Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov are expected to be drafted onto the WWE main roster: Source

With their next draft, WWE may soon add a few big stars from NXT to their main roster. Beginning with Friday Night SmackDown on April 26 and continuing through Monday Night RAW on April 29, the business will organize its draft. In a post on X days before the draft, Corey Brennan of the Fightful Select made a suggestion that these talents may sign with the Red or Blue brand. “Fightful Select has learned that Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov are reportedly “a lock” for RAW or SmackDown in the WWE Draft, while as of this past weekend, a number of other NXT talent was informed that their status was still unknown.”

Hardcore WWE fans may not be shocked by this announcement since Carmelo Hayes has already enjoyed success with the NXT. On the other hand, Ilja Dragunov has a lot of experience and has often main-evented the NXT brand. Additionally, WWE has been hinting that NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez would visit RAW. She even recently showed up at the weekly live event. Whether the WWE will continue to refine Perez’s villain character on NXT TV prior to her main roster addition is still unknown, however.

The Tony D’Angelo family and Baron Corbin are two more names that are being discussed for a call-up to the main roster. Since Corbin’s previous partner, Bron Breakker just departed the NXT division to fight full-time on WWE SmackDown, there have been rumors that Corbin is moving to the main roster.

According to Wrestleview, the source also states that Netflix and CW will be involved in decision-making over drafts. For NXT and Raw, the two brands have some future partnerships planned. A source noted that “the Netflix deal is closer to next year’s draft than this year’s,” according to the same article. Sean Ross Sapp, who has offered further information in that story, has said that the WWE Draft’s dates are deliberate since the 2024 NFL Draft would also be held during that week.

Regarding recent NXT events, Viking Raider and the Final Testament made an appearance on the program lately, which was observed by the WWE world. They ambushed Axiom and Nathan Frazer, the newly crowned tag team champions, on that episode. On the episode, Viking Raider Ivar was seen challenging North American Champion Oba Femi.