Carlito revealed that WWE kept the Draft picks a secret, even from its own talent, because it didn’t want the information to get out to wrestling news outlets. He said WWE wasn’t trying to be mean to anyone.
Carlito recently told the Hitting the Turnbuckle Podcast that those outlets were covering WWE more and more, which led to the company only sharing information with the brass.
“That’s when they were trying to keep everything in house,” Carlito said.
“It wasn’t to be cruel, it was just to keep it anything from getting out.”
Carlito said he was told in advance whenever he was being moved to another brand, but not everyone was so lucky. Some did not know where they were going until their names were announced on TV.
“I was told prior, yeah,” Carlito said.
Carlito talked about how changing brands affected wrestlers’ lives, from their time on the road to their friends. If a couple both worked in WWE, the Draft could even put them on different shows.
“Yeah, everything changes,” he said. “Yeah, your travel especially back then when there was a lot more travel.”
Carlito talked about this back in 2021 in an interview with Chris Van Vliet. In that conversation, he said he found out about his SmackDown debut against John Cena in October 2004 only a few days before. That was right around the time WWE started keeping not just the outlets but also the wrestlers themselves in the dark.
Carlito changed brands in four Drafts, in 2005, 2008, 2009, and 2024. The last one came in the 2024 Draft, and WWE has not held a Draft since then.
