WWE Draft News & Notes From Night 1 – Night 1 of the 2023 WWE Draft was held during tonight’s SmackDown on FOX from Corpus Christi, Texas.
WWE held four rounds with four picks each round – 8 for RAW and 8 for SmackDown. The list of Night 1 picks can be seen at this link. The presenters for Night 1 were the following WWE Hall of Famers – Chief Content Officer Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Michael “PS” Hayes, JBL, Teddy Long, Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels, and Senior Vice President of Live Events “Road Dogg” Brian James.
Triple H announced that the new post-Draft rosters will officially go into affect on Monday, May 29, which is two nights after WWE Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia.
It was also confirmed that the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, crowned at Night of Champions, will be exclusive to the RAW brand. This is because Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns stayed on SmackDown, along with Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman.
Multiple champions from NXT were called up on Night 1 of the Draft. You can see their reactions below as a Draft Watch Party was held at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. NXT Women’s Champion Indi Hartwell was called up to RAW, while NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre were called to SmackDown.
There’s no word yet on how NXT will crown a new Women’s Champion, but we could have new Tag Team Champions on Tuesday’s show. After their roster move was announced on tonight’s SmackDown, Dawn and Fyre were approached by former champions Katana Chance and Kayden Carter. The two teams agreed to fight for the titles on Tuesday’s NXT episode.
You can see Draft segment clips below, which include footage of Hartwell, Dawn and Fyre finding out they are being called up. Hartwell can be seen in a walking boot due to the injury suffered on Tuesday night at NXT Spring Breakin’, which may factor into title plans.
One of the bigger picks from Night 1 of the Draft saw SmackDown select RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. There’s no word yet on what WWE plans to do with the women’s titles, but SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley is eligible to be drafted on Monday night. A similar situation happened in 2021 with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, which was resolved with a Title Exchange Ceremony where the champions switched titles.
The Draft will continue on Saturday morning with more picks revealed during The SmackDown LowDown. It was indicated that these picks will come from the pool used on tonight’s SmackDown.If that’s the case, the following Superstars are eligible to be drafted on Saturday morning:
* Candice LeRae
* Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville
* Dexter Lumis
* Dolph Ziggler
* Hit Row (Top Dolla, Ashante “Thee” Adonis with B-Fab)
* Lacey Evans
* Maximum Male Models (ma.cé, mån.sôör, Maxxine Dupri)
* Mustafa Ali
* Natalya
* Omos (with MVP)
* The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar with Valhalla)
* Select NXT Superstars
It’s not clear if Draft picks will be announced during RAW Talk on Monday night, but the following names are eligible to be drafted on Monday’s live RAW episode:
* Akira Tozawa
* Alpha Academy (Otis, Chad Gable)
* Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo
* Asuka
* WWE United States Champion Austin Theory
* Baron Corbin
* Braun Strowman and Ricochet
* Brock Lesnar
* Bronson Reed
* Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin
* Charlotte Flair
* Dana Brooke
* Elias
* Emma
* Johnny Gargano
* Karrion Kross (with Scarlett)
* Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
* LA Knight
* WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
* Nikki Cross
* Piper Niven
* SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley
* Rick Boogs
* Riddick Moss
* Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler
* Seth Rollins
* Shotzi
* Tamina Snuka
* Tegan Nox
* The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland, Butch)
* The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio)
* The LWO (Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde, Zelina Vega)
* The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods)
* The Usos (Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso)
* Trish Stratus
* Xia Li
* Select NXT Superstars
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WWE Draft News & Notes From Night 1
