First overall pick in WWE draft to be determined by outcome of opening segment on Smackdown

The brand who gets the first pick in the upcoming WWE Draft this Friday will be determined via a match featuring the former two Shield members.

WWE announced today that Universal champion Seth Rollins, representing Raw, will be taking on Roman Reigns, representing Smackdown, in the opening segment of the show where the winner of the match will win the rights for the first overall pick in the draft.

The draft will start on Smackdown and will continue on Monday during Raw. In previous occasions, the draft always started on Raw and continued on Smackdown but this time around, it’s Smackdown who gets the honor to kick off the draft.

After next week’s Raw, WWE will once again completely separate the two brands which means that there will be no more wildcard rule and Superstars appearing on both shows. How long that stays remains to be seen as previous attempts to run both brands separately didn’t work out too well. NXT will not part of the draft.