2005 WWE Draft Lottery

The 2005 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft lottery took place over a three-week period in June. There were ten draft picks and an eleven-person trade conducted between the promotion's two brands: Raw and SmackDown!, where twenty-two superstars were drafted and traded overall. The draft took place on WWE's two-hour television programs, Raw, which aired on Spike TV, and SmackDown!, which aired on UPN. Post-draft trades were announced on WWE's official website, WWE.com. The draft picks were announced each Monday on Raw and each Thursday on SmackDown! from June 6 to June 30. Each draftee was drafted at random. Every Superstar and Diva from Raw and SmackDown! were eligible to be drafted, including announcers, commentators, and general managers.

On the April 18, 2005, episode of Raw, Mr.McMahon, the WWE Chairman, announced that a draft lottery would take place the following month in May. On the May 16, 2005 episode of Raw however, McMahon announced that the draft would take place in June over a one-month period. Following the announcement, he made note that there were no exceptions from the draft, including the injured and the champions.

This was the first draft in which champions brought their titles to their new show if they were selected. After John Cena was drafted to Raw, along with the WWE Championship, SmackDown! was left without a World Heavyweight Championship for the remainder of the month of June. On the June 23, 2005 episode of SmackDown!, General Manager, Theodore Long, announced a new World Championship for the SmackDown brand, called the SmackDown! Championship. The new champion would have been determined in a six-man elimination match between The Undertaker, Muhammad Hassan, Christian, Booker T, John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Chris Benoit, which Layfield won on the June 30, 2005 episode of SmackDown!. After Layfield won the match, Long announced that the SmackDown! Championship was not needed because the then-World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, had been drafted to SmackDown!.

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