The "Superstar Shakeup"

I've been thinking somewhat extensively about this. A lot of what WWE did on Monday and Tuesday was muddying the waters and creating misdirection to confuse and confound. As a result, I'm not sure who's going where.

The big one that's been talked about for weeks if not months is Styles to RAW, and I was pretty certain is was going down until SmackDown. Perhaps it's more so what I want rather than what I think will happen, but the idea of Styles becoming the standard bearer on Tuesdays whilst Cena is away is a fun one and one I really like. That being said, while he settled his beef with Shane, but Bryan appears to be handling duties for the blue brand on Monday, so I could easily see him trading him for a major gain like say a Seth Rollins or something akin to the Triple H for Booker T and the Dudley Boyz trade from 2004.

Looking at both rosters, it becomes apparent that what is needed for SmackDown is depth in both their male divisions. With the arrival of The Hardy's and The Revival on RAW, there is almost an excess of tag talent there, and with SmackDown bereft of talented, legitimate tandems (American Alpha and The Usos are the only real top contenders) they are in desperate need of some fresh blood in the division. Enzo & Cass as well as Gallows & Anderson are free from championship obligations and feuds. Either or both could potentially make the move.

Guys like Rusev and Sami Zayn would benefit greatly from a move over as their chances are limited on Monday nights and in turn more bodies are needed on Tuesdays, not only to make up the numbers, but to create fresh new stories. Rusev versus Harper, Nakamura, Ambrose, Orton, Styles (if he's still there) or Zayn versus the Wyatt's or Corbin could be a great deal of fun. There's also a need to freshen things up in the women's division and with the exception of Bayley and Sasha on RAW and Naomi on SmackDown, I think everyone's fair game. Charlotte going to SmackDown would help balance the star power aspect out while RAW gaining more experienced, middle of the pack workers like a Natalya or Mickie James would work too.

RAW more or less just needs fresh names and from a logical point of view, gaining a guy like The Miz who Bryan would want rid of would be perfect. He's also great at taking the fall and regaining his heat simply by talking. Seeing him go up versus the likes of Balor, Cesaro, Sheamus and Rollins could be fun. Maybe sending Harper over to add a new big man for Reigns and Strowman to tangle with would produce some good results? Personally, I would quite like to see Owens and Ambrose change shows - both would benefit from fresh talent to go up against, RAW is in need of solid babyfaces and SmackDown is dying for a main event level heel - but both seem set to continue their feuds with Jericho and Corbin respectively.

Perhaps the 'shakeup' doesn't come into full effect until after Payback? If that is the case, I'd love to see this move.
 
I don't think that any tag team should be broken as of now. The tag team division on Raw just got much interesting while Smackdown's is still lackluster. No point to f breaking tag teams when one brand is in dire need of them.

Also, the first tag team to be broken should be New Day and that's not going to happen atleast in 2017 abd it shouldn't as well.

Charlotte does need to get away from Raw's Women Championship for a while and what better way than this shake-up?

Also, I hope that AJ Styles doesn't go to Raw. Just for Nakamura. :rolleyes:

Roman Reigns may go to Smackdown to avoid Brock Lesnar until next Wrestlemania and that's a big IF. Anyone out of Sami Zayn and Cesaro should be drafted as well.
 
Let's just take a look at the tag divisions...

Raw
The Hardy Boyz (which one would think they will eventually split and do their own thing)
The Club
Cesaro and Sheamus
New Day
Enzo and Cass
The Revival
Golden Truth
The Shining Stars

Smackdown Live
The Usos
American Alpha
Heath and Rhyno
The Ascension
Breezango

Am I forgetting anyone? Hype Bros are out of action, Vaudevillians are no longer a thing, and Wyatt Fanily does not have a real tag team rn unless Bray and Rowan decided to tag together which would make little sense at the moment.

So for sure at least one team is going to Smackdown. I don't think I would send Alpha to Raw. They are one of the top teams on Smackdown. Leave them there. Plus if you just switched alpha for New Day, then we're looking at only seeing new day vs. the Usos for the immediate future. We've seen that match so many times. Yes, the Usos have changed up their gimmick but still. If new day goes to Smackdown I think one more team should go with them. I would choose Enzo and Cass. Enzo and Cass vs. Usos would be fun right now. Alpha vs. New Day could be fun.

One team that I could see going to Raw is, Breezango. Simply because I think both men could add something to the cruiserweight division. Maybe they're both slightly over the 205 or 210 weight limit, but... really who cares?

So the new tag divisions would look like:

Raw
Hardys
The Club
Revival
Sheamus and Cesaro
Breezango
Golden truth
Shining Stars

Smackdown Live
Usos
Enzo and Cass
American Alpha
New day
Ascension
Heath and Rhyno


Ultimately giving each show 4 strong teams and then a couple of jobber teams.
 
If the report I read yesterday is accurate, it may well not be or things can always change before Raw airs tonight, AJ Styles is strongly thought of being headed to Raw while they seem to be going back and forth on whether or not Roman Reigns stays on Raw. The report also says that New Day is all but guaranteed to be heading to SmackDown Live, Charlotte is also said to be bound for the blue brand while Alexa Bliss is headed to Raw. As with Roman Reigns, there's said to be a strong back and forth on whether or not to move Sasha Banks to SmackDown Live.

The "Shakeup" is going to be spread out over Raw tonight and SmackDown Live Tuesday, so my guess is that those 5 people mentioned won't be the only ones to be switched. Roman Reigns' case is interesting in that he's probably going to face off with Braun Strowman at Payback, which is a Raw brand ppv, so the only way that works out is if Strowman is moved to SmackDown Live as well.

I'd rather see Sasha Banks stay on Raw and eventually feud with Bayley as the two of them can be magical together. Still, having both Sasha and Charlotte on the blue brand would immediately beef up the Women's Division considerably.

The Hardy Boyz and the Revival have already lent a fresh feel to the Raw tag team picture while New Day's presence at SmackDown Live definitely bolsters things along with the Usos and American Alpha.

While this is unlikely, I think it'd be cool to see the Cruiserweight Division head to SmackDown Live. A lot of people feel that's where it should've been in the first place and while SmackDown Live doesn't have the extra hour that Raw does, the blue brand has consistently shown since the brand split that it can do more with less far better than Raw. For instance, there wouldn't have to be a seemingly random Cruiserweight match every week as the time can be given to building characters and storylines via promo segments and a few brawls here and there. Plus, it'd be more convenient for them since 205 Live airs directly after SmackDown Live on the WWE Network so that's less travel time.
 
The first roster move was announced just a few minutes ago and Apollo Crews is moving from SmackDown to Raw. I guess it's possible that he'll do better on the red brand; he has all the tools inside the ring but he's basically just a bland, smiling babyface. If that doesn't change, he'd be better off being sent back down to NXT for a while.
 
apollo being send to raw pretty much tells me that they really don'T have any plan for the guy and he'S going to be a regular on main event until they finally don'T have a place for him and just release him.
 
So it seems like 2 of the main smackdown feud are over with the move of bray wyatt and dean ambrose to raw.

It sad in a way, especially for wyatt because I was really intrigue to see what the house of horror match would have look like. Now we won't see what they had in mind. But at less, he's getting fed to finn balor now.
 
So unless there are other stars who'll be announced once Raw goes off the air, the stars from SmackDown Live who've been traded to Raw are:

The Miz w/Maryse
Dean Ambrose
Curt Hawkins
Apollo Crews
Kalisto
Rhyno & Heath Slater
Bray Wyatt
Elias Samson
Alexa Bliss
Mickie James


This creates some confusion in that it seems unlikely Raw will have both mid-card titles, so Owens should be SmackDown bound unless they decide to go a different route and let SmackDown Live have the entire Cruiserweight Division. Also if Owens is drafted to SmackDown tomorrow night, since Wyatt is on Raw, does this mean that Payback will be a joint brand ppv? Randy Orton won't be heading to Raw, surely they wouldn't be idiotic enough to not announce that they've acquired the reigning 13 time WWE Champion on the actual broadcast.

Kalisto was a no brainer as he can join the rest of the Cruiserweights and even though Kalisto being traded to Raw suggests there's no chance the CW Division could be part of the blue brand, it could be little more than a swerve thrown at fans to keep them off balance.

All in all, however, SmackDown Live certainly looks like it could gain some significant players tomorrow night as the most significant trade to Raw seems to be Bray Wyatt at this point. Charlotte and New Day seem to be all but certainly heading to the blue brand, either the CW Division as a whole or the United States Champion, Kevin Owens, will wind up there as well especially since he just lost to Dean Ambrose, maybe a few more women like Emma and Dana Brooke as moving could give them a fresh start. I have a feeling Sami Zayn will wind up on SmackDown Live as well.

It looks like AJ Styles is staying on SmackDown Live, which is great in my opinion as I'd rather have him there than Roman Reigns.
 
I'm a bit surprised to be honest that so many were shipped to RAW. Tomorrow night should be interesting as I'm expecting a fair few to come to SD to balance out the roster. They need heels badly as two of their biggest Wyatt and Miz just went over to RAW. Don't know who's coming but hell it had better be good.
 
The only one I legit am kind of Eh about on going to Raw is Miz. I really, really like those two on Smackdown, but other than that all the guys I really enjoy are still around. Randy doesn't really work year round post championship run I imagine. So hopefully between that and Cena being gone we are much, much closer to a Nakamura vs Styles feud than we have been.

I'm glad Bray is gone I guess... I really love Bray and what not, but I enjoy Harper and his new look and the cheese gimmick really didn't fit the vibe of literally everything else on the show. Ambrose as well just does not click with me on Smackdown, but now him and Miz give me a reason to want to watch RAW more. Rhyno & Slater were super cool for their first run, so no hate there. Would of liked to see a heel tag team go over there considering we have like one face team now unless they plan on bringing New day or whatever.

I think the show quality, etc will remain pretty much the same. I'm pretty sure the draft tomorrow will be much more exciting in their picks. Smackdown writes a lot of story lines based on a character and their rival and then the focal point is a conflict they share. Hoping for Gallows & Anderson, Rollins, Joe, Zayn, Owens, Braun, and maybe Reigns. I'd love to see Balor over there, but I REALLY don't know how that's going to work with where he left off last time in WWE before returning and the guy currently holding the championship.
 
So it looks like Styles will stay on Smackdown Live! If this holds to be true, I will be happy about it for sure!

The House of Horrors match is taking place at Payback. I'm guessing Orton retains, and we will get an actual AJ vs. Randy feud.

I think Gallows and Anderson and Enzo and Cass will be going to Smackdown now.

Do both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn get traded to Smackdown? If so, why can we not get these guys away from each other?

I'm hoping that tomorrow night Dean is still on Smackdown because "the IC title is part of Smackdown" or something like that, and since Corbin beat him last week, he gets one more shot at the title. Corbin wins the title. Or maybe somewhere down the line he'll get a shot. (Hopefully)

Will KO be Smackdown Lives biggest pick? Or will Seth or Roman still make the jump?

I could see guys like Jinder, Titus, or Mark Henry being traded in exchange for that sick Curt Hawkins and Apolo Crews pick up?

Charlotte is all but Blue bound. But who else?
Smackdown just lost; Alexa, Mickie James, Maryse (I know), Eva Marie (I know) and Nikki Bella. So their division does need some rebuilding. They have Becky, Naomi, Naty, and Carmella.
Tamina is healthy and she has been touring with Smackdown.

So to even things up I can see it being Charlotte, Emma, maybe even Dana Brooke as well.

I am very intrigued for tomorrow night. Even though I am skeptical of how some of the picks Raw got will be used now that they are on RAW. The Miz may have been the most obvious trade Raw was going to receive. But before Wrestlmania, people were talking that The Miz could potentially be in the WWE title picture going forward in 2017, on SMACKDOWN. What is he going to be doing on RAW?
The Bray vs. Finn feud will be fun, at least it is on paper. But having Bray and Matt Hardy on the same show will also be fun.

EDIT: I hope Bo Dallas stays on RAW and joins Bray for the Hardy Boy feud. --- just a random idea lol ---

Sorry for rambling. ����*♂️
 
Really interesting night. I'm surprised we didn't see much movement in the tag division over to Raw. Despite the format not being explained, I actually like the shakeup.

Does anyone really care about the kayfabe process? Do we really need to know that they were drafted, traded, or free agents? We don't, because the reality is that the shakeup is none of those things.

Vince McMahon and his lackeys (creative) sit in a room and decide who goes where. Does it need to be dressed up and spoon fed to the audience? None of the drafts or trades that have happened in WWE history have been real. They're scripted decisions to refresh feuds and matchups for the coming year.

Personally I liked it. Sure there was a little bit of Kurt in the back mentioning Smackdown showing interest, but do we really need to know the exact guts?

If anything the shakeup is just a McGuffin that drives the plot of WWE forward. It's irrelevant how it happened, it happened and now wrestlers are on different nights.

I imagine the Raw roster will be on Smackdown tomorrow. I like the moves so far, though some are perplexing. The IC title isn't necessarily staying on Raw. Ambrose or Owens could lose their titles between tomorrow night and Payback.

Jericho or Owens moving shows would spoil their match outcome for Payback, as it'll be obvious that the Smackdown bound one will leave Payback with the title. Of course there's always the chance that the cruiserweight division could move, but I doubt that. Kalisto's movement to Raw seems to suggest that 205 is staying put.

Not a lot of main event movement. One thing we know for sure, is nothing is for sure. Just because no one on Raw moved to Smackdown does not mean that more moves to Raw aren't coming. There may yet be supplemental shake up. Styles and Reigns could yet be switched tomorrow (doubt it).

If Orton stays on Smackdown and Brock isn't drafted to Smackdown, then it seems sealed that Wyatt will come up short at Payback. I really like this move of having the WWE title match at Payback. It gives the Raw ppv a world title match while Lesnar is away.

Interesting start. Smackdown did not get fleeced (yet) as I saw many were afraid. Tomorrow is going to be another interesting show. I'm thinking Smackdown gets Owens, Rollins, Charlotte, and Emma. They'll also get one of Raw's top teams (at least). Likely either Enzo and Cass or New Day. They'll likely get The Club if AJ stays on Smackdown.
 
Most of us are pleased AJ is staying on SD Live for there is money to be made with AJ vs Nakamura.

I expect to see Charlotte and one of the lesser Raw Divas sent to SD Live. I think Enzo and Cass since they were not used on RAW to end up on SD Live along with the Club. If Owens ends up on SD Live, SD Live will be a much stronger roster after the shake up. I doubt the New Day will get moved for
storyline Kofi just got laid up by the Revival which is going to lead to a feud.
 
I hadn't thought about it at the time, but yeah, Styles vs. Nakamura is something that can conceivably now that they're completely on the same brands.

The Raw Fallout show revealed that a couple of announcers have switched brands as well with David Otunga going to Raw and Byron Saxton going to SmackDown Live. So this means we'll get Otunga's generally bland and forgetful contributions to commentary while we're back to hearing JBL do everything to Saxton each week just short of slapping him upside the head and calling him a n***** while he timidly accepts it.
 
I hadn't thought about it at the time, but yeah, Styles vs. Nakamura is something that can conceivably now that they're completely on the same brands.

As long as they don't hot-shot it and give it time to stew. I get the excitement from a lot of quarters about this match-up, but they need to give Nak time to build. Let him get a few wins under his belt versus the likes of the Dolph Ziggler's of SmackDown and build some momentum to really make that AJ match mean something.

The Raw Fallout show revealed that a couple of announcers have switched brands as well with David Otunga going to Raw and Byron Saxton going to SmackDown Live. So this means we'll get Otunga's generally bland and forgetful contributions to commentary while we're back to hearing JBL do everything to Saxton each week just short of slapping him upside the head and calling him a n***** while he timidly accepts it.

Yeah this does not have me excited at all. Cole & Graves featuring Otunga will be fine as Otunga doesn't offer anything really particularly good or bad - he's just there - and Cole away from JBL has been significantly better. JBL with Byron on commentary was arguably the single worst thing about the pre-brand split WWE. Normally I'd be more hopeful because there is no Cole involved to join in on the hazing, but I very much doubt Tom Phillips is a strong enough personality to rein JBL in.

If only there were another commentator who did a decent enough job of juggling calling the action, engaging with his colleagues on air and being moderately entertaining. Someone with a legitimate sports commentary background who recognised and respected the wrestling industry for what it was. Someone from the Great White North to balance out JBL's mad Texan ranting and raving. Maybe someone who could have an Italian influenced catchphrase? Nah, can always dream though?
 
kinda underwelming as of now, with the way they did this, i'm guessing that the rumors of them having an official draft later on this year are true.

By watching this, it felt more like they we're moving superstars that really didn't matter which show their on.

Let'S look at the list of superstar that raw got

Miz and maryse: Makes sense storyline wise since Bryan wanted to trade him for a whole year now and is a decent mid level act with maryse.

Dean ambrose: Nice to see all three former member of the shield on the same show for now but i'm guessing this means that kevin owens will leave raw tonight.

Curt Hawkings: who really cares about him, really

Apollo crews: same has hawkins

Kalisto: probably going to be put in the cruiserweight division we'Re he belong.

Slater & Rhyno: again, who cares at this point.

Bray wyatt: really why put him there, unless they got a plan to build a new version of the wyatt family on raw, this is a wasted move for wyatt. he would have been better if he'S stayed on smackdown.

alexa bliss: not really happy about this move but if that means that charlotte is leaving raw then i'm o.k. with it because alexa might be able to continue to shine on raw even if you go a stronger heel section on the raw side of the women's division.

Mickie james: yeah why not, they really do need a veteran on that side of the roster to help some of the younger wrestlers out and since natalya is already that veteran presence on smackdown, it makes sense to put the other veteran on raw.

david otunga & byron saxton: really, i really couldn't cares less about this move because they just move the worst part of both broadcast team just because they wanted to switch some of the broadcasters. i would have prefer if they would have move corey to smackdown and get JBL to raw or just move corey to smackdown and have somebody else take his place on raw.
 
Reports for tonight are KO and Zayne, Charlotte and Sasha, The Shinning Stars, all to Smackdown. If its true then Smackdown Women Division got serious edge over RAW. Asuka is probably coming to RAW then to even things up. Also with Ambrose to RAW wouldnt be suprised for KO to Smackdown. But would be a dent to HHH stable if reports are true. And with Revival and Hardys at RAW aside of Shinning Stars expecting Enzo and Cass or New Day to Smackdown also.
 
So basically WWE is taking the two men and the two women who have been involved in the most incessant feuds in the whole company over the past year and they're moving them to Smackdown. What a shake up!
 
I'll resist from criticising the decisions made in this damn "superstar shakeup" (I say this every time but Jesus why is it called that?), but if the reports are true, I kinda get it, kinda don't. Sending Charlotte with Sasha to SmackDown does give the SmackDown women's division a serious edge over Raw, and while I believe SmackDown does need a couple of big names, why must these two go together? We saw it for six months in 2016, the WWE could do with separating them for a good year to get different feuds going. Turn Sasha heel and feud with Bayley, I figured that was the direction. Of course, this is just speculation as of now.

As for Owens and Zayn going to SmackDown... well, I do think Zayn would benefit from heading to SmackDown. And as for Owens, sending him with Zayn is regrettable because we DO NOT need to see this again for another few, well, years, but we will I assume. But, for SmackDown to lose The Miz and Dean Ambrose, someone needs to fill that void. Owens can definitely do this.

The thing is, if SmackDown have lost Bray, Dean and Miz, and only get Zayn and Owens in return, I'm not so sure that that is fair quite honestly. I think Raw needs to send over one more decent name, but I'm not so sure who. Cesaro and Sheamus as a team would definitely be interesting, since they could also float into the mid-card. But I'd rather see Anderson and Gallows go to SmackDown. Get them paired up with AJ Styles. Let them gel together on television for a year, then send them to Raw where they unite with Finn Bálor. Still, SmackDown could do with another decent name in the mid-to-upper card. Rusev, perhaps? With Lana? I think that could work.
 
The one thing i really hope doesn't happened on smackdown tonight is that they decided to send charlotte, sasha, kevin owens and sami zayn on smackdown

Right now the best thing for both Charlotte and kevin owens is to be separate from sasha banks and sami zayn. These are matches that fans are just plain tired of seeing plus in the case of owens in zayn, if you have them on seperate brand, that means that you can send either brand to montreal when they decide to do either a live event or a tv taping because you have one home time boy on each brand which mean that you can use either guy to do promotion in that market. They already did the dream match main event between zayn and owens in montreal, they're not really anything you can do with these 2 on the same brand.

As for sasha and charlotte, if they get sent to the same brand, it's just sending the problem to another show. the one complain that alot of fans had with the raw women's division was that it focus too much on the same 2 wrestlers and that they like the diversity that the smackdown women's division brought, but if you send both wrestlers to be in the smackdown's women'S division, you get the same problem sasha feuding with charlotte and probably adding becky to that feud at some point when charlotte takes the belt from naomi which is what they should be staying away from. Sasha should stay on Raw and feud with bayley and charlotte could feud with naomi. You could send either dana brookes or emma instead of sasha since neither one is really doing anything on raw and the smackdown women'S roster really needs more heels.
 
Now that the shake up is over, I think smackdown got alot more out of this then raw.

First I completly forgot about tamina and it was a nice way to bring her in. Charlotte will bring alot to the smackdown woman's division. Rusev will finally be able to get some of the spotlight that he lost on raw. Zayn will probably get a bigger chance to be a top star on smackdown. The new day being moves to smackdown with the shining stars bring some much needed help for the tag team division.

And finally if they don't go and pull a swerve on us and actually keep kevin owens on smackdown, then you got a top heel on the show that can feud with tje top babyface like aj styles on randy Orton.

The only 2 that kinda are of non consequences really are jinder mahal and sin cara
 
So the blue brand winds up getting:

Kevin Owens
Sami Zayn
Charlotte Flair
Tamina
Primo & Epico
Sin Cara
Rusev
Lana
New Day


All in all, I think the Superstar Shakeup ultimately came out pretty evenly. Both sides got some quality stars, some who're probably never going to be more than jobbers and some who can be given a fresh start. As of right now, I'm thinking that SmackDown Live may have the somewhat better overall roster right now when you factor in the gets from the Superstar Shakeup and NXT call ups. Even if you take part timers into account, SmackDown Live's top singles stars are John Cena, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Charlotte Flair being on the blue brand gives a big boost to the Women's Division and puts things on a more even kilter. Given that Lana was introduced with her own little video package, I'm guessing that means she's going to start wrestling and will be more than just Rusev's gal so that could be interesting. It'd be killer if Asuka winds up on the SmackDown Live roster sometime later this year, though I have a feeling she'll go to Raw. The New Day are a great tag team and the blue brand's tag team division overall has needed some help for a while. As for Primo & Epico, I have a feeling that the reset button has been hit with them, I hope so as they've probably been the least over act in WWE for quite a long time and I think the whole Shining Stars thing and the goofy Caribbean timeshare nonsense has been left behind.
 
First, addressing the commentary switch: I was pleasantly surprised by last night. Maybe it's the Mauro situation or maybe without Cole Saxton has more room to stretch himself, but it was good to see (or hear rather) JBL not verbally eviscerate Saxton at every turn. Maybe they'll be alright after all.

As for the in-ring talent trades it worked out pretty well on the face of things. SmackDown needed some strength in depth and they've got that with the likes of Owens, Zayn, Rusev (when he's back) and New Day along with the additions of Nakamura and Tye from NXT. They also got Charlotte off RAW which works for both shows - she's feuded with everyone she can on RAW and has a whole fresh set of opponents to tangle with.

RAW in turn has got new characters, something that they were lacking (and will be with impending departure of Jericho and Owens move to SD) and with Miz & Maryse, Ambrose, Bliss and Wyatt they've got good talkers and entertaining personalities. Oh, and Rhyno & Heath Slater. They're pretty fun too. They should mesh in quite nicely.

Both sides benefited and while it wasn't perfect - Zayn and Owens being on the same show once again is kinda funny but they're going to drive any interest in their matches squarely into the ground if they don't resist the urge to leave the feud alone - it worked for the most part. Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out in the coming weeks and months.
 

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