Seven WWE Superstars Who Need to Switch Brands in the 2021 WWE Draft

The 2021 WWE Draft will officially begin on this week’s Friday Night SmackDown, giving both the Blue Brand and Monday Night Raw the chance to refresh their respective rosters and call up a few stars from NXT. As has been the case with the past two Drafts every active WWE Superstar will be up for grabs, though most of the big stars on each brand will likely stay put (for example, expect SmackDown to pick Roman Reigns first while Big E officially moves over to Raw). But there are plenty of opportunities for big stars to swap to a different show, and based on the recent booking there are some wrestlers in desperate need of a change of scenery. 

Check out the seven wrestlers who have the most to gain from changing brands in this year’s WWE Draft below! The Draft will begin with Friday’s SmackDown, followed by the Oct. 4 edition of Raw. 

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Drew McIntyre to SmackDown

Poor Drew. It seemed for a while there like he was bound to win the WWE Championship again once fans were back in the arenas. But ever since Bobby Lashley booted him from the world title picture he’s been fairly directionless. A move to SmackDown would set him up for an eventual program with Roman Reigns, which could lead to some excellent title matches. 

Seth Rollins to Raw

This one is a bit of a long shot (WWE likes to keep couples together and Becky Lynch isn’t leaving SmackDown), but WWE doesn’t seem to have any interest in having Rollins feud with Reigns over the Universal title. That’s left the “Drip God” floating in SmackDown’s upper midcard and other than a few good matches with Cesaro and Edge he hasn’t done much on the Blue Brand.

Kevin Owens to Raw

Kevin Owens has been stuck in a program with Happy Corbin for a while now, and the odds of KO being back in SmackDown’s main event anytime soon seems incredibly unlikely. 

Sheamus to SmackDown

Sheamus has quietly been on the best run of his career lately in terms of in-ring work. Unfortunately, he’s worked with every big name on Raw’s midcard to the point where just about every matchup is starting to feel stale. Let him go to SmackDown and chase after the Intercontinental Championship. 

Dakota Kai to SmackDown

Kai hasn’t worked a televised match since NXT TakeOver 36 and has been working dark matches on recent episodes of SmackDown. The Blue Brand’s Women’s Division has been thin for a few months now and Kai would instantly give the division’s heel side a boost. 

The Viking Raiders to SmackDown

Raw’s recent tag team turmoil match proved that, surprisingly, the Red Brand has quite a few tag teams at the moment. The same can’t be said for SmackDown and Erik & Ivar haven’t had much to do for a while. 

LA Knight to Raw

The NXT 2.0 roster is getting more crowded every week, meaning there’s a good chance we’ll either be seeing plenty of call-ups or releases in the coming months. Knight feels like an obvious choice for a call-up.