Explaining WWE’s Championship Confusion Following the 2023 WWE Draft

The 2023 WWE Draft saw a number of champions change brands this week, leading to some confusion over what’s going to happen to those titles in the immediate future. Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair moved to SmackDown during Night 1, while SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley was picked to remain on Raw at the start of Night 2. This seems to be setting the stage for yet another infamous championship exchange, something we’ve previously seen happen between The New Day & Street Profits as well as Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch (in a rather contentious fashion). 

However, both women are set to defend their titles this Saturday at the Backlash pay-per-view in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Belair is taking on Damage CTRL’s Iyo Sky while Ripley is facing Zelina Vega in her home country. Since both Sky and Vega were also drafted to SmackDown, WWE will have to address the situation next week regardless of who wins on Saturday. This could be via a title swap or some sort of talent exchange that gets the Raw Women’s Championship back on Monday nights. 

And then there’s the NXT women’s titles. Current NXT Women’s Champion Indi Hartwell successfully retained her title at Spring Breakin’ last week against Roxanne Perez and Tiffany Stratton but has been drafted to the Raw roster. She’ll either have to relinquish the title on tonight’s NXT or drop it in an impromptu title match against an unknown opponent. Tonight’s NXT already has an NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship match booked as Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre are scheduled to take on Katana Chance & Kayden Carter. The problem is Dawn & Fyre have been drafted to SmackDown and Chance & Carter are moving on to Raw, so it’s unclear if the winners of tonight’s match will have to immediately relinquish the titles. 

Finally, there’s the question of what WWE intends to do with its main roster tag titles. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens were drafted to Raw as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions and it’s unclear if the pair will continue to defend their titles on both shows, if WWE will split up the titles, or if they’ll go the same route as the world championships and create a new set of titles for the SmackDown roster. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez were also drafted to Raw and it’s unknown if they’ll still be able to appear on both brands as well. Stay tuned for clarification on all of these situations as they unfold!