Superstar Shake-Up Predictions

It’s that time of the year in the brand extension environment in the WWE where Vince McMahon announces its time to “SHAKE THINGS UP AROUND HERE” again. During the last Brand Extension era which was 2002-2012 the draft or now referred to as a “shake up” took place once a year in one of the months following Wrestlemania. Most of the time it came around June to kick off the Summer months with fresh rivalries and feuds but this year it seems like we’re getting it earlier, right off the heels of Wrestlemania.
The Raw roster has been stacked since the initial draft last year with it getting a larger roster because its a three hour show. It recently added The Revival and Hardy Boyz to their roster along with Finn Balor making his triumphant return. On top of all of that Kurt Angle was announced the new Raw General Manager. Smackdown with a smaller and less stacked roster has shown they can put on just as good if not better of a show weekly compared to Raw. As Raw relied on their popular stars to carry the show and spent more time trying to figure out how to fill the three hours. Smackdown found a way to create new stars or rejuvenate superstars careers in the 2 hours of time they are given every week. They also had the addition of Shinsuke Nakamura and Tye Dillinger added to their roster. I almost feel like since Raw is the flagship show, the powers to be wanted to strip Smackdown of some of the stars that have been the highlight of their programming this past year to get more people into Raw.
I’m not sure exactly how this “Shake Up” is going to work but here are 10 moves I would like to see. 5 moves from Raw and 5 moves from Smackdown. Now all of these aren’t exactly my ideal switches but some of them are. It’s a mixture of what I think will happen and what I want to see happen. Dig It?!

Charlotte or Sasha Banks
Most of the past year, the Raw Women’s division revolved around Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair and making history. That was basically the main female feud on Raw until the end of 2016. I think them being apart from each other and on different shows will be perfect for either of them to start a new chapter in their respective careers. It’ll allow them to have fresh feuds with new faces while not crossing paths until maybe another year or two.
I initially wanted Sasha Banks to be drafted to Smackdown because it’ll give her the chance to rejuvenate her character and maybe be one of the top heels on Smackdown. Imagine Sasha turning on her former Team Bad teammate Naomi and getting nasty. I’d love it. Plus she grew watching Smackdown and considered it her favourite show, so it’d be fitting.
However, I want to see Charlotte on Smackdown because she’s accomplished pretty much everything you can accomplish on Raw. Charlotte has won the Raw Women’s Title a handful of times and it wouldn’t hurt to see her chase after the Smackdown Women’s Championship next. I think it would be fresh to see Charlotte in a never environment with new competition. Either way, I expect Sasha Banks or Charlotte Flair to end up on the blue brand and separate from each other.

Seth Rollins or Roman Reigns
If Smackdown is losing AJ Styles as heavily rumoured than Raw needs to trade off a big name to draw people to Smackdown. In my mind having either Rollins or Reigns go to Smackdown seems like the best option.
Rollins just finished off his rivalry with Triple H, slaying the king which means he can either continue fighting his goons in the likes of Owens and Joe or move forward with the next chapter of his career, taking on new opponents being the top star on a whole new brand. Rollins could link up against Orton or Cena again. There is always magic with Ambrose and Rollins and we haven’t seem them together since Rollins turned babyface. Of course if Styles goes to Raw that takes away that dream rivalry for now…but Rollins and Nakamura fighting each other to earn the right to call themselves the best in the world doesn’t sound so bad to me.
Roman Reigns on the other hand, could play a huge role on Smackdown. He could possibly be the biggest heel on Smackdown and feud against his best friend Dean Ambrose or even Randy Orton again. He could also go over there and be babyface who continues to get boo’d and we could eventually have that Cena/Reigns rivalry. In the end though, I think he would be a great person to switch for the loss of Styles but at the same time we’ve seen how they already started building towards Reigns and Lesnar facing off for WWE Championship this Summer. It’s one of the main reasons I think Rollins would be the one more likely to switch.

The New Day
The New Day have faced every team besides the Revival and The Hardy Boyz on Raw. They are the longest reigning tag team champions. They’ve accomplished everything they could on Raw to the point where the best idea for them on Wrestlemania was to take advantage of their popularity and make them of the hosts of the event. I know we can all agree we don’t want to see The New Day win the tag titles again on Raw because we’re looking to see the likes of The Club, The Revival, The Hardys’ and Enzo and Cass rock the division. The New Day on Smackdown would feel fresh and I think they would elevate the Smackdown tag team division. I wouldn’t mind seeing them have a run with the tag titles on the blue brand. Plus think about entertainment value they would add to the show because they’re entertaining as hell. New Day on Talking Smack would never have a dull moment.

Cesaro
I wanted Cesaro to be drafted on Smackdown since the original draft. I think he felt that way at first too. I mentioned in the intro to this blog that I think Smackdown was really great at helping superstars rejuvenate their characters and careers. For example, Miz, Cena and Orton all felt more fresh and new than they have in years being on Smackdown Live. Dolph Ziggler also even had brief period on top while being on Smackdown Live. It truly is the land of opportunity and I think Cesaro would be given the chances on Smackdown that isn’t given on Raw. I don’t want to see Cesaro stuck in the tag division but he’s ready for a solid IC or even WWE Championship run.

Sami Zayn
It is pretty much the same reasoning I stated for Cesaro. I feel Sami Zayn has had his moments on Raw such as great matches and his short feud with Zayn but there has been a lot of time in the last year where it felt like Zayn was just doing nothing. Although, I’d love to see more Angle and Zayn interactions but Zayn would prosper on Smackdown in my eyes and become a major player. Zayn feuding with Cesaro, The Miz, Shinsuke, Baron Corbin, Ambrose, Wyatt, Orton, Harper and even Cena all seem new and fresh. Plus all have potential to be great matches. It could be the greatest career move for Sami Zayn in my eyes. He just never really felt like he fit in with the Raw crew.

AJ Styles
I’m not a fan of this move at all. I think AJ Styles is the franchise of Smackdown Live and honestly should remain the face of that brand. If you think of the past year, post the brand extension…AJ Styles made Smackdown Live must watch. When the new brand extension era began, Ambrose was the champion, Ziggler was the number one contender, Cena became somewhat of a part-timer and Styles was the special attraction. As time moved forward Smackdown became Styles show. Ambrose fell down the card a bit after losing the WWE Championship to Styles. Cena started appearing less and less. Ziggler totally fell down the card after turning heel. The Miz although being very impressive during the brand extension hasn’t reached that top spot yet but is surely getting there if he remains on Smackdown. Wyatt and Orton were in their own world with their own interesting rivalry while AJ Styles held the top of the card as the MVP on Smackdown.
The dude can’t have a bad match with anyone and even made an angle with James Ellsworth bearable. He put on top quality matches on every PPV and if you didnt know any better you’d think he had wings. I fear Styles would get lost in the shuffle on Raw. Mostly right now when their champion is a part timer and Roman Reigns is being pushed as the face that runs the place on that brand. Also, if Rollins does move to Smackdown to give the blue brand star power, we miss out on that dream rivalry opportunity as well. There is hope we see Styles get back together with the Club though and maybe fight for dominance against Finn Balor. Styles and Joe can showcase the magic they had with each other in TNA to the WWE crowd. Also, Owens and Reigns have also put great matches with Styles in the past as well. It’ll also be awesome to see some Styles/Angle interactions but I’m really going to miss Styles on the blue brand. It really was the house AJ Styles helped build since its transition to being live on Tuesdays.

Alexa Bliss
Alexa Bliss is already a two time Smackdown Women’s Champion after making her main roster debut to the brand during the initial draft. I remember being concerned about how Alexa would get over on the main roster and her character development and ability to grow on me was impressive. I went from just sort of liking Alexa Bliss to looking forward to seeing her every week on Smackdown Live. I think Little Miss Bliss would be a great addition to the Raw brand and the perfect heel to face off against a super babyface Bayley. I know we all expect Sasha to turn heel and battle Bayley throughout the Summer but if Sasha was the one to head to Smackdown, than Alexa would be a perfect addition to the Raw Women’s Division to battle off Bayley.

Apollo Crews
If they did nothing with him on Smackdown…maybe they’ll do something with him on Raw. I think he looks great and has a ton of potential but Smackdown didn’t capitalize on it. It’s hard for me to believe he’ll be more successful on Raw but I want to think he could. Imagine Apollo having a solid U.S title run or something. It’s possible I think but its also possible he goes over there and ends up just being a good hand to fill time.

Dolph Ziggler
Ziggler had a great 2016 post the brand extension…and then he turned heel. He went from wrestling for the WWE Championship at Summerslam and putting on some classic matches with The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship, one even putting his career on the line to just being this  meh “heel” that you didn’t anticipate to see. It definitely was sad to see this downfall of Ziggler when so many people benefited from being on the blue brand overall. I mean he did have a successful run but at this point there are times its forgettable that he’s even on the roster. I would love for him to be switched to Raw and really shake things up. Imagine Angle trying to motivate Dolph to be better because he’s seen how talented he is. Imagine a scenario where Ziggler without telling us how hard he tries, starts showing us. He lets his actions speak louder than his words and we see maybe one last Ziggler push. I know a lot of fans are sick of Ziggler and his 15 minutes of fame but many still thinks he deserves a chance on top, as I do. Ziggler being a thorn in the side of Joe or Reigns could be very entertaining or he could be the next Zayn of Raw.

Kalisto
This will be short but it doesn’t need to be long. Kalisto hasn’t done anything too impressive since losing the US Championship last year and I think he would be another great addition to the cruiserweight division. I know they wanted him to be the next coming of Rey Mysterio but as much as he brings excitement to the blue brand, he didn’t do much n there besides getting beat up with a chair and jobbed out to Ziggler in five minute matches. I don’t see that being any different on Raw until he was apart of the cruiserweight division which also allow him to showcase his abilities on 205 Live too. I actually really like Kalisto and think he’s a tremendous wrestler so similar to Neville he could bring more depth to that cruiserweight roster. To do that, he needs to be on Raw.

Those are a few of my predictions and ideas for tomorrow’s shake up. What did you think about them? Did you agree or disagree? What are your predictions? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.