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Seth Rollins being selected first in the 2016 WWE draft set the tone for the remarkable run he’d have on Raw.Credit: WWE.com
The WWE draft brings a much-needed sense of freshness to the SmackDown and Raw rosters every October, and the upcoming two-night installment starting Friday should be no exception.
The annual roster shake-up has been a staple in WWE on and off since 2002 when the brand extension was originally introduced. It was held almost every April following WrestleMania until 2011 when the idea of Raw and SmackDown having separate rosters was quietly done away with.
The draft eventually returned in 2016 when the brand split was reinstated and has gone through a number of names and formats. Regardless of when it’s been held or how it’s been structured, what hasn’t changed is the fact that the No. 1 overall pick tends to mean the most.
Being chosen first by either brand is typically an indicator that they’re the most desired Superstar eligible in either pool and that big things are in store for them on their new home. Of course, that wasn’t always the case with some Superstars fading into obscurity sooner than expected.
Before this year’s edition gets underway, this list will attempt to rank every No. 1 overall pick in the WWE draft dating back to 2002 from worst to best based on their impact and success on that show. Note that the three Superstar Shake-Ups held from 2017 through 2019 (in place of the draft) are included but not the 2006 draft, which only saw Kurt Angle and Rob Van Dam recruited to ECW.
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John Cena being selected by SmackDown sounds like a major deal on paper, and it was initially, before it turned out to be a desperate attempt by WWE to stir up in interest in the 2011 draft.
The night opened with a Battle Royal featuring Raw and SmackDown Superstars, with the winning brand earning one draft pick. SmackDown representatives Big Show and Kofi Kingston emerged victorious, which resulted in Cena being “randomly” drafted to the blue brand.
After almost six years on Raw, The Champ’s switch was newsworthy, but the timing was strange. WWE had just announced it would be Cena vs. The Rock in the main event of WrestleMania 28 a year later, so unless that blockbuster bout was being built up on SmackDown, fans were skeptical that it would stick.
Sure enough, WWE wasted no time in drafting Cena right back to Raw at the end of the evening. It marked the first and only time that a Superstar swapped shows in the same draft without being traded for.
Due to Cena’s stint on SmackDown lasting less than two hours, the first overall pick that year was rendered irrelevant.
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It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that The Miz was working his way up the card as one of WWE’s most popular babyfaces in the first few months of 2019.
Shane McMahon betraying him at Fastlane that year cemented his status as a fan favorite for the first time in over five years. The WWE Universe was starting to really rally behind him before the company had McMahon inexplicably beat Miz at WrestleMania 34.
That didn’t mark the end of their rivalry, however, as Miz ambushed McMahon on the April 15 edition of Raw. Per the rules of the Superstar Shake-Up, this meant The A-Lister was officially a member of the Monday night roster, almost a decade removed from when he was first drafted to Raw to kick off his run as a singles star.
He got off to a hot start on Raw but was quickly devalued when he lost to McMahon again at Money in the Bank. With the Wild Card Rule being introduced around that time, it didn’t matter who was assigned to what show, so Miz split his time between the two brands.
He wound up back on SmackDown six months later in the 2019 draft, so his time on Raw that year was both short-lived and uneventful.
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As previously noted, if a competitor randomly showed up on the opposing brand at any point during the Superstar Shake-Up, that automatically meant they were now assigned to that show. The rules of the pseudo-draft were poorly defined, but that was how it worked from 2017 to 2019 in WWE.
The first installment of Superstar Shake-Up in 2017 saw someone switch shows before Raw even went on the air that night. Ahead of the April 10 episode, it was announced by WWE’s official site and social media channels that Apollo Crews would be the first to swap brands, moving from SmackDown to Raw.
Crews had only just been selected by SmackDown nine months earlier, so his return to the red brand felt premature. As it turned out, his fortunes hardly changed and he was again overshadowed by the rest of the roster for the two years he spent on the show.
His sole highlight while on Raw was joining forces with Titus O’Neil and Dana Brooke to form Titus Worldwide. He and O’Neil competed for the WWE Tag Team Championship on a few occasions but were unsuccessful every time.
Crews swapped brands a few more times before finally finding success this past year as a heel on SmackDown, where he won his first Intercontinental Championship.
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The fact that this is the third straight entry in this list that has to do with the Superstar Shake-Up should tell you how much of a failure the concept was before WWE eventually abandoned it and went back to doing a formal draft.
The 2018 installment was every bit as convoluted as the year prior, except the first overall pick actually appeared on Raw that year. It was none other than Jinder Mahal, who was the United States champion at the time after winning the title eight days earlier at WrestleMania 34.
He immediately confronted then-Raw general manager Kurt Angle, but that was the peak of his push on the red brand.
Angle proceeded to put him in an impromptu match where he lost his star-spangled prize to Jeff Hardy. The rest of his Raw run saw him fail to regain the gold, get beaten decisively by Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank, and unsuccessfully team with Alicia Fox for the second season of the Mixed Match Challenge.
It was only a year later that he was drafted right back to SmackDown. Considering that was where he won the WWE Championship in 2017, he probably never should have left in the first place.
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Only two women have been picked at the No. 1 spot in the WWE draft, and the first was Kelly Kelly in 2010.
That year’s draft opened with Michelle McCool and Layla beating Eve Torres and Maryse in a tag team match to earn a draft pick—male or female—for SmackDown. In a not-so-subtle turn of events, that draft pick turned out to be Kelly Kelly, ending her two-year run on Raw.
During her stint on the flagship show, she became a fan favorite in the women’s division but wasn’t afforded many opportunities at championship gold. The hope in her moving to SmackDown was that she could become more of a mainstay in the title picture as well as improve in the ring, and both of those things ended up happening.
Kelly got her first title shot on pay-per-view at Money in the Bank but fell short against Layla. Even when the Women’s Championship was unified with the Divas Championship at SummerSlam, she continued to appear in a regular role on SmackDown (as well as NXT when it was still a competition-style show) and eventually entered a feud with Vickie Guerrero.
Similar to most people on this list, she returned to her former brand in the next year’s draft. It was there that she finally scored her first taste of gold by becoming Divas champion, but it was her stint on SmackDown that prepared her for it.
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MVP called SmackDown his home for the first three years of his WWE career. Between mixing it up with multiple top talents and winning the United States Championship on two occasions, he was a star on the rise with the brand.
The 2009 draft marked the first time he’d journey over to the red brand, and because he was bringing the U.S. title with him, his move was considered a big deal. He was instantly established as one of the top babyfaces on the show, but for whatever reason, he was never able to ascend to that next level.
The vast amount of star power Raw had on its roster at the time (John Cena, Triple H, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Big Show, etc.) may have been to blame for that.
It wasn’t long after his arrival on Raw that he dropped the championship to Kofi Kingston. He and Mark Henry had quality chemistry as a team, but they were always unsuccessful in their pursuit of the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.
By early 2010, it was evident he was going nowhere fast on Raw. WWE drafted him back to SmackDown that spring, but by then, he already had one foot out the door.
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Following a phenomenal No. 1 pick in the inaugural WWE draft two years prior, the first overall pick in the 2004 edition had a lot to live up to. The SmackDown and Raw rosters were stacked with star power at the time, so it was anyone’s guess who was going to be selected above everyone else.
It turned out to be La Resistance member Rene Dupree, who WWE officials seemed to have high hopes for as a singles star.
He was selected by SmackDown and was aged only 20 at the time. That indicated he was primed to be one of the youngest, fastest-rising prodigies in WWE history, but it didn’t exactly work out that way.
Dupree rode that wave of momentum into his first few months on SmackDown by challenging for the United States Championship on a few occasions but never actually winning it. At the very least, he did form a successful team with Kenzo Suzuki and held the WWE Tag Team Championship for a three-month period.
Sadly, Dupree never took off the way many expected him to, and by 2005, he was reunited with his Resistance teammates on Raw. He never had a chance to become a bigger star on his own before leaving WWE all together in June 2007.
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Following six years on SmackDown, it was time for Rey Mysterio to experience a change of scenery in the 2008 WWE draft.
He had been out injured since before WrestleMania 24, so his return at the draft that June was a fun surprise to start the show with. It was equally surprising for fans to see Mysterio representing the red brand for the first time in his career, and the possibilities were endless as far as fresh opponents he could face.
It took some time for him to find his footing on Raw, but he eventually settled into feuds with Kane and Mike Knox. He also defeated JBL in record time at WrestleMania 25 to capture his first Intercontinental Championship.
That capped off his year on the Raw roster, as he was moved back to the blue brand in the 2009 draft that April. He’s been back on Raw a few more times over the years, and although his first stint there was semi-successful, he’s always been more of a SmackDown Superstar.
That would explain why he’s never been exclusive to Raw for more than a year or two at a time. Nonetheless, his unprecedented move to Raw was an eventful way of kicking off the 2008 WWE draft.
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The Great Khali being included in the conversation for No. 1 overall pick in the WWE draft is bizarre in retrospect, but looking back at the year he was having at the time, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
He was originally introduced as a member of the SmackDown brand in the spring of 2006 and made an immediate impact by decimating The Undertaker in his debut. Once that rivalry ran its course, he was moved to ECW for a while before arriving on Raw at the onset of 2007 to feud with SmackDown’s Kane in a battle for brand supremacy and eventually WWE champion John Cena.
Cena gave Khali arguably the best matches of his career, but once The Champ conquered him twice, there was no higher for him to go, which is why he was drafted to back to SmackDown in the summer of 2007. The blue brand securing The Punjabi Nightmare so early proved to be a smart selection seeing as he won the World Heavyweight Championship just a month later.
Khali’s reign lasted a measly two months, but he was a main event player for his entire time on SmackDown, for better or for worse. He didn’t have many memorable feuds following his world title program with Batista, but he was always in the mix and remained a dominant force until turning face and returning to Raw soon after.
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No one knew exactly what to expect when WWE announced the brand extension following WrestleMania in 2002 and the debut of the draft, which would determine where Superstars were assigned to.
At the very least, it made sense for the top-tier talent to be picked first, and the roster was still as star-studded as could be at the time. There were plenty of people to choose from, but ultimately, Mr. McMahon went with The Rock as the No. 1 overall pick for SmackDown.
Considering he coined the term for the show years earlier, it was only fitting that Rock would become exclusive to SmackDown and help take it to new heights by competing with Raw.
The timing wasn’t ideal, though, as he was just breaking into Hollywood and was prioritizing his acting over wrestling. That caused him to become a part-timer for the next year and appear on SmackDown sparingly, but when he was on the blue brand, he was always its most must-see star.
Upon returning from his brief sabbatical in the summer of 2002, Rock won the WWE Championship and took it to SmackDown with him before losing it a month later to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. He disappeared once again and came back to WWE as a member of the Raw roster in 2003, so while his time spent as a SmackDown star was minimal, he more than left his mark on the blue brand.
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There can be no question that 2019 was the year of The Man, making her a hot commodity going into the 2019 WWE draft.
After three years on SmackDown, Becky Lynch finally made the move to Raw following WrestleMania 35 where she won the Raw Women’s Championship. She had barely scratched the surface of what she could accomplish on the red brand by the time the draft rolled around that October, so her being selected by the red team right off the bat was perfectly logical.
She was the Raw women’s champion at the time of the draft and didn’t squander the opportunity to shine when it mattered most. In the months that followed, she retained her title against the likes of Sasha Banks, Asuka and even Shayna Baszler at WrestleMania 36 to surpass the one-year mark as champ.
Her historic reign came to an abrupt end in May 2020 when she announced she was pregnant. She likely would have ranked slightly higher on this list had she stuck around through the next draft and continued to stack up wins over the rest of the roster, but even in that seven-month period, she was as dominant as anyone and proved women can be selected first in the draft and go on to thrive.
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With Becky Lynch gone, WWE needed a new face for its flagship show. Fortunately for the company, Drew McIntyre’s rise as a main event-caliber competitor coincided with Lynch’s absence coming out of WrestleMania 36.
It was on The Grandest Stage of Them All that he conquered Brock Lesnar to become WWE champion, a title he held for well over six months and defeated everyone that was put in front of him. He was WWE champion when he was drafted first by Raw in the 2020 draft, and despite losing the belt at Hell in a Cell later that month, he regained it from Randy Orton soon after.
Raw was a rough watch for a majority of the ThunderDome period (though the company did what it could to make the most of the unfortunate circumstances), but McIntyre held down the fort and was involved in the best parts of the program. He had thrilling title defenses against AJ Styles and Goldberg, survived an Elimination Chamber and elevated Bobby Lashley to that next level.
The Scot deserves a ton of credit in making the red brand more bearable than it would have been without him at the helm for the last year. Even when his booking was questionable, he never ceased to put in the effort and have standout matches week in and week out.
McIntyre has been a fixture on Raw since returning to WWE in 2018, but if he is heading to SmackDown for the first time since 2011 in this year’s draft, it’s safe to say Raw has been a better show with him on it and he will sorely be missed.
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Since the WWE draft was brought back in 2016, only an elite few Superstars can claim to have never switched shows. Seth Rollins was among them up until he was drafted to SmackDown in 2020, but prior to that, he was a Raw guy through and through.
Unlike in 2019 or in 2020, he was not a champion when he became the first to be handpicked by Raw in the 2016 draft. However, WWE did make sense of that by explaining that Raw’s authority figures Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley had faith he’d end the night as WWE champion in his main event match with Dean Ambrose.
Alas, he did not, but that didn’t stop him from having a whole heap of success in the four years that followed. Rollins proudly waved the flag for Raw during his entire tenure there, but it wasn’t until mid-2017 that he really started to hit his stride again and become the babyface fans always envisioned he could be.
His highlights on Raw included winning the Raw Tag Team Championship and reuniting with The Shield on multiple occasions, having two tremendous reigns as intercontinental champion, winning the 2019 men’s Royal Rumble match, and besting Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 35. He was also able to portray an excellent heel for his last stretch on Raw before heading to SmackDown.
Drafting Rollins in 2016 was the smartest move the red brand could have made, though his run is rivaled by only one other man who also got sent packing to Monday nights as the No. 1 overall pick.
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No first pick in the near-two decade history of the WWE draft made the most of their new home more than John Cena in 2005.
The Cenation Leader was fresh off beating JBL for the WWE Championship in one of the marquee matches at WrestleMania 21 and his stock had never been higher. After accomplishing all he could on SmackDown, moving to Raw made total sense.
Fans questioned at the time who would be positioned as the future of WWE from that point forward: Cena or new world heavyweight champion Batista. That question was answered when Cena was named the first overall pick in the 2005 draft lottery and showed up at the beginning of the June 6, 2005 edition of Raw.
Never before had a world title been moved to the opposing brand on a draft show, hence why it’s widely considered one of the most memorable Raw moments of all time.
Not only was Cena established as the face of the flagship show from the get-go, but he also remained in that position for the next decade. Other than briefly being moved to SmackDown for one night in 2011 (as alluded to earlier), he was the one constant on Raw from 2005 up until the revival of the brand split in 2016.
Cena was synonymous with Raw for many a year and for good reason. His shocking jump to Raw in 2005 set the precedent for every draft show that followed as well as for his iconic career.
Graham Mirmina, aka Graham “GSM” Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.
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