The WWE Draft is back. The first WWE SmackDown following WWE WrestleMania 39 saw WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque announce that the company’s main rosters would be reset, as both Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown would make their respective talent pools free agents and would select new superstars to join their shows. Triple H made sure to emphasize that “every” WWE superstar is eligible for this year’s WWE Draft, which indicates that developmental brand NXT will play a big role in the shake-up. Past NXT call-ups have come sporadically, but this year’s batch appears to be grouped together in the draft pool.
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As reported by PWInsider, former NXT UK Champion Ilja Dragunov, former NXT Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly, former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion Zoey Stark, and former NXT North American Champion Cameron Grimes are all expected to be selected by Monday Night Raw or WWE SmackDown during this year’s WWE Draft.
WRKD Wrestling added that both Cora Jade and Joe Gacy are set to work this Monday’s WWE Main Event tapings before Monday Night Raw‘s live broadcast. It is not uncommon for NXT talent to wrestle on WWE Main Event, as current NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes had a brief contest before his hometown crowd of Boston ahead of a March edition of Raw despite having no rumbling of a main roster call-up anytime soon. That said, it is notable that both Jade and Gacy are getting WWE Main Event matches so close to the WWE Draft.
Another name that could find himself on the main roster in the next couple of weeks is Tyler Bate. The inaugural NXT UK Champion wowed both fans and management alike with his recent WWE Main Event contest against Dolph Ziggler. Since NXT UK closed its doors ahead of the upcoming NXT Europe rebrand, Bate has been fairly directionless. His biggest NXT proper program came this past summer when he lost the NXT UK Title to then-NXT Champion Bron Breakker in a unification match.
Speaking of Breakker, he was rumored to have had his Raw after WWE WrestleMania 39 debut delayed due to WWE wanting to save him for the WWE Draft. Breakker recently lost his NXT Championship at NXT Stand & Deliver and turned heel on the subsequent episode of NXT TV. He is scheduled to face Andre Chase this Tuesday at NXT Spring Breakin’, which could prove to be his black and gold swan song.
The WWE Draft begins this Friday on WWE SmackDown and continues next Monday, May 1st on Monday Night Raw.
