WWE Draft 2023: Spoiler on current dates for next roster shakeup

After bringing the brand extension back in 2016, the Draft became a regular thing on WWE’s schedule until last year as Superstar switching brands became so random on Raw and Smackdown, especially after Triple H was put in charge of creative things in the company.

Also, since WrestleMania 38, WWE has only one world champion on their roster in the form of the Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns. So, there was basically no need for separating the two brands and putting the only champ on one side.

Now with WWE Draft 2023 approaching closer, the landscape of the company is expected to change big-time. While nothing regarding this has been announced on WWE’s part, the upcoming shakeup is reportedly planned after WrestleMania 39.

According to the reports of Xero News, the current plan is for the WWE Draft to take place on May 8th (RAW) and May 12th (SmackDown). This should be around either WrestleMania 39 or the WrestleMania Backlash premium live event.

With this Draft, WWE Officials also reportedly want to go back to having two Men’s World Champions, one for Raw and one for the Smackdown brand. No update is there on whether the existing word titles will be split or a new world title will be introduced.

The last time WWE had two Men’s World Champions was at WrestleMania 38, where Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar to unify the Universal Championship and the WWE Championship to become the undisputed champion.

The earlier belief was that the WWE Draft (which usually takes place in October) would take place in September 2022 after the Clash At The Castle premium live event, but things didn’t materialize.

With multiple changes in higher-us, Raw and SmackDown Superstars have since been appearing on their opposite brands more often. Despite this, the brand split still internally exists culminating in the next Draft.

While speaking during Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer also noted that WWE does have some plans on having the 2023 Draft go down after WrestleMania after a tentative date in October was canceled.

“There’s been some talk of waiting until after WrestleMania to do it. There was talk at one point for October, but I guess they didn’t do it. There was a date that was talked about at one point, but they just didn’t pull the trigger on it.”