WWE Draft

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The WWE Draft, also known as the Superstar Shake-up from 2017 to 2019, is a process used by professional wrestling company WWE to provide new brand competition and to refresh the promotion's Raw and SmackDown rosters. The draft was first used during the brand extension from 2002 to 2011, and was officially brought back in 2016 with the start of the second brand extension.

History
The first draft happened on April 1, 2002, with Ric Flair representing RAW and Mr. McMahon representing SmackDown!. On June 10, 2002, Mr. McMahon became the kayfabe sole owner of WWE when he beat Flair in a No Holds Barred match. The following month, he named general managers (Eric Bischoff for RAW and Stephanie McMahon for SmackDown!) to lead each brand. Since then, there have been further drafts:

In March 2004, with the theme/tagline of WrestleMania XX being "Where it all begins again," Mr. McMahon announced a draft lottery, stating "it's time to shake things up again." Each general manager received six picks.

In June 2005,  Mr. McMahon announced a second draft lottery which would take place throughout the entire month of June. Both general managers received five random picks.

In May 2006, WWE added a third brand called ECW, the revived version of Extreme Championship Wrestling.  "ECW Representative" Paul Heyman was allowed to pick one wrestler from RAW and one from SmackDown!.

On May 28, 2007, Shane McMahon announced a new draft which featured all three brands. The Draft took place on June 11, 2007, on a special three-hour episode of RAW.

On May 26, 2008, Mr. McMahon announced a new draft, which would feature all three WWE brands. The draft took place on June 23, 2008.

On February 11, 2009, WWE announced via WWE.com that the 2009 WWE Draft would take place "8 Days after WrestleMania" which was April 13, 2009, on Raw.

The 2010 draft took place over two days: the first day aired live on April 26 on Raw at Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia, and the second part, the supplemental draft, was shown on April 27 on WWE's website.

The 2011 draft, which took place on April 25 and April 26 at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, was the last of the first brand extension, as it ended on August 29.

On May 25, 2016, it was announced that beginning on July 19, SmackDown would broadcast live on Tuesday nights. Previously the show was usually filmed on Tuesdays and aired on Thursdays or Fridays. It was also said that from that date on both Raw and SmackDown would get unique rosters again. A draft took place on July 19 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

From 2017 to 2019, the draft was called the Superstar Shake-up, where wrestlers could now change their brands unannounced. Starting in October 2019, WWE made a yearly draft again (except in 2022).

Draft lotteries
No.YearDate(s)Brands12002March 25 Raw
 SmackDown!22004March 2232005June 6–3042006May 29 ECW
 Raw (leaving only)
 SmackDown! (leaving only)52007June 11 Raw
 SmackDown
 ECW62008June 2372009April 1382010April 26 Raw
 SmackDown92011April 25102016July 19 Raw
 SmackDown
 NXT (leaving only)112017April 10–11 Raw
 SmackDown122018April 16–17 Raw
 SmackDown
 NXT (leaving only)132019April 15 – May 8 Raw
 SmackDown
 205 Live
 NXT (leaving only)142019October 11–14 Raw
 SmackDown
 205 Live (leaving only)
 NXT (leaving only)152020October 9–12 Raw
 SmackDown
 NXT (leaving only)162021October 1–4172023April 28 – May 1182024April 26–29

Impact on championships
Whether a champion keeps their championship after being drafted is unpredictable. During the 2005 Draft, John Cena, the WWE Champion, was drafted from SmackDown! to RAW and kept his championship. General Manager Theodore Long announced that a new SmackDown! World Championship was to be created but the idea was abandoned when Batista, the World Heavyweight Champion, was drafted to SmackDown! from RAW, bringing the title with him. During the 2007 Draft, however, the ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley was stripped of the title after being drafted to RAW.

In the 2008 draft, ECW Champion Kane was drafted to RAW. WWE Champion Triple H was drafted to SmackDown. WWE United States Champion Matt Hardy was drafted to ECW. This caused SmackDown to have two championships and RAW had the ECW Championship. ECW had no top championship but did gain the United States Championship. The World Heavyweight Championship was moved back to RAW on June 30, 2008, when CM Punk defeated Edge. ECW wrestler Mark Henry won the ECW championship on June 29, 2008, at the Night of Champions pay-per-view to return that championship to ECW. This caused each brand to have its own top championship once again.

In 2009, WWE Champion Triple H was drafted back to Raw with the championship. Also Intercontinental Champion, Rey Mysterio was drafted to SmackDown and United States Champion, MVP was drafted to Raw. Divas Champion, Maryse was drafted to Raw and Women's Champion, Melina was drafted to SmackDown. At Backlash, Edge beat John Cena in a Last Man Standing match (with help from Big Show) to bring the World Heavyweight Championship back to SmackDown and to have the championships evenly divided.

In 2011, United States Champion, Sheamus was drafted to SmackDown. At Extreme Rules, Kofi Kingston defeated him in a tables match to bring the title back to Raw.

Related pages
WWE Brand Extension

References

Other websites
History of the WWE Draft Lottery

Category:WWE Drafts