- Dana Brooke
- Tamina
- The Miz
- Jinder Mahal
Raw Booking
I drafted Daniel Bryan first for my Raw roster, as I see him as a babyface that the whole brand could be built around until a younger star is ready to move up. Bryan feuding with the WWE Champion, Brock Lesnar, would provide the core of the programming for the first 6 months, leading into WrestleMania where Bryan would overcome and defeat Brock.
Bryan doesn’t have to win the Royal Rumble, but it would be a nice touch with how long they have denied that result in WWE. Easy heat in the match would be teasing Bryan being eliminated. Promos leading up to it could highlight how Bryan has failed to win the Rumble several times.
Meanwhile, Brock would decimate several opponents leading into WrestleMania, and him and Bryan would never wrestle in that time period, so the match would mean a lot more once they got to it.
Shinsuke Nakamura would be positioned to feud with Bryan afterwards, and can win the title 2 or 3 months after WrestleMania, with Daniel Bryan winning the title back at SummerSlam, preparing to feud with Adam Cole.
Cole would be slowly positioned to take the title from Bryan, and be the top heel. Cole would feud with Bryan and take the title from him via Money in the Bank for heat. They would close out the year feuding, with Bryan ultimately winning the title back at the next year’s WrestleMania.
Cole, while Bryan and Brock are feuding, would feud with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, potentially with call-ups of Undisputed Era (I assume they would come with Cole at some point, though not in the initial draft for the bigger pop as they’re introduced) to add to the mix. Reigns and Rollins will spend time feuding with them over the tag titles. Throwing the Revival, War Raiders, and Hardy’s into the mix will help round out a very good tag division.
Asuka, Bayley, Kairi Sane, and Sasha Banks would be the foundation of my Women’s division, with a heel Sasha feuding with all three as the champion, ultimately ending with Bayley winning the title at WrestleMania.
Asuka will resume her winning streak to try and recover from the poor booking after it, and Kairi would be slowly built to take the title from Asuka, once Asuka ends up winning it.
All four women could easily carry the title at any time, and will feud with each other both as teams and as opponents, putting in lower card women as they are ready to move up.
Balor and Joe would be in and out of the main events as well, having matches with Bryan and/or Brock. After Brock drops the title, I see him feuding with Joe, and Joe winning. Brock, having lost to Bryan, then becomes someone who was shaken by the loss. They could highlight how he needs to recover and get his fire back.
This could easily turn Brock babyface and put sympathy on him for a feud with a heel Nakamura down the line, which would be fun with both of their MMA experience being a part of the matches. Highlighting Nakamura’s performance in MMA would also show that he is 100% legit.
Those would be the major programs I look at, but I would also see Rey Mysterio and Ricochet feuding and teaming as well, as they could market the dream match very easily.
Miz would be on commentary.
SmackDown Booking
Very pleased with my draft results. To kick things off, here is an analysis of my top 5 picks:
AJ Styles was always on top of my list. He is one of the best wrestlers in the world right now, well-rounded in every way. With plans for retirement after his current contract, I plan to feature him heavily.
Drew McIntrye was a shock to a lot of people, but he is the future of this company. His work in NXT showed his ability to be a face, and he has the killer instinct and presence to be a dominant heel. No henchman act for him, he will be riding solo.
Kevin Owens is killin’ it as a face, and we already know his amazing work as a heel. For my purposes, he will be my top face, and will face-off with Styles numerous times.
Becky Lynch doesn’t really need an introduction. She has been putting the best work in her career, and, as a diehard Stone Cold fan, I have my version.
Charlotte Flair is the best women’s wrestler. EVER. She will be strategically utilized to avoid overbooking, but I couldn’t walk away from this draft without getting a wrestler with so much talent.
To kick off my era of SmackDown, I would have matches to lead to a Fatal Five way to determine the new WWE Champion: AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre, Aleister Black, and Andrade.
The match would include interference from the OC, which will lead to a double finish. A beaten Black would be pinned by AJ, yet KO would have pinned Andrade. The referee’s 3-count technically counts for both, leading to confusion.
It is then announced that AJ and KO will compete at Survivor Series for the title, but KO doesn’t trust the OC from staying out of it. The compromise comes to a Survivor Series match between Team AJ vs Team KO. AJ chooses the OC, Baron Corbin, and Cesaro. KO convinces Ali, Buddy Murphy, Sami Zayn, and a returning Sheamus. Whoever’s team wins will get their captain the WWE Title.
The final 3 are AJ Styles vs KO and Buddy Murphy. Murphy has put on a great performance, eliminating Corbin and Karl Anderson. Murphy and Style go at it for a bit, which leads to a hot tag for KO. Owens is about to give Styles the Stunner, but Murphy comes in and hits KO with Murphy’s Law. Styles is shocked and pins Owens for the 3 count. He looks at Murphy, who falls to the ground and lets Styles pin him. Murphy gets up and raises Styles hand before taking an OC shirt and wearing it.
This will set up a program where KO has to fight for a chance to get the title, most likely leading to a Royal Rumble win. Murphy can compete for the IC title, and the Good Brothers can capture the tag team gold. That way, ‘Mania looks like Styles and KO for the WWE championship, Murphy vs Ali for the IC, and the Good Brothers vs The Usos.
KO would win, with him eventually losing the title to a heel McIntrye down the line, possibly SummerSlam. Ali would beat Murphy for the Intercontinental Title, leading him to be challenged by the likes of Andrade. The Good Brothers would lose as well, causing the group to have to regroup and plot their next move.
The women’s division will be headlined by Lynch and Flair challenging each other for the title. Lynch will win first, having to fend off Flair’s obsessive chase. The difference between this time and their prior feud would be the injection of Ember Moon.
Moon starts a winning streak, making her desires known about being the champion. One of her biggest obstacles is Alexa Bliss, who doesn’t believe that Ember deserves the spotlight. It will eventually lead to a triple threat between Lynch, Flair, and Moon.
Moon will eventually win the Women’s Rumble, with the narrative being that Lynch and Flair are too concerned with each other. Moon has not been taken seriously, but she will get her day. This will eventually lead to a reign that will see her face Bianca Belair down the road.
The women’s tag team division will be mostly focused on two teams: the Ilconics and Fire & Desire. When Nia Jax returns, she and Tamina will be in the picture as well.
Fire & Desire will win the championships and enter a program with the IIconics, until a new tag team debuts. Lacey Evans reveals her new partner, Liv Morgan. Morgan has undergone a transformation to a more “prim and proper” character. They will eventually move into contention and win the titles at Royal Rumble.
Next. AEW and NXT Wednesday Night Wars: 3 winners from night #2. dark
Finally, Jinder Mahal was cut immediately after the draft.