WWE may have subtly canceled the 2025 Draft

When was the last time you heard anything about the WWE Draft? Typically, one would expect the draft to follow WrestleMania almost immediately, ushering in new matchups and storylines.

But, against conventional expectations, there has been no official announcement regarding the 2025 draft, and insiders suggest that WWE may have quietly put it on hold.

When asked about this year's WWE Draft, PWInsider's Dave Scherer recently dropped a blunt assessment:

“I haven’t heard a word and honestly I don’t think that they need it. It was always a crutch that Vince McMahon used because his creative was so bad he needed new matchups. Triple H uses realistic reasons to let talents cross over. I would be fine if they stopped doing it altogether.” (H/T PWInsider)

That quote sums up the apparent sentiment within the company’s creative ranks—under Triple H’s leadership, the need for a ritual draft appears to be fading in relevance, and this theory is completely justified too.

The Draft is seemingly still being internally discussed

Despite persistent fan speculation, WWE has yet to set a date for the potential 2025 draft. WrestleVotes had confirmed last month that the draft wasn't officially canceled, merely “waiting for the right time” to slot into WWE’s event-heavy calendar. Well, with the upcoming international PLEs, the schedule certainly isn't slowing down anytime soon.

Seemingly, despite the draft not having been announced yet, it remains a topic that is still being discussed internally. This may suggest that it is not expected to occur anytime soon. We are now almost in August, and beyond a certain point, the WWE Draft may lose its relevance entirely.

Traditionally held post-WrestleMania, the Draft’s timing has seemingly been pushed toward, at the very least, to early fall, possibly in September, allowing ongoing storylines to reach conclusion and new NXT call-ups to settle in first. However, with WrestleMania now just eight months away, does the company even need the brand split anymore?

Why the current soft brand split works well in WWE

RAW and SmackDown now trade and shift talent more organically, whether for a short-term for a particular story or a more concrete move. This system appears to achieve roster shakeups without the need for a flashy draft event, which was often dubbed a mere ratings ploy.

This allows Triple H and co. to quietly make the best use of the sheer number of stars they have and not hinder themselves from telling the biggest and best stories, all the while also keeping chaos in check with seemingly internally defined rules as regards to how they want to approach things from a creative standpoint without making too much of a mess.

These rules may not exactly be well-defined for the audience for obvious reasons, but are clearly something that, upon the (kayfabe) authority of Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce, can be used to switch between RAW and SmackDown, whether short-term or long-term, from time to time.

RAW on Netflix, part-time schedules, and improved product quality: why the fans excuse WWE's soft-brand split

With RAW being on Netflix in the United States, it is imperative that the company's flagship show gets the biggest stars. However, allowing superstars to jump between brands initiates some controlled chaos, which also allows SmackDown to become a more star-powered show.

Especially considering John Cena's retirement tour and his limited dates, the part-time schedule of Roman Reigns (who seemingly has quietly moved to RAW post-WrestleMania), as well as SmackDown often being the night before major PLEs, the soft brand split seems like the best way WWE has of segregating talent.

And, with the amount of stars the Triple H regime has birthed and the overall quality of the product, which, while having taken a dip this year is still vastly superior to anything for years pre-2022, wrestling fans, some of the most pedantic fanbases in the world, seems to have quietly accepted the soft-brand split as long as the quality of the WWE product remains good.

Edited by Rahul Madurawe