Very Interesting Detail On 2019 WWE Draft

Take your pick. With so much talent in the WWE today, it makes sense to have it split up into a few different rosters. This includes Monday Night Raw, SmackDown and NXT, which is quite the collection of lineups. The change really got going again back in 2019 when SmackDown moved over to FOX, during which the rosters were split in two. It turns out the process was a little more complicated than you might have guessed.

One of the bigger stories of the month has been the dismissal of Paul Heyman as the Executive Director of Monday Night Raw. The change marks the end of Heyman and Eric Bischoff’s time at the top of the two main television shows, though Bischoff almost never started the job in the first place. The two of them did work together for a while, including a big moment which was more interesting than it seemed on the surface.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Bischoff and Heyman held an actual draft with negotiations and trades setting up the Monday Night Raw and SmackDown rosters. The television networks did have some influence on which wrestlers went where. The rosters were originally announced on the October 11, 2019 SmackDown and the October 14 Monday Night Raw, with names from 205 Live and NXT being added to the rosters. Fifty total wrestlers were drafted over the course of the two nights, with supplemental picks being added later.

The Draft was a big deal. Check out some of the highlights:

Opinion: That’s a trivia note that really is an interesting way of looking at things and not something you would have probably known otherwise. Having Bischoff and Heyman as the actual bosses of the show is an interesting way to go and it’s almost hard to believe that WWE gave the two of them that much authority. That being said, it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference now and that might be a rather bad thing overall.

What did you think of the Draft? Are you surprised at how hands on Bischoff and Heyman were? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!