Here are a few news items related to the upcoming WWE Draft, scheduled for the first live Tuesday night SmackDown on July 19th:
– It’s worth noting that John Cena is only being advertised for RAW shows taking place after the Draft. Top stars advertised for SmackDown shows after 7/19 include WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and AJ Styles. These lineups are always subject to change and it’s unlikely WWE would spoil any big Draft storylines in this manner, but it’s something to keep an eye on.
– WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross wrote the following about the upcoming brand split in his latest blog:
“As a fan I would love to see the two brands, RAW and Smackdown, be creatively positioned as two separate companies who are competing for the market share on the USA Network with their back to back days of live TV. There is more than one way to produce good, weekly TV wrestling.
Still of the mindset that with a little luck and timely execution that the WWE Brand Extension can be one of the most prolific things that WWE has strategically done from a business perspective in a good while. I can see the brand extension significantly helping the WWE Network as well and that’s the heartbeat for the big dog in the yard these days.”
– There’s talk of Bayley, Nia Jax and Carmella being drafted to the main roster next month, according to PWInsider. It’s expected that upwards of 10 NXT performers will be getting called up.
