With the announcement of the latest WWE Draft the possibilities are endless. Raw has some glaring problems that Smackdown doesn’t seem to have. With the history of the Draft you always see Smackdown being treated almost like a developmental brand. WWE does not seem to understand that now Smackdown is on Fox, it should be WWE’s number one brand. With how Smackdown fared in Survivor Series 2019 it seems like that they still don’t understand. This will be the major focus point on my predictions to the draft. NXT doesn’t matter to Vince, Smackdown doesn’t matter to Vince only Monday Night Raw does.
With that being stated I believe that WWE will switch Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns and thus once again switch Universal and WWE Championships. Roman Reigns has a firm grip on what he is now. He’s the top heel in the WWE and is ready to lead the company on it’s true flagship show. Drew seems to have been given the championship because Brock was leaving WWE soon after Mania, so they quickly turned McIntyre face and put him the position to win the Royal Rumble. Terribly he didn’t have a great WrestleMania moment defeating Lesnar because the crowd couldn’t attend. He’s never really had a firm grip on the crowd. I don’t think it is the right time to give up on his championship run but it might be time for a change in venue. Smackdown needs more faces and Raw desperately needs heels. This might not work well for Fox, but Vince always makes Raw the priority. This will make Raw once again the Big Dog’s yard.
Also, I believe the draft will be a great way to make sure we get a major feud at WrestleMania for the Smackdown Woman’s Championship. I’m predicting that the Boss Sasha Banks will be moved from Smackdown to Raw. Sasha and Bayley need some time a part and this is a pretty good way to make it happen. This match is years in the making and really needs nay demands the Grandest Stage of Them All. The best way to build a feud is not just having match after match between two superstars. The best way to build tension is for the combatants to not even touch each other for as long as possible. This was seen in perfection in Extreme Championship Wrestling with the feud between Sabu and Taz. WWE doesn’t seem to understand or get this concept but I’m feeling they might see it this time. The feud has been teased for years and this time and place doesn’t feel right. There is no live crowd and the energy WWE Thunderdome produces is not sufficient for what Bayley and Sasha have built since 2015 and even before that during their time at the Performance Center. Sasha moves to Monday Night Raw and enters the 2021 Royal Rumble and wins it for the chance to get back to Smackdown and knock off her former best friend for the championship at WrestleMania.
Whenever there is a draft there is usually one rule: The Miz switches brands. This time however I think he also brings along John Morrison. The Raw Tag Championships don’t seem to have many legit challengers right now. The injury at Clash of Champions seems to put out Street Profits only threat. The supposed “Greatest Tag Team of the 21st Century” will do well against Montez Ford and DeAngelo Dawkins. Tag teams are also in short supply on SmackDown but currently there is a heel tag team holding the titles in the form of Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. So, I feel the time is right for Raw to say goodbye to the newly formed alliance of Apollo Crews and Ricochet. I feel that they might make a good combination and opponents for the Smackdown champions. Either way Raw has lost the Viking Raiders and Smackdown seems to have lost Heavy Machinery to Otis’ singles run as Mr. Money in the Bank. No idea if Otis will be using that briefcase any time soon but he could be using it to trade in for a tag team title. No one has ever tried that but there is always a first time for everything. I doubt they have a serious plan on using him as a World Champion but who knows. He might get drafted to Raw and be reunited with his girlfriend Many Rose as well which would effectively kill Heavy Machinery for good.
If WWE sees reason and doesn’t do the WWE Championship/Universal Championship switch I feel the top heel coming to Raw would probably be Baron Corbin. There is a lack of challengers for Drew and the WWE Championship currently on Raw. The 2019 King of the Ring has been consistently great for years and sometimes flying under the radar on how great he really has been. Fans hate this guy and they hate him good. He has the height if not the weight to stand face-to-face with the champion. He has the look and he has the heat and all he really needs is an opportunity to show what he can do on the highest level. The former alliance they shared with Bobby Lashley could be used to great affect to heighten the feud. The King could easily move to Raw and try to make it his Kingdom.
Also, along with that if the WWE Championship stays on Smackdown I feel they will pull the trigger and put Keith Lee against Roman Reigns. Roman and Lee have a short history in the WWE. They were the two final competitors in the Triple Threat 15-man Survivor Series match Raw Vs. Smackdown Vs. NXT. Keith Lee looked very impressive face to face with the Big Dog. They shared a moment of respect after the match and it was obvious that Roman gave the Limitless One the rub almost the biggest way possible. Lee used that push to capture both the NXT North American Championship and the NXT Championship on his way to becoming a hit at the Royal Rumble and the biggest move post-WrestleMania. The change in his music, attire and everything involving him just hasn’t worked on Raw. The lack of legit face challengers on Smackdown to face Roman Reigns cannot be ignored. If they aren’t switching the titles, they need more challengers for him to face and they needed before WrestleMania.
WWE seem to have side-swiped the Fiend Bray Wyatt as top heel with Reigns becoming the champion and new top heel. The future of the Fiend is up in the air as well as we have seen him effecting Alexa Bliss from afar. The Fiend might also be a switch to Raw to challenge Drew for his championship, but I hope they don’t do that. The Fiend killed Seth Rollins championship run dead at Hell in the Cell last year and nothing has worked in reviving Rollins in any effective way. It might be a good idea to dump the Messiah gimmick entirely and maybe move him to Smackdown as a babyface as a challenger to the heel Roman Reigns. That’s a matchup that has been done to death but has not been done in that way before. Rollins has always been the heel and Reigns has always been the babyface when they fought for championships.
Finally, we come to the end with a discussion on what to do with the third WWE brand: NXT. With them in battle with AEW Dynamite it is very hard to predict what WWE will do to change their almost pure professional wrestling show. We have seen many NXT stars go to the main roster and flounder, but we also have seen some succeed. People focus on the negatives and forget about Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Apollo Crews etc. The focus of success seems to be on the woman’s side though with the Four Horsewomen so I feel that trend will continue. I feel like it is time for Rhea Ripley to make her main roster debut. It will probably be Smackdown to give Bayley a credible challenger while they wait on the Sasha and Bayley feud. Rhea might even get the title for a time while they wait for the moment to be right for their big feud. Charlotte being out injured is a good thing and sooner rather than later they will face each other once again. I’d primarily keep NXT the way it is but maybe the Undisputed Era could be moved to either brand to be a foil for Retribution.
WWE always likes to say that their drafts are unpredictable. We’ve seen enough of them to know that’s just not the case. There are always possibilities, but they always seem to air on the side of non-meaningful changes. We will see on the two-day event but sometimes they can surprise us.
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