Details On WWE Not Telling Wrestlers About Big Draft Moves

The 2023 WWE Draft kicked off last week on Friday Night SmackDown and some big names were drafted during the event. In the weeks leading up to the draft there was a lot of talk about which NXT stars could potentially get called up.

Ultimately WWE called up NXT Women’s Champion Indi Hartwell, NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn, JD McDonagh, Zoey Stark and Apollo Crews. Hartwell, Fyre and Dawn were drafted during SmackDown, and McDonagh, Stark and Crews were drafted the next day on SmackDown LowDown.

Bryan Alvarez noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that the NXT stars were not aware they were going to be drafted until the announcements were made, so their reactions to the WWE Draft announcements were real.

Alba Dawn & Isla Fyre will be going to SmackDown while Indi Hartwell and all of the other NXT stars were selected for Raw. There’s currently no word on how WWE plans to handle the title situation with the NXT Women’s Championship and the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship. Triple H has declared that the new rosters will go into effect on the Raw after Backlash, so it will be interesting to see how things play out in NXT. Stay tuned for updates.