The specific details for this year’s WWE Draft were revealed Wednesday.
On an episode of the web series WWE Bump, specifics for the upcoming two-night draft were revealed. The event, which will kick off Friday on Smackdown and conclude three days later on Raw, will see many wrestlers move from one brand to another. Along with Raw and Smackdown, the NXT brand will participate in the draft this year as well.
Per the broadcast, a total of 40 picks will take place between the two brands. Sixteen picks will take place on Smackdown, lasting four rounds in total. The majority of the picks will then happen on the second night, with 24 more wrestlers being drafted on Raw. This follows the same format that was used in last year’s draft.
The biggest change this year will be how the tournament handles drafting current champs.
Champions, except the women’s tag team title holders, won’t be available to draft. This means Damian Priest and Becky Lynch will be staying on Raw, for example.
Holding the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships allows a team to appear on any roster in the promotion. The purpose of drafting the champions will not be to determine where they will go immediately, since they can in theory go anywhere, but instead to decide which roster they will default back to after dropping the belts to another team.
