Five men that need to change brands during the upcoming WWE Draft

Five men that need to change brands during the upcoming WWE Draft

The 2021 WWE Draft was confirmed to be returning on last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. Night one of the draft will take place on the October 1st episode of SmackDown, while night two will finish up the event on the October 4th edition of Raw.

The draft has been used as a launching pad for new stars, opportunities, and rivalries/feuds. The annual event has tremendously benefited the careers of people like Sasha Banks, Finn Balor, Bayley, and Roman Reigns.

Although sometimes a change in scenery can tank a wrestler’s momentum/current push. Examples of this are people like Sami Zayn, Jason Jordan (injury aside), and Mustafa Ali.

There are a plethora of superstars on both Raw and Smackdown that are currently sitting dormant and aren’t being used for anything, meaning they should at least be considered for a brand change. Other superstars like Carmella would benefit from switching color schemes just to get away from someone like Bianca Belair – someone who she’s fought six times over the past three months.

Today, we’ll be looking at five male stars that would benefit from a change of scenery in the upcoming WWE Draft:

Drew McIntyre to Smackdown

Ever since returning to WWE in 2017, Drew McIntyre has spent all of his time either in NXT or on Monday Night Raw. His run in NXT was short and quite entertaining, but his time on Raw has been a very mixed bag.

McIntyre showed up on the Raw after WrestleMania 34 and aligned himself with Dolph Ziggler. The pair would go on to win the Raw Tag Team Titles later in the year but broke up as a unit shortly after. Then, McIntyre had a very underwhelming run in 2019 between constantly losing to the final iterations of The Shield and being Shane McMahon’s henchman.

Things began to look up for “The Chosen One” in January 2020. He turned face, got over organically with the crowd, and won the Royal Rumble. McIntyre was arguably the most over person in the company headed into Wrestlemania 36.

After beating Brock Lesnar and claiming the WWE Title at WrestleMania 36, McIntyre’s slew of challengers was uninspired and again, underwhelming. He would go on to face some people repeatedly, including the likes of Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley upwards of eight times over his reign.

McIntyre desperately needs new competition and new feuds to try his hand at. He’d immediately be at the top of the card on Smackdown, but he needs to have some side feuds before he tangles up with Roman Reigns.

Ricochet to Smackdown

It’s hard to get excited about anything involving Ricochet at this point. He’s been a complete non-factor during his main roster run and has been at best a low mid-carder.

To allow the best chances of success for the former BOLA winner, I’d say a move to Smackdown would benefit him the most. Smackdown tends to be smarter with their booking strategy, and I think if Ricochet is given a mouthpiece (Malcolm Bivens, please.) he could succeed as an upper mid-card, borderline main event guy. Ricochet has all of the in-ring talent in the world, he just needs a manager that can cut promos for him.

Kevin Owens to Raw

For the vast majority of 2021, Kevin Owens has been stuck in either the Intercontinental Championship picture or in undercard feuds. Aside from his feud with Roman Reigns spilling into 2021, Owens’ year has been severely underwhelming. From a personal view, I think Owens is a bonafide main event talent and should be treated as such.

Owens has proved that there is money when he’s at the top of the card. Looking back at his late 2016-early 2017 run, it was easily one of the best runs anybody has had in WWE in the past five years. Since reaching his peak as Universal Champion, Owens has yet to capture that same momentum.

Owens, like others previously mentioned, would benefit from a change of scenery and new opponents. You could turn him heel and immediately put him into a title program with Big E or Damian Priest.

Although come January this brand shift might not mean anything, I think Owens would benefit Raw for the fall/winter time.

Apollo Crews to Raw

During the ThunderDome days, Apollo Crews went from rarely being used to being an integral part of WWE’s weekly programming. Crews has always been talented, but never really got a fair shake until WWE’s hand was essentially forced.

I think Apollo would do some great work on Raw if given the opportunity. If he were to make the move to the red brand, one would only assume he’d be flanked by Commander Azeez. Azeez vs. Omos is a matchup that Vince only dreams of.

If Crews does make the switch, just keep him as far away as possible from Big E. The two have wrestled each other way too many times over the past year.

LA Knight to Smackdown

From the very beginning, LA Knight was never somebody that I expected to go to NXT. The former Impact World Champion has a vast amount of experience wrestling on TV and has the three characteristics that main roster creative loves: Charisma, Mic Skills, and being a well-rounded in-ring performer.

Knight seems like a guy that would fit right in on Smackdown and I can only imagine the nicknames that Pat McAfee would storm up for him. Knight would replace the role of Apollo Crews as an upper-level heel on the brand.

After losing not one, but two matches on this week’s NXT, I don’t see there being much for Knight to do on the black and gold brand anymore. It’s time he moves up.

The draft can produce some of the most exciting times of the year for WWE. Between new feuds developing, new matchups taking shape and the shows not being repetitive for a few weeks, the draft always turns out to be a net positive for the brand and

I don’t expect that to be any different this year.