7 Worst WWE Drafts In History

What a historic draft! It was full of twists and turns, rich storylines for the new brand split, and there was even some surprise big names left undrafted. Oh, I'm sorry that was about the 2002 WWF Draft. It certainly doesn't resemble that 13 times later.

We may have seen one of the most boring drafts of all time as a matter of fact. Overall, there were 28 picks keeping people exactly where they were. And that's being generous, leaving a few iffy cases such as Lesnar to SmackDown off.

If previous drafts were "shake-ups" (including the first one we had in 2019) this was decidedly different. This was much more stirred, not shaken. James Bond would be upset with the results. And so are the fans.

The two day event felt more like a waste of time than a big moment in shaping WWE's landscape going forward. But at least we had that blockbuster trade on WWE Backstage hosted by Renee Young and CM Punk, right?

Except we didn't get Punk back (yet?), and the trade was Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross (who already took up two draft picks as a team, despite not needing to) to SmackDown for "draft considerations". To quote the great Kevin Owens, "whatever that means".

This isn't the first version of the concept where we've been disappointed. But is it the worst ever?

An awful name, to go with an equally awful concept on how to handle it. Throwing away any traditional semblance of what a draft was, the superstars who were swapping brands just sort of... showed up on their new home.

Sure, a few were announced prior on social media to try to create a buzz, but that doesn't really work either. It just felt like a giant afterthought, as if we were missing a full week of programming that should've made this all make sense. And with only 21 "picks" being made, they were mostly very forgettable.

Dean Ambrose, then Intercontinental Champion, and the United States champion Kevin Owens swapped brands. So that was... something? It was already a bit spoiled by the "Raw exclusive" pay-per-view Payback featuring him prominently because of his match with Chris Jericho. So even fewer "surprises" were left in store for the Superstar Shake-up due to their poor timing leading into that event.

This was a bit of a massive flop considering the name change was likely meant to coincide with a big impact. Instead, ratings dropped from the previous week (which also happened to be post-'Mania week), going from a 2.62 down to a 2.35 for Raw.

This draft certainly fell short on WWE's expectations, and the wrestling fans all agreed.