WWE Draft Returning After SummerSlam 2021

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As per Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast, WWE is reportedly looking to run a two-night Draft shortly after this year’s SummerSlam PPV.

SummerSlam will emanate from Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on 21 August, and Zarian claims that Vince McMahon’s sports entertainment behemoth will follow that up by holding its latest Draft on the 30 August episode of Raw and the 3 September outing for SmackDown.

With WWE having recently announced its impending return to a full touring schedule, that particular Raw is currently set for Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena (fka the Ford Center), while that same week’s SmackDown will take place from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

The last WWE Draft took place in October 2020, with 2019 seeing both a formal WWE Draft and the Superstar Shakeup. Hopefully this latest shuffling of the pack will see WWE's main roster programming - especially Raw - see an upturn in quality, but that's obviously not always been the case with prior Drafts.

Last week saw WWE release six talents, which follows ten further firings in May, another nine in April and several others earlier in the year. Speculation is rife that WWE is gearing up to move several NXT talents to Raw and SmackDown, and it may well be that such moves are made as part of the the 2021 Draft.