WWE Confirms the Wild Card Rule Will Be Gone After the WWE Draft

WWE officially announced on Sunday that a new WWE Draft would take place on the Oct. 11 episode of [...]

By Connor Casey

WWE officially announced on Sunday that a new WWE Draft would take place on the Oct. 11 episode of Friday Night SmackDown and the Oct. 14 episode of Monday Night Raw. And while the initial announcement confirmed that the brand split was being re-establish, there was one issue that still needed to be addressed — the Wild Card Rule. Back in early May, just weeks after the annual Superstar Shake-up, Vince McMahon announced a new rule that would allow four wrestlers from one brand to appear on the other on any given week without repercussions.

But there was a problem. That "four wrestlers a week" rule was broken almost immediately with more and more wrestlers switching brands each week, to the point where the commentary team stopped addressing it. The rule effectively killed the brand split that had been up since 2016, and even with a new draft there was no guarantee the rule wouldn't rear it's ugly head again.

However, much to the delight of fans online, Michael Cole confirmed during Monday Night Raw this week that the Wild Card Rule would be gone following the WWE Draft.

In a media conference call on Monday, Triple H addressed whether or not NXT would also be involved in the Draft.

"I think as that Draft hits that's going to be more focused on Raw and SmackDown and where those brands lay out," he said. "But going forward, who knows? I think this is a work in progress and as NXT continues to do what it's done for the last five years and grow in leaps and bounds, my intent is to create, and I think it's there and we'll see as we move forward, where there are three very distinct brands — Raw, SmackDown and NXT."

Back in July Universal Champion Seth Rollins criticized the rule in an interview with Newsweek.

"The Wild Card really muddled things up, to be honest with you," Rollins said. "Now you're seeing those guys every single week. It used to feel special when I see the New Day but now they're eating pancakes backstage every chance they get on Monday and I'm not a fan of that. But no, it's great that there's so much talent across both brands. I think once you see the move to Fox it's really going to tighten down as far as best Wild Card options and stuff like. It's really cool to see things come together now and get these cool match ups you might not get in October or November."

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