Dates Confirmed For 2023 WWE Draft

Last Friday on "SmackDown," WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque announced the return of the WWE Draft. It returns after a gap year in 2022, which saw the company do away with the annual event for the first time since 2015. That night, Levesque also declared that "every single superstar will be eligible," and now we know when the draft will be taking place. Friday night on "SmackDown," it was announced that it will begin during the April 28 episode of "SmackDown" and continue the following Monday on the May 1 episode of "Raw.

With the Backlash premium live event right around the corner on Saturday, May 6, it seems likely at the moment that the draft itself will be concluded by then. As of now, there's been no further word on whether or not additional picks will be made after the May 1 episode of "Raw." This also comes on the heels of a recent report last month that suggested both USA Network and FOX, the home networks of "Raw" and "SmackDown" respectively, had cooled their original intentions of a strict brand split, reportedly leaving the concept "effectively dead."

As we inch closer to the WWE Draft, stables such as The Bloodline and The Judgment Day continue to appear on both shows, even if one of their champions — be it Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns or "SmackDown" Women's Champion Rhea Ripley — is absent. It will be interesting to see just how this shakes things up in a couple of weeks.