2020 WWE draft

2020 WWE Draft
Information
Date	October 9 and 12, 2020
Event	SmackDown Raw
Venue	Amway Center
Brand	Raw & Smackdown
Last	2019 WWE draft
Next	2021 WWE draft

The 2020 WWE draft was the fifteenth WWE draft produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between the Raw and SmackDown brands. The draft occurred on the October 9th episode of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox and the October 12th episode of Raw on the USA Network.

Production

Background

The WWE Draft is an annual process used by WWE while a brand extension is in affect to refresh the rosters of their brand divisions, usually between their Raw and SmackDown brands. In 2019, the promotion held two drafts, the first in April and the second in October. The one in April 2019 had an untraditional drafting format, where drafting decisions were announced as having been made behind the scenes and drafted wrestlers simply appeared on the brand without a major reveal, while the one in October 2019 returned to a traditional draft format. The 2020 draft was officially announced during the Clash of Champions pay-per-view on September 27 and was scheduled to occur on the October 9 and 12 episodes of SmackDown and Raw, respectively.

During a media call for NXT TakeOver XXX on August 19, WWE executive and NXT head Triple H said that the 2020 draft would also involve the NXT brand, but the official announcement that occurred during Clash of Champions stated that this draft would only be between Raw and SmackDown. On September 30, during the NXT TakeOver 31 media call, Triple H stated that he did not know how or if NXT would be integrated into the draft. WWE's advertising just a couple days later still affirmed that the draft was only between Raw and SmackDown without involvement of NXT. Like previous drafts, wrestlers, including all champions, are eligible to be drafted to either Raw or SmackDown.

2020 draft rules

The rules for the 2020 WWE draft were revealed by Fox Sports on October 8, which are the same as the October 2019 draft. Over 60 male and female wrestlers, as well as individual tag teams and stables, including current champions, were placed into the 2020 drafting pools. Over 20 wrestlers were announced as being eligible to be drafted on the October 9 episode of SmackDown and more than 30 wrestlers will be eligible to be drafted on the October 12 episode of Raw.

The rules of the draft are as follows:

• Due to the length of each show, for every two picks SmackDown gets, Raw receives three (as SmackDown is two hours and Raw is three).
• Tag teams and stables will count as one pick unless FOX or USA, in conjunction with WWE, wants to specifically pick one wrestler from the group.
• Any undrafted wrestlers will immediately (in kayfabe) be declared free agents and are able to sign with the brand of their choosing.

Selection

SmackDown

The following is the list of wrestlers and other personnel who were selected on the October 9th SmackDown.

Round 1
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Drew McIntyre	Male Superstar	Then reigning WWE Champion
SmackDown	Roman Reigns	Male Superstar	Then reigning WWE Universal Champion
Raw	Asuka	Female Superstar	Then reigning WWE Raw Women's Champion
SmackDown	Seth Rollins	Male Superstar
Raw	The Hurt Business	Stable
Round 2
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	A.J. Styles	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Sasha Banks	Female Superstar
Raw	Naomi	Female Superstar
SmackDown	Bianca Belair	Female Superstar
Raw	Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler	Tag Team	Then reigning WWE Women's Tag Team Champions
Round 3
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Ricochet	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Jey Uso	Male Superstar
Raw	Mandy Rose	Female Superstar
SmackDown	Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio	Tag Team
Raw	The Miz & John Morrison	Tag Team
Round 4
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods	Tag Team	Then reigning WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions
SmackDown	Big E	Male Superstar
Raw	Dana Brooke	Female Superstar
SmackDown	Otis	Male Superstar
Raw	Angel Garza	Male Superstar

October 10th

Additional draft picks announced on WWE Talking Smack on October 10th.

Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Humberto Carrillo	Male Superstar
Raw	Tucker	Male Superstar
Raw	Drew Gulak	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Murphy	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Kalisto	Male Superstar

Raw

The following is the list of wrestlers and other personnel who were selected on the October 12th Raw.

Round 1
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	The Fiend	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Bayley	Female Superstar	Then reigning WWE SmackDown Women's Champion
Raw	Randy Orton	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)	Tag Team	Then reigning WWE Raw Tag Team Champions
Raw	Charlotte Flair	Female Superstar
Round 2
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Braun Strowman	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Daniel Bryan	Male Superstar
Raw	Matt Riddle	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Kevin Owens	Male Superstar
Raw	Jeff Hardy	Male Superstar
Round 3
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	RETRIBUTION	Stable
SmackDown	Lars Sullivan	Male Superstar
Raw	Keith Lee	Male Superstar
SmackDown	King Corbin	Male Superstar
Raw	Alexa Bliss	Female Superstar
Round 4
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Elias	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Sami Zayn	Male Superstar	Then reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion
Raw	Lacey Evans	Female Superstar
SmackDown	Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura	Tag Team
Raw	Sheamus	Male Superstar
Round 5
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Nikki Cross	Female Superstar
SmackDown	Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode	Tag Team
Raw	R-Truth	Male Superstar	Then reigning WWE 24-7 Champion
SmackDown	Apollo Crews	Male Superstar
Raw	Dabba-Kato	Male Superstar
Round 6
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Titus O'Neil	Male Superstar
SmackDown	Carmella	Female Superstar
Raw	Peyton Royce	Female Superstar
SmackDown	Aleister Black	Male Superstar
Raw	Akira Tozawa	Male Superstar

October 12th

Additional draft picks announced on Raw Talk.

Round 7
Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Lana	Female Superstar
SmackDown	Natalya	Female Superstar
Raw	Riddick Moss	Male Superstar
SmackDown	The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan)	Tag Team
Raw	Arturo Ruas	Male Superstar

October 12th

Additional draft picks announced on WWE social media.

Selected by	Employee	Role	Notes
Raw	Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado	Tag Team
SmackDown	Shorty G	Male Superstar

See also

• WWE Draft

External links

• 2020 draft page