The2009 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft was the seventhWWE draft, produced by the Americanprofessional wrestling promotionWorld Wrestling Entertainment. The draft had two parts: the first part was televised live for three hours on April 13; the second part, the "supplemental draft", was held the same day immediately following the televised portion. The first part was broadcast on WWE's programRaw on theUSA Network in the United States,^[a] and the supplemental draft was available on the Internet, at WWE's official website. The televised portion was held inAtlanta, Georgia, atPhilips Arena. The 2009 WWE draft marked the third time that theRaw,SmackDown, andECWbrands were featured in the draft;wrestlers,general managers andcommentators were all eligible to be drafted from the company's roster. For the televised half,matches determined which brand received a random draft selection. During the supplemental draft, brand and employee selections were made at random. Due to draft regulations, drafted champions took their titles to their new brands, andtag teams were not exempt from being selected. As a result, the draft impacted championships and split tag teams.

Overall, 36 draft selections were made, the most since theoriginal draft in 2002 (which featured 57 selections). Twelve selections were made on television; six were made by Raw, five by SmackDown, and one by ECW. All of the draftees were wrestlers: 28 males (10 drafted on television) and 8 females (2 drafted on television). Raw obtained the first overall pick in the draft by winning the first match, which resulted in the acquisition ofUnited States ChampionMontel Vontavious Porter from SmackDown.Women's ChampionMelina from Raw was SmackDown's first selection. ECW's sole televised draft pick wasVladimir Kozlov from SmackDown. Additionally, SmackDown'sWWE ChampionTriple H was drafted by Raw, resulting in SmackDown's loss of itsprime championship. At the end of the televised portion, the final draft choices wereIntercontinental ChampionRey Mysterio of Raw by SmackDown, replacing the loss of the United States Champion, and SmackDown'sDivas ChampionMaryse by Raw, replacing the loss of the Women's Champion.

In the supplemental draft,Mr. Kennedy, who was sidelined with anon-scripted shoulder injury, was drafted from SmackDown to Raw as the first (13th overall) supplemental pick. SmackDown obtainedShad Gaspard from Raw as their first (14th overall) supplemental selection.Ezekiel Jackson was ECW's first supplemental pick.Unified WWE Tag Team ChampionsThe Colóns (Carlito andPrimo) were drafted from SmackDown to Raw; this left SmackDown without atag team championship (although the tag team champions can appear on all 3 brands).Brie Bella (from SmackDown to Raw),Charlie Haas (from Raw to SmackDown), andHurricane Helms (from SmackDown to ECW) were the final supplemental picks.

In March 2002, theBrand Extensionstoryline was initiated. WWE'sRaw andSmackDown! television programs were made into brands thatemployees were assigned to work;^[2] the ECW brand was later added in 2006.^[3] With the exception of 2003, WWE has held the draft annually since its inception.^[4]

Via its website on February 11, WWE announced that the 2009 Draft was to take place on April 13 at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. All wrestlers, general managers, and commentators were eligible to be drafted.^[5][6] A supplemental draft was announced for April 15.^[7][8] It was announced on the day of the televised draft that for the third consecutive year,matches would determine which brand received a draft pick, and that 12 wrestlers were to switch brands.^[9] As in previous drafts, the purpose of the 2009 WWE draft was to increasetelevision ratings of WWE programming and to refresh the roster with new storylines for each brand.^[10]

DuringRaw, 10 matches were held among representatives of the three brands to determine which would receive a draft pick; two of the matches were for two selections. Each match featured a wrestler representing their brand; if a wrestler was drafted earlier in the program, they would represent their new brand. After the matches, a computerized system, which appeared on theRaw stageTitanTron, randomly^[b] selected a member from the two opposing brands' rosters for the winning brand.

The first everWWE female championship for WWE female championship female WWE draft pick trades in WWE history thenWWE Women's ChampionMelina and thenWWE Divas ChampionMaryse

After the televised draft,Joey Styles, the Director of Digital Media Content for WWE's official website, interviewed the draftees on their reactions. The drafted wrestlers generally expressed approval of the draft and described what they hoped their experiences would be with their new brand.^[11] Seven of the wrestlers were champions with their original brand,^[7][12] and as outlined in the draft regulations, they carried their titles over to their new brand; this affected seven of ninechampionships. Champion draft selections included:Unified Tag Team ChampionsThe Colóns (Carlito andPrimo),^[12]United States ChampionMontel Vontavious Porter,WWE ChampionTriple H, andDivas ChampionMaryse from SmackDown to Raw;Women's ChampionMelina andIntercontinental ChampionRey Mysterio from Raw to SmackDown.^[7] Since Triple H was drafted to Raw, it left SmackDown without aworld championship, as Raw now featured two of the three primary championships in WWE, the WWE andWorld Heavyweight Championships. Edge would bring the World Heavyweight Championship back to SmackDown two weeks later atBacklash when he defeatedJohn Cena in a Last Man Standing Match. When MVP and Mysterio switched brands, the two secondary championships switched brands for the first time in WWE's history. Similarly, after Maryse and Melina switched brands, WWE's two female championships also switched brands for the first time. Though the Unified Tag Team Champions were both drafted to Raw from SmackDown, the titles were able to be defended on all three brands due to being unified.

Numeroustag teams were affected by the Draft overall. During the televised portion of the draft, ECW tag teamJohn Morrison and The Miz was split up. The Miz was drafted to Raw and Morrison to SmackDown (during the supplemental draft).The Bella Twins (Brie andNikki),Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard andJTG), and The Colóns were split up during the supplemental draft, although the duos went to the same brands afterward. SmackDown tag teamsJesse and Festus andCurt Hawkins and Zack Ryder were also split up, withFestus drafted to Raw andRyder to ECW.

The draft had little effect on the television ratings for WWE's programming. Generally, the ratings of the three 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 6 episode ofRaw was watched by 5.7 million viewers in its first hour and by 6.1 million viewers in its second hour for an average 3.9 rating,^[13] the April 7 episode ofECW on Sci Fi earned a 1.3 television rating, andFriday Night SmackDown earned a 2.0 television rating.^[f][15] The draft episode ofRaw was watched by 4.7 million viewers in its first hour, 5.7 in its second hour, and 6.1 in the final hour for an average 3.7 television rating.^[16] Later that week,ECW on Sci Fi earned a 1.2 television rating, whileFriday Night SmackDown earned a 2.0.^[15]

As stated by WWE commentatorJim Ross, the draft would not come into effect until after Backlash, when the final inter-brand matches took place.^[17]

• History of WWE

General

• Sitterson, Aubrey (2009-04-13)."Rough Draft (Televised draft results)".World Wrestling Entertainment.Archived from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved2009-04-14.
• "WWE Supplemental Draft".World Wrestling Entertainment. 2009-04-15.Archived from the original on 18 April 2009. Retrieved2009-04-15.

Specific

• Official website of the 2009 WWE DraftArchived 2009-04-13 at theWayback Machine

• 2009 in professional wrestling
• WWE Draft
• ECW (WWE brand)
• Professional wrestling shows in Atlanta
• 2009 in Atlanta
• April 2009 in the United States

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