By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

The annual WWE Draft is viewed by Vince McMahon as a big event that has to be "protected" by having big names switch brands, even if it's just for the sake of big names switching brands.

Last year, McMahon made the call the day of the Raw Draft show to come up with his own roster changes because there weren't enough big names switching brands.

Former WWE writer John Piermarini, who was on the creative team during last year's Draft, said on last Tuesday's PWTorch Livecast that the creative team decided beforehand not to have big names move brands.

The Undertaker's name was tossed around to potentially move him to Raw, but the creative team concluded it didn't make sense storyline-wise to move any of the big names.

McMahon then made his changes the day of the Draft, believing the Draft wouldn't mean much if WWE didn't move big names. McMahon came up with his own rosters and the writers re-wrote the Raw Draft episode to adjust for the changes.

Edge was a big name who came over to Raw, along with Chris Jericho, as part of an effort to stack the Raw roster. (Edge then moved back to Smackdown by the end of the year for Smackdown's Syfy launch.)

Piermarini also noted McMahon's big priority around Draft time is the creative team picking one heel and one face on each brand to build around the next year. Piermarini said the Raw team decided on The Miz as their heel and John Morrison as their face.

As for how the Draft creative process works, Piermarini said the writing team's assignment is to come up with their own post-Draft roster. The writers then submit their individual plans to Raw head writer Brian Gewirtz, who reviews the proposals. As it turned out last year, McMahon came up with his own roster changes the day of the Draft.

Despite the last-second changes last year, the writers feel it's an opportunity to bring over a wrestler from another brand if they see someone they want to work with.

Piermarini, who wrote for the Raw brand, described wanting to work with Dolph Ziggler, who the Smackdown writers didn't see as a top talent at the time. Piermarini noted it's interesting how Ziggler worked his way up to a top slot by the end of the year after the Smackdown team didn't see him in that position at last year's Draft.

FYI: Piermarini's detailed comments reviewing the Draft process and providing his insight on this year's Draft from an outsider's perspective is in Tuesday's PWTorch Livecast Pre-Show available for VIP members. Not VIP? You're missing out on all of the benefits of being a Torch VIP member, with details at PWTorch.com/govip.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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