In the 2016 WWE Draft, arguably the top storyline coming out of the draft was Heath Slater not being drafted.
Heath was left alone in the green room on draft night and became the top free agent following the draft.
Appearing on Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw, Heath and JBL revealed how the storyline came to fruition.
"The draft was happening and your ass [JBL] went in there and told Vince, 'How about one guy doesn't get drafted?' Vince was like, 'What are you thinking?' 'Let Slater not get drafted. He'll run with it,'" recalled Heath.
JBL explained how things went down, saying, "Vince loved it. We're sitting there in the production room and going over the draft and I'm thinking about parallels to the NFL Draft. It's a big deal in the NFL Draft, who gets drafted last. We're wasting a very valuable thing by not drafting somebody last and making a big deal out of it. I went to talk to Vince and said, 'At the NFL Draft, it's a real big deal when somebody gets drafted last.' Vince looks at me and his eye just lit up and he goes, 'Are you thinking Heath Slater?' I said, 'Yes, that's exactly who I'm thinking.' Right away, Vince is like, 'How about he doesn't get drafted and we turn the lights out on him and he's a free agent and goes between shows?' That's how the whole idea came about."
Heath continued, saying that there was an idea to just announce where he got drafted as a digital exclusive.
"I don't know if somebody was ribbing me or not, but they barely told me afterwards like, 'cause a big scene,' it went from going off on air to going straight to the WWE.com thing and it had me blowing a gasket and walking out. Then they told me they were going to put me on the internet as being drafted to SmackDown. I was like, 'Why would you do that?'" wondered Heath.
JBL said that was never part of Vince's plan. "That was never the idea. I got it directly from Vince, that was never the idea," said JBL. "The idea was to not draft you and then you become a free agent going from show to show saying you're the most valuable free agent in the world, which was awesome."
Heath would show up on all shows and live events, looking for a contract and eventually becoming a SmackDown Tag Team Champion alongside Rhino.
"I thought it was great, you're so entertaining and creative. The thought was, you're not getting drafted in the top five, it really doesn't matter. Why not do something special for it? Become a free agent and you became the biggest star out of the draft," said JBL.
Heath mentioned that his storyline was the most memorable aspect for the 2016 WWE Draft.
Heath is currently working for IMPACT Wrestling and makes various indepenent wrestling appearances. Fightful will have live coverage of IMPACT Wrestling beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.
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