The return of World Wrestling Entertainment’s brand extension/draft last year really freshened up the overall feel of both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown. The latter show moving to Tuesday nights and airing live increased the importance of the perceived B-show. WWE took a different route in 2017. Instead of an actual draft, they went with an abbreviated ‘superstar shakeup’. A few people were shuffled from Raw to SDLive and vice versa. This was the chance to start all new feuds. Instead, we had longtime rivals Kevin Owens AND Sami Zayn going to SmackDown Live. Bitter enemies like Dean Ambrose and The Miz BOTH went to Monday Night Raw. The results of this year’s shakeup were lukewarm at best.
Here at The Scrum Sports, we felt it necessary to initiate our own secondary ‘superstar shakeup’. We each selected five superstars (two male singles stars, one female star and one tag team) to switch from Raw to SmackDown Live and five superstars to go from SDLive to Raw.
Gene- Raw to SmackDown Live:
Seth Rollins
Big Cass
Sasha Banks
Karl Anderson
Luke Gallows
SmackDown Live to Raw:
Baron Corbin
Dolph Ziggler (possible tag team with The Miz)
Becky Lynch
Fandango
Tyler Breeze
Joel- Raw to SmackDown Live:
Seth Rollins
Finn Balor
Sasha Banks
Karl Anderson
Luke Gallows
SmackDown Live to Raw:
Dolph Ziggler
Chad Gable
Becky Lynch
Luke Harper
Erick Rowan
Nathan- Raw to SmackDown Live:
Seth Rollins
Samoa Joe
Bayley
Sheamus
Cesaro
SmackDown Live to Raw:
Tye Dillinger
Dolph Ziggler
Tamina
Jimmy Uso
Jey Uso
Marcus- Raw to SmackDown Live:
Enzo Amore
Apollo Crews
Dana Brooke
Dash Wilder
Scott Dawson
SmackDown Live to Raw:
Luke Harper
James Ellsworth
Tamina
Fandango
Tyler Breeze
There are quite a few common threads. Many of us feel that Seth Rollins is getting lost in the shuffle in the Raw main event scene. Bayley has been completely mishandled by creative since coming up to the main roster. Dolph Ziggler was supposed to get a huge push once the brand split happened. Instead, his losing streak continued. There are too many to really list that would benefit from switching shows.
How about you readers out there? Who are your five that you’d send from Raw to SmackDown Live. Who would you send from SDLive to Raw? Leave your picks in the comments.
