The 2023 WWE Draft Already Feels Pointless
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Ending the month of April on what seemed to be a major note, WWE hosted another edition of the WWE Draft, a sometimes annual event where the company mixes up its rosters for the sake of generating excitement amongst the fanbase. This year's draft was seemingl quite meaningful on paper, as WWE announced a larger-than-expected amount of NXT call ups, as well as gave fans an introduction to the brand new WWE World Championship. Just a few days since the 2023 WWE Draft has concluded, it already seems as if the company has walked back some of their decisions in regard to brand exclusivity, negating this year's WWE Draft in record time.
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Ahead Of WWE Backlash, Triple H Announced The New Raw World Championship Is Up For Both Brands
During a press conference hosted in Puerto Rico ahead of WWE Backlash, Triple H shared the news about the World Championship Tournament beginning soon, letting fans know that not only will this new Raw-branded title be up for grabs for the current set of Raw wrestlers, but also any wrestlers on SmackDown on well. With the entire idea behind this championship already feeling like it is the second place prize to Roman Reigns' Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, the company announcing that this brand-specific belt is no longer brand-specific just weeks after first sharing it with the world, has immediately given the company a bit of egg on the face.
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It remains to be seen how this tournament will play out, or who will even win the new belt, though many are expecting Seth Rollins to become the first champion, but so far, the new WWE World Championship is off to a rough start following the WWE Draft.
Wrestlers Have Stated, Despite Being Drafted To One Brand, That They Will Be On Both Shows
If the news that the brand new WWE World Championship was now a co-branded belt didn't kill all the credibility of the WWE Draft, a few wrestlers would do that on their own. Following the 2023 WWE Draft, longtime member of the WWE Women's Division, Natalya, shared a statement that, despite being drafted to Monday Night Raw, she would still be wrestling on SmackDown, as she shared the following during an interview with The Archive of B-Sox, "It’s exciting. I got drafted from SmackDown to RAW, but that doesn’t mean that I still can’t show up on SmackDown. That’s kind of the cool part about being in WWE. You’re drafted to a certain brand, but if the storyline calls for it, you can show up on another show. It’s cool."
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Furthermore, WWE made the bold decision of calling up Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre, the current NXT Women's Tag Team Champions, placing the goth duo on SmackDown while holding their titles. Following the WWE Draft, SmackDown now only has two women's teams, with Dawn and Fyre, and the trio of Damage CTRL, with PWInsider reporting that the plan is for the NXT Women's Tag Team Championships to be defended across Raw, SmackDown, and NXT, further cementing this year's draft as total nonsense. For what it's worth, Raw also drafted Indi Hartwell just days before she vacated the NXT Women's Championship, with the possibility that she would also tour the brands, defending the NXT belt across Raw, SmackDown, and NXT.
The Idea Of Signed Wrestlers Being Free Agents Is Executed Horribly
Following the ending of the 2023 WWE Draft, there would be a number of eligible wrestlers that were left undrafted, with WWE announcing that they would become free agents, being able to appear on any of the shows. These included NXT's Xyon Quinn and Von Wagner, Elias, Shelton Benjamin, Cedric Alexander, Dolph Ziggler, Mustafa Ali, Omos, Baron Corbin, and Brock Lesnar. While in theory, this could have made for some possibly exciting moments with surprise appearances, outside of Brock Lesnar, none of the free agents are big, marquee names for the fans to get excited over, with Wagner and Quinn being two NXT Superstars that fans don't really have any attachment towards.
What makes all of this worse, as you may have guessed, is the fact that WWE themselves have already announced Raw and SmackDown wrestlers will be wrestling on both shows in the upcoming WWE World Championship Tournament, and that it appears as if the women's divisions will all be co-branded as well, leading to no brand exclusivity, which raises the question of what the point of this year's WWE Draft was in the first place.
