The WWE roster was split across Raw and SmackDown, but which show ended up with the best lineup?
Surprise, surprise. WWE's flagship program won the day during the brand extension draft on Tuesday.
Courtesy of WWE
That was to be expected; after all, the rules were tilted in Raw's favor, with the three-hour program getting three picks for every two Smackdown received. More importantly, though, Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon made the most of their selections throughout the night - something that can't be said for Daniel Bryan and Shane O' Mac on Smackdown.
Seth Rollins was a no-brainer No. 1 overall selection, especially if WWE does the right thing and gives Rollins the title back at Battleground this weekend. Although I'm not personally a huge Charlotte fan (you have to love that heel heat), adding the women's champion was a bold move that indicates just how dedicated Raw will be to that division. In that same vein, adding Sasha Banks with the No. 13 was a stroke of genius.
#RAW roster#TheDraft pic.twitter.com/WVtLmxVf0M
— Jake Hollywood ッ (@Jake_Hollywood_) July 20, 2016
Raw will host the WWE's future as well, now that Finn Balor is a member of the Monday night family. Whether he makes his debut on the main roster (are we still calling it that, by the way, now that there are two?) sooner or later, Balor's going to be huge on live television.
But wait, there's more! Raw got the two best tag teams in the business with The New Day and Enzo and Cass. You could fill an hour every week just by letting those five powerhouses go at it on the mic. Speaking of which, Raw has two of the greatest talkers we've ever seen in Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. The latter's past his prime in the ring, of course, but the former gives Raw ridiculous depth.
And I haven't even mentioned Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, two leviathans who speak for themselves.
Really, that's the story of the draft for Raw. Mick and Steph took top-line talent, then backed it up with a roster that should give you plenty of reason to tune in each week. Smackdown has some talented superstars, too, and I look forward to Tuesdays. But Monday is going to be the highlight of the week.
At first glance, it's easy to see that the Raw roster is stacked with main-event level stars, and after the first couple rounds of picks things the rosters seemed to be slightly lopsided in Raw's favor. General manager Daniel Bryan - who will make SmackDown a must-watch for many fans on his own - made some key selections late in the draft that were overlooked by many (probably because they weren't televised) that made SmackDown the more intriguing program.
WWE Champion Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles went to SmackDown with the second and fourth overall picks, respectively, and they're two of the best night-in-and-night-out workers on the entire roster. Give Styles 20 minutes a night in the ring and he's going to deliver must-watch matches against nearly anyone, and he's got plenty of potential big-name opponents on the show in John Cena, Randy Orton and Ambrose.
Courtesy of WWE
SmackDown missed out on Charlotte and Sasha Banks, but Becky Lynch is a solid lead for the women's division on Tuesdays and she's joined by a veteran in Natalya and two rising NXT stars in Alexa Bliss and Carmella. SmackDown took four of the six NXT draftees overall, and former NXT tag champions American Alpha got the biggest pop of the night out of any pick. After the televised portion of the draft ended, SmackDown nabbed Zack Ryder with the 43rd pick (and later his "bro" Mojo Rawley) and Apollo Crews with the 45th pick.
To put it simply, Raw may have a greater amount of megastars and some of the best talkers in the business, SmackDown has more performers that I want to see wrestle each other on a weekly basis. I feel like I already know what I'm going to get with Raw's roster, but SmackDown has greater potential.
#SmackDown roster#TheDraft pic.twitter.com/DqBj4be4cH
— Jake Hollywood ッ (@Jake_Hollywood_) July 20, 2016
Perhaps most importantly, though, SmackDown is always going to have an edge as the more "watchable" and consistent weekly show because it's shorter.
Filling three hours of live television a week with compelling stories is really hard, and Raw's had plenty of weak segments recently when WWE had the entire roster to choose from. Now Raw's got an even smaller number of performers to fill those slots, which will make things even more difficult for Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon.
NXT's one-hour length always feels too short, but SmackDown's two-hour window is perfect - and they now have a diverse roster of established stars (Cena and Randy Orton), veteran guys who needed a mixup to the format (Del Rio, Kalisto), and exciting new faces.
