Last week, on the Raw After WrestleMania, Vince McMahon announced that this week, Raw and Smackdown will experience a Superstar Shake-Up. (Superstar Shake-Up is a registered trademark of World Wrestling Entertainment, patent pending in America and Europe.) While the details on this “Shake-Up” are vague, WWE.com later clarified that “representatives of both brands” would be present to complete “trades and deals.” So sort of like free agency! Kind of.
Now, keep in mind that some of the following business is just reports and rumors for the time being, but may well end up being SPOILERS, so read on at your own risk!
Before WrestleMania, there were reports going around that if there was to be a post-Mania draft (which there generally was during the original brand split years), AJ Styles and Roman Reigns were being considered for swapping brands, with Styles giving Raw a new main event heel, and Reigns heading to Smackdown to shore up the babyface (or whatever) side of the roster while John Cena takes most of the summer (and possibly beyond) off for non-WWE projects.
Last Tuesday, Styles appeared to finish up his program with Shane McMahon and was not put into a new storyline, so the current belief is that he is a lock to jump ship (or whatever) and head to Raw. According to the latest Wrestling Observer Live, The New Day is also believed to be more or less a lock to head to Smackdown. Given that the Revival and the Hardy Boyz both made their Raw debuts last week, Raw is WAY over their quota of “no more than four tag teams at any given time,” so something’s gotta give.
Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, the two former champions of their respective brands, are also expected to swap shows. Flair lost clean as a whistle on Raw the night after losing at WrestleMania, so that seems to be some pretty clear stage-setting for her to head to a new show.
Also “heavily discussed” is the idea of Sasha Banks going to Smackdown, although it remains to be seen whether WWE will pull the trigger on either that move or the Reigns-to-Smackdown move. Dave Meltzer says he has heard “mixed things” about whether WWE will send Reigns to Smackdown, as he appeared to get involved in storylines with both Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman last week. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Shake-Up if some storylines didn’t get shaken up as well, right?
And for his part, Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross (newly back in the fold at WWE) has his own personal wish list on what he’s like to see out of the Shake-Up. In his latest blog post, he writes:
I’d like to see Luke Harper move to RAW and get a chance to contribute in a more significant way. He’s skilled, motivated/hungry and can have an effective wrestling match with anyone on the roster. Just believe that there is something there with Harper.
Curious to see how the tag teams shake out as well as WWE has done a nice job of restocking their tag team shelves and the reshuffling of the deck might present some compelling matchups that many of us haven’t thought of at this time.
Will Miz/Maryse move to RAW as if they seem to be ‘this close’ to moving up yet another level on any show that they appear. The Miz has worked hard to get better in the ring and he’s succeeded plus adding his lovely wife Maryse to the equation has worked well in my view.
Every WWE talent should consider looking at this ‘Shakeup’ as the opportunity to hit the reset button in virtually all phases of their professional life. The smarter talents will do something to improve their game daily. Something. Daily.
Well, that’s certainly plenty to chew on for now, but it looks like we’ll find out what’s going on in just a matter of hours, as the Shake-Up will commence on Monday night’s episode of Raw.
What about you? What Superstars would you like to see get Shaken-Up? Let us know in the comments below!
