The WWE Draft is a process used by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE to refresh its rosters between the Raw and SmackDown brands when a brand extension is in effect. Wrestlers from the promotion's developmental brand NXT (2016–present) are also eligible to be drafted to Raw and SmackDown. Two of WWE's former brands, ECW (2006–2009) and 205 Live (2019), have also taken part in the draft during the promotion's various brand split periods.
Terry Ray Gordy Jr. is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) between 2005 and 2010, where he performed on its SmackDown brand under the ring names Jesse and Slam Master J.
The brand extension, also referred to as the brand split, is the separation of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE's roster of wrestlers into distinct divisions, or "brands". The promotion's wrestlers are assigned to a brand via the annual WWE Draft and exclusively perform on that brand's weekly television show, with some exceptions. Throughout its history, WWE has utilized the brand extension twice. The first brand split occurred from 2002 to 2011, while the ongoing second began in 2016.
Oleg Aleksandrovich Prudius better known by his ring name Vladimir Kozlov, is a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under his real name. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he won the WWE Tag Team Championship once with Santino Marella. He is trained in freestyle wrestling, rugby, football, sambo, kickboxing, judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts.
The 2007 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft, the fifth WWE Draft, took place at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on June 11. The first half of the draft was televised live for three hours on World Wrestling Entertainment's program, Raw on USA Network. The second half of the draft, or the "supplemental draft", was conducted over WWE's website, WWE.com, for four hours on June 17, 2007, as draft picks were announced at twenty-minute intervals. There were twenty-three draft picks, with twenty-seven wrestlers drafted overall, between the promotion's three main brands: Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW. For the televised half of the draft, each brand's draft pick was determined by nine matches, one being a battle royal for two draft picks, where wrestlers from their respective brands wrestled to earn a draft pick. The supplemental draft, however, was conducted randomly, with each brand receiving random draft selections. Raw and SmackDown! received five random draft picks, while ECW received three random draft picks. The televised draft picks were randomly selected by a computer that was shown on the Raw titantron. Every WWE wrestler from Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW was eligible to be drafted.
The 2007 One Night Stand was the third annual One Night Stand professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on June 3, 2007, at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. While the previous two years' events were held primarily as reunion shows for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) alumni, the 2007 event was promoted as a WWE event with wrestlers from all three brands participating as following WrestleMania 23, brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued. It was the final event to announce each individual brand as co-promoters of the PPV during the introductory graphics.
The Major Players are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Brian Myers and Matt Cardona. They are best known for their time in WWE as Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, where they are former two-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champions. Myers and Cardona also wrestled for Impact Wrestling, in which they are both former Impact Digital Media Champion.
The 2008 Night of Champions was the second annual Night of Champions professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on June 29, 2008, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. While it was the second Night of Champions event, it was the first to be promoted solely under the Night of Champions name as the first event was a cross-promotional event with Vengeance called Vengeance: Night of Champions; Night of Champions subsequently replaced Vengeance. As per the theme of the event, every match on the card was contested for one of WWE's eight then-active championships; three were won and five were retained.
The 2008 Judgment Day was the 10th Judgment Day professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on May 18, 2008, at the Qwest Center Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.
The 2008 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft, the sixth WWE draft, took place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, on June 23. The draft took place live for three hours on Raw. Every WWE wrestler, announcer, commentator, and general manager were eligible to be drafted. Similar to the 2007 WWE draft, wrestlers from each brand competed in matches to win a random draft pick for their brand. Draft picks were kayfabe selected at random via a computer that was shown on the Raw titantron. Like the previous year, a supplemental draft took place on June 25, where draft selections were randomly conducted. The Draft featured the Raw brand randomly drafting ECW Champion Kane from the ECW brand. It also featured the ECW brand drafting WWE United States Champion Matt Hardy from the SmackDown brand. The final selection in the draft was conducted by the SmackDown brand, and they drafted WWE Champion Triple H from the Raw brand. Per pre-draft stipulations, all the three champions brought their respective titles to the brand to which they were drafted. The 2008 Draft was the last to take place in the Ruthless Aggression Era, as the era ended after the SummerSlam PPV.
The 2009 Night of Champions was the third annual Night of Champions professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions—the final to feature ECW. The event took place on July 26, 2009, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The concept of the show was that every championship in the company at the time was defended. All eight matches on the card were championship matches; three were won while five were retained.
John Morrison and The Miz were an American professional wrestling tag team in WWE.
The Hart Dynasty was a Canadian professional wrestling stable who appeared in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The unit consisted of the tag team of Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith, and Natalya as a manager. The group was named due to the connection of all three wrestlers to the Hart wrestling family; David Hart Smith is the son of Davey Boy Smith, Natalya is the daughter of Jim Neidhart, and Tyson Kidd trained under Bret Hart and at Stu Hart's Dungeon and would later marry Natalya. They are recognized as the final team to hold WWE's original World Tag Team Championship.
The 2009 Bragging Rights was the inaugural Bragging Rights professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on October 25, 2009, at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was the final WWE pay-per-view event held there before being replaced by the new Consol Energy Center, renamed to the PPG Paints Arena, in 2010. Bragging Rights replaced WWE's previously annual event, Cyber Sunday. Six matches were featured on the card.
The 2010 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft was the eighth WWE draft, produced by the American professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment. The draft took place over two days: the first day was televised live for three hours on April 26, and the second part, the "supplemental draft", was held on April 27. The first day was broadcast on WWE's Monday night program Raw on the USA Network in the United States, and the supplemental draft was available on WWE's official website. The televised portion was held at Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia. During the production of the draft, guest hosts were portrayed as authority figure characters on Raw; however, due to the importance of the event, the draft was run by the WWE management backstage, as are all other WWE programs.
The World Tag Team Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two male tag team championships for WWE's main roster, along with the WWE Tag Team Championship on SmackDown. The current champions are Awesome Truth, who are in their first reign as a team; individually, it is the second for Truth and fifth for Miz. They won the title from previous champions The Judgment Day in a Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder match on Night 1 of WrestleMania XL on April 6, 2024; they won the title as the Raw Tag Team Championship and it was renamed as World Tag Team Championship on April 15, 2024.
The 2011 WWE draft was the ninth and final overall WWE draft before the first WWE brand extension ended on August 29, produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, which took place on April 25. With a core business of professional wrestling, the corporation held a draft to exchange personnel assigned to one of its two brands that are independent brands that represent WWE. The draft aired live on the USA Network on Raw in the United States for two hours in Raleigh, North Carolina, from the RBC Center. As a standard for previous drafts, most on-air personnel were eligible to be drafted. A continuation of the draft took place on WWE's official website at 12:00pm Eastern time on the following afternoon.
Raw is a brand of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE that was established on March 25, 2002. Brands are divisions of WWE's roster where wrestlers are assigned to perform on a weekly basis when a brand extension is in effect. Wrestlers assigned to Raw primarily appear on the brand's weekly television program, Monday Night Raw, also referred to simply as Raw. It is one of WWE's two main brands, along with SmackDown, collectively referred to as WWE's main roster. The brand was discontinued between August 2011 and July 2016.
SmackDown is a brand of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE that was established on March 25, 2002. Brands are divisions of WWE's roster where wrestlers are assigned to perform on a weekly basis when a brand extension is in effect. Wrestlers assigned to SmackDown primarily appear on the brand's weekly television program, Friday Night SmackDown, also referred to simply as SmackDown. It is one of WWE's two main brands, along with Raw, collectively referred to as WWE's main roster. The brand extension was discontinued between August 2011 and July 2016.
ECW was a brand of the American professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that was established in May 2006 and discontinued in February 2010. Brands are divisions of WWE's roster where wrestlers are assigned to perform on a weekly basis when a brand extension is in effect. Wrestlers that were assigned to ECW primarily appeared on the brand's weekly television program, ECW. The brand was established as a relaunch of the former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, the assets of which WWE acquired in 2003.
