The first pick in the WWE Draft is a no-brainer

SmackDown airs tonight (Apr. 26) with a live show emanating from Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is the third episode of SmackDown during the four week build towards Backlash, which takes place next weekend in France.

The first pick in the WWE Draft is a no-brainer

Night one of the WWE Draft is upon us. There will be 16 total picks made tonight out of a talent pool of 19 main roster wrestlers (or teams / stables), but selections from NXT can also be made. Most champions are ineligible to be drafted this time around based on the new rules.

The 19 wrestlers / stables / teams on the main roster that can be picked tonight include:

• AJ Styles
• Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn
• Alpha Academy (Otis, Chad Gable, Maxxine Dupri & Akira Tozawa)
• Bianca Belair
• Ricochet
• Randy Orton
• Nia Jax
• Liv Morgan
• LA Knight
• Jey Uso
• Ivar
• Cedric Alexander & Ashante ‘Thee’ Adonis
• Bron Breakker
• Seth Rollins
• Shayna Baszler
• Sheamus
• The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga & Paul Heyman)
• The O.C. (Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows & Michin)
• Zoey Stark

SmackDown gets the first pick in the draft, and it’s a no-brainer decision. Even though Bianca Belair, Randy Orton, and Seth Rollins rank among the biggest stars in WWE today, General Manager can use the opening pick to land the entire Bloodline – Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, and Paul Heyman. When you can get four names like that for the price of one draft pick, it’s an obvious call, even if part-timer Roman might not be around for a little while.

We’ll have a detailed mock draft posted today, so I won’t get into projecting the rest of the draft order here. As far as the Bloodline’s draft night is concerned, it will be interesting to see if Solo Sikoa takes any more steps towards becoming the new Tribal Chief. Which babyface will he order Tama Tonga to take out tonight? Will Kevin Owens even be in the building after what Sikoa and Tonga did to him last week? Most importantly of all, what the hell is an MFT?

The rest of tonight’s card

The bulk of SmackDown’s broadcast will be focused on all the draft hoopla. However, there is also going to be a contract signing between WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles. The Phenomenal One challenges Cody for the gold at Backlash in France, and they’ll put pen to paper tonight to make it official. Will things quickly escalate into violence, or can Cody and AJ keep it civil?

Other stuff to keep an eye on

– Tiffany Stratton stole the spotlight at the end of last week’s episode when she ruined the main event championship match between Bayley and Naomi. Does this mean a three-way match for the WWE Women’s Championship is coming our way at Backlash, or will Naomi be excluded from this one while Bayley deals with Stratton in a singles match? And what exactly is IYO SKY waiting for in terms of pursuing a rematch for the title?

– The Street Profits are the number one contenders for WWE Tag Team Champions Grayson Waller and Austin Theory. None of these men are being drafted tonight, but that doesn’t mean they’ll refrain from cutting promos on each other.

– Carlito lost a match against Santos Escobar last week, which means we’re one step closer to Carlito being revealed as Dragon Lee’s mystery attacker. I mean, it has to be him, right?

– Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill seem to want a title match against WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Asuka & Kairi Sane sooner rather than later. If I was in Damage CTRL, I’d make an appeal to the Supreme Court Nick Aldis to delay it as long as possible, given the obvious outcome if the match actually takes place.

– Which jabroni will Bron Breakker squash after he is picked in the draft?

– Will Baron Corbin finally return to the main roster via the draft?

– Are Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark going to make the cut in the televised portion of the draft, or will they be dumped into the dreaded supplemental round? You can probably pencil in the following names for that round already: Cedric Alexander & Ashante ‘Thee’ Adonis, The O.C., Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn, and Ivar.

What will you be looking for on SmackDown?