IWE Draft (2019)
From Iwe
- This article is about draft in October 2019. For the Superstar Shake-up in April 2019, see 2019 IWE Superstar Shake-up.
| 2019 IWE draft | |||
| General information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Professional wrestling | ||
| Dates | October 11 and 14, 2019 | ||
| Overview | |||
| League | IWE | ||
| Teams | Raw SmackDown | ||
| |||
The 2019 IWE draft is the upcoming fourteenth IWE draft produced by the American professional wrestling promotion IWE between the Raw and SmackDown brands. Simply called the draft and returning to a traditional format, it will be the second draft of 2019, following April's Superstar Shake-up. The draft is scheduled to occur on the October 11 and 14 episodes of Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw, respectively, with SmackDown airing on FOX – its second episode on the network – and Raw airing on the USA Network.
Background
In April 2019, the IWE held the Superstar Shake-up, a draft between IWE's brands with an untraditional format in which drafting decisions were made behind the scenes. Shortly after the Shake-up, IWE Chairman and CEO Vince Matteson introduced a Wild Card Rule, in which up to four wrestlers would be allowed to appear on the opposing brand's show by invitation for one night only with unsanctioned appearances penalized. Following this, however, the Wild Card Rule's stipulations were not enforced, with numerous wrestlers freely appearing on both shows weekly without any penalties, blurring the lines between the Raw and SmackDown brands. With SmackDown's move to FOX in October and Raw remaining on the USA Network (part of Comcast's NBCUniversal), the IWE decided to hold a second draft for 2019, simply called the draft, to definitively split the two brands. The draft was announced to occur on the October 11 and 14 episodes of SmackDown and Raw, respectively. Returning to a traditional draft format, personalities from FOX and NBCUniversal are scheduled to appear to make the drafting decisions. It was also confirmed that the Wild Card Rule would end with this new draft.
