The 2023 WWE draft was the seventeenth WWE draft produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) between the Raw and SmackDown brands. The draft occurred on the April 28th episode of SmackDown on Fox and the May 1st episode of Raw on the USA Network.
Production
Background
The WWE Draft is a process used by World Wrestling Entertainment (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 nontraditional 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 occurred on the October 9 and 12 episodes of SmackDown and Raw, respectively.
For the 2023 WWE draft the new rosters would go into effect after Backlash, beginning with the May 8th episode of Raw.
Selection
SmackDown
The following is the list of wrestlers and other personnel who were selected on the April 28th SmackDown.
| Round 1 | |||
| Selected by | Employee | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| SmackDown | Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa | Male Superstars | Roman Reigns was then WWE Champion and Universal Champion |
| Raw | Cody Rhodes | Male Superstar | |
| SmackDown | Bianca Belair | Female Superstar | Then RAW Women's Champion |
| Raw | Becky Lynch | Female Superstar | |
| Round 2 | |||
| SmackDown | The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) | Tag Team | |
| Raw | Imperium (Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci) | Stable | Gunther was then WWE Intercontinental Champion |
| SmackDown | Edge | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Matt Riddle | Male Superstar | |
| Round 3 | |||
| SmackDown | Bobby Lashley | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Drew McIntyre | Male Superstar | |
| SmackDown | The O.C. (A.J. Styles, Mia Yim, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) | Stable | |
| Raw | The Miz | Male Superstar | |
| Round 4 | |||
| SmackDown | Damage CTRL (Bayley, IYO SKY & Dakota Kai) | Stable | |
| Raw | Shinsuke Nakamura | Male Superstar | |
| SmackDown | Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn | Tag Team | Drafted from NXT Then NXT Women's Tag Team Champions |
| Raw | Indi Hartwell | Female Superstar | Drafted from NXT Then NXT Women's Champion |
SmackDown LowDown
Additional draft picks announced on The SmackDown LowDown on April 29th.
| Selected by | Employee | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw | The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar & Valhalla) | Stable | |
| Raw | Dexter Lumis | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Candice LeRae | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Maximum Male Models (Mace, Mansoor & Maxxine Dupri) | Stable | |
| Raw | Natalya | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Apollo Crews | Male Superstar | Drafted from NXT |
| Raw | Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville | Tag Team | |
| Raw | Zoey Stark | Female Superstar | Drafted from NXT |
| Raw | JD McDonagh | Male Superstar | Drafted from NXT |
| SmackDown | Hit Row (Ashante Adonis, Top Dolla & B-FAB) | Stable | |
| SmackDown | Lacey Evans | Female Superstar |
Raw
The following is the list of wrestlers and other personnel who were selected on the May 1st Raw.
Raw Talk
Additional draft picks announced on Raw Talk after Raw.
| Selected by | Employee | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw | Los Lotharios (Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo) | Tag Team | |
| Raw | Dana Brooke | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Nikki Cross | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Indus Sher (Jinder Mahal, Veer & Sanga) | Stable | Drafted from NXT |
| Raw | Emma | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Johnny Gargano | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Odyssey Jones | Male Superstar | Drafted from NXT |
| Raw | Xia Li | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Riddick Moss | Male Superstar | |
| Raw | Piper Niven | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Tegan Nox | Female Superstar | |
| Raw | Akira Tozawa | Male Superstar | |
| SmackDown | Grayson Waller | Male Superstar | Drafted from NXT |
| SmackDown | Tamina | Female Superstar |
Free agents
As a result of not being drafted, the following wrestlers became free agents:
- Omos (w/MVP)
- Mustafa Ali
- Dolph Ziggler
- Von Wagner
- Brock Lesnar
- Baron Corbin
- Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin
- Elias
- Xyon Quinn
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 |