Fixing the Biggest Mistakes Made Thus Far in WWE Draft 2024

Night 1 of the 2024 WWE Draft is in the books and the immediate fan feedback to the latest roster shakeup has been far from positive.

Of everyone that was eligible, only a handful of Superstars switched shows, making for a fairly uneventful evening on SmackDown. Although most of the moves were logical, Night 1 did very little to drastically alter the current WWE landscape across the three brands.

The execution of the Draft has also been a point of contention among fans over the years. WWE has attempted to replicate the vibe of the NFL Draft with war rooms and round-by-round reveals, but it hasn't translated to an overly exciting experience in the arena when the draft picks are being called.

WWE has made several necessary tweaks to the concept that have helped make it more realistic, including ditching the "random" nature of the moves and instead starting from scratch with the rosters. However, there are still several aspects of the Draft that still need to be fleshed out and improved upon.

Night 2 of the Draft not only feature see SmackDown and Raw further bolster their rosters but also afford WWE the opportunity to fix some of the biggest mistakes that have been made thus far.

More Meaningful Moves Must Be Made

The top takeaway from Night 1 of the Draft was that Paul "Triple H" Levesque evidently isn't keen on radically changing what SmackDown and Raw rosters look like at the moment, and understandably so.

A majority of the eligible Superstars are either embroiled in ongoing rivalries or have long-term stories that have yet to play out with the current champions—who are thankfully exempt from being drafted—on Monday and Friday nights.

In order for the Draft to truly feel worthwhile, more meaningful moves must be made on Night 2.

Raw being a three-hour program means the draft pool for Night 2 will be much larger with more main-event players and other popular performers to choose from. CM Punk and Drew McIntyre will likely remain on Raw, but Gunther, Kevin Owens and Damage CTRL all switching shows would be considered notable developments.

There aren't many other top talents among the remainder of the eligible draft pool, but swapping some stars in the midcard, women's and tag team divisions will go a long way in creating new feuds and giving both brands a fresh feel.

Although the Draft has become a fun post-WrestleMania tradition for WWE, it should only be held if the rosters are in actually need of a significant shakeup and not just a handful of mid-to-lower-level names benefiting from a change of scenery.

More Conferring Between the General Managers

The absence of authority figures in the WWE Draft in recent years has prevented the concept from feeling legitimate. When Adam Pearce was presiding over both brands in storyline, there was no sense of competition between the brands and no need for a formal draft.

Triple H was wise to bring back general managers late last year with Pearce being assigned to Raw and Nick Aldis being entrusted with running SmackDown. They've had plenty of interaction on WWE TV since then both as competitors and as contemporaries.

Despite that, their roles in Night 1 of the Draft were severely downplayed and largely limited to reacting in their respective war rooms. Unlike in the early years of the WWE Draft, they didn't announce the picks themselves and offered no insight on why they made the selections they did.

Pearce and Aldis should be much more involved with the Draft, especially when it comes to making potential trades and explaining their logic for every star they sign.

WWE's Brand Split can be compelling if the company did more to take it more seriously, starting with the Draft where the GMs can build the strongest roster possible at the other's expense.

Making the Order of Picks More Logical

This goes hand-in-hand with the Raw and SmackDown general managers doing more to explain why they prioritize drafting certain Superstars over others. WWE has seemingly never figured out how to put together a logical lineup of picks in the many years they've been doing the Draft.

Ensuring all of the current champions are exempt should have been instituted long ago. That ensures both brands are receiving an equal amount of titles and the champions aren't inexplicably being picked much later than they should be.

That said, there were still inconsistencies with the round-by-round roster reveals on Night 1 this year.

Bianca Belair, Jey Uso, NXT's Carmelo Hayes and Seth Rollins were all worthy of being selected first. Nia Jax and Ricochet being drafted before the likes of The Bloodline, LA Knight and AJ Styles—the number one contender to the WWE Championship at Backlash—made a lot less sense.

Announcing the eligible draft pools for each night in advance was a nice change of pace compared to past installments of the Draft, but Night 2 should see all of the biggest names picked first (along with any highly-sought-after NXT call-ups) and stars who aren't as high up on the card picked in the later rounds.

More NXT Involvement

NXT has almost always had a presence in WWE's annual roster shakeup in some form or fashion since the Draft was initially revived in 2016, though there's never been any explanation as to who is eligible and how many picks are afforded to each brand.

In years past, NXT champions have been drafted, so if the idea is that anyone from the active roster can be chosen and no one is exempt, nothing should be stopping the Raw and SmackDown general managers from picking all of the top talent the black-and-gold brand has to offer.

Night 1 saw Carmelo Hayes get selected by SmackDown and Kiana James get drafted to Raw. Baron Corbin was also announced as returning to SmackDown in the supplemental picks that were made on WWE's social media platforms following the televised portion of the Draft on April 26.

Hayes is a logical first-round pick given his ceiling for success, but the inexperienced James getting drafted over the likes of Lyra Valkyria, NXT Women's champion Roxanne Perez, Ilja Dragunov or even NXT champion Trick Williams hardly makes sense from a storyline standpoint.

Showing the the entire NXT roster reacting to each draft pick at the Performance Center is a fun touch, but WWE should make more of an effort on Night 2 to expand upon NXT's involvement in the Draft, who's eligible and if it's possible for anyone from Raw or SmackDown to sign with NXT.

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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.