The WWE is heading into WrestleMania 32 with a lot of their impact players on the injured list. A huge portion of their roster, including some major guys like John Cena, Randy Orton, and Seth Rollins, all appear to be unavailable for the WWE’s version of the Super Bowl on April 3rd in Dallas, Texas. Although the majority of the injured talent on the roster is scheduled to return some time in 2016, this may come as a blessing and a curse. When the injured superstars return to action, guys currently on television due to those injuries will be pushed aside, despite the fact that most of them are doing well with the opportunity.
Could the WWE benefit from a roster split, similar to the one that occurred in 2002? With the amount of talent on the main roster currently, combined with a loaded NXT roster in Florida, I think now is the perfect time for the WWE to split into two separate entities. Creating competition within the company, as well as more opportunities for guys like Bo Dallas to steal the show with television time, is an idea that just makes a ton of business sense. Would Edge have had a Hall of Fame career if he did not have his run on Smackdown to establish himself as a legitimate single’s competitor? Imagine what could happen for Cesaro if given a similar opportunity to shine.
Championships could be a free-for-all, meaning, for example, Smackdown’s Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady could challenge Raw’s The New Day for the Tag Team Championships. A ranking system would make establishing No. 1 Contendership for championships easier, but we’ll get into that some other time. The main idea is that the WWE has the depth to separate their roster into two brands, maximizing their talent and giving guys an opportunity to evolve into major players. Perhaps we can start preventing some of these injuries, assuming that a roster split would lead to less dates worked for the guys and girls on the roster. Here’s a fantasy draft that I created based on my roster rankings, which you can check out here.
Smackdown |
Raw |
AJ Styles (IC Champ)Seth Rollins Kevin Owens Bray Wyatt Finn Bálor Daniel Bryan (?) Cesaro Dolph Ziggler Samoa Joe Sami Zayn The Wyatt Family (Harper, Rowan, Stroman) Neville Wade Barrett The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) Tyler Breeze Damien Sandow Enzo and Cass (Amore, Cassady) Social Outcast (Slater, Rose, Axel, Dallas) The Ascension (Konnor, Viktor) Zack Ryder Fandango |
John Cena (WWE Champ)Roman Reigns Dean Ambrose Randy Orton Baron Corbin (US Champ) The New Day (TT Champs) (Kingston, Woods, Big E) Sheamus Kane Alberto Del Rio Rusev Stardust (Cody Rhodes) The Miz Big Show The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto, Sin Cara) The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) The PrimeTime Players (O’Neil, Young) Ryback GoldenTruth (R-Truth, Goldust) Los Matadores (Diego, Fernando) Jack Swagger |
**Note: I did not rank the Divas division, therefore I did not include of the Divas in the fantasy draft. Look for an updated version with the Divas division included in the coming weeks…
