12 Most Impactful WWE Draft Picks In History

6. Bayley to SmackDown – 2019

As much as Roman Reigns has meant to SmackDown over the last year, Bayley has meant just as much and for even longer.

Bayley’s run as a babyface on Raw was dragged down significantly by WWE’s insistence on using babyfaces to get heels over. It should be the other way around but I digress.

Moving to SmackDown in 2019 in the Superstar Shake-Up (not quite a WWE Draft but its close enough), Bayley turned heel and was the MVP of the Performance Center era of the show.

With major stars like Reigns and Sami Zayn gone due to the pandemic, Bayley stepped up and put on some of the best work of her career.

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5. Seth Rollins to Raw – 2016

The first overall pick in the 2016 WWE Draft, Seth Rollins turned Monday Night Raw into Monday Night Rollins.

He may not have been pushed as hard as Roman Reigns during his time on Raw but Raw felt more like Seth Rollins’ show. The same way that SmackDown had been The Undertaker, Edge and Rey Mysterio’s show during the 2000s.

Rollins’ run was not always smooth. His botched babyface turn in 2016 and his terrible run with The Fiend in 2019 put a damper on his overall impact but no one had a bigger impact on Raw as a brand after the 2016 WWE Draft than Rollins.

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4. Batista to SmackDown – 2005

When a certain someone was drafted to Raw in 2005, SmackDown was briefly left without a World Champion.

Step right up World Heavyweight Champion Batista you get to go blue! Batista’s WWE career had primarily been on Raw up to this point. He was part of Evolution, eventually winning the World title from Triple H at WrestleMania 21.

Moving to SmackDown was a big test for Batista, and one that was not always smooth. His 2006 was pretty miserable but his 2007 more than made up for it.

Feuding with Edge and The Undertaker on SmackDown throughout 2007 made the show must-see and it was the best period of Batista’s career. Also if you look at how many pay-per-views in a row he competed for the World title during this time it is absolutely nutty.

Batista, Edge and The Undertaker properly defined SmackDown for an era and Batista had a lot to do with it.

• draft
• Batista
• John Cena
• wwe

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