WWE last held a draft in July 2016, and though the company has retained the brand split ever since, the wild card rule practically takes away the point of it all.

In May, Vince McMahon revealed his new wild card rule, which allows four superstars from SmackDown to appear on Raw each week, and vice versa. But with SmackDown about to move to Friday nights under the Fox Sports broadcast, it's expected that WWE will scrap the rule around then.

Now, it seems like WWE is planning to set finalized brand rosters again. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Ringside News), there's "a concept of another draft type of thing to build permanent Raw and Smackdown rosters." It was also noted that there wouldn't be "major changes" in such a draft, but Vince is still keen on doing one anyway.

If true, then WWE should be making an announcement for a brand split draft in short time. Fox will begin its SmackDown broadcasts on Oct. 4 - which marks the brand's 20th anniversary special. It's only a month away now, and it's not like WWE to delay such significant announcements.

Related: Backstage News On WWE's Plan To Scrap The Wild Card Rule

via EWrestling

WWE first ran the brand split in 2002, after Vince had bought out WCW and acquired the bulk of their top superstars. In storyline, Vince was in charge of SmackDown, while Ric Flair managed Raw. The two alternated picks, and a total of 57 superstars were "drafted."

From 2002 to 2011, WWE's "draft" saw numerous superstars swap brands - usually 10 in total. The concept was dropped until the 2016 brand split draft, and a year later WWE started the superstar Shake-Up - which is practically the same idea and format as the draft.

What This Means

Holding a brand split draft would certainly help boost WWE's ratings, and it would allow more creativity in storylines. If they have another draft, one has to think that Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff - the new Executive Directors of Raw and SmackDown, respectively, will be taking part in it.

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