The 2021 WWE draft was the sixteenth WWE draft produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between the Raw and SmackDown brands. The draft occurred on the October 1st episode of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox and the October 4th 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 occured on the October 9 and 12 episodes of SmackDown and Raw, respectively. On October 1, WWE confirmed that the NXT brand would particiapte in the draft and that the moves from the draft would go into effect on October 22.
Selection
Night 1: SmackDown (October 1)
The following is the list of wrestlers and other personnel who were selected on the October 1st SmackDown.
There were four rounds of draft picks during Night One of the 2021 draft. WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville announced the draft picks for each.
| Round 1 | |||
| Selected by | Employee | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw | Big E | Male Superstar | Then WWE Champion |
| SmackDown | Roman Reigns | Male Superstar | Then Universal Champion |
| Raw | Bianca Belair | Female Superstar | – |
| SmackDown | Charlotte Flair | Female Superstar | Then RAW Women's Champion |
| Round 2 | |||
| Raw | RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle) |
Tag Team | The Raw Tag Team Champions |
| SmackDown | Drew McIntyre | Male Superstar | – |
| Raw | Edge | Male Superstar | Hall of Famer |
| SmackDown | The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) |
Tag Team | – |
| Round 3 | |||
| Raw | Rhea Ripley & Nikki A.S.H. | Tag Team | Then Women's Tag Team Champions |
| SmackDown | Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss | Tag Team | – |
| Raw | Keith "Bearcat" Lee | Male Superstar | – |
| SmackDown | Hit Row (Isaiah Scott Ashante Adonis Top Dolla B-FAB) |
Intergender stable | Then NXT North American Champion (Scott) |
| Round 4 | |||
| Raw | Rey & Dominik Mysterio | Tag Team | – |
| SmackDown | Naomi | Female Superstar | – |
| Raw | Austin Theory | Male Superstar | – |
| SmackDown | Jeff Hardy | Male Superstar | – |
October 2nd
Additional draft picks announced on WWE Talking Smack & social media on October 2nd.
| Selected by | Employee | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw | Reggie | Male Superstar | Then WWE 24/7 Champion |
| Raw | Akira Tozawa | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Alpha Academy (Chad Gable & Otis) | Tag Team | |
| Raw | Apollo Crews & Commander Azeez | Tag Team | |
| Raw | Doudrop | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Drake Maverick | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | John Morrison | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | T-Bar | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Nia Jax | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | R-Truth | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Zelina Vega | Female Superstar | |
| SmackDown | Mustafa Ali & Mansoor | Tag Team | |
| SmackDown | Toni Storm | Female Superstar | |
| SmackDown | Aliyah | Female Superstar | |
| SmackDown | Drew Gulak | Male Superstar | |
| SmackDown | Mace | Male Superstar |
Night 2: Raw (October 4)
The following is the list of wrestlers and other personnel who were selected on the October 4th Raw.
There were four rounds of draft picks during Night One of the 2021 draft. WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville announced the draft picks for each.
October 4th
Additional draft picks announced on Raw Talk & social media on October 4th.
| Selected by | Employee | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw | Liv Morgan | Female Superstar | – |
| Raw | Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin | Tag team | – |
| Raw | Dana Brooke | Female Superstar | – |
| Raw | The Dirty Dawgs (Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode) |
Tag team | – |
| Raw | Jaxson Ryker | Male Superstar | – |
| Raw | Mia Yim | Female Superstar | – |
| Raw | The Miz | Male Superstar | – |
| Raw | Tamina | Female Superstar | – |
| Raw | Tegan Nox | Female Superstar | – |
| Raw | Veer | Male Superstar | – |
| SmackDown | Natalya | Female Superstar | – |
| SmackDown | Jinder Mahal & Shanky | Tag team | – |
| SmackDown | Shotzi | Female Superstar | – |
Free agents
Several wrestlers were made free agents due to injury, inactivity, or not being drafted during their draft pool. The chart is organized by date.
| Wrestler(s) | Pre-draft brand | Reason for not being drafted | Subsequent status | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brock Lesnar | Raw (left in April 2020) | Chose to be a free agent | Free agent | October 1st, 2021 | Returned to WWE at Summerslam 2021, appearing on SmackDown however never officially joined the brand. |
| Bayley | SmackDown | Injury | Free agent |
Aftermath
During night 1 of the Draft, Brock Lesnar, who after returning to WWE at SummerSlam appeared exclusively on the SmackDown program but never officially joined that brand, declared himself a free agent who was able to appear for any of WWE's brands.
See also
External links
| WWE Draft |
|---|
| 2002 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 (April) • 2019 (October) • 2020 • 2021 • 2023 • 2024 |