There was only one person not drafted in the brand split last year, and that one person managed to make the most out of a confusing situation.
Heath Slater recently spoke about his experience being a free agent on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. He had fun with the angle, and also formed his tag team with Rhyno that got over really well, leading to them winning the tag team titles.
It was so much fun. I wish they would have kept it going and I just wish that somehow they would have kept it going but winning the tag titles and getting that contract was amazing. But in my mind and what I was thinking was as a free agent on Smackdown and doing all the interruptions and all this stuff it was getting steam and you could feel the energy when you walked in the building and when I would break up stuff and do all that nonsense, it was one of those things that could have gotten me sympathy. If we would have lost that night and if I showed up to RAW the following week and did the same thing on RAW to try and get an opportunity again and to keep it going but they just wanted to end the storyline I guess. It was amazing winning the titles and it was Rhyno's first time ever winning the tag team titles and was cool because he tagged with guys like Tajiri and Stone Cold Steve Austin and never got the titles and here comes Heath Slater and we win the titles. The story was good, the people were good and it was a lot of fun.
To try and continue the idea of himself being a free agent, Slater tried to exand further on the idea by joining WWE friendly independent promotions like EVOLVE. Unfortunately, WWE really didn't bite:
I tried. I tried to do that. I wanted to wrestle in EVOLVE and work with Drew [McIntyre] and I wanted to do stuff like that. Guys that I know and worked before that won't act a fool and go AWOL and be out for themselves, lets have a good match and let people believe this storyline that I am doing and I pitched it but they turned that down real quick.
Heath Slater and Rhyno continue to team to this day, though they aren't really that visible these days. They were the first ever Smackdown tag team champions, but in the SuperStar Shakeup were moved to Raw. Since then, the team has mostly remained on Main Event tapings.
