2021 WWE Draft
Several wrestlers were made free agents due to injury, inactivity, or simply not being drafted despite being an active member of the rosters.The day of the show, WWE announced that Flair and Lynch would exchange titles to keep the championships on their respective brands while going off script.Mia Yim, Hit Row's B-Fab, Nia Jax, Karrion Kross, and Keith Lee were among those who were released, without a single appearance post-draft.Among those not drafted who were released included Eva Marie and Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado).[14] On November 18, the remainder of Hit Row, John Morrison, Tegan Nox, Shane Thorne, Drake Maverick, and Jaxson Ryker were also released.[20] By proxy, this allowed other members of The Bloodline stable (Sami Zayn, Solo Sikoa, who was promoted from NXT to SmackDown in September, and the group's manager Paul Heyman) to appear on both brands.[27] The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio, and Rhea Ripley), a stable formed on Raw after WrestleMania 38, began appearing on SmackDown after Ripley won the 2023 women's Royal Rumble match and chose to challenge for the SmackDown Women's Championship, which she subsequently won at WrestleMania 39.stable in their feud with The Judgment Day), and Hit Row (Ashante Adonis, Top Dolla, and B-Fab), Tegan Nox, and Karrion Kross and his real-life fiancé, Scarlett, returning on SmackDown.[30] A draft was not held in 2022, and with multiple wrestlers appearing on both shows almost weekly, some sources believed that the brand split was coming to an end.