2023 WWE Draft

The day after the draft on May 2, it was revealed that ring announcers Mike Rome and Samantha Irvin, who announced for Raw and SmackDown, respectively, would switch brands beginning May 8.^[20]

Despite being drafted to Raw, Dana Brooke appeared on the June 6 episode of NXT to compete in a battle royal to determine the next challenger for the NXT Women's Championship. During her entrance, she was referred to as a Raw roster member, but during the battle royal itself, the commentators referred to her as a free agent. An official change to her status was not announced and her WWE.com profile still listed her as a member of Raw.^[21] Furthermore, although Los Lotharios (Angel and Humberto) were drafted to Raw, they would also appear in NXT on the June 13 episode, stating they would be going after the NXT Tag Team Championship (their individual ring names would also revert to Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo, respectively, in July), they later returned to the main roster on the December 22 episode of SmackDown.^[22] Other main roster wrestlers would appear in NXT, and hold championships, with WWE president Nick Khan stating this cross-over of talent from Raw and SmackDown to NXT was intentional, as he said there was potential for NXT to become WWE's third brand again while still developing younger wrestlers.^[23]

On August 5, WWE announced a change to the on-air commentary teams that would begin with the August 7 episode of Raw. Raw's team of Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick moved to SmackDown while SmackDown commentator Wade Barrett moved to Raw, with Michael Cole, who was on SmackDown with Barrett, doing commentary for both shows.^[24]

At Payback on September 2, 2023, Jey Uso, who had "quit" WWE a month prior after a fallout with his brother Jimmy Uso and The Bloodline as a whole, was reinstated but as a member of Raw.^[25] On the following episode of Raw, WWE official Adam Pearce revealed that a member of the Raw roster was traded to SmackDown so that Jey could join Raw.^[26] The following month on the October 13 episode of SmackDown, after Triple H announced that Pearce—who had officiated for both Raw and SmackDown since January 2020—would now just be the general manager of Raw with former National Wrestling Alliance wrestler Nick Aldis introduced as SmackDown's general manager,^[27] Aldis revealed that Kevin Owens had been traded to SmackDown for Jey,^[28] in turn splitting the team of Owens and Sami Zayn.^[29]

Shortly after the draft, NXT's Dragon Lee began making appearances on the main roster and had his main roster debut match on SmackDown in October. He was subsequently promoted to the main roster on the SmackDown brand.^[30] After a successful in-ring debut on Raw the week prior, NXT's Diamond Mine (Brutus Creed, Julius Creed, and Ivy Nile) were promoted to the main roster on the Raw brand on November 6, 2023.^[31]

At SmackDown: New Year's Revolution, NXT's Tyler Bate made his main roster debut. Afterwards, Bate confirmed via WWE's Instagram page that he was now an official member of the SmackDown roster. NXT's Elektra Lopez were promoted to the main roster on the SmackDown brand on January 26, 2024. Following Royal Rumble appearances, NXT's Tiffany Stratton and Bron Breakker were subsequently promoted to the main roster on the SmackDown brand. During this time, the SmackDown stable The Brawling Brutes was disbanded as Ridge Holland later moved back to the NXT brand, while Butch would return to using his original ring name Pete Dunne and started a tag team with Bate under the name New Catch Republic.

Prior to the draft on the April 24 episode of Raw, Triple H unveiled a new World Heavyweight Championship for the brand that did not select Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, as he and his titles would become exclusive to the brand that drafted him. As a result of SmackDown drafting Reigns, the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to Raw.^[6] Despite the title becoming exclusive to Raw, SmackDown wrestlers competed in the tournament to crown the inaugural champion (which was reportedly due to WWE's attempt to retain viewership for the May 12 episode of SmackDown, which went head-to-head with the 2023 NBA playoffs). At Night of Champions, Raw's Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated SmackDown's AJ Styles to become the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion.^[32]

On Night 1 of the draft, reigning NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre were drafted to SmackDown. That same night, they were scheduled to defend the championship against Kayden Carter and Katana Chance on the May 2 episode of NXT, but during Night 2 of the draft, Carter and Chance were drafted to Raw. On NXT, Dawn and Fyre retained the title and they claimed they would defend the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship across all three brands. On that same episode, reigning NXT Women's Champion Indi Hartwell relinquished her title due to being drafted to Raw and also due to a leg injury.^[33] On the June 9 episode of SmackDown, the issue of the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship being on SmackDown would be addressed as reigning WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler challenged Dawn and Fyre to a championship unification match, which was accepted and scheduled for the June 23 episode.^[34] Rousey and Baszler won to become the unified WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, thus making the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship available to NXT again. The NXT Women's Tag Team Championship was subsequently retired in the process, with Dawn and Fyre recognized as the final champions.^[35]

As a result of the draft, Raw and SmackDown's secondary championships switched brands, as Intercontinental Champion Gunther was drafted to Raw while United States Champion Austin Theory was drafted to SmackDown, and there were no title changes by the time draft results went into effect on May 8. Despite their namesakes, the women's championships would also switch brands, with Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair drafted to SmackDown and SmackDown Women's Champion Rhea Ripley drafted to Raw.^[7] This same incident occurred during the 2021 draft, but the night that draft's results went into effect, the women's champions swapped titles to keep the branded championships on their respective brands.^[36] This did not happen between Belair and Ripley when the 2023 draft results went into effect on May 8.^[37] The issue of the Raw and SmackDown women's championships being on the opposite brands would be resolved a month after the draft following the Night of Champions event. On the June 9 episode of SmackDown, reigning Raw Women's Champion Asuka was presented with a new championship belt and the title reverted to its original name of WWE Women's Championship,^[34] while on the June 12 episode of Raw, reigning SmackDown Women's Champion Rhea Ripley was also presented with a new championship belt and the title was renamed as the Women's World Championship.^[38]

Although Maxxine Dupri was drafted to Raw as the manager of Maximum Male Models (ma.çé and mån.sôör), she would leave the team and join with Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis), who were also drafted to Raw. The two teams had been at odds before the draft where Dupri tried to get Otis to join Maximum Male Models.^[39]

In August 2023, Lacey Evans left WWE due to the expiration of her contract.^[40] Edge would also leave WWE upon the expiration of his contract at the end of September and subsequently joined rival promotion All Elite Wrestling under his real name of Adam Copeland.^[41] During the summer, Shayna Baszler turned on Ronda Rousey, splitting their team, and after Rousey lost a match to Baszler at SummerSlam in August, it was reported that Rousey had left WWE, which was later confirmed in late October when her WWE.com profile was moved to the alumni section.^[42] She subsequently had a few matches on the indies, including a match in Ring of Honor.^[43]

Bray Wyatt was not included in either draft pool and had been off WWE programming since February 2023 due to an undisclosed illness. On August 24, 2023, Wyatt unexpectedly died of a heart attack, with the illness revealed as COVID-19 which exacerbated an existing heart issue. Just prior to his passing, it was reported that he was making positive progress towards a return.^[14] His accomplice Uncle Howdy had been inactive due to Wyatt's medical hiatus, but following Wyatt's death, Howdy's status was unknown.^[44]

Following WWE's acquisition by Endeavor, which was finalized on September 12 and saw WWE merge with Ultimate Fighting Championship to become divisions of a new company called TKO Group Holdings, WWE announced a new broadcasting deal that would move SmackDown back to the USA Network in October 2024. As a result of the merger and broadcasting deal, WWE released a number of wrestlers from all three brands, including some WWE Performance Center recruits, in late September.^[45] These included Dolph Ziggler, Shelton Benjamin, Elias, Mustafa Ali, Emma, Riddick Moss, Aliyah, Top Dolla, Rick Boogs, Dabba-Kato, Shanky, Maximum Male Models (ma.çé and mån.sôör), Quincy Elliot, Dana Brooke, Yulisa León, Ikemen Jiro, Matt Riddle, Bryson Montana, Daniel McArthur, Kevin Ventura-Cortez, Alexis Gray, Brooklyn Barlow, Abule Abadi-Fitzgerald, Melanie Brzezinski, Alexis Lete, Alivia Ash, Gina Delucia, Giovanna Eburneo and Sarah Baer.^[46] In April 2024, WWE released a number of wrestlers from all three brands, including Xia Li,^[47] Jinder Mahal,^[48] Veer Mahaan,^[49] Sanga,^[50] Xyon Quinn,^[51] Von Wagner,^[52] Cameron Grimes^[53] and Guru Raaj from their contracts.