Shane McMahon is the commissioner of ‘SmackDown Live.’ (WWE.com)
Next week on WWE programming, superstars will be traded between Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. So what are the rules in this draft, exactly? How is it going to play out?
This will not be a draft “lottery” like Raw and SmackDown used to do, where it was conceivably random which superstars went where. The trades this year will also not be determined by the results of matches, as has been done in past drafts.
Rather, this one will involve the commissioners and general managers of Raw and SmackDown Live making deals among one another. According to WWE.com, Vince McMahon will be “granting both sides an opportunity to make trades, deals and other moves that they feel fit.”
On Talking Smack this week, Shane McMahon stated that negotiations are currently underway between the SmackDown team and the Raw team. Shane did say, however, that all of this will have to go through Vince McMahon.
Shane also said that it is possible for someone who holds a title to be traded to another show; when asked if it’s possible that, for example, the SmackDown Tag Team Champions could go to Raw, Shane said that Vince McMahon has said that “nothing is off limits.”
Later in the show, Shane McMahon asked who would get the first “pick” in the draft, which seemed to contradict the idea of there being deals made behind the scenes over the course of the week. Shane said that he suspected Stephanie McMahon, a.k.a. “daddy’s little girl,” will get the first pick.
When asked who he would like on the show from Raw, Shane McMahon named Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, although it would be shocking if Brock Lesnar, the Universal Champion, ended up going to SmackDown; this seemed more like Shane’s observation that Brock is clearly the toughest person on the Raw roster, and so of course in an ideal world he would like to have him on SmackDown.
The WWE “superstar shake up” will take place on next week’s Raw.
Comments