2010 WWE draft

The Brand Extension storyline was initiated in March 2002, in which WWE's Raw and SmackDown television programs were made into brands (similar to conferences within a league) to which employees were assigned to;[8] the ECW brand additionally involved between 2006 and 2009.[9] Since its inception, annual drafts have followed, except for in 2003.[10] As in previous drafts that followed the Brand Extension, the purpose of the 2010 WWE Draft was to increase television ratings of WWE programming and refresh the rosters with new storylines for each brand.[11] The 2010 WWE Draft was confirmed both by WWE and Richmond Coliseum via their websites between March and April 2010, which featured the draft eligibility of WWE employees from the Raw and SmackDown brands.[1][4] The event was scheduled to take place over two days, in which the televised draft would air live on the USA Network in the United States from the Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia on the April 26 episode of Raw. The second portion of the draft, the "supplemental draft," was originally scheduled for April 28; however, it was announced during the live broadcast that it would be held the next day on April 27 with selections being announced via WWE's website.[2][12]

Following the televised draft, Josh Mathews, a commentator and interviewer for WWE, interviewed various wrestlers who switched brands. They included The Big Show, Christian, Kelly Kelly, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, and R-Truth, who all stated that they viewed their new brands as an opportunity to engage in combat with new competitors and to achieve new success.[13] Based on the 2009 regulations, champions that were drafted would carry their titles with them to their new brand.[14] As opposed to previous drafts, this was the first to not feature a championship exchange brands since 2007.[lower-alpha 6] Similar to 2007, no tag teams were affected by the draft since tag teams and stables were drafted to the same brand either as a single draft pick or consisting of several draft picks to a new brand. The two alliances that switched brands were the stable of The Hart Dynasty (Kidd, Natalya, and Smith), in which Kidd and Smith were in unison and Natalya consisted of a separate draft pick, and The Great Khali and Ranjin Singh, who were also drafted as one selection in the supplemental draft.

The draft had little effect on the WWE's television ratings. Despite not having direct involvement in the draft, NXT and WWE Superstars were a part of the weekly television lineup for the company and featured wrestlers from both brands. Generally, the ratings of the four shows during the week of the draft were consistent with the ratings of each from the previous week. The ratings for WWE programming the week before the draft were the following: the April 19 episode of Raw was watched by an average of 4.10 million viewers in the first hour and 4.20 in the second hour for an average 3.05 rating,[16] WWE NXT on April 20 was watched by 1.21 million viewers for a 0.90 rating,[17] the April 22 episode of WWE Superstars earned a 0.64 rating,[lower-alpha 7][18] while the April 23 episode of SmackDown was watched by 3.09 million viewers and earned a 1.8 rating.[19] The draft episode of Raw was watched by 3.90 million viewers in its first hour, 4.99 in its second hour, and 4.98 in its final hour for an average of 3.07 rating. In the normal two-hour time slot for Raw, the show would have received a 3.4 rating.[20] Later that week, WWE NXT was watched by 1,069,000 viewers for a 0.79 rating,[21] WWE Superstars earned a 0.76 rating with 754,000 viewers,[22] and SmackDown was watched by 2,718,000 million viewers for a 1.7 rating.[23]

• History of WWE

General

• Adkins, Greg (2010-04-26). "Mix & matches (Televised draft results)". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
• "2010 WWE supplemental draft results". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on 30 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-27.

Specific

• Official website of the 2010 WWE draft