WWE Reveals Free Agents and More NXT Call-Ups in Night 1 Supplemental Draft

By Matthew Aguilar

The first night of the WWE Draft is officially in the books, though it didn't end when SmackDown went off the air. WWE revealed the rest of the eligible draft picks on today's SmackDown Lowdown, and it included more call-ups from NXT and a number of free agent reveals in addition to Raw and SmackDown picks. Raw and SmackDown kept several of their current stars with their picks, but Raw added way more draft picks than SmackDown, including two NXT superstars in Zoey Stark and JD McDonagh. The current NXT call-up total so far stands at 6, and there's a whole other night of draft picks to go.

The other surprising reveal included the number of free agents, which includes another NXT Call-up in Von Wagner. The other free agents include Omos (with MVP), Mustafa Ali, and Dolph Ziggler. Free agents will be able to show up on either brand and sign with either.

As for the core draft picks, Raw made far more than SmackDown. Raw kept Dexter Lumis, Candice LeRae, Maximum Male Models (ma.cé, mån.sôör & Maxxine Dupri), Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville, and then brought over the Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar, and Valhalla), Natalya, and Apollo Crews.

SmackDown meanwhile only made two draft picks, though they got four people total. SmackDown brought back Hit Row (Top Dolla, Ashante 'Thee' Adonis, and B-Fab) and Lacey Evans. It's surprising how many free agents were included in this first draft, as in the past there are typically only one or two, and yet we're already at four with another night of picks to go.

There are some interesting takeaways from both sides of the draft to this point, even without the full picture from night 2. Raw seems to be adding more NXT talent while SmackDown is bringing in more established star power. Raw has also been drafting more picks overall, but they've used a lot of those picks to keep people on their current roster.

At one point it seemed like Raw would look relatively the same with just a few changes, but this latest selection of picks helped shake that up. SmackDown might also be taking more NXT talent in the second night, but we'll have to wait and see.

Big stars left on the board for night 2 include Rhea Ripley, The Usos, Charlotte Flair, Brock Lesnar, Asuka, Judgement Day, Seth Rollins, and The LWO. There's also a lot of SmackDown's current roster in night 2, like The Brawling Brutes, Karrion Kross (with Scarlett), LA Knight, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, Braun Strowman and Ricochet, Shotzi, Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, and The New Day, so we could see SmackDown using more of their night 2 picks to keep some of their current roster stars.

That said, there are some intriguing NXT stars up for grabs still, like Pretty Deadly, Roxanne Perez, Wes Lee, Cora Jade,, Axiom, Bron Breakker, and of course Carmelo Hayes. NXT already drafted the NXT Women's Champion and the NXT Women's Tag Team Champions, so they could very well draft another Champ or two. That includes Gallus, Lee, and Hayes, but it would be very surprising to see all of the Champions moved to another brand.

What have you thought of the draft so far? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!

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