2010 WWE Draft - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 2010 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Draft was the eighth Draft produced by the American professional wrestling promotion

Professional wrestling promotion

A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. Promotion also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event...

WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

. The Draft took place over two days: the first day was televised live

Live television

Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...

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
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...

on the USA Network

USA Network

USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...

in the United States, and the Supplemental Draft was available on WWE's official website. The televised portion was held at Richmond Coliseum

Richmond Coliseum

Richmond Coliseum is an arena in Richmond, Virginia, where the SPHL Richmond Renegades played until the 2008-2009 season and the SIFL Richmond Raiders will play starting with the 2010 season. It is also the venue for various large concerts. The arena opened in 1971 and holds 13,500 people. A...

in Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

. 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.

Unlike sports draft lotteries where players are signed to a team, WWE Drafts featured the exchanging of employees between WWE's two brands. The 2010 WWE Draft marked the fifth time that only the Raw and SmackDown brands

WWE Brand Extension

WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Entertainment , currently promotes its core business of professional wrestling through two "brands" named after their two major television shows Raw and SmackDown...

were involved; Superstars (male wrestlers) and Divas (female wrestlers) along with other WWE personalities from these brands were eligible to be drafted. This was the first draft since 2005

2005 WWE Draft Lottery

The 2005 World Wrestling Entertainment Draft Lottery took place over a three week period in June. There were ten draft picks and an eleven-person trade conducted between the promotion's two brands: Raw and SmackDown!, where twenty-two superstars were drafted and traded overall...

to not feature the ECW brand, due to its disbandment on February 16, 2010. For the televised portion, matches determined which brand received a random draft selection. During the Supplemental Draft, brand and employee selections were conducted randomly. Based on 2009

2009 WWE Draft

The 2009 World Wrestling Entertainment Draft was the seventh Draft produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. The Draft took place over two days: the first day was televised live for three hours on April 13; the second part, the "Supplemental Draft", was held on April 15...

regulations, drafted champions took their titles to their new brands, and tag teams were not exempt from being selected. Unlike the previous year's draft where each selection was for only one individual, 2010 featured two instances where at least two employees were drafted in one pick.

Overall, 21 employees from the company's roster were drafted in 19 selections, the fewest in a single night draft show (that featured supplemental drafting) since 2004. Eight selections were made on television (four from each brand), while the Supplemental Draft saw eleven draft picks (five by Raw and six by SmackDown) that featured 13 draftees. Of the 21 selected personalities, seventeen were males (seven drafted on television) and three were females (one drafted on television). All but one draftee was a wrestler: The Great Khali's manager

Manager (professional wrestling)

In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the...

Ranjin Singh, who came to Raw in the Supplemental Draft along with Khali in one draft pick. SmackDown obtained the first Draft pick by winning the first match, which resulted in the acquisition of the only drafted Diva on television, Kelly Kelly; John Morrison was Raw's first selection after winning the third match. In the Supplemental Draft, Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Hart Dynasty

The Hart Dynasty

The Hart Dynasty was a professional wrestling stable that appeared in World Wrestling Entertainment. The unit consisted of the tag team of Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith, and WWE Diva Natalya...

(Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith

Harry Smith (wrestler)

Harry Smith is a Canadian professional wrestler of English descent. He is currently working for Inoki Genome Federation and is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he won the Unified Tag Team Championship along with Tyson Kidd before being released from his contract on August 5, 2011...

) were drafted as one selection to Raw, with their valet Natalya Neidhart

Nattie Neidhart

Natalie "Nattie" Katherine Neidhart is a Canadian professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE on its SmackDown brand under the ring name Natalya....

drafted as a separate pick. In addition to Smith being drafted to Raw, Chavo Guerrero

Chavo Guerrero, Jr.

Salvador "Chavo" Guerrero IV also known as Chavo Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Jr., is a third generation Mexican-American professional wrestler and member of the famed Guerrero wrestling family who was well known for working with World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling...

, Montel Vontavious Porter, and Hornswoggle (who were all drafted to SmackDown) were acquired by the brand for which they made their debuts in WWE.

Background

The Brand Extension

WWE Brand Extension

storyline

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

was initiated in March 2002, in which WWE's Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...

and SmackDown! television programs were made into brands (similar to conferences within a league) to which employees were assigned to; the ECW

Extreme Championship Wrestling (WWE)

ECW was a professional wrestling television program for World Wrestling Entertainment , based on the independent Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion that lasted from 1992 to 2001. The show's name also referred to the ECW brand, in which WWE employees were assigned to work and perform,...

brand additionally involved between 2006 and 2009. Since its inception, annual drafts have followed, except for in 2003. As in previous drafts that followed the Brand Extension, the purpose of the 2010 WWE Draft was to increase television ratings

Audience measurement

Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...

of WWE programming and refresh the rosters with new storylines for each brand. The 2010 WWE Draft was confirmed both by WWE and Richmond Coliseum

Richmond Coliseum

via their websites between March and April 2010, which featured the draft eligibility of WWE employees from the Raw and SmackDown brands. The event was scheduled to take place over two days, in which the televised draft would air live

Live television

on the USA Network

USA Network

in the United States from the Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia

on the April 26 episode of Raw. The second portion of the Draft, the "Supplemental Draft," was originally scheduled for April 28; however, it was announced during the live broadcast that it would be held the next day on April 27 with selections being announced via WWE's website.

Roster selections

WWE uses specific terms to refer to its employees. The term "Superstar" is used to refer to male in-ring performers while female wrestlers are labeled as "Diva

WWE Diva

Diva is a term used by World Wrestling Entertainment , an American professional wrestling promotion, to refer to its female talent. The term is applied to women who appear as wrestlers, managers or valets, backstage interviewers, or ring announcers....

s;" this is reflected in the following list.

Televised draft

During Raw, six matches were held among representatives of the two brands to determine which would receive a draft pick; except for one match that was for three selections, the others were for one. Each match featured a wrestler representing their brand; if a wrestler was drafted earlier in the program, they would represent their new brand. After the matches, a computerized system, which appeared on the Raw stage TitanTron

Jumbotron

A JumboTron is a large-screen television using technology developed by Sony, typically used in sports stadiums and concert venues to show close-up shots of the event. Although JumboTron is a registered trademark owned by the Sony Corporation, the word jumbotron is often used by the public as a...

, randomly selected a member from the opposing brand's roster for the winning brand.

Matches

#		Match
1	SmackDown: Team Lay-Cool (Layla Layla El Layla El is an English dancer, model and professional wrestler of Moroccan and Spanish descent. She is employed by WWE as a WWE Diva and appears on the SmackDown brand as Layla... and Michelle McCool Michelle McCool Michelle Leigh McCool , is a retired American professional wrestler who is best known for her time in WWE.McCool originally worked as a middle school teacher in Palatka, Florida. She joined WWE in 2004 after participating in the 2004 WWE Diva Search. In her initial on-screen role, she acted... ) vs. Raw: Maryse Maryse Ouellet Maryse Ouellet is a Professional Glamour Model and a former professional wrestler, better known simply as Maryse. She most recently worked for WWE... and Eve Torres Eve Torres Eve Marie Torres is an American dancer, model, and professional wrestler. She is working for WWE on Raw brand. She is a two time WWE Divas Champion.Torres began her career as a model and dancer...	Tag team match for 1 Diva WWE Diva Diva is a term used by World Wrestling Entertainment , an American professional wrestling promotion, to refer to its female talent. The term is applied to women who appear as wrestlers, managers or valets, backstage interviewers, or ring announcers.... -only draft pick	SmackDown: Team Lay-Cool
2	SmackDown: CM Punk CM Punk Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks , better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and working on its Raw brand currently serving his second title reign as WWE Champion.... vs. Raw: Evan Bourne	Singles match for 1 draft pick	SmackDown: CM Punk
3	Raw: Santino Marella, Ted DiBiase Ted DiBiase, Jr. Theodore Marvin "Ted" DiBiase Jr. is an American professional wrestler and actor signed with WWE, where he appears on its SmackDown brand... , Montel Vontavious Porter, Mark Henry Mark Henry Mark Jerrold Henry is an American professional wrestler signed with WWE, where he performs on its SmackDown brand as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. He is a 1992 Olympian, and winner of the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic... , and Yoshi Tatsu Naofumi Yamamoto is a Japanese professional wrestler and former boxer, who is currently signed to WWE, performing on its SmackDown brand under the ring name Yoshi Tatsu.-New Japan Pro Wrestling :... vs. SmackDown: Kane Kane (wrestler) Glenn Thomas Jacobs is a Spanish-born American professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name, Kane. He is signed to WWE, appearing on its SmackDown brand, but is currently inactive due to injury.... , R-Truth Ron Killings Ronald Aaron "Ron" Killings is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE working on its Raw brand. Since working for the company, he has been a one time United States Champion under the ring name R-Truth and a two time Hardcore Champion under the ring name K-Kwik... , Rey Mysterio, Drew McIntyre, and Shad Gaspard Cryme Tyme For animated series named Crime Time, visit Crime TimeCryme Tyme was a professional wrestling tag team that was signed to WWE.The team consisted of JTG and Shad , an over-the-top parody of stereotypical street thugs.-Early lives:Of Haitian and...	Battle royal Battle royal (professional wrestling) In professional wrestling, a battle royal is a multi-competitor match type in which wrestlers are eliminated until one is left and declared winner... for 3 draft picks	Raw: Santino Marella and Ted DiBiase
4	SmackDown: Chris Jericho Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine , better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an inactive Canadian-American professional wrestler, musician, songwriter, radio personality, television host, actor, author, and dancer... vs. Raw: Christian	Singles match for 1 draft pick	SmackDown: Chris Jericho
5	SmackDown: Jack Swagger vs. Raw: John Morrison	Singles match for 1 draft pick	SmackDown: Jack Swagger
6	SmackDown: Dolph Ziggler Nick Nemeth Nicholas Theodore "Nick" Nemeth is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE performing on its Raw brand under the ring name Dolph Ziggler. He is the reigning WWE United States Champion... vs. Raw: Hornswoggle	Singles match for 1 draft pick	Raw: Hornswoggle

Main Draft

Pick #		Brand (to)		Role
1	SmackDown	Kelly Kelly	Diva	Raw
2	SmackDown	The Big Show Paul Wight Paul Donald Wight, Jr. , better known by his ring name, Big Show, is an American professional wrestler and actor, currently signed to WWE on its Raw brand....	Superstar	Raw
3	Raw	John Morrison	Superstar	SmackDown
4	Raw	R-Truth Ron Killings Ronald Aaron "Ron" Killings is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE working on its Raw brand. Since working for the company, he has been a one time United States Champion under the ring name R-Truth and a two time Hardcore Champion under the ring name K-Kwik...	Superstar	SmackDown
5	Raw	Edge	Superstar	SmackDown
6	SmackDown	Kofi Kingston Kofi Kingston Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah , is a Ghanaian American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Kofi Kingston. He is currently signed to WWE and works on its Raw brand where he is one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with Evan Bourne as Air Boom...	Superstar	Raw
7	SmackDown	Christian	Superstar	Raw
8	Raw	Chris Jericho Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine , better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an inactive Canadian-American professional wrestler, musician, songwriter, radio personality, television host, actor, author, and dancer...	Superstar	SmackDown

Supplemental Draft

Pick #		Brand (to)		Role(s)
	Raw	The Great Khali and Ranjin Singh	Superstar and manager	SmackDown
10	SmackDown	Chavo Guerrero Chavo Guerrero, Jr. Salvador "Chavo" Guerrero IV also known as Chavo Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Jr., is a third generation Mexican-American professional wrestler and member of the famed Guerrero wrestling family who was well known for working with World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling...	Superstar	Raw
11	SmackDown	Cody Rhodes	Superstar	Raw
12	Raw	Natalya Nattie Neidhart Natalie "Nattie" Katherine Neidhart is a Canadian professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE on its SmackDown brand under the ring name Natalya....	Diva	SmackDown
13	SmackDown	Chris Masters Chris Masters Christopher Todd Mordetzky is an American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Chris Masters. He is best known for his tenure with WWE.-Early career:...	Superstar	Raw
14	Raw	Ezekiel Jackson	Superstar	SmackDown
15	Raw	Goldust	Superstar	SmackDown
16	SmackDown	Hornswoggle	Superstar	Raw
17	SmackDown	Rosa Mendes	Diva	Raw
18	Raw	The Hart Dynasty The Hart Dynasty The Hart Dynasty was a professional wrestling stable that appeared in World Wrestling Entertainment. The unit consisted of the tag team of Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith, and WWE Diva Natalya... (David Hart Smith Harry Smith (wrestler) Harry Smith is a Canadian professional wrestler of English descent. He is currently working for Inoki Genome Federation and is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he won the Unified Tag Team Championship along with Tyson Kidd before being released from his contract on August 5, 2011... and Tyson Kidd)	Tag team	SmackDown
19	SmackDown	Montel Vontavious Porter	Superstar	Raw

Response and aftermath

Following the televised draft, Josh Mathews, a commentator

Sports commentator

In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...

and interviewer for WWE, interviewed various wrestlers who switched brands. They included The Big Show, Christian, Kelly Kelly, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, and R-Truth, who all stated that they viewed their new brands as an opportunity to engage in combat with new competitors and to achieve new success. Based on the 2009

2009 WWE Draft

regulations, champions that were drafted would carry their titles with them to their new brand. As opposed to previous drafts, this was the first to not feature a championship

Championship (professional wrestling)

A Championship or "title" in professional wrestling is a recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations.Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in scripted rivalries...

exchange brands since 2007

2007 WWE Draft

The 2007 World Wrestling Entertainment Draft Lottery took place at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on June 11, 2007. The first half of the draft was televised live for three hours on WWE's flagship program, Raw on USA Network...

. Similar to 2007, no tag team

Tag team

Tag team professional wrestling is a variation in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may comprise two wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name...

s were affected by the draft since tag teams and stables were drafted to the same brand either as a single draft pick or consisting of several draft picks to a new brand. The two alliances that switched brands were the stable of The Hart Dynasty (Kidd, Natalya, and Smith), in which Kidd and Smith were in unison and Natalya consisted of a separate draft pick, and The Great Khali and Ranjin Singh, who were also drafted as one selection in the Supplemental Draft.

The Draft had little effect on the WWE's television ratings. Despite not having direct involvement in the Draft, WWE NXT
WWE NXT
WWE NXT is a sports entertainment television program produced by WWE that debuted on February 23, 2010. Described as a hybrid between reality television and WWE's scripted live event shows, the premise of the show follows select talent contracted to WWE's developmental territory Florida...

and WWE Superstars
WWE Superstars
WWE Superstars is a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment that originally aired on WGN America in the United States. It debuted on April 16, 2009 and ended its domestic broadcasting on April 7, 2011...

were a part of the weekly television lineup for the company and featured Superstars and Divas from both brands. Generally, the ratings of the four shows during the week of the Draft were consistent with the ratings of each from the previous week. The ratings for WWE programming the week before the Draft were the following: the April 19 episode of Raw was watched by an average of 4.10 million viewers in the first hour and 4.20 in the second hour for an average 3.05 rating, WWE NXT on April 20 was watched by 1.21 million viewers for a 0.90 rating, the April 22 episode of WWE Superstars earned a 0.64 rating, while the April 23 episode of SmackDown was watched by 3.09 million viewers and earned a 1.8 rating. The Draft episode of Raw was watched by 3.90 million viewers in its first hour, 4.99 in its second hour, and 4.98 in its final hour for an average of 3.07 rating. In the normal two hour time slot for Raw, the show would have received a 3.4 rating. Later that week, WWE NXT was watched by 1,069,000 viewers for a 0.79 rating, WWE Superstars earned a 0.76 rating with 754,000 viewers, and SmackDown was watched by 2,718,000 million viewers for a 1.7 rating.

Footnotes

A: – In addition to the United States, Raw is broadcast in various countries.
B: – Although WWE claimed the Draft was conducted randomly, the results were predetermined since the Draft is a storyline
Narrative thread
A narrative thread, or plot thread , refers to particular elements and techniques of writing to center the story in the action or experience of characters rather than to relate a matter in a dry 'All knowing' sort of narration...

.
C: – John Morrison was originally a SmackDown member, but represented Raw after being drafted earlier in the evening.
D: – Both men were drafted in unison.
E: – Viewership details were not published and available via a reliable source of information.
F: – Although The Hart Dynasty
The Hart Dynasty
The Hart Dynasty was a professional wrestling stable that appeared in World Wrestling Entertainment. The unit consisted of the tag team of Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith, and WWE Diva Natalya...

were the reigning Unified WWE Tag Team Champions at the time that they were drafted, the championship was available to both brands as opposed to only one.

External links

Official website of the 2010 WWE Draft

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