WWE Rumors: Draft confusion results in Creative team being unsure about building storylines (Exclusive)

The Raw and SmackDown Creative teams have not been informed ahead of time what the results of the incoming draft will be, forcing a number of re-writes, the writing of multiple potential options and confusion over what long term storylines may have to be abandoned. This is according to internal WWE sources.

With SmackDown’s move to Fox and the impending end of the Wild Card Rule, WWE has recently announced plans to hold a formal draft and lock in the rosters for Raw and SmackDown leading into Survivor Series – where we are expected to see the inter-brand rivalry come to the fore once again.

While Executive Directors Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff are expected to play a major part in proceedings this year, Vince McMahon is notoriously known for last-minute decisions. This has been shown to be particularly true when it comes to drafts, where long term planned storylines – for example, Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton’s House of Horrors match and subsequent world title rematches – have been abandoned due to a sudden brand move.

As recently as this year, we saw several Superstars move across brands only to then move back, particularly in the case of Andrade for example. With the Wild Card Rule that followed, this also led to confusion when as recently as this month’s Clash Of Champions pay per view, a team contracted to Monday Night Raw won the SmackDown Live Tag Team Championships.

Sources explained to me that the Creative team is working incredibly hard backstage with little idea as to what the creative landscape will look like when the draft is completed. There is a shared concern that ongoing storylines, such as the one between Erick Rowan and Roman Reigns, may have to be hastily rewritten to accommodate a change. Some writers have taken to drafting out multiple possible routes based on those possibilities.

On top of this, a member of the talent pool raised concerns with me as to whether they might find themselves taken out of the spotlight in order to either make way for someone else or simply because their storyline is no longer viable.

The draft is due to begin shortly after SmackDown’s move to Fox, with Brock Lesnar looking to be the first big-name move to be announced for SmackDown. While plans are often re-written in WWE, we may see a soft reset going on with storylines in the coming weeks.