WWE Draft 2024

The WWE draft is an annual event where the WWE roster is split between the two major brands, WWE Raw and SmackDown. Even the superstars from NXT are included in the draft and may be assigned to one of these two brands. The draft is designed to shake up the WWE landscape and create new storylines and rivalries. It is a highly anticipated event by fans and wrestlers alike, as it can have a significant impact on the direction of their careers.

The 2024 WWE draft is the 18th edition of the draft and will air as a two-night event beginning with the April 26 edition of SmackDown and concluding on the April 29 episode of RAW.

WWE Draft 2024 - Every Draft Pick

WWE Draft 2024 - SmackDown, April 26, 2024

Round	Brand	Wrestler Drafted
Round 1	SmackDown	Bianca Belair
	Raw	Jey Uso
	SmackDown	Carmelo Hayes
	Raw	Seth "Freakin" Rollins
Round 2	SmackDown	Randy Orton
	Raw	Bron Breakker
	SmackDown	Nia Jax
	Raw	Liv Morgan
Round 3	SmackDown	LA Knight
	Raw	Ricochet
	SmackDown	The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, and Paul Heyman)
	Raw	Sheamus
Round 4	SmackDown	AJ Styles
	Raw	Alpha Academy (Chad Gable, Otis, Akira Tozawa, and Maxxine Dupri)
	SmackDown	Andrade
	Raw	Kiana James

WWE Draft Picks announced on Social Media after SmackDown

Brand	Wrestler Picked
SmackDown	The O.C
	Baron Corbin
	Cedric Alexander
	Ashante Adonis
RAW	Shayna Baszler
	Zoey Stark
	Alba Fyre
	Isla Dawn

WWE Draft 2024 - RAW April 29, 2024

Round	Brand Drafted to	Wrestler
Round one:	Raw	Imperium (Gunther & Ludwig Kaiser)
	SmackDown	Jade Cargill
	Raw	Damage CTRL (IYO SKY, Dakota Kai, Kairi Sane, & Asuka)
	SmackDown	Kevin Owens
Round two:	Raw	CM Punk
	SmackDown	The Pride (Bobby Lashley, Angelo Dawkins, Montez Ford, B-Fab)
	Raw	Braun Strowman
	SmackDown	Tiffany Stratton
Round three:	Raw	LWO (Rey Mysterio, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde, Zelina Vega, Dragon Lee, Carlito)
	SmackDown	Legado Del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Humberto Carrillo, Angel Garza, Elektra Lopez)
	Raw	Drew McIntyre
	SmackDown	Shinsuke Nakamura
Round four:	Raw	Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh)
	SmackDown	Naomi
	Raw	Ilja Dragunov
	SmackDown	Chelsea Green & Piper Niven
Round five:	Raw	The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods)
	SmackDown	Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson)
	Raw	Lyra Valkyria
	SmackDown	Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell
Round six:	Raw	The Final Testament (Karrion Kross, AOP, Scarlett, Paul Ellering)
	SmackDown	DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa)
	Raw	Bronson Reed
	SmackDown	Blair Davenport

WWE Draft Picks announced on Social Media after SmackDown

Brand Drafted to	Wrestler
Raw	Dijak
	The Creed Brothers
	Ivy Nile
	New Catch Republic (Tyler Bate & Pete Dunne)
	Kayden Carter & Katana Chance
	Natalya
	Odyssey Jones
SmackDown	Giovanni Vinci
	Tegan Nox
	Apollo Crews

WWE Draft 2024 Info - Date, Where to watch?

WWE Draft 2024 took place over two nights - the April 26, 2024 episode of Friday Night SmackDown and on the April 29, 2024 episode of Monday Night RAW. Besides RAW and SmackDown, the picks were also announced through WWE' Bump, RAW Talk, Talking Smack and its official social media handles. The episode of SmackDown will aired live from Cincinnati, Ohio while RAW aired from Kansas City, Missouri.

The two-night event can be viewed on their respective channels. SmackDown airs on Fox while RAW airs on the USA Network in the United States. Viewers elsewhere can view the draft at the same place they watch these weekly programs.

WWE Draft 2024 Rules

The 2024 WWE Draft took place over two nights, with a total of 40 draft picks being made. Champions on each brand were not eligible to be drafted, including Raw's Becky Lynch, Damian Priest, Awesome Truth, and Sami Zayn, and SmackDown's Cody Rhodes, Bayley, A-Town Down Under, and Logan Paul. Other superstars are still up for grabs, even if they hold championship titles.

For instance, the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Asuka and Kairi Sane could be drafted to a different brand. There were 16 picks on the first night and 24 picks on the second night. SmackDown will get the first pick on the first night, and Raw will take the first pick on the second night. The new rosters will go into effect from May 6, 2024, which is the RAW after Backlash France.

How does the WWE draft work?

The draft typically takes place over several days and involves a series of picks between the two brands. Each brand takes turns selecting wrestlers from a pool of available talent until both rosters are filled. Wrestlers who are not selected in the draft become free agents and can be signed by either brand in the weeks following the event. The purpose of the draft is to create competition between the two brands and to keep the storylines fresh and exciting for fans. The draft is also used to move wrestlers between brands in order to create new matchups and rivalries.

Some drafts are not as large as others. While the 2002 and 2016 drafts had superstars being assigned brands, other drafts merely had them changing brands.

When is the next WWE draft?

The latest WWE draft was from April 26, 2024 (SmackDown) to April 29, 2024 (RAW). Fans can tune into Fox to watch SmackDown and the USA Network to stream Monday Night RAW to watch their favorite wrestlers get drafted in the annual WWE draft.

WWE Draft History

After the highly acclaimed Monday Night Wars came to an end, WWE bought its rival WCW in 2001. Not only did the promotion buy its rival’s assets and programs, but it also hired most of the talents of WCW at the time. Throughout the year, more and more former WCW stars started joining WWE and the promotion also saw a rise in the number of wrestlers coming from its developmental brand OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling).

This led to a significant increase in WWE’s roster size within a span of a year. To adequately give time to its talents, the promotion decided to split its roster in half and make a superstar exclusive to either RAW or SmackDown.

The Rock was the first-ever superstar to get drafted when he was selected by SmackDown as their number-one pick followed by The Undertaker who became RAW’s number-one pick. WWE would then go on to organize the event annually and it also added ECW in 2006 upon the brand’s revival. The brand was active in the draft before its eventual retirement in 2010.

WWE discontinued the draft after the 2011 edition because it decided to remove the brand extension and merge both RAW and SmackDown. In 2012, NXT was created and had a dedicated roster. It led to RAW and SmackDown being called the main roster of the WWE.

WWE re-introduced the brand extension in 2016. This time, however, SmackDown was given only two picks for every three picks by its Monday counterpart. The reason was that SmackDown being a two-hour show didn’t require a roster as big as RAW, which is three hours long. The draft has been organized annually ever since with the exception of 2021 when the process was not held. Also, there were two drafts held in 2019 - one in April and the other in October. While no star is drafted into NXT, the superstars from the Black and Gold brand can be drafted into either RAW or SmackDown.

WWE Draft 2023

SmackDown - April 28 draft

Superstar(s)	Former brand	Picked by
The Bloodline (Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa with Paul Heyman)	SmackDown	SmackDown
Cody Rhodes	Raw	Raw
Bianca Belair	Raw	SmackDown
Becky Lynch	Raw	Raw
The Street Profits(Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford)	Raw	SmackDown
Imperium(Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser, and Giovanni Vinci)	SmackDown	Raw
Edge	Raw	SmackDown
Matt Riddle	Raw	Raw
Bobby Lashley	Raw	SmackDown
Drew McIntyre	SmackDown	Raw
The O.C.(AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and "Michin" Mia Yim)	Raw	SmackDown
The Miz	Raw	Raw
Damage CTRL(Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky)	Raw	SmackDown
Shinsuke Nakamura	SmackDown	Raw
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn	NXT	SmackDown
Indi Hartwell	NXT	Raw

SmackDown Lowdown Draft April 29

Superstar (s)	Former brand	Picked by
Apollo Crews	NXT	Raw
Candice LeRae	Raw	Raw
Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville	Raw (Green)SmackDown (Deville)	Raw
Dexter Lumis	Raw	Raw
Hit Row(Ashante "Thee" Adonis, B-Fab, and Top Dolla)	SmackDown	SmackDown
JD McDonagh	NXT	Raw
Lacey Evans	SmackDown	SmackDown
Maximum Male Models(ma.çé and mån.sôör with Maxxine Dupri)	Raw	Raw
Natalya	SmackDown	Raw
The Viking Raiders(Erik and Ivar with Valhalla)	SmackDown	Raw
Zoey Stark	NXT	Raw

RAW draft - May 1

Superstar(s)	Former brand	Picked by
Rhea Ripley	Raw	Raw
Austin Theory	Raw	SmackDown
Seth "Freakin" Rollins	Raw	Raw
Charlotte Flair	SmackDown	SmackDown
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn	Raw (Owens)SmackDown (Zayn)	Raw
The Usos(Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso)	SmackDown	SmackDown
The Judgment Day(Finn Bálor, Damian Priest, and Dominik Mysterio)	Raw	Raw
Latino World Order(Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde, and Zelina Vega)	SmackDown	SmackDown
Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodríguez	SmackDown	Raw
Asuka	Raw	SmackDown
The New Day(Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)	SmackDown	Raw
The Brawling Brutes(Sheamus, Ridge Holland, and Butch)	SmackDown	SmackDown
Trish Stratus	Raw	Raw
Karrion Kross with Scarlett	SmackDown	SmackDown
Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler	SmackDown	Raw
LA Knight	SmackDown	SmackDown
Braun Strowman and Ricochet	SmackDown	Raw
Shotzi	SmackDown	SmackDown
Bronson Reed	Raw	Raw
Pretty Deadly(Elton Prince and Kit Wilson)	NXT	SmackDown
Alpha Academy(Chad Gable and Otis)	Raw	Raw
Rick Boogs	Raw	SmackDown
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter	NXT	Raw
Cameron Grimes	NXT	SmackDown

RAW Talk - May 1

Superstar (s)	Former brand	Picked by
Akira Tozawa	Raw	Raw
Dana Brooke	Raw	Raw
Emma	SmackDown	Raw
Grayson Waller	NXT	SmackDown
Indus Sher(Jinder Mahal, Sanga, and Veer Mahaan)	NXT	Raw
Johnny Gargano	Raw	Raw
Los Lotharios(Angel and Humberto)	SmackDown	Raw
Nikki Cross	Raw	Raw
Odyssey Jones	NXT	Raw
Piper Niven	Raw	Raw
Riddick Moss	SmackDown	Raw
Tamina	Raw	SmackDown
Tegan Nox	SmackDown	Raw
Xia Li	SmackDown	Raw

Free Agents after the draft

Superstar (s)	Former brand
Baron Corbin	Raw
Brock Lesnar	Free agent
Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin	Raw
Dolph Ziggler	Raw
Elias	Raw
Mustafa Ali	Raw
Omos with MVP	Raw
Von Wagner	NXT
Xyon Quinn	NXT

WWE Draft - First pick of every draft

Can NXT Superstars be drafted into RAW or SmackDown?

Yes. While NXT is not considered for assigning superstars in the draft, it has been used as a talent pool in the same. NXT superstars have been included in the draft from the 2016 draft, which was also the first draft after the introduction of the NXT Championship in 2012. Finn Balor was the first superstar to be drafted from NXT when he was chosen as RAW’s number three pick in the 2016 draft. American Alpha were the first players to go from NXT to SmackDown via the WWE draft.