The idea behind several of the draft picks was that the WWE didn’t want to separate families or couples. That’s why Andrade was moved to Raw with Zelina. They wanted Charlotte on Raw so they had to draft Andrade over because they’re a couple. The plan to move Charlotte does explain her title loss to Bayley on Smackdown but it doesn’t explain her half a year of marketing she did for Fox, meaning her draft to Raw may have been a last minute decision.
That’s the explanation for separating R Truth and Carmella as a team, also. The 24/7 title was created by the USA network as a way to keep the audience’s attention for all three hours of Raw and R Truth is the face of that division. R Truth had to stay in Raw. Fox and WWE wanted Corey Graves and Michael Cole calling Smackdown. That meant that Carmella had to be drafted without her partner so that she could stay with her real-life boyfriend Corey Graves.
Rusev stayed on Raw because WWE is very high on Lana’s current storyline with Bobby Lashley.
Humberto was drafted to Raw because the WWE believes he has the potential to be the next big Hispanic star. WWE is always looking for someone to represent their Hispanic demographic to replace Rey Mysterio.
Erick Rowan was drafted to Raw while they made no mention of Luke Harper. This removes Rowan from the storyline involving Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns. WWE had only written the storyline up until the last ppv that saw Reigns and Bryan team up to face Rowan and Harper. It all ended with the two babyfaces hugging it out.
Paul Heyman did get Buddy Murphy and Aleister Black. Rumors had been going since the draft was announced that Heyman had been pulling to get them.
Smackdown got Brock Lesnar because they had an agreement that they would get someone established outside of wrestling.
The Authors of Pain (AOP) are on Raw and it’s believed they will start a program with the new tag team champions, The Viking Raiders. The team of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode were drafted to Smackdown and will begin a program with the New Day.
(Credit: f4wonline.com)
