Rebooking The 2002 WWE Brand Extension Draft

Actual Pick: The Undertaker

With the first pick for Raw, Ric Flair selects the man who single-handedly turned the tide for Raw to overtake Nitro in the Monday Night Wars, and the face of the Attitude Era.

Austin is coming off a tremendous 2001 where he spent the majority of the year as WWF Champion, having numerous match of the year candidates with Triple H, The Rock, Chris Benoit, and Kurt Angle. Naturally, Flair thought that he could build his Raw brand around Austin.

Unfortunately, this pick would come back to bite Flair. What Flair didn't realise was that Austin was burnt out from a year of carrying the company without The Rock, Triple H or Chris Benoit for the majority of 2001. He was also upset about not main eventing WrestleMania X8 against Hulk Hogan, losing his main event spot to The Rock.

Stone Cold would end up walking out on Raw three months later, and would only wrestle two more matches after a year absence before being forced to retire.