WWE Draft: Latest NXT Call Up Breaks Up a Faction

By Nick Valdez

The WWE Draft has broken up a major NXT faction with their latest call up to Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown! The first night of the WWE Draft provided some interesting swaps between each brand, and one of the more surprising results have been a number of new additions to the main brands called up from NXT 2.0. The first night saw some surprises such as Austin Theory, Aliyah, and factions like Hit Row being able to come up completely intact, but the call up as part of the third round has broken up a faction in the process. 

The first two rounds of Night Two of the WWE Draft on Monday Night Raw already provided a number of shake ups between the two brands, but the third round revealed that Xia Li has been drafted to Friday Night SmackDown. Formerly a member of the Tian Sha group on NXT (but the group has only featured the other two members Mei Ying and Boa on NXT 2.0 this far), Xia Li's call up definitely raises some questions about the future of the Tian Sha group on NXT 2.0. 

The call ups from the NXT roster thus far have not resulted in many faction shake ups like this one, but we have already seen Tian Sha operating without Xia Li in the past few weeks on NXT as well. Li has been missing from WWE television overall for the past few weeks, and it seems like it was because she was being prepared to move onto the Women's Division on SmackDown. It's currently unknown as to how she'll factor into her new division, or what that means for the Tian Sha group going forward but it's an interesting question to raise about their respective futures. 

But what do you think of Xia Li moving onto SmackDown as part of the WWE Draft? Which picks from the NXT roster have surprised you the most so far? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! As for Night Two of the WWE Draft 2021, the picks so far break down as such: 

Round 1

Monday Night Raw: Becky Lynch, Bobby Lashley

Friday Night SmackDown: The Usos, Sasha Banks

Round 2

Monday Night Raw: Seth Rollins, Damien Priest

Friday Night SmackDown: King Nakamura and Rick Boogs, Sheamus

Round 3

Monday Night Raw: AJ Styles and Omos, Kevin Owens

Friday Night SmackDown: Shayna Baszler, Xia Li

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