Follow Us
WWE confirmed the precise date and time for the 2023 draft on Friday’s episode of SmackDown, and fans won’t have to wait long. It now appears probable that the draft itself will be over by the time of the Backlash premium live event on Saturday, May 6. There is currently no information available on whether or not more selections will be made following the “Monday Night Raw” on May 1.
In fact, the 2023 draft will begin in only two weeks. It will begin on SmackDown on April 28th and will continue on Raw the following Monday. On last week’s SmackDown, Triple H unveiled plans for the draft, but he didn’t delve into specifics about how it would operate. The promotion also delayed announcing dates for their next roster rearrangement until Friday. Most fans and analysts feel that WWE has a lot of work to do to get people interested in the draft.
As we get closer to the WWE draft, stables like The Bloodline and The Judgement Day continue to appear on both nights, even if one of their champions is missing, whether it’s Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns or “SmackDown” Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley. It will be fascinating to watch how this affects things in a few weeks.
READ MORE: Who is Roman Reigns’ favorite wrestler?
The idea is that the draft may be used to correct the error that was created by unifying the titles in the first place. It would not only be amusing to see the draft and split occur, but it would not harm Reigns in any way. Fans will be a lot less upset if he keeps a belt until ‘Mania 40, or even longer if it’s only one belt.
If Reigns retains both championships for at least another year, WWE risks ruining Rhodes’ hot chase narrative as well as the still-popular Bloodline saga, which includes Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. That may come with the added bonus of finally having The Rock as a rival, but the tradeoff isn’t terrific. There isn’t a single realistic backup plan in place if both the Bloodline and Rhodes fail and WWE extends things for another year.
Splitting the titles is the appropriate step, but most proposals for how to make it happen have failed. Most ideas fall flat: hidden small print in contracts, management overreach, a contender being dorky enough to only compete for one of Reigns’ belts. Anything can happen.
So, follow us for more news and information about the pro-wrestling world.
Get the latest from Sportslumo.com by following us on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
