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The 2020 WWE Draft will take place on the October 9 episode of WWE SmackDown and the October 12 episode of WWE RAW.
In 2019, a total of 50 WWE Superstars and tag teams were drafted during the two-night WWE Draft, while another 18 were later assigned to either RAW or SmackDown.
The first night of the 2019 Draft featured four rounds of five draft picks, meaning only 20 Superstars and tag teams were drafted on SmackDown. Three nights later, another 30 Superstars and tag teams (six rounds of five draft picks) were revealed on RAW.
WWE has not yet announced the Draft Pools or rules for the 2020 Draft, but we do know that over 80 Superstars and tag teams are eligible to feature in this year’s roster changes.
In this article, let’s take a look at five things that must happen in the 2020 WWE Draft.
#5 WWE must clarify how long Superstars are contracted to a brand
WWE director Bruce Prichard often says on his Something to Wrestle With podcast that people “should not try to apply logic to an illogical situation” when it comes to certain wrestling storylines.
Well, with regards to WWE’s roster changes, there is an illogical flaw in the system that has cropped up after the last two WWE Drafts.
Two months after the 2016 WWE Draft, Jack Swagger was informed that his RAW contract was set to expire. One night later, he showed up on SmackDown and suddenly became a member of the blue brand's roster.
In April 2020, six months after Apollo Crews had been drafted to SmackDown in the 2019 WWE Draft, his contract with the brand came to an end and he was free to join RAW.
If WWE made it clear from the start that those brand contracts were only going to last for a short amount of time, Swagger and Crews’ storylines would have made a bit more sense.
Instead, both storyline developments came completely out of the blue, making it obvious that their imaginary contract lengths were only created because they were not being used on their original brands.
To avoid these illogical scenarios in the future, maybe WWE should introduce a rule change which states that every brand contract lasts until the 2021 Draft.
#4 WWE must draft rivals to the same brand
WWE’s annual roster changes actually meant something after the 2016 Draft and the 2017 Superstar Shake-Up. However, due to the Wildcard Rule, Brand-to-Brand Invitational, and various other loopholes, a lot of Superstars have been allowed to show up on whichever brand they like over the last couple of years.
If this year’s brand moves are going to be taken seriously, WWE must ensure that rivalries between WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown Superstars do not continue in the weeks that follow the 2020 Draft.
For example, let’s say Seth Rollins stays on RAW as The Monday Night Messiah. Rollins vs. Murphy looks set to happen at WWE Hell in a Cell later this month, so those two Superstars should remain on the same brand in the upcoming Draft.
Why? Because if WWE is going to assign over 80 Superstars to a specific brand, there is no way that they should be allowed to show up on a different brand simply because they have an issue with somebody on that show.
It looked as though the WWE SummerSlam 2016 match between RAW’s Brock Lesnar and SmackDown’s Randy Orton was going to be a one-off, with Superstars from opposing brands never meeting again (excluding Survivor Series) after that.
But, as the Drafts/Shake-Ups since then have shown, these RAW vs. SmackDown rivalries often continue for several weeks after the roster changes have been finalized.
That must change in 2020.
#3 WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown must have General Managers
Paul Heyman worked as the Executive Director of RAW when the 2019 WWE Draft took place, while Eric Bischoff had a slightly different role but the same job title behind the scenes on SmackDown.
At the time, it seemed like Heyman and Bischoff would have been the perfect on-screen representatives of their brands during the draft pick announcements, but WWE decided to use Stephanie McMahon in that role instead.
While Stephanie always does a great job as an authority figure, does her WWE character even have the power these days to make those kinds of announcements?
She is a McMahon, of course, which is all the power someone seems to need to make decisions in WWE, but wouldn’t the 2020 Draft be so much better with separate people representing RAW and SmackDown?
Since the 2019 Draft, we have seen several people make decisions that General Managers or Commissioners would usually make – from Corey Graves and The Miz to WWE officials Adam Pearce and Pat Buck.
With the 2020 Draft approaching, perhaps it is time to finally appoint some new storyline decision-makers.
#2 The 2020 WWE Draft must have surprises in the Draft Pools
Last year, WWE announced one day before the 2019 WWE Draft that the two-night extravaganza would feature two different Draft Pools. One group of 20 Superstars and tag teams found out their brand destination on SmackDown, while another 30 were drafted on RAW.
This made a change from the one-night WWE Draft in 2016, which essentially ranked the whole WWE roster from most wanted (#1 pick Seth Rollins) to least wanted (#59 pick Carmella).
Now, while the 2019 WWE Draft format certainly made a nice change from the chaotic Superstar Shake-Up system, the Draft Pools announcement meant there was no room for surprises on either night of the Draft.
Imagine if WWE released a list of all 30 participants for both the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches one day before the event. Granted, the WWE Draft is not as important as the Royal Rumble, but that is essentially what happened before the Draft last year.
If WWE goes ahead with the Draft Pools idea again in 2020, perhaps it would be wise to throw a couple of to-be-confirmed Superstars into the mix.
#1 WWE SmackDown must keep Roman Reigns
When WWE’s ratings decreased after the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up, Vince McMahon introduced the bizarre Wild Card Rule on the May 6, 2019 episode of WWE RAW.
The rule initially allowed three WWE Superstars from RAW and SmackDown to appear on the other brand’s show every week. However, the numbers quickly got out of control, with over 10 Superstars often appearing on the rival show.
WWE’s top full-time Superstar, Roman Reigns, was the most frequently used SmackDown Superstar on RAW during that period of time, despite the fact that he had only just been traded to SmackDown after a three-year run on RAW.
Reigns has been massively overused in the past by WWE, especially throughout the summer of 2019 when he appeared on both RAW and SmackDown almost every week.
Now, with a new heel attitude and with Paul Heyman by his side, Reigns is being treated like the special attraction that he should be on WWE SmackDown.
The Universal Champion has made WWE’s two-hour SmackDown shows must-see over the last few weeks, so it would be a shame if he went back to appearing on three-hour episodes of RAW after the 2020 Draft.
Also, WWE already traded the WWE Championship and Universal Championship between RAW and SmackDown one year ago. Another World Championship show switch would be unnecessary.
