The Draft Returns

As I'm sure everyone has read about over the past week or so, the WWE Draft is scheduled to be returning in October to coincide with SmackDown's move to and debut on the Fox network. I don't know if it's now back to officially being called the WWE Draft but I haven't seen "Superstar Shakeup" mentioned anywhere and "WWE Draft" does sound far more sports like.

In any case, there've been stories over the past week stating that WWE is genuinely going to focus on brand exclusivity and identity to a much stricter degree than ever, which will include the overall elimination of the "Wild Card Rule" before long. Both Raw and SmackDown are also still scheduled to receive wrestlers from NXT as NXT will still serve its role as the developmental brand of the company while simultaneously being a third brand for touring and TV.

From what I understand, NXT's commentary team will still be made up of Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness and Beth Phoenix but final decisions haven't been made regarding Raw and SmackDown. Within the last week, word has come out that Fox is extremely high on Renee Young and like her quite a bit, which is leading to the speculation that she'll be moved to SmackDown to coincide with her being the host of the WWE studio show airing on FS1 which, the last I heard, was tentatively titled WWF After the Bell. In any event, it looks like Corey Graves won't be working both Raw and SmackDown for much longer.

As for who winds up where, that's anybody's guess at this point. However, there are reports/rumors that Raw stars Rey Mysterio, Alexa Bliss, current Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and the Miz recently participated in a photoshoot for SmackDown. If this turns out to be accurate and WWE is indeed going for a more brand exclusive feel than ever before, this would indicate that Becky will drop the Raw Women's Championship to Sasha Banks at Clash of Champions. Considering the rekindling of their alliance as a couple of heels on Raw, it may also mean that Bayley drops the SmackDown Women's Championship to Charlotte before joining Sasha exclusively on the red brand. I can't remember if Nikki Cross is officially part of Raw or SmackDown but the way the Women's Tag Team Championship is formatted, it might be just bet to scrap those titles altogether. There's definitely no need for each brand to have its own women's tag titles, they're ultimately little more than trophies to be carried around for a while before they give someone else a turn so just end it. That also makes me wonder about the 24/7 Championship as well as it's only a matter of time before the novelty of it wears off, there's still a lot of mileage they can get out of it but, at the same time, it's gonna stop being funny eventually so maybe they should just get rid of it as well. Besides, IF SmackDown especially is going to be more serious in tone and sports-like in theme, then the 24/7 Championship is completely out of place anyway.

..................Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No way they get rid of the women's title. Imagine the faux outrage that would generate

i doubt they get rid of the women's tag title and the 24/7 title. i feel like it will be like what the WWE championship and women's championship was during the original draft in 2004 or 2005 where the champs will be able to go from brand to brand and will take the place of whoever beats them on their brand. As far as the 24/7 title, with the fact they do segments not just on raw and smackdown but outside of those show for their youtube and other social media platform, you can get it going for as long as you want to.

I think you can go and have a hard line with the brand split and still use the women'S tag champions as champions for both brand and not damage the brand split in the process. They did it in the past and it worked, so i don't see why it wouldn't work now.