10 Most Impactful WWE Draft Picks

by Andrew Soucek

1. Chris Benoit To ECW (2007)

Chris Benoit 2005 Draft
WWE

Well, there’s no easy way to go about this one. Absolutely no blame is being laid here, but it’s worth mentioning. In 2007, Benoit’s days as a main-eventer were over. He was basically in the US Title range at best, not exactly where he wanted to be.

In the draft that year he was shipped off to ECW, and he apparently wasn’t too happy with the news. Benoit, at that point, was incredibly paranoid, and thought he was being phased out, despite plans of him winning the brand’s title. He knew his new home was a pretty distant third promotion to Raw and SmackDown, and believed his in-ring days would be over before long.

A mere 13 days after the draft Benoit had killed his family and himself. Again, due to the horrifying damage to Benoit’s brain at that point, and a lethal cocktail of steroid abuse and a toxic marriage, bad things were inevitably going to happen. However, it was the new brand he skipped out on before his horrendous crimes, so in terms of impacts of the draft...this one is pretty damn hard to top.

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As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com