 The 2024 WWE Draft is technically the first under Paul "Triple H" Levesque since Vince McMahon was back in the creative fold for last year's, and Night 1 didn't exactly send the message that much will be changing with the rosters even in the "new era." Personally, I enjoyed it for what it was as I always do, but I can't dispute the fact that it was fairly uneventful in terms of the moves that were made. Here's why I didn't have an issue with that, though: The rosters as they are at the moment shouldn't be drastically altered because of the existing stories that still need to play out. We'll see what happens on Night 2 and I'd surely hope there are more meaningful moves made then, but a majority of the Superstars who should be switching shows aren't in the main event scene. Doing trades between the general managers instead of a formal draft would've made more sense in this case. As far as the execution of the Draft itself this year, it was a definite improvement over past years. It was wise to announce the eligible pools for each night ahead of time, it always bothered me that they rarely did that. More involvement from the GMs would be nice, as well as clarification for NXT picks/call-ups, but above all else, the biggest positive was exempting the current champions (not including the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions who float between brands). Keeping them where they are is part of why it didn't feel like there was anything super shocking on Night 1, but that's fine by me. They need to keep that rule for future installments. Here's my round-by-round breakdown of Night 1 of the 2024 WWE Draft and my analysis of each pick. Round 1
GSM's Analysis: Belair being the first overall pick was a pleasant surprise. She's not involved in anything super significant right now (she and Jade Cargill are challenging for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at Backlash or goodness' sake), but this simply solidifies her as one of WWE's biggest stars, male or female. The same can be said for Jey, and while he's a little lower on the totem pole in my eyes, Raw immediately securing the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship is perfectly logical in case he were to win (he won't but you understand my point). Hayes can absolutely be a top talent on the main roster with the right push and drafting him so early on is an amazing endorsement of his potential. That combined with his main event match on SmackDown against Cody Rhodes virtually guarantees big things are in store for him on the blue brand and I couldn't be happier. Rollins remaining on Raw was expected with his wife Becky Lynch winning the Women's World Championship this past Monday night. Round 2
GSM's Analysis: Orton just signed with SmackDown when he returned from injury in November, so I'm glad he's not going anywhere. All he's done so far is unsuccessfully challenge for the Undisputed WWE Championship and the United States Championship, and although that could be considered enough to move him to Monday nights, the big thing keeping him on SmackDown is that eventual feud with Rhodes. That needs to happen at some point, possibly at SummerSlam. I can't say the same for Breakker, though. He, too, just arrived on SmackDown and already finds himself headed to Raw. He isn't tied to any stories on SmackDown, but still, it's the idea that SmackDown GM Nick Aldis wasted time courting this guy for weeks only to have him for two months total. He, Cargill and the rest of the recent signees should've been exempt, but I guess that takes more available star power out of the draft pools. I'm actually happy to see Jax on SmackDown. If I'm not mistaken, this makes her the last person who was a part of the 2016 WWE Draft (when they resurrected the concept the first time) to switch shows. She was always ever on Raw, but now that he's lost to Lynch and Rhea Ripley, shifting her to SmackDown was the way to go. Speaking of Ripley, Morgan needed to be where she and Lynch are, so drafting her to Raw was necessary. She should be the next Women's World Champion. Round 3
GSM's Analysis: This is where things started to get a bit ridiculous. Knight shouldn't have been drafted after Jax or Morgan, and Ricochet absolutely shouldn't have been drafted before The Bloodline. I know they tried to justify The Bloodline getting drafted so late with what Heyman said during one backstage segment, but if Roman Reigns (who took himself out of the draft pool we learned) is going to come back to either brand, why wouldn't it be SmackDown where The Bloodline is? A little logic goes a long way. Nonetheless, I was relieved to see Sheamus and Knight staying right where they are. Knight must challenge Logan Paul for the United States Championship soon, and Sheamus must win the Intercontinental Championship eventually. These things are non-negotiable. I honestly couldn't care less where Ricochet goes at this point, but you'd like he would've been drafted away from the Intercontinental title, which he has attempted to contend for countless times in the last two years. It's high time he move on from that scene. The Bloodline made SmackDown what it is today with their storyline dating back to 2020, so why transfer the whole thing over to Raw now? I don't want to see them interact with Rhodes again anytime soon, but if Orton is staying on SmackDown, then they can resume that rivalry and do other stuff to keep them busy until the next major development. Round 4
GSM's Analysis: You can take what I said at the end of the first paragraph in regards to Round 3 and apply it here, too. Why the hell would the Raw and SmackDown GMs not want Styles in the first two rounds considering he's challenging Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at Backlash? Would you not want that guy on your show if he were to win? That was completely stupid. I like Styles on SmackDown, but you could've switched him and Jax in the draft order and it would have been much more reasonable. Gable just turned heel. He needed to stay on the same show as Sami Zayn and the Intercontinental Championship, so that got a sigh of relief out of me, too. The rest of Alpha Academy is whatever, but this way, he can finish his story with them before (hopefully) recruiting The Creed Brothers, assuming they also remain on Raw. Andrade just joined Raw following the Royal Rumble yet hasn't done a ton, so I'm okay with him being drafted to SmackDown. Some will say that Charlotte Flair is on SmackDown and that's why he was drafted there, not realizing that she could have easily joined him on Raw when she returned from injury if WWE wanted them on that show. NXT's Kiana James as the last (televised) pick for Raw came out of nowhere. She's improved in the ring from where she was when she debuted, but I've always found her to be boring as a character. She would've benefited from being a part of the NXT Women's North American Championship scene for a while before getting called up. Best of luck to her, but I see her being more of a regular on Main Event than anything else. Additional Draft Picks
GSM's Analysis: In years past, the supplemental picks have been announced on Talking Smack/The SmackDown LowDown and Raw Talk, and while Raw Talk may be where they're announced following Night 2, these additional draft picks were announced via WWE's social media platforms immediately following Friday's SmackDown. For the first time ever, everyone in the eligible draft pool was accounted for and no one inexplicably went undrafted, which I appreciated. Not too many shockers here. I'm not sure why Baszler and Stark were drafted separately (to the same show, no less) while Fyre and Dawn were drafted together despite Baszler and Stark also having been a team for some time now, but whatever. Baszler and Stark are not difference makers regardless of what show they're on, while Dawn and Fyre might actually get television time now that they're on Raw. I couldn't care less about Dawn, but give Fyre a chance, dammit! Ivar has shined as a singles competitor lately and I hope to see that to continue on Raw as well as on Raw (where he's been feuding with NXT North American Champion Oba Femi for the past few weeks). I thought The O.C. might be drafted to Raw to get away from Styles now that he's no longer a part of the group, but apparently not. I don't see them getting any higher than they have. Corbin being back on the main roster is awesome. I've thoroughly enjoyed his return run in NXT and I hope WWE maintains that presentation on Friday nights as he might finally be able to live up to his full potential with his current character. Lastly, Alexander and Adonis have yet to debut on SmackDown despite there being vignettes promoting them as a team earlier this year, so them staying on SmackDown makes sense.
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