8 Puzzling Things About The Original WWE Draft
Looking back at the original draft with some perspective.
As the wrestling world reflects on Tuesday night's kick at the Brand Extension can, longtime fans have been harking back to the original go-around for the roster split. In particular, the night of March 25, 2002, when Vince McMahon and Ric Flair cherry-picked from a very deep WWE roster to set up the original Smackdown and Raw rosters.
There was some skepticism over the original draft, particularly because nothing like it had ever really been attempted. Without an easy-to-follow template, you'd expect there to be some unusualness from the untested concept, and there certainly was. Looking back at the 2002 WWE Draft today, some of the decisions are hard to rationalise.
WWE seemed to realise this too. Throughout the remainder of 2002, wrestlers crossed brands as though the shows were the most minimum of security prisons, reconfiguring things through an extended re-adjustment period. In other words, the months after draft felt like a prolonged do-over phase.
For some of the following entries, hindsight wasn't necessary. Watching the draft show live, hardcore WWF loyalists were watching their favourite program and thinking, "What the hell are they doing?". It's a phrase that has become oft-repeated by viewers in the ensuing fourteen years.
At the time, let's just say the Brand Extension didn't exactly start off on the right foot...
8. Steve Austin's "Clause"
People remember Stone Cold's infamous June 2002 walkout and the associated ugliness, but they forget that he also fled the company right after WrestleMania X8, and sat out for two weeks.
When the draft came around, Austin was in his self-imposed hiatus, and it was declared (in kayfabe) that Austin had a "clause" in his contract that gave him draft immunity. It said that if WWE should ever split into two brands, Austin could forego the draft and simply sign with whichever brand he wanted.
How convenient, right? Amazing that Austin would have the foresight in the late-nineties to figure that WWE might split into "brands" one day. Some theorised that Austin's absence had to do with WWE not wanting to pick Rock first and Austin second, or vice versa, and thus render one of the two "second place", but the walkout seems to override that idea.
Stone Cold's absence had to be explained, but what a peculiar solution they came up with.