Let’s predict the five wrestlers who will go undrafted during night one of the WWE Draft

Night one of the 2020 WWE Draft is taking place on tonight’s (Oct. 9) episode of SmackDown.

This tweet from the WWE on FOX account suggests that we will see exactly 20 picks made on night one this year, which lines up well with how WWE ran the draft last year.

However, the pool of eligible superstars who can be drafted tonight includes at least 25 potential selections. That means at least five wrestlers from the draft pool for night one will go undrafted on tonight’s broadcast.

It’s worth noting that team members can be drafted individually, so it’s possible that more than five names from the following 25 potential selections will go undrafted. For example, Raw might draft Otis but not Tucker, leaving Tucker vulnerable to going undrafted. For the sake of this exercise, I am going to keep things simple and ignore those scenarios.

With that out of the way, that means it’s time to figure out which five superstars won’t make the cut.

First, here is the full list of 25 potential draft picks for tonight, per WWE:

1. Asuka
2. Sasha Banks
3. Bianca Belair
4. Dana Brooke
5. Humberto Carrillo
6. Elias
7. Angel Garza
8. Drew Gulak
9. Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker)
10. The Hurt Business (Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Cedric Alexander and MVP)
11. Mickie James
12. Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado)
13. Drew McIntyre
14. Murphy
15. Rey & Dominik Mysterio
16. Naomi
17. The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)
18. Roman Reigns
19. Ricochet
20. Seth Rollins
21. Mandy Rose
22. Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax
23. Shorty G
24. AJ Styles
25. Jey Uso

12 of these 25 selections stand out to me as automatic locks to be drafted. This includes current champions, current challengers for those champions, upper card mainstays, or wrestlers who are usually featured on television. I want to figure out who won’t be drafted tonight, so I am going to remove these 12 draft selections from the list: Asuka, Sasha Banks, Heavy Machinery, The Hurt Business, Drew McIntyre, Rey & Dominik Mysterio, The New Day, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler, AJ Styles, and Jey Uso.

That leaves me with these 13 selections:

1. Bianca Belair
2. Dana Brooke
3. Humberto Carrillo
4. Elias
5. Angel Garza
6. Drew Gulak
7. Mickie James
8. Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado)
9. Murphy
10. Naomi
11. Ricochet
12. Mandy Rose
13. Shorty G

I have already used up 12 draft picks, which leaves me with eight more picks at my disposal to use on these 13 possible selections.

Out of these 13 choices, I think the next most likely wrestlers to be drafted include Bianca Belair, Angel Garza, Lucha House Party, Murphy, and Mandy Rose. These five stars are either currently in the middle of a developing storyline (Lucha House Party, Murphy), currently featured in vignettes (Belair), heavily involved in a key storyline not too long ago (Rose), or a lock to be drafted when healthy (Garza).

That leaves me these eight names on the board, with three draft picks remaining:

1. Dana Brooke
2. Humberto Carrillo
3. Elias
4. Drew Gulak
5. Mickie James
6. Naomi
7. Ricochet
8. Shorty G

Ricochet is a consistent loser, but he’s been getting plenty of television time on Raw opposite the The Hurt Business, so I’ll take him as one of the final three picks.

Humberto Carrillo has been teaming with Dominik lately, so perhaps that gives him an edge to be drafted (do you remember when Carrillo was shockingly drafted in round three last year?).

I think the final pick will come down to Mickie James, Naomi, or Dana Brooke. Brooke is the only one who is fully healthy right now, so she makes the cut.

That leaves the following five names as the unfortunate wrestlers who are most vulnerable to going undrafted tonight, along with my thoughts on each one:

1. Elias
2. Drew Gulak
3. Mickie James
4. Naomi
5. Shorty G

• I’m not sure why Elias is on the draft board to begin with, considering that WWE left a lot of injured wrestlers off the board. Perhaps his presence in the draft pool is an indication that he’s returning soon, in which case he could certainly sneak his way into tonight’s 20 draft picks.
• It’s not that long ago when Drew Gulak was partnered with Daniel Bryan, defeated AJ Styles, and challenged for the Intercontinental championship. But Bryan is gone, and Gulak quickly dropped off into the 24/7 title picture.
• Mickie James has no luck these days, so her misfortunes will probably continue when she goes undrafted.
• Naomi is out right now after surgery. A draft snub tonight could feed into the #NaomiDeservesBetter storyline upon her return.
• Shorty G is a jobber who needs to get the hell out of WWE as soon as possible.

That’s my best guess on which wrestlers will go undrafted tonight.

Now it’s your turn, Cagesiders. Let me know in the comments below how you see things playing out during night one of the WWE Draft. Which five wrestlers will go undrafted?