WWE Draft 2016
Hello everyone and welcome to mine and Jonathon’s version of
the 2016 WWE Draft. As I am writing this up it is Monday 18th July
2016 and tomorrow is the very exciting episode of SmackDown which is moving,
permanently, to Tuesday night’s LIVE! The very first episode in this new,
permanent timeslot will be the return of the WWE draft as RAW and SmackDown separate
into two distinct rosters for the first time in five years.
Well you just know we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to
have a little bit of fun with something like this so we went out last week and
drew this arrangement up (yes, I’m just getting around to writing and posting
it now – I’ve been busy!). We decided first of all to set up some ground rules.
We decided since we have similar tastes in many things that we would let a coin
flip decide who would get first refusal on everything. So everything below this
which is emboldened was the option chosen by the person who won the coin toss.
For example, I won the coin toss to choose which show I wanted and Jonathon won
the coin toss to choose which World Championship he wanted.
We also decided that as a result of splitting the Championship’s
we realised that one show would get the women and one the tag team division.
This was actually the only time we disagreed on what we wanted, he won the coin
toss and chose the Women’s Division, I was delighted to get the Tag Team
Division. We agreed a gentlemanly rule whereby I could choose tag teams as only
one pick and in return he was allowed to pick two women for one draft pick to
make it fair. This rule was not necessarily enforced so it was possible to
select a single member of a tag team or for him to draft only one woman at a
time (something that occurs later in the draft where both of us were trying
desperately to avoid the dregs of the roster. We also made the executive decision that the three members of The New Day would be drafted together whereas Harper & Rowan where considered a tag team with Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman singles wrestlers. The Club were similar to that with AJ Styles having to be drafted as a singles competitor while Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows came as a tag team.
In addition to those rules there was sort of an unwritten
rule that he would, for the most part, not pick any tag teams and I, for the
most part, would not pick any women. This leads to them being picked a lot
later than they probably would have been had we not had that agreement in
place. This was not absolute though as he sought my permission to take two
people we had noted as a tag team in order to build a stable (The Wyatt Family)
whilst I sought his to take two women I intended to use as valets.
But enough about the rules, let’s get the pre-draft choosing
out of the way…
Show:
Adam – SmackDown
Jonathon – RAW
Championships:
Adam – WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship, WWE Tag Team Championships
Jonathon – World Heavyweight
Championship, United States Championship, Women’s Championship
Commentary:
Adam – Tom Phillips and William Regal
Jonathon – Mauro
Ranallo and Corey Graves
Ring Announcer:
Adam – Jojo
Jonathon – Lilian Garcia
Authority Figure:
Adam – Triple H and Stephanie McMahon
Jonathon – Shane McMahon
Backstage Interviewer:
Adam – Cathy Kelley
Jonathon – Renee Young
Now that we have sorted that it is down to the nitty gritty.
Jonathon won the toss to decide who would pick first in the main draft. The
main draft was drawn up of the entire recognised WWE roster with notable
exceptions for multiple reasons such as part-time players (The Rock, The
Undertaker – although Brock Lesnar was made available for pick, as was Chris
Jericho) and the long-term injured (Tyson Kidd etc.). This roster was then to
be chosen until none remained so everyone was assigned to a show. Jonathon
would have first choice, whilst I would have second and third, he would then
have fourth and fifth and so on. As a result of losing this coin toss I was
automatically allocated first choice in the special three drafts each
supplemental draft made up of current members of the NXT roster. To explain the
little notes within the table below. The number on the left denotes what number
pick this person was on the respective person’s roster, the name comes next
followed by alignment (Face, Heel, Tweener or Kane) and finally their overall
position in the draft. The supplemental draft follows on directly below. Enjoy!
The 2016 WWE Main Draft
|
|
Jonathon
(1st, 4th, 5th, 8th etc.)
|
Adam
(2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th etc.)
|
1. Seth
Rollins (H) (1)
|
1. AJ Styles (H) (2)
|
2. Brock
Lesnar (T) (4)
|
2. Dean Ambrose (F) (3)
|
3. John
Cena (F) (5)
|
3. Kevin Owens (H) (6)
|
4. Cesaro
(F) (8)
|
4. Chris Jericho (H) (7)
|
5. Bray
Wyatt (H) (9)
|
5. Sami Zayn (F) (10)
|
6. Dolph
Ziggler (F) (12)
|
6. The Miz (H) (11)
|
7. Rusev
(H) (13)
|
7. Randy Orton (F) (14)
|
8. Luke
Harper & Erick Rowan (H) (16)
|
8. Roman Reigns (F) (15)
|
9. Neville
(F) (17)
|
9. Tyler Breeze (H) (18)
|
10. Sasha
Banks (T) & Becky Lynch (F) (20)
|
10. Bubba Ray Dudley (H) (19)
|
11. Emma
(H) & Natalya (H) (21)
|
11. The New Day* (F) (22)
|
12. Apollo
Crews (F) (24)
|
12. The Club (H) (23)
|
13. Charlotte
(H) & Dana Brooke (H) (25)
|
13. Enzo Amore & Big Cass (F) (26)
|
14. Alberto
Del Rio (H) (28)
|
14. The Vaudevillians (H) (27)
|
15. Paige
(F) & Naomi (H) (29)
|
15. Lucha Dragons (F) (30)
|
16. Curtis
Axel (H) (32)
|
16. Alicia Fox (H) & Summer Rae (H)
(31)
|
17. Heath
Slater (H) (33)
|
17. The Usos (F) (34)
|
18. Tamina
(H) (36)
|
18. Fandango (H) (35)
|
19. Ryback
(H) (37)
|
19. Baron Corbin (H) (38)
|
20. Goldust
(F) (40)
|
20. Mark Henry (F) (39)
|
21. Sheamus
(H) (41)
|
21. Zack Ryder (F) (42)
|
22. Bo
Dallas (H) (44)
|
22. Darren Young (F) (43)
|
23. Braun
Strowman (H) (45)
|
23. The Shining Stars (H) (46)
|
24. Nikki
Bella (F) (48)
|
24. D-Von Dudley (H) (47)
|
25. Titus
O’Neil (F) (49)
|
25. R-Truth (F) (50)
|
26. Big
Show (52)
|
26. Kane (K**) (51)
|
27. Eva
Marie (53)
|
27. The Ascension (H) (54)
|
The 2016 WWE Supplemental Draft (Three
Picks Each)
|
|
Jonathon
(2nd, 3rd, 6th)
|
Adam
(1st, 4th, 5th)
|
1. Finn Balor (F) (2)
|
1. Shinsuke Nakamura (F) (1)
|
2. Samoa Joe (H) (3)
|
2. Austin Aries (H) (4)
|
3. Asuka (T) & Bayley (F) (6)
|
3. American Alpha (F) (5)
|
So what did you guys think? Agree with our picks? Disagree?
Who ended up with the better roster? Will this be better or worse than the
draft WWE produces tomorrow night? Have I written too many questions in a row?
We’d love to hear your answers to those questions and any comments in general. Jonathon and I are currently considering turning this into a relatively short-term booking project where we book separate shows leading up to maybe WrestleMania and then seeing whose booking was better but that is, as of yet, undecided. Meanwhile our WCW reboot booking is continuing over on Jonathon’s WCW blog and we do – I promise – have more rebooking series articles in the work. Several are already partially finished, one is completely and just needs writing up. Unfortunately, as always, real life and work etc. are getting in the way of us completing stuff and uploading it for you guys as quickly as we would like but we are doing our best and we appreciate each and every person who comes to read this or any of our blogs.
As per usual we hope you enjoyed this article and we hope to see you next time. Until then you can follow me (@watadam20) and Jonathon (@JLAspey) on twitter for further information on more projects as well as inane drivel probably revolving around wrestling, sport, Football Manager & politics. Until next time, thanks for reading!