2010 WWE Draft

The 2010 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft was the eighth WWE draft, produced by the American professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment.^[1] The draft took place over two days: the first day was televised live for three hours on April 26, and the second part, the "supplemental draft", was held on April 27.^[1][2] The first day was broadcast on WWE's Monday night program Raw on the USA Network in the United States,^[a] and the supplemental draft was available on WWE's official website.^[1][2] The televised portion was held at Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia.^[4] During the production of the draft, guest hosts were portrayed as authority figure characters on Raw; however, due to the importance of the event, the draft was run by the WWE management backstage, as are all other WWE programs.^[5][6]

Unlike sports draft lotteries where players are signed to a team, WWE drafts featured the exchanging of employees between WWE's two brands. The 2010 WWE draft marked the fifth time that only the Raw and SmackDown brands were involved; wrestlers along with other WWE personalities from these brands were eligible to be drafted.^[1] This was the first draft since 2005 to not feature the ECW brand, due to its disbandment on February 16, 2010.^[7] For the televised portion, matches determined which brand received a random draft selection. During the supplemental draft, brand and employee selections were conducted randomly. Based on 2009 regulations, drafted champions took their titles to their new brands, and tag teams were not exempt from being selected. Unlike the previous year's draft where each selection was for only one individual, 2010 featured two instances where at least two employees were drafted in one pick.

Overall, 21 employees from the company's roster were drafted in 19 selections, the fewest in a single night draft show (that featured supplemental drafting) since 2004. Eight selections were made on television (four from each brand), while the supplemental draft saw eleven draft picks (five by Raw and six by SmackDown) that featured 13 draftees. Of the 21 selected personalities, seventeen were males (seven drafted on television) and three were females (one drafted on television). All but one draftee was a wrestler: The Great Khali's manager Ranjin Singh, who came to Raw in the supplemental draft along with Khali in one draft pick. SmackDown obtained the first draft pick by winning the first match, which resulted in the acquisition of the only drafted female wrestler on television, Kelly Kelly; John Morrison was Raw's first selection after winning the third match. In the supplemental draft, Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) were drafted as one selection to Raw, with their valet Natalya Neidhart drafted as a separate pick. In addition to Smith being drafted to Raw, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Montel Vontavious Porter, and Hornswoggle (who were all drafted to SmackDown) were acquired by the brand for which they made their debuts in WWE.

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