Draft Picks Made; Matches Announced For Backlash

It was night one of this year’s WWE Draft on Friday Night SmackDown tonight and the female Superstars were no exception to it. 

Bianca Belair was the very first pick in the draft’s first round and remained on SmackDown as the blue brand’s first choice. 

Zelina Vega was at ringside for a tag team match between Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee of the LWO against Berto (Humberto Carrillo) and Angel Garza of Legado Del Fantasma, which was won by Mysterio and Lee. Elektra Lopez came out following the match, where it was revealed by Santos Escobar that she had been tracking down the identity of Dragon Lee’s attacker from three weeks ago; via security camera footage, Lee’s attacker was revealed to be Carlito, who turned on his LWO teammates and left Zelina and the rest of the group completely blindsided.

Tiffany Stratton confronted SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis, demanding a title shot after attacking Bayley and Naomi last week. Aldis responds by telling the Buff Barbie that she’ll be facing Naomi later on in the night in order to determine Bayley’s opponent at Backlash for the WWE Women’s Championship. Bayley enters the scene and reminds Tiffany that if Naomi wins, she gets the title shot that she was cheated out of last week, and if Tiffany wins, then she can find out what happens when she attacks the Role Model. Of course, a Tiffany Epiphany strikes the mind of Ms. Stratton: what if Bayley sits at ringside and watches her beat Naomi?

If you thought some former Divas wouldn’t show up, think again! Moving on to the second round of the draft, we were graced with the presence of Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson, who came out to announce draft picks. The former Divas and Women’s Champion announced Nia Jax as SmackDown’s newest female addition, while the 2-time Playboy cover girl announced Team Red’s selection of Liv Morgan.

Kayla Braxton introduced Bianca Belair for an on-stage interview, with Team Blue’s resident reporter revealing that The EST of WWE would be teaming up with Jade Cargill to take on The Kabuki Warriors of Damage CTRL at Backlash in Lyon, France on May 4th. Bianca says that she really hopes Jade gets drafted to SmackDown on Monday during Raw, and that she is the perfect person to help her end Damage CTRL for all they have done to her since 2022. The group has been falling apart piece by piece, and for Bianca, the final piece that exposes the cracks in the armor of Damage CTRL is the Women’s Tag Team Championship. Asuka and Kairi attempt to interrupt, but the sound of Jade Cargill’s music catches them off guard. The two teams have a stare down but get distracted by the still-ongoing altercation between Kevin Owens and Tama Tonga.

Tiffany Stratton and Naomi entered the squared circle to face each other. Just like last week though, the match was interrupted… but this time, it was by Nia Jax, who assaulted special guest commentator Bayley and fended off an attack from Naomi, causing a disqualification as a gleeful Tiffany looked on. With both the champ and her opponent laid out, Stratton once again performed a moonsault on both of them inside the ring.

B-Fab appeared with The Street Profits for an interview, and she tells Byron Saxton that it won’t matter where they go in the Draft as she promises that The Street Profits will take the WWE Tag Team Championship from Austin Theory and Grayson Waller next Friday, which would ensure that The Pride will remain a part of Friday nights.

Round four eventually kicked off with former SmackDown general manager Theodore Long and former WWE Champion John Bradshaw Layfield; the second pick would be Alpha Academy, which features Maxxine Dupri, staying on Team Red. The final pick of the round would be Kiana James, being called up from NXT to also become a member of the Raw roster. James, who was at the WWE Performance Center with the rest of the NXT roster, was interviewed by Jackie Redmond, expressing how she is filled with gratitude and that she is proud of everything she has done in NXT, but she’s ready to show Raw why she is the one percent; she was also congratulated by Shawn Michaels. Here’s to hoping Kiana starts some business on Monday nights going forward.

Lastly, Nick Aldis made the announcement that it will be Bayley, Tiffany Stratton, and Naomi facing off in a triple threat match for the WWE Women’s Championship at Backlash next Saturday, May 4th, in Lyon, France.

Draft Overview:

First round, first pick: Bianca Belair to SmackDown (remains on SmackDown) Second round, third pick: Nia Jax to SmackDown (drafted from Raw) Second round, fourth pick: Liv Morgan to Raw (remains on Raw) Fourth round, second pick: Maxxine Dupri with Alpha Academy to Raw (remains on Raw) Fourth round, fourth pick: Kiana James to Raw (called up from NXT)

As of this writing, the following women who were in tonight’s available draft pool have gone undrafted:

The Unholy Union (Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn) from SmackDown Shayna Baszler from Raw “Michin” Mia Yim, of The OC, from SmackDown  Zoey Stark from Raw

The WWE Draft continues this Monday, April 29th during Monday Night Raw. With a bigger draft pool for Monday, we should hopefully expect to see more women find out where they end up.