Why Eric Bischoff Says It's 'Time To Kill' The WWE Draft

WWE held a post-WrestleMania draft over the course of two shows, with some stars switching brands and other talent being called up from "WWE NXT." It's a tradition that the company has brought back in recent years, but it's not often popular among fans, with former WCW executive Eric Bischoff also not a fan of it and suggested "killing" the draft.

On a recent episode of his "83 Weeks" podcast, Bischoff said the draft was fun for a while, but doesn't believe it matters anymore as viewing patterns have changed. He thinks there is a duplication of audiences between shows, so nobody has "brand loyalty" between "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown."

"Based on the comments that I've read, it was a big lot of nothing," Bischoff said. "Nobody really went anywhere. No real impact and it just got me thinking about, why even have it? Originally, and I get the original intent, was to create a brand separation in order to take advantage of brand loyalty. I think in the beginning. I think there was a period of time where it got kind of interesting early on."

He suggested that instead of once a year, WWE should run the concept that a draft could happen anytime throughout the year. He said that when a talent requests a draft, it becomes an inciting incident for others, like a domino falling in a chain, and mentioned how it could then become storyline-driven.

"Where as the draft, as we have it now, isn't. So if you bring this guy over here and put this guy over here, there's no story yet, they've been drafted," Bischoff explained. "You can create a story from there, but what if the story starts before a talent is drafted or requests to be drafted? Now, 365 days a year, you've got a storytelling device."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "83 Weeks" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.