WWE hosts the draft on Friday October 9th & Monday October 12th. It will be a full brand redraft with a deep pool of talent available. Before WWE does their own draft, we enlisted two of Full Press Wrestling’s best and brightest to draft their own rosters. Javier Melo & Kaden Hanafi are drafting for SmackDown and Raw, respectively. These two are drafting and following the official draft rules and draft pool laid out by WWE. Check out their draft results below, and keep reading for their roster explanations.
Round 1: Kaden: Roman Reigns; Javier: Drew McIntyre; K: Asuka; J: New Day; K: Hurt Business
Round 2: K: Sasha Banks; J: Bianca Belair; K: The Mysterios; J: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler; K: AJ Styles
Round 3: K: Naomi; J: Seth Rollins; K: Ricochet; J: Angel Garza; K: Murphy
Round 4: K: Mandy Rose; J: Mickie James; K: Jey Uso; J: Shorty G; K: Dana Brooke
Round 5 (Last Round of Night 1): K: Heavy Machinery; J: Lucha House Party; K: Elias; J: Drew Gulak; K: Humberto Carrillo
Round 6 (First Round of Night 2): K: The Fiend; J: Bayley; K: Aleister Black; J: Sami Zayn; K: Keith Lee
Round 7: K: Charlotte; J: Kevin Owens; K: Retribution; J: Daniel Bryan; K: Matt Riddle
Round 8: K: Street Profits; J: Sheamus; K: Peyton Royce; J: Billie Kay; K: Jeff Hardy
Round 9: K: Miz and Morrison; J: Alexa Bliss; K: Lacey Evans; J: Riott Squad; K: Andrade
Round 10: K: Randy Orton; J: Cesaro & Nakamura; K: Apollo Crews; J: Nikki Cross; K: Carmella
Round 11: K: R-Truth; J: Natalya; K: Zelina Vega; J: Roode and Ziggler; K: Braun Strowman
Round 12: K: Lana; J: Baron Corbin; K: Dabbo-Kato; J: Arturo Ruas; K: Erik
Round 13: K: Tamina; J: Titus O’Neil; K: Moss; J: Akira Tozawa
Monday Night Raw: Kaden’s Explanation
I wanted to start out strong by choosing Roman. He’s consistently been the best character in the company over the last two months, making it a no-brainer. I built on this by keeping Asuka on Raw where she belongs. Once Javier took New Day I needed to counter with a faction, choosing Hurt Business. I then focused on using these picks as building blocks for the rest of my roster, with Sasha being the top contender for the women’s belt followed by an array of blondes: Charlotte, Mandy, Dana, Lacey and Lana.
I wanted to build a solid mid-card before the main event title scene since Roman will hold the title for a long time. That’s why I went with AJ and the Mysterio’s to lead that, with Ricochet, Jeff Hardy and Andrade as top contenders for the mid-card championship. It was also crucial to build a strong tag division and since Javier chose the women’s tag belts I only had to worry about a men’s division. My tag division now has Hurt Business, Retribution, Heavy Machinery, Miz/Morrison, Street Profits, and half of the Viking Raiders and Usos.
I ended up being able to steal some top contenders in later rounds, taking Randy Orton and Braun Strowman. My main event scene is set for the future with the acquisition of Keith Lee and some younger talent such as Murphy (so much potential), Matt Riddle and Aleister Black ready to take over. I absolutely fleeced Javier in this draft.
SmackDown Live: Javier’s Explanation
Okay so before I start this I want to say that I was going to make a Roman v Rey Mysterio storyline that would’ve captivated everyone.
Anyways, My idea with this roster is to keep Drew McIntyre as WWE Champion and have him go up against heel Sheamus. The matches will be so brutal and good and just what I want my main events to look like. The Intercontinental Title, held by Sami Zayn, will be defended against Kevin Owens and we have a double turn on the horizon.
How will I decide who contends for these belts? Easy. Cesaro & Nakamura drop their titles to New Day members Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods. Nakamura turns on his partner now we have a matchup where if Sheamus beats McIntyre, he faces a babyface Cesaro or if McIntyre retains, he faces a heel Nakamura. For the IC Title, I have a pool of Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Angel Garza, Big E, Chad Gable, Gran Metalik and Baron Corbin. Let’s have some great matches and may the best man (Bryan) get brutalized by Owens at some point.
For my Women’s Division, the champion is Bayley. I say we dispose of the tag team thing and just do the one-on-one stuff. With that, Bayley’s first challenger is a babyface Mickie James looking for a shot at the title she’s never won. Alexa Bliss is in a weird state right now so let’s turn her heel and have us a blood feud with Nikki Cross. After that, Shayna, Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Nia Jax, Natalya and Billie Kay can be thrown together for some engaging matchups.
My tag division is definitely where I struggle. My champs will be Kofi & Woods, but who do they challenge? Well, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode. There are two teams in the wings and both are thrown together. The first is a comedy team of Titus O’Neil & Akira Tozawa. They’ll be funny and fun and not much else. The second team is one I actually really like, which is a brutal heel team of Arturo Ruas & Drew Gulak. Two guys who can twist you into a pretzel and make you tap. I love the idea of them just being badasses and destroying jobbers and that Tozawa & O’Neil team before setting their sights on the titles.
And that, everyone, is Smackdown Live under Javier’s management.
