Re-Draft The Original Brand Split

You're Vinnie Mac in 2001/2. Your roster is bloated as and you really don't have room for them all. So you have the genius idea of the draft! Minus a few guys (Sting, Jarrett, Goldberg) you basically have your pick of anyone around in wrestling. Create your own draft (including GMs) for the night after WM-X8 in as much or as little detail as you want!

For reference, here is the real draft as done on tv (remember, Austin and HHH were exempt for story reasons, but they don't have to be in yours - you also don't have to stick to 10 picks for each brand):

Smackdown! (managed by Vince Mcmahon):
1. The Rock
2. Kurt Angle
3. Chris Benoit
4. Hulk Hogan
5. Billy & Chuck
6. Edge
7. Rikishi
8. D-Von Dudley
9. Mark Henry
10. Maven

Raw (managed by Ric Flair):
1. The Undertaker
2. The NWO (Hall, Nash, X-Pac)
3. Kane
4. RVD
5. Booker T
6. The Big Show
7. Bubba Ray Dudley
8. Brock Lesnar (had he debuted at this point?)
9. William Regal
10. Lita

Looking back, the Draft really was odd. Why was Maven picked ahead of Chris Jericho (who had been the Undisputed champion 24 hours beforehand)? A full list of the Draft picks is available here.

I'd do it a bit differently. I'd instantly say that HHH was only the WWE champion (giving him the new belt) and that whoever didn't pick him would get the big gold belt. I've heard a rumour that the reason Austin wasn't drafted was because he refused to be 2nd pick (first pick for Raw) behind Rocky, but I'm going to assume that rumour isn't true for the sake of this (if anyone could shed light on that it'd be interesting). I'd also say the NWO have to be drafted individually. I'd do 15 each on TV, with Vince announcing Bischoff as one GM and Flair as the other (I'd want Heyman to be the other but Lesnar needed him). Here's my draft:

Smackdown!:

1. The Rock
2. HHH (WWE champion)
3. Chris Jericho
4. Kurt Angle
5. Scott Hall
6. Benoit
7. Lesnar (and have him billed as an unknown who was so good he had to be drafted this early, leading to his push)
8. Kane
9. Edge
10. Matt Hardy
11. Jeff Hardy
12. Billy
13. X-Pac
14. Tajiri (Cruserweight champion)
15. Maven (Hardcore champion; would likely make him lose it to someone better then award them the US title to get rid of the Hardcore belt)

Raw:

1. Steve Austin
2. Undertaker
3. Hulk Hogan
4. Kevin Nash
5. RVD (I'd push him huge too; he was also IC champion)
6. Booker T
7. Big Show
8. DDP
9. Christian
10. Bubba Ray Dudley
11. D-Von Dudley
12. Chuck (Tag-team champion with Billy; run a story where each has to pick a partner on their respective brand, making both brands have tag titles)
13. William Regal (European champion; would just unify it with the IC)
14. Whoever was the Womens champion (I forget)
15. Mark Henry

I think I've done the brands fairly evenly. I've kept a few more tag teams together whilst breaking up the NWO (it didn't do that much after WM anyway) and the tag champs. Goldberg would go to Raw in 2003 probably, whereas HBK would've gone to SmackDown! along with Rey and other cruserweights. Raw would've had the Divas too. As soon as Heyman turned on Brock he'd somehow become GM, making Brock have to fight against the GM and Angle at WM XIX. (side note: I realised after I did my whole draft I'd forgotten Angle, so I had to move all the SD! picks down one haha). I'd also make a PPV schedule as follows (Red Raw, Blue SD!, Black both):

April: Backlash
May: Judgement Day
June: KOTR (the final would be Raw winner vs. SmackDown! winner, the first interpromotional match and the winner (Lesnar) gets a shot at his brands title at Summerslam)
July: Bad Blood
July: Great American Bash
August: Summerslam
September: Unforgiven
October: No Mercy
November: Survivor Series
December: Armageddon
January: Royal Rumble
February: No Way Out
March: WM XIX

Now I want to see some of your drafts; I think we could get some wildly different brands!