Who Won the 2021 WWE Draft?

SmackDown

Looking at all of the moves made on both rosters, it's pretty obvious that SmackDown came out as the winner this year. Roman Reigns suddenly has a few new potential challengers, Charlotte Flair is a great addition, Hit Row has the most potential of any of the NXT call-ups and there's suddenly a thriving tag team division with The Usos, The New Day, The Viking Raiders, Mustafa Ali & Mansoor, Jinder Mahal & Shanky and a potentially reunited The Bar. Meanwhile, Raw mostly re-picked wrestlers that jumped to SmackDown in last year's Draft, making its current roster look oddly familiar to the early Pandemic Era. There are some good picks in there, but that's not the era you necessarily want to return to.

Draft facts.

Bianca, New Day, Rey and Dominik, Jeff Hardy, Apollo Crews, Zelina, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, Sheamus, Kevin Owens, and Street Profits all returned to the brand they were on before the 2020 Draft.

Nia Jax remains untraded. Carmella leaves SD for the first time

— Will Washingt🎃n  (@WilliamRBR) October 5, 2021

The Bloodline

It's the best act WWE currently has going, and by the end of the Draft it remained untouched. Sometimes no change is good change.

Sasha Banks

Between the Draft and the early announcements for the Crown Jewel pay-per-view, WWE's Women's Championships are suddenly tangled up. Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair both got moved to Raw, leaving Banks as the only one in the upcoming SmackDown Women's Championship who is actually still on the Blue Brand. Barring any swerves beforehand, that pretty much ensures she's winning the title.

Drew McIntyre

For as great as he was as WWE Champion, McIntyre was in serious need of some new opponents after his rivalry with Bobby Lashley had been run into the ground. The obvious next step (after his match with Big E at Crown Jewel, though it feels pretty obvious how that will end) is for him to start chasing Roman, which could lead to the sequel of what wound up being an outstanding match at last year's Survivor Series.

Hit Row

Whether or not Top Dolla and B-FAB can hold their own in the ring remains to be seen, but as an act Hit Row has been white-hot since they initially formed and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott is a legitimately great wrestler. With all of the changes going down in NXT 2.0, this felt like the perfect time for them to get out.

Alpha Academy

Chad Gable and the newly-reformed Otis have been outstanding over the past few months but they seemed to be trapped in a never-ending feud with The Street Profits. The tag division on Raw isn't particularly great, but at least it's a change of scenery and the two could always operate as singles wrestlers working together "for the Academy."

Seth Rollins

Despite the mountain of storytelling that would have been behind it, WWE never wanted to pull the trigger on a Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins heel vs. heel program. And because of that, there wasn't much else for Seth to do beyond terrorize Edge and Cesaro.