WWE Draft 2021: Winners and Losers
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
The 2021 WWE Draft is over, and with it came a few great moves, as well as some unexpected decisions.
As you can see in the graphics below, this year’s draft leaned heavily toward Raw – with the red brand receiving the lion’s share of WWE’s top stars.
This included Becky Lynch, Big E, Bobby Lashley, Bianca Belair, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Edge, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Street Profits, Rey Mysterio and even Olympic Gold medalist/recent WWE signee Gable Steveson.
Meanwhile, SmackDown retained the company’s biggest male star in Roman Reigns and his cousins The Usos. The brand also drafted top-level names such as Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Sami Zayn and King Nakamura.
Before I get to my thoughts on the two rosters feeling slightly uneven, though, let me first write about the positives of this year’s WWE Draft.
Winners
1. Raw
There’s no question Raw’s roster came out looking best.
Retaining Big E, Lashley, Orton, Riddle, AJ Styles, Omos, Damian Priest and Keith Lee while adding Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Finn Balor, Street Profits, Seth Rollins, Edge and more to the mix makes Monday night sound must-see.
That’s a lot of star power on one show.
There’s also a good amount of mid/lower-card opportunities in the lineup now. Names that stick out as brimming with potential include Liv Morgan, Austin Theory, Apollo Crews, Alpha Academy and maybe even a rechristened Dominik Dijakovic, now that T-Bar and MACE have been split between brands.
Either way, the victor of this year’s draft seems clear.
2. Drew McIntyre
Despite starting a mini-program with Big E before switching brands, it’ll be good for Drew McIntyre to get a change of scenery later this month.
It’s time for him to reestablish himself on Friday nights with a long program against Roman Reigns, which would appear to be SmackDown’s most obvious title program coming out of the draft, given that those will be the top male stars on the show.
It would also be awesome to see Drew wrestle Superstars such as Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Nakamura in order to earn his way to a Universal title shot.
3. Edge
"The Rated-R Superstar" winning a world title is overdue at this point.
Unfortunately for Edge, I don’t think it was ever going to happen on SmackDown with Roman Reigns sitting at the head of the table, so switching back to the Raw brand was best for him in the long term.
To be clear, this isn’t me saying WWE needs to rush the belt off Big E. E’s reign is just a little less written in stone and has a higher likelihood of ending sooner than Roman's current run, so Edge could capitalize if that were to happen.
4. Jeff Hardy
"The Charismatic Enigma" was picking up steam on SmackDown before last year’s draft. After being moved to Raw, however, he went largely un-used until recently.
Thankfully, his matches with Damian Priest and Sheamus as of late have helped remind fans that he still can go in the ring when given the opportunity. His fan base is also very active and in support of him getting one last world title run.
Hopefully he can gain some momentum again with this change of brands and maybe challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal title sometime in the future.
In the words of Mo’Nique, "I would like to see it."
5. Gable Steveson
What a year for this guy!
In the past few months, the 21-year-old wrestler accomplished three lifelong dreams by winning an Olympic gold medal, signing with WWE after receiving interest from all over the sports world and getting drafted to Raw. That’s impressive as hell.
Can Gable follow in Kurt Angle’s footsteps and take to the sport like a natural, though? Only time will tell. But right now, he’s got an amazing opportunity.
Keep in mind: Steveson’s WWE deal states that he will continue to wrestle at the University of Minnesota in his senior year while also training at a remote facility with WWE’s coaching staff. He will then become a full-time performer after graduating in May.
Because of that, who knows how often he’ll actually be on the show.
Losers
1. SmackDown
The blue brand losing Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, Bianca Belair, Street Profits and Edge all in one night was a big blow.
Thankfully, there’s a silver lining to SmackDown ending up with less top talent, and that’s more room to create new stars in "The Land of Opportunity."
Cesaro getting another Universal title program with Roman Reigns in front of fans could do wonders for The Swiss Cyborg’s career. I’d also like to see Sheamus, Nakamura, Kofi Kingston and Jeff Hardy (as explained earlier) opposite Reigns for Universal title matches as well.
Ricochet getting a new lease on life by racking up wins and becoming IC champion could course-correct his current downward trajectory.
Hit Row vs. New Day. Hit Row vs. Viking Raiders. Hit Row vs. The Usos.
Those matches could launch the newly drafted NXT faction into a successful WWE career for years to come with the right stories behind them.
Additionally, I'm interested in the new SmackDown women’s division, which has a lot of fresh faces looking to make a name for themselves against Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks. This includes Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Xia Li and Aliyah.
There are also a few wild-card draft picks such as Ridge Holland, MACE and Isiah "Swerve" Scott who could end up finding success on SmackDown with the right push.
2. Bianca Belair
I realize Bianca is still in midst of feuding with Becky Lynch (who was drafted to Raw as SmackDown Women’s champion), but I fear that when this program is over, she’ll be left without a title and lost in the mix going forward.
"The EST of WWE" felt like a true SmackDown Superstar following a rocky start on Raw, and I’m not sure the fan base was looking for her to redeem those red brand beginnings on Monday nights. They wanted her journey to continue on SmackDown.
Hopefully I’m wrong and she’ll do just fine there, but I can’t help but think she would’ve been better off staying where she was.
3. Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston
I just don’t understand the logic behind keeping New Day apart.
The best thing about New Day has always been their ability to shatter norms and do things on their own terms, so this notion that Big E needs to handle business alone in order to prove his value as a top guy seems silly to me.
The template for one member of this team being World champion while the group remains intact is already there, too, and it worked just fine for Kofi Kingston. So why do we need to go through this again?
As the saying goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
4. Seth Rollins
It’s not that I think Seth moving to Raw is necessarily bad for him, as he’ll thrive on any brand. My feelings lie in the fact that for a while now, it felt like an inevitable match between Rollins and Reigns was being set up.
That would’ve been perfect for a big event such as Survivor Series and could’ve maybe even turned Rollins back into a face in the process.
Now, however, with this change of brands, a marquee match that had been simmering on the backburner for months has suddenly gone up in flames, which seems like a wasted opportunity.
Who do you think the winners and losers of this year’s draft were? Hit me up on Twitter @RyanSatin and let me know.