Former WWE Writer Sheds Light on How The WWE Draft Has Been Planned in Recent Years

The WWE Draft was revived in 2016 when WWE reintroduced the brand split between Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown. It would then go on to be a consistent staple of WWE's schedule up until 2021, though WWE consistently tried to shake things up with other ideas like the Superstar Shake-up, the "Wildcard Rule" and the "Brand-to-Brand" invitational. 2022 came and went without a Draft, though by that point the brand split had been weakened to a point where it was barely noticeable even after Paul Levesque took over WWE Creative.

Former WWE writer Chris Dunn was a recent guest on the Behind Enemy Lines podcast and shed some light on how the Draft was mapped out in recent years. In short, there wasn't much consistency year-to-year in how it was planned.

"Ever year I was there, it completely varied. It's like those are the highest levels of conversations. Now, there have been ones where it's been planned out months in advance," Dunn explained (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "There have been ones that change even the day of. But usually, this is how you want to do it — you pick your top man and woman from each brand and then you pick their opponents for the year. Like, what are fresh matches? And kind of go from there." 

Dunn then mentioned how top stars like Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair were used as centerpieces for each brand — "That's kind of what you want to do, you want to build a brand around your big tentpoles like SummerSlam, Rumble, 'Mania, and the draft process, but it varies consistently."

According to the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, WWE isn't planning on holding another Draft until after WrestleMania 39 his coming April. The Draft was initially scheduled for a couple of weeks after WrestleMania when it was first reintroduced, then was pushed out to early October starting in 2019. That change made for some particularly awkward Survivor Series pay-per-views in November as those shows centered around "brand supremacy" yet were comprised of completely news rosters, but that concept was ditched last year in favor of two headlining WarGames matches. 

What do you think WWE should do with the Draft this year? Or should the brand split be abolished completely? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!