The new rosters for Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown were made official this week following the events of the 2021 WWE Draft and the storyline setup on Crown Jewel, and thanks to the fine folks at PWInsider, wrestlers that were not initially selected have been finalized.
The biggest (literally) name to be assigned is Brock Lesnar.
Coming off his loss to Roman Reigns, he was the only wrestler given a storyline reason why he was declared a free agent (Paul Heyman and his back channel negotiations), but according to the reports, he is considered a SmackDown star.
Lesnar was given a ‘storyline suspension’ on the most recent SmackDown episode and it is expected that he won’t be back until the Royal Rumble in January. The move kind of sucks, but I have to say, I am not a fan of Brock. I don’t like his limited moveset. I don’t like that he is overpowered all the time. Really, I kind of want him to go away and I am good with keeping him out until the next major PPV.
The rest of the moves involve Asuka, Elias and Lucha House Party staying on Raw, with Lesnar being placed on SmackDown and Dakota Kai remaining in NXT. Bayley is still out with an injury (again), Eva Marie has been written off TV and is reportedly working on a movie, as well as new mom Lacey Evans all still remain unassigned to any of the brands.
Just assume that Brock and Roman will have a third match at WrestleMania and this Heyman storyline will continue.
His sheepish “Yes, my Tribal Chief” is getting fvcking tiresome though, so let’s hope this changes course soon.
