WWE Draft: Every No. 1 Pick in Company History
The Rock (2002)
The big storyline surrounding the initial draft was that Vince McMahon had control over SmackDown while Ric Flair ran Raw, and the two sides tried to outdo each other with each pick. McMahon went first and chose The Rock, while Flair selected The Undertaker.
prevnextRenee Dupree (2004)
The Draft was drastically changed after the idea was first introduced. Two years later general managers Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman drew wrestlers' names at random as part of a lottery. SmackDown had the first pick in 2004 and Renee Dupree, a member of La Resistance at the time, was chosen.
prevnextJohn Cena (2005, 2011)
Fresh off winning his first of 16 world championships, John Cena was brought over to Monday Night Raw as the first overall pick in the 2005 Draft. Six years later he was randomly selected to go to SmackDown at the start of the Draft, but when the Red Brand earned the final pick of the event he was selected to stay on Raw.
prevnextThe Great Khali (2007)
After the 2006 Draft was tweaked to send two big stars from Raw and SmackDown to the revived ECW (Rob Van Dam and Kurt Angle), the 2007 Draft saw all three brands fighting for picks in matches. SmackDown won the first pick when Edge beat John Cena, resulting in The Great Khali getting randomly selected to head to The Blue Brand. The giant would go on to win the World Heavyweight Championship a month later.
prevnextRey Mysterio (2008)
Triple H defeated Mark Henry to earn Raw the first pick in 2008, resulting in Rey Mysterio making the jump to the Red Brand.
prevnextMVP (2009)
A year after he was drafted to Raw, Mysterio earned his show the first overall pick in 2009. MVP, who was United States Champion at the time, got the nod.
prevnextKelly Kelly (2010)
Kelly Kelly was the first woman to ever be selected first in the WWE Draft when Lay-Cool (Michelle McCool and Layla) beat Maryse and Eve Torres to send the future Divas Champion to SmackDown.
prevnextSeth Rollins (2016)
The initial brand split between Raw and SmackDown officially ended in August 2011 and would not be seen again until 2016. The random lottery format was abandoned in favor of commissioners Shane McMahon (SmackDown) and Stephanie McMahon (Raw) and their respective general managers (Daniel Bryan and Mick Foley) making the selections. It also introduced the idea of Raw consistently getting more picks than SmackDown due to it being one hour longer. Seth Rollins, still in the back pocket of The Authority at the time, was chosen No. 1 overall by Stephanie.
prevnextBecky Lynch (2019)
Over the next three years, the Draft was replaced by the Superstar Shake-up and had the two brands trading wrestlers rather than making picks. The brand split was then heavily weakened in early 2019 when Vince McMahon introduced the Wild Card Rule that allowed wrestlers to pop up on the other brands. However, when SmackDown moved to FOX in late 2019 another Draft was held as the brand split was firmly re-established. Becky Lynch, the Raw Women's Champion, was chosen first to stay on Raw. SmackDown immediately followed that by keeping Roman Reigns on SmackDown.
prevnextDrew McIntyre (2020)
Even though COVID-19 had the two rosters working in just one location, WWE still held a Draft in 2020. The first picks saw the two brands keep their respective world champions in WWE Champion Drew McIntyre (Raw) and Universal Champion Roman Reigns (SmackDown). A little over a month after the Draft the pair would clash in the main event of Survivor Series.
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