2011 WWE Draft Lottery

The 2011 WWE Draft was the ninth annual draft held by WWE, scheduled to take place on April 25. With a core business of professional wrestling, the corporation holds a draft to exchange personnel assigned to one of its two television programs (Raw and SmackDown) that are (in terms of storyline) independent brands that represent WWE. The Draft will air live on the USA Network on Raw for two hours in Raleigh, North Carolina from the RBC Center. As a standard for previous drafts, most on–air personnel will be eligible to be drafted.
==Background==
The Brand Extension storyline was initiated in March 2002, in which WWE's Raw and SmackDown! television programs were made into brands (similar to conferences within a league) to which employees were assigned to; the ECW brand additionally involved between 2006 and 2009. Since its inception, annual drafts have followed, except for in 2003. As in previous drafts that followed the Brand Extension, the purpose of the 2011 WWE Draft will be to increase television ratings of WWE programming and refresh the rosters with new storylines for each brand. The 2011 incentive was confirmed by the RBC Center in April 2011, with WWE officially announcing it on the April 18th edition of Raw. A USA Network executive had also confirmed the event to occur via a press release on the same day of the WWE announcement.
==Roster selections==
===Televised draft===
====Matches====
#	Match 	Stipulation 	Winner
 	Raw: Evan Bourne, Daniel Bryan, Ted DiBiase, Mark Henry, The Great Khali, Vladimir Kozlov, Santino Marella, Mason Ryan, Sheamus, and Yoshi Tatsu vs. SmackDown: Brodus Clay, Kane, Chris Masters, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston, Cody Rhodes, Big Show and The Corre (Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson, and Heath Slater)	20-man Battle royal for 1 draft pick 	SmackDown: Big Show and Kingston
 	Raw: Eve vs. SmackDown: Layla 	Singles match for 1 draft pick 	Raw: Eve
 	Raw: King Sheamus vs. SmackDown: Kofi Kingston 	Singles match for 1 draft pick 	SmackDown: Kingston
 	Raw: Dolph Ziggler vs. SmackDown: Randy Orton 	Singles match for 2 draft picks 	SmackDown: Orton
 	Raw: Rey Mysterio vs. SmackDown: Wade Barrett 	Singles match for 2 draft picks 	Raw: Mysterio
 	Raw: The Miz, CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio vs. SmackDown: John Cena, Christian, and Mark Henry 	6-man tag team match for 1 draft pick	Raw: The Miz, Punk, and Del Rio
====Selections====
Pick	Brand (to)	Employee 	Role 	Brand (from)
1 	SmackDown 	John Cena 	Superstar	Raw
2 	Raw 	Rey Mysterio 	Superstar	SmackDown
3 	SmackDown 	Randy Orton 	Superstar	Raw
4 	SmackDown 	Mark Henry 	Superstar	Raw
5 	Smackdown 	Sin Cara 	Superstar	Raw
6 	Raw 	The Big Show 	Superstar	SmackDown
7 	Raw 	Alberto Del Rio	Superstar	Smackdown
8 	Raw 	John Cena 	Superstar	Smackdown
===Supplemental Draft===
WWE announced that its supplemental draft would take place over WWE.com on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 beginning at 12:00pm Eastern time.
Pick	Brand (to)	Employee 	Role 	Brand (from)
9 	SmackDown 	Daniel Bryan 	Superstar 	Raw
10 	Raw 	Jack Swagger 	Superstar 	SmackDown
11 	SmackDown 	The Great Khali & Ranjin Singh	Superstar & Manager	Raw
12 	SmackDown 	Jimmy Uso 	Superstar 	Raw
13 	Raw 	Kelly Kelly 	Diva 	SmackDown
14 	Raw 	JTG 	Superstar 	SmackDown
15 	SmackDown 	Alicia Fox 	Diva 	Raw
16 	SmackDown 	William Regal 	Superstar 	Raw
17 	SmackDown 	Yoshi Tatsu 	Superstar 	Raw
18 	Raw 	Drew McIntyre 	Superstar 	SmackDown
19 	SmackDown 	Natalya 	Diva 	Raw
20 	Raw 	Curt Hawkins 	Superstar 	SmackDown
21 	Raw 	Chris Masters 	Superstar 	SmackDown
22 	SmackDown 	Jey Uso 	Superstar 	Raw
23 	Raw 	Kofi Kingston 	Superstar 	SmackDown
24 	SmackDown 	Ted DiBiase 	Superstar 	Raw
25 	SmackDown 	Tyson Kidd 	Superstar 	Raw
26 	SmackDown 	Tamina 	Diva 	Raw
27 	Raw 	Tyler Reks 	Superstar 	SmackDown
28 	SmackDown 	Alex Riley 	Superstar 	Raw
29 	Raw 	Beth Phoenix 	Diva 	SmackDown
30 	Smackdown 	Sheamus 	Superstar 	Raw
==Response and aftermath==
The changes made to the roster would not go into effect until the following week's episode of Raw in order to allow the already scheduled matches at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view event to take place with the original brand designations. Various WWE Superstars and Divas posted updates on their Twitter accounts (as mentioned during the televised portion of the Draft) regarding their reactions to draft selections. Most of these regarded Raw losing top-tier talent to SmackDown, such as Cena and Orton switching brands. As a result of Sheamus holding the United States Championship, the title would be designated back to SmackDown (where the championship was debuted in 2003). SmackDown would now be the designated homes to three of the four brand assigned titles.
Additionally, one of the contenders for the vacant Heavyweight title (Del Rio) being drafted to Raw could mean that both of the major belts could end up in Raw after Extreme Rules.
==See also==
*WWE Draft
==External links==
*Official website of the 2011 WWE Draft
Category:WWE Draft