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The WWE Draft ended Monday night, with the second half of the draft spanning the length of WWE Raw. As expected, many big names will end up on a new brand when the changes take effect after Crown Jewel on October 21.
Crown Jewel also landed two new matches on Raw. Big E will now officially defend his WWE Championship against former Champion Drew McIntyre in McIntyre’s final match before moving on to SmackDown, and Bobby Lashley and Goldberg have agreed to revenge for their SummerSlam clash, this time with no disqualification rules.
CBS Sports was with you all night with recaps and highlights of all the action from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
WWE Draft Ends With More Talent Swaps
The second and final night of the WWE Draft saw more big names switch sides, including first overall pick and SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch move from SmackDown to Raw. Raw has picked up several big names, including Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. WWE also announced that Raw has selected Olympic champion Gable Steveson, who recently signed on with the promotion and has yet to be trained to be a professional wrestler.
You can see the full WWE Draft results here.
Steveson’s choice was certainly odd since WWE would have to be very careful and patient with his development. Despite his past controversies, Steveson is a big pickup for WWE and rushing him before he’s properly trained to work both in the ring and on camera could do a lot more harm than good. More likely, it was just a great time to remind everyone that they signed Steveson. The rest of the project was about what was expected and it will be difficult to really judge how things will go until WWE shows what the most important plans are for each brand. Category B
A chaotic women’s match closes the show
Becky Lynch opened the show by announcing that she was the first pick of the night in the draft, meaning the SmackDown Women’s Champion was drafted on Raw – just as Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair was drafted in. SmackDown Friday. Flair came to the ring to address Lynch after Lynch suggested she might need to win the Raw title as well. This drew Bianca Belair, who wondered why she was being ignored. Lynch suggested a match between Belair and Flair as the main event, which WWE officials quickly formalized.
Bianca Belair beat. Charlotte Flair by disqualification after the intervention of Becky Lynch. After a home and away match, Belair hit Flair with the kiss of death and looked like she won the match, but Lynch, who was commenting, pulled Belair out of the ring and attacked her. The attack continued until Sasha Banks rushed to attack Lynch, ending the show standing after brutalizing Lynch and Belair.
Belair vs. Flair was a bit sloppier than most would expect, but the game also felt a bit rushed. There is a big drama around the titles. If Flair and Lynch both have the belts after Crown Jewel, it looks like we’ll see a title swap like what happened when the Raw and SmackDown tag champions both switched sides in the 2020 Draft. It’s hard not to look forward to what Banks v Belair v Lynch will look like if it was a proper match in Saudi Arabia. Rating: B +
What else happened on WWE Raw?
- United States Championship – Damian Priest (c) def. Jeff Hardy via pinfall to retain title with a crucifix pin. After the match, Austin Theory came to the ring and asked to take a selfie with Hardy before attacking him.
- Shayna Baszler beat. Dana Brooke by submission with an armband. After the match, Baszler continued to attack Brooke’s arm before trying to nudge her on her elbow like she did for weeks before Doudrop rushed to make the save.
- Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo won. Mansoor & Mustafa Ali via pinfall after Garza pinned Ali.
- Big E and Drew McIntyre won. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler via pinfall when McIntyre hit Ziggler with a Claymore. The match took place when Roode and Ziggler interrupted McIntyre to ask him for a chance to win the WWE Championship from Big E. Big E accepted the match for Crown Jewel after the match ended.
- Women’s team championship – Nikki ASH and Rhea Ripley beat. Natalya & Tamina via pinfall to keep the titles after hitting Tamina with an assisted splash.
- Bobby Lashley has agreed to give Goldberg a match at Crown Jewel. Goldberg came to the ring to reiterate that Lashley attacking Gage Goldberg was not a misunderstanding but an act of intention. Lashley responded by demanding an apology for the “character assassination,” but then said he would face Goldberg at Crown Jewel without any disqualification rule. Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander jumped Goldberg from behind, but Goldberg quickly took out the two men to complete the segment.
- The new day def. The Hurt Business via pinfall when Xavier Woods pinned Shelton Benjamin after falling from his elbow on a rope.
- Randy Orton hit Omos and AJ Styles with RKOs. Orton had challenged Omos in a one-on-one match to eliminate the two with Riddle ahead of RK-Bro’s title defense at Crown Jewel.
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