Smackdown Makes Surprise Pick In Carmelo Hayes

The live feed of both brands’, ‘War Room,’ is always a nice touch and adds to the drama of the situation. RAW’s ‘War Room’ had familiar faces like JBL and Devon Dudley alongside GM Adam Pearce, while Smackdown made use of Bully Ray and Teddy Long to assist GM Nick Aldis.

Paul Heyman announced early in the show that Roman Reigns withdrew himself from tonight’s draft due to him being out for the foreseeable future. If you’re a boxing or MMA fan, this is known as the Canelo/McGregor treatment, and Roman Reigns has earned it. Other than that, here are the updated rules.

RULES

• Superstars from RAW, Smackdown, and NXT are eligible for the draft
• Four rounds tonight and six rounds Monday on RAW
• Champions on each brand are protected and automatically assigned to their title’s brand
• SmackDown picks first tonight
• Raw picks first Monday
• Rosters lock Monday, May 6th

Champions (Automatically drafted to the brand associated with title held)

SmackDown

World Champion: Cody Rhodes

United States Champ: Logan Paul

Tag Team Champs: A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory & Grayson Waller)

Raw

Heavyweight Champion: Damian Priest

Intercontinental Champion: Sami Zayn

Tag Team Champs: Awesome Truth (Miz & R-Truth)

DRAFT RESULTS

SmackDown Picks by Round

Round 1 (Announced by Triple H & Cody Rhodes)

1. Bianca Belair (As the overall number one pick, the company seems to be ready to push her to the top of the roster.)

2. Carmelo Hayes, former NXT Champ, 2x NXT North American Champion (WHAT?! I mean, Hayes is great and a possible generational talent, but over Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and like 15 other guys?)

Round 2 (Announced by Michelle McCool & Tori Wilson)

1. Randy Orton
2. Nia Jax (Why? Of all the amazing talent left, why?)

Round 3 (Announced by Dudley Boyz)

1. LA Knight (How did he go in round 3?)
2. The Bloodline (This pick won SD the round, and maybe the Draft)

Round 4 (Announced by JBL & Teddy Long)

1. AJ Styles (They could’ve added a rule that anyone vying for titles is being held for a pool meant to be drafted later off-screen)
2. Andrade (Former NXT and US champ)

RAW Picks By Round

Round 1

1. Jey Uso (9x Tag Team Champ, record for longest reign 622 days)
2. Seth Rollins (That’s more like it)

Round 2

1. Bron Breakker
2. Liv Morgan (RAW is winning this draft thus far)

Round 3

1. Ricochet (Former IC and US champ)
2. Sheamus (Over Drew McIntyre? McIntyre has been the best in the company for months. Will he become a different kind of free agent soon?)

Round 4

1. Alpha Academy
2. Kiana James (I mean, ahead of Becky Lynch? Ahead of Naomi? Ahead of Tiffany Stratton? If you feel the need to play a video package of your draft pick so that people know who it is, you should’ve picked someone else probably)

Cody Rhodes First Phenomenal Challenger

Even though draft night takes center stage on these episodes, you will never outdo a Cody Rhodes segment. He opened SmackDown with his BACKLASH challenger, AJ Styles, who won the right to face Cody by defeating LA Knight last week on SmackDown. The two had an unusual contract signing because it did NOT end in a brawl, but the promos were first class.

Of course, there were Dusty references, and Cody reminded everyone that he was in the indie locker rooms with the same people AJ made his bones with across North America and Japan. This match has so many layers to it, but the match itself should be great, even if Cody enters as the wide favorite.

Cody Rhodes Gives An Opportunity To Carmelo Hayes

After one of the biggest shocks of the draft, a first-round draft pick used on NXT stud Carmelo Hayes, he came out to challenge Cody in a non-title match. Cody, being the ‘won’t back down’ champ he is, accepted almost immediately. With Cody embroiled in a feud with AJ Styles, this was a great opportunity to give the new guy a ‘rub’ by sharing the ring. If you remember, John Cena’s US title run was used to give new guys, and the roster’s overlooked a chance, and this is a similar strategy.

Hayes was able to show off just some of the incredible moves in his repertoire, but he also showed his ability to take a bump when he took a springboard dropkick from Cody that caused Hayes to backflip from contact. Perhaps the biggest highlight for Hayes in the match was not even an offensive move after he kicked out of the ‘Cody cutter,’ but Cody was able to oversell a shoulder injury and played possum to land the ‘Cross Rhodes’ for the win.

Tidbits/Match Results

• LWO (Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee) def Legado Del Fantasma (Angel and Berto). After the match, Santos revealed that it was Carlito who attacked Dragon Lee before WrestleMania.
• Bron Breakker def Cedric Alexander
• Nia Jax once again ruined a match/segment. This time, it was a great match between Naomi and Tiffany Stratton. Stratton’s push seems imminent, but it may be upon us after she hit the “Prettiest Moonsault Ever” on both Naomi and world champ Bayley after Jax caused the DQ.
• Street Profits will get a title shot against A-Town Down next week.