2016 WWE Draft

It took place on July 19 during the live premiere of SmackDown on the USA Network in the United States broadcasting from the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

[2] In mid-2016, with a larger roster of wrestlers, in part thanks to WWE's developmental brand NXT, WWE decided to reintroduce the brand split with a draft to be held on the July 19 episode of SmackDown – the show's debut broadcast on the USA Network, as well as its renaming to SmackDown Live (with the show now broadcasting live as it was previously aired on tape delay).

[3] The following week, the commissioners introduced Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan as the general managers of Raw and SmackDown, respectively.

[9] Several wrestlers remained undrafted mainly due to injury or inactivity, some of which eventually were assigned to a brand.

Within the next month, Jinder Mahal and Brian Kendrick returned on Raw, while Rhyno and Curt Hawkins joined SmackDown.