The 2016 edition of the WWE Draft is finally behind us. And it was a little underwhelming. There was speculation that WWE were planning a host of surprises for the Draft show, but none materialized giving the Draft a feeling that it underwhelmed in hindsight even though there were bright moments like American Alpha and Finn Balor finally getting called up.
A lot of performers will be happy following the draft, but quite a few will be unhappy at the way the draft panned out who will be worrying about the future in the company. The draft was a huge disappointment for these Superstars who now find themselves in troubled waters without a lifeboat.
#5 Braun Strowman
Simply put, it’s now sink or swim for for Braun Strowman. The WWE Draft wasn’t kind to him with the Wyatt family splitting up. Strowman has been positioned as the muscle of the Wyatt Family since his professional wrestling debut and has worked with wrestling legends like The Undertaker, Kane and Brock Lesnar.
His role has been being more of Bray Wyatt’s bodyguard, than to be a wrestler.
With the Wyatt Family now seemingly over, Brau Strowman’s career is at a crossroad.
As the 48th overall draft pick, his chances as a singles star on Raw is limited on a roster that’s pretty stacked. Strowman is green in the ring and will likely have to be carried by smaller and better workers.
Sadly, at this moment in time it seems like Strowman is on the path to be the next Brodus Clay, rather than a monster heel.
#4 Carmella
It’s sad that Carmella is on this list even though she just got called up from NXT. The unfortunate part of the call up is that Carmella is now separated from ‘her boys’, Enzo and Cass.
Carmella is talented but her in-ring work is nothing special and it was seemingly a no-brainer to pair her up with the super over Certified G’s.
Instead, Carmella is now part of the super thin women’s division on SmackDown along with fellow NXT call up Alexa Bliss. The problem is that someone as inexperienced as Carmella should have been in the women’s division with more seasoned veterans like Paige, Sasha and Charllotte who could make her look good in the ring.
The main disappointment however is her not being paired up with Enzo and Cass again.
#3 Sin Cara & Kalisto
When it was announced before last week’s Raw that the Lucha Dragons were splitting up before the Draft, it was assumed that Kalisto would be signed to Raw for its Cruiserweight Division.
However, that wasn’t the case on Draft night. Sin Cara went to Raw and Kalisto got signed to SmackDown.
With Sin Cara, he doesn’t look like he’ll be a singles star on Raw’s stacked midcard. He’s going to start jobbing out to more over stars within a matter of weeks. As for Kalisto, he’s one of the most talented cruiserweights signed to the WWE right now.
Why he isn’t going to be a featured star on the cruiserweight division is baffling. The likes of him and Neville have the potential to be the faces of that division.
One thing that really counts against Kalisto is his complete lack of any kind of promo ability which might be one reason why he got signed to the two-hour SmackDown which will mean less need for promo time.
#2 Cesaro
It’s beginning to look increasingly likely that WWE will never pull the trigger on Cesaro, no matter how popular he is amongst WWE’s fanbase.
Even though fans were hopeful since his reappearance following Wrestlemania 32, Cesaro ended up being the 28th overall draft pick on Raw, not a good position to be in for someone who’s seemingly been on the cusp of superstardom for years with the like of the Big Show being drafted ahead of him. Really? The Big Show?
Even Daniel Bryan, who’s wrestled Cesaro all over the world, didn’t see the value of picking up the Swiss Superman and instead signed the likes of Dolph Ziggler and Natalya ahead of him.
Cesaro even lost to Chris Jericho on the draft show before his pick got announced. Not a good way to build momentum.
Obviously, Cesaro could turn all of this around based on how good he is in the ring, but that’ll not be because of any sort of push WWE give him. It’s an uphill battle once again for Cesaro and the Cesaro Section.
#1 SmackDown
It was always going to be an uphill battle for those in-charge of SmackDown, given the way the Draft had been shaped with Raw getting 3 picks for every 2 SmackDown picks which meant that SmackDown would have to get in their big picks as soon as possible.
They did what they could and even though they got WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, Cena and Orton as their top stars, it isn’t an ideal situation especially when you have an eye out for the future.
Out of the four previously mentioned Superstars, three of them are 36 or older while Cena is looking to become more of a part time performer while Orton is injury prone. They do also have Bray Wyatt, but they’ll have to build him up and give him some credibility first.
The tag-team division and the women’s division on SmackDown on the other hand are totally threadbare. If American Alpha hadn’t gotten drafted to SmackDown, that tag divison was on the verge of being irrelevant with all the big tag-teams like The New Day, Enzo and Cass and The Club going to Raw.
The women’s division is basically Becky Lynch with lesser players supporting her. Even though Becky being on SmackDown is good for her, because she’s the #1 women’s wrestler on the show, the division as a whole depends on the success of NXT call ups Alexa Bliss and Carmella, who are a little inexperienced.
The midcard, consisting of the likes of Corbin, Ziggler and Del Rio, is also stale beyond imagination. Calling up Mojo Rawley isn’t going to change that. How the likes of Apollo Crews and Cesaro aren’t on SmackDown to balance out the midcard is as baffling as the kayfabe NXT ‘call ups’ which ignored the likes of Bayley, Nakamura and Joe.
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