The 2023 WWE Draft is set to begin on the April 28th episode of SmackDown before finishing up on the May 1st edition of Monday Night Raw.
This will be the first draft since October 2021, although in recent months the roster split has all but ended.
One of the biggest questions around any draft is who will make the jump from NXT to the main roster. This intrigue has only heightened in 2023 with the ‘Raw after WrestleMania’ delivering only the return of Matt Riddle as a genuine surprise appearance.
A new report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider, via PWInsider Elite, has lifted the lid on who might be moving from WWE’s third brand up to the big time. Johnson noted that there have been pitches made for Cameron Grimes, which began well before WrestleMania, Ilja Dragunov, who could move to SmackDown, and Zoey Stark. There has also been talk of Pretty Deadly moving to Raw.
The reports of Dragunov heading to SmackDown will no doubt have caught the eye of a number of fans who remember his two brutal matches with Gunther in 2020 and 2021.
WWE Draft To Include Surprises
While fans were quick to point out the lack of surprises on the ‘Raw after WrestleMania,’ it appears that this might have been by design. It has been reported that some of these potential debuts were held off until the draft.
Meanwhile, it is believed that the decision to have the draft overlap with the NFL Draft is “not an accident.”