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As reported by Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue, the ‘Wild Card Rule’ has been quietly wrapped up on WWE television over the last few weeks.
With the exception of the recent developments involving Sasha Banks and Bayley, the majority of high-profile storylines have remained exclusive to one brand (e.g. Roman Reigns’ search for his attacker), while the build-up to the King of the Ring tournament final has been separated between Raw and SmackDown.
Moving forward, it has been reported by POST Wrestling’s John Pollock that WWE will hold its first major draft in over three years when SmackDown moves to FOX, with the first night of roster changes taking place on the October 11 episode of the blue brand’s show. The draft will then be finalised on the October 14 episode of Raw.
This, of course, has led to plenty of speculation about which Superstars could move where and who could receive a renewed push on Raw and SmackDown when the roster changes have been completed.
In this article, let’s count down five Superstars who WWE focused on after the 2016 draft and take a look at what happened next after their initial push.
#5 Apollo Crews
Looking back, the general viewpoint amongst fans is that Apollo Crews received his call-up from NXT far too early in his WWE career.
Crews, formerly known as Uhaa Nation, made his televised in-ring debut with a victory over Tye Dillinger at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in August 2015. Then, although he had not yet built a strong character for himself in NXT, the 240-pounder surprisingly joined the main roster in April 2016 after WrestleMania 32.
Fast forward to August 2016, one month after the WWE Draft, and it looked as though Crews was destined for big things on SmackDown Live when he followed up an appearance in a WWE Championship #1 contender match by defeating Kalisto to become the #1 contender for The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship.
Unfortunately, this resulted in a defeat for Crews in an Intercontinental Championship match which lasted just 5 minutes and 45 seconds at SummerSlam.
That proved to be the end of his initial push on SmackDown Live, as he went on to lose more matches against Baron Corbin, The Miz and Curt Hawkins in the months that followed.
#4 TJP
Following the success of the Cruiserweight Classic, WWE announced that the Raw brand would receive an influx of cruiserweight Superstars shortly after the 2016 Draft.
TJP defeated Da Mack, Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, Kota Ibushi and Gran Metalik to win the 32-man tournament, claiming the newly introduced Cruiserweight Championship in the process, so it was only natural that he featured heavily on Raw after the cruiserweight division joined the red brand.
The former ROH and NJPW star made a good first impression on the main roster, retaining his Cruiserweight Championship against The Brian Kendrick at Clash of Champions, but he soon lost his title against the same opponent at the following month’s Hell In A Cell pay-per-view.
Between October 2016 and June 2017, TJP was unable to regain the title in matches against Kendrick and the next two Cruiserweight Champions, Rich Swann and Neville, and he did not receive any more title opportunities before being granted his release from WWE in February 2019.
#3 Finn Balor
Finn Balor cemented his status as one of the top Superstars in NXT history during his two-year spell with the brand between 2014 and 2016.
Having been chosen as Raw’s third pick in the 2016 Draft, it was obvious that the former NXT Champion would go on to become a major player on the red brand in the build-up to SummerSlam.
On his first night on Raw, the Irishman won a Fatal 4-Way match before pinning Roman Reigns in the main event to set up a match against Seth Rollins for the newly introduced Universal Championship.
Sadly, even though Balor went on to become the inaugural holder of Raw's main male title by defeating Rollins at SummerSlam, he suffered a serious shoulder injury in the match and could not compete again for another eight months.
In the end, Kevin Owens benefited the most from Balor’s injury, as he won the vacant Universal Championship one week later in a Fatal 4-Way match on Raw.
#2 Heath Slater
While Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Charlotte Flair were among the top picks in the 2016 Draft, one of the biggest talking points following the roster changes revolved around somebody who did not even end up on Raw or SmackDown Live.
Heath Slater, a singles competitor at the time following his split from The Social Outcasts, was the only active Superstar on the main roster who went undrafted.
The former Nexus member soon turned that negative into a positive by appearing on both Raw and SmackDown Live in the hope of being given a contract by a Commissioner or General Manager.
In the end, he won over authority figures Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan on SmackDown Live and earned himself a contract with the brand, leading to him joining forces with unlikely ally Rhyno to become the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions at Backlash in September 2016.
Slater & Rhyno’s reign lasted a total of 84 days before they were defeated by Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton at TLC in December 2016.
From that moment on, the comedy duo competed in largely meaningless tag team matches before they were forced to split up when Rhyno left WWE in July 2019.
#1 AJ Styles
AJ Styles participated in high-profile storylines with Chris Jericho and Roman Reigns in his first six months in WWE after joining the company in January 2016.
However, it was not until he became a member of the SmackDown Live roster after the 2016 Draft that he began to truly establish himself as one of WWE’s top Superstars.
Chosen as the fourth overall draft pick, Styles built up a ton of momentum in the weeks that followed the roster changes by defeating John Cena in one of the best matches of 2016 at SummerSlam.
One month later, he went one better by picking up another statement victory over Dean Ambrose – SmackDown’s top draft pick – at Backlash to win the WWE Championship for the first time in his career.
Unlike the other names on this list, there was no setback for “The Phenomenal One” following his post-draft push. Instead, he went on to take part in meaningful storyline after meaningful storyline over the next three years, and he remains one of WWE’s most featured Superstars to this day.
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