10 Most Shocking WWE Draft Moments

4. Your New Boss

Kurt Angle ECW
WWE

The shock-filled 2004 draft had two clear objectives as the first significant shake-up of it's kind since Ric Flair and Vince McMahon selected their Raw and Smackdown rosters respectively in the original 2002 incarnation of the Brand Extension.

The show was designed to create instant new stars (with heavy attention on Bradshaw, Shelton Benjamin and Edge in brand new roles post-draft), and remind audiences that absolutely anything can happen in the show-splitting lottery.

The aforementioned draft of Triple H to Smackdown was a bombshell for sure, but the management infrastructure of one of the shows was due to change with Raw's final pick of the evening.

Flashing his pearly whites with a smug glow only he was capable of, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff pulled opposite number Paul Heyman's name out of the golden tumbler.

The Smackdown General Manager was utterly incandescent, and was pushed beyond the brink when faced with the prospect of working underneath his former arch-rival.

Heyman quit there and then, leaving his show without a leader and the roster gleeful at his impending exit.

Stepping into a General Manager role for the first time, it would be the recently re-injured Kurt Angle that took his place, 13 years before an unlikely return to the Monday Night Raw hot-seat.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett