The first night of the 2023 WWE Draft took place Friday night during SmackDown from Corpus Christi, Texas on FOX. WWE held four rounds, each with four picks – eight for RAW and eight for SmackDown. The picks for Night 1 are listed below. Chief Content Officer Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Michael “PS” Hayes, JBL, Teddy Long, Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels, and Senior Vice President of Live Events “Road Dogg” Brian James were the presenters for Night 1.
The new post-Draft rosters will be officially implemented on Monday, May 29, two nights after WWE Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia.
The new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, who was crowned at Night of Champions, will also be exclusive to the RAW brand. This is due to the fact that Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, as well as Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman, remained on SmackDown.
On Night 1 of the Draft, several WWE NXT champions were called up. Their reactions can be seen below as a Draft Watch Party was held at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. Indi Hartwell, the NXT Women’s Champion, was promoted to RAW, while Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre were promoted to SmackDown.
There’s no word on how NXT will crown a new Women’s Champion, but new Tag Team Champions could be crowned on Tuesday’s show. Former champions Katana Chance and Kayden Carter approached Dawn and Fyre after their roster move was announced on SmackDown. The two teams agreed to a title match on Tuesday’s NXT episode.
Draft segment clips are available below, including footage of Hartwell, Dawn, and Fyre learning they have been called up. Hartwell can be seen in a walking boot as a result of the injury he sustained on Tuesday night at NXT Spring Breakin’, which could affect his title chances.
SmackDown chose RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair as one of the top picks on Night 1 of the Draft. There has been no word on what WWE intends to do with the women’s titles, but SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley is eligible to be drafted on Monday. In 2021, a similar situation arose between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, which was resolved with a Title Exchange Ceremony in which the champions switched titles.
More picks will be revealed during The SmackDown LowDown this morning as the Draft continues. These selections will be drawn from the pool used on SmackDown. If that’s the case, the following Superstars are eligible for selection on Saturday:
* Candice LeRae
* Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville
* Dexter Lumis
* Dolph Ziggler
* Hit Row (Top Dolla, Ashante “Thee” Adonis with B-Fab)
* Lacey Evans
* Maximum Male Models (ma.cé, mån.sôör, Maxxine Dupri)
* Mustafa Ali
* Natalya
* Omos (with MVP)
* The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar with Valhalla)
* Select NXT Superstars
It’s unclear whether Draft picks will be announced during Monday night’s RAW Talk, but the following names are eligible to be drafted on Monday’s live RAW episode:
* Akira Tozawa
* Alpha Academy (Otis, Chad Gable)
* Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo
* Asuka
* WWE United States Champion Austin Theory
* Baron Corbin
* Braun Strowman and Ricochet
* Brock Lesnar
* Bronson Reed
* Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin
* Charlotte Flair
* Dana Brooke
* Elias
* Emma
* Johnny Gargano
* Karrion Kross (with Scarlett)
* Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
* LA Knight
* WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
* Nikki Cross
* Piper Niven
* SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley
* Rick Boogs
* Riddick Moss
* Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler
* Seth Rollins
* Shotzi
* Tamina Snuka
* Tegan Nox
* The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland, Butch)
* The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio)
* The LWO (Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde, Zelina Vega)
* The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods)
* The Usos (Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso)
* Trish Stratus
* Xia Li
* Select NXT Superstars
The following Night 1 picks were made during tonight’s live SmackDown:
* ROUND 1: The Bloodline (Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, Paul Heyman) stays on SmackDown, Cody Rhodes stays on RAW, RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair goes to SmackDown from RAW (title to be decided), Becky Lynch stays on RAW
* ROUND 2: The Street Profits (Montez Ford, Angelo Dawkins) go to SmackDown from RAW, Imperium (WWE Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER, Ludwig Kaiser, Giovanni Vinci) goes to RAW from SmackDown, WWE Hall of Famer Edge goes to SmackDown from RAW, Matt Riddle stays on RAW
* ROUND 3: Bobby Lashley goes to SmackDown from RAW, Drew McIntyre goes to RAW from SmackDown, The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Mia Yim) goes to SmackDown from RAW, The Miz stays on RAW
* ROUND 4: Damage CTRL (Bayley, IYO SKY, Dakota Kai) goes to SmackDown from RAW, Shinsuke Nakamura to RAW from SmackDown, NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre go to SmackDown from NXT, NXT Women’s Champion Indi Hartwell goes to RAW from NXT
Here are the aforementioned clips:
