Credit: WWE.com
Last year's "Superstar Shakeup," though it accomplished WWE's goal of temporarily increasing TV viewership, was widely seen as a big swing and a miss by WWE. It was then that the company ripped SmackDown of much of its core, including Dean Ambrose, The Miz, Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss, which was detrimental to the quality of the show's programming. The main reason why is that it resulted in the blue brand overexposing Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, while Raw clearly had more overall star power, including the likes of Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman.
The return of Daniel Bryan has certainly helped SmackDown, but it's still rather obvious that WWE needs to shift some marquee names around to breathe new life into its feuds and storylines. While there is a plethora of Raw stars who would benefit from a move to SmackDown (and in turn, help out their new home as well), there is also plenty of stars from the blue brand who could reap the rewards of a shift to the red brand.
With the "Superstar Shakeup" set to take place on next week's editions of Raw and SmackDown, here are five major SmackDown superstars who should switch to Raw during WWE's version of the NFL Draft.
The Usos
Credit: WWE.com
The New Day and the Usos are in a league of their own in WWE's tag team division, which is exactly why they should be on separate shows.
The two star-studded tag teams have carried SmackDown's tag team scene for much of the last year (and feuded on and off for most of it), and the Usos have excelled so much over that span that Paul Heyman has said they could eventually go down as the best tag team in WWE history. That's high praise from Heyman, who recognizes just how innovative the Usos have been, especially over the past year or two when their unique and creative promos have made them one of WWE's most popular acts.
In 2014, the Usos cemented themselves as top merchandise movers, but fell off for a couple of years before recent reestablishing themselves as elite merchandise movers once again, a true testament to their ability to adapt and refresh their characters. With The New Day also ranking among WWE's best merchandise sellers and WWE's tag team division not really having enough overall depth to keep both tag teams on the same show, the smart move is to ship the Usos over to Raw because they've spent the last two years on SmackDown and have nothing left to do there.
Raw's tag team division desperately needs a consistent tag team beyond The Bar, and the Usos would undoubtedly give it one. Plus, with the call-up of the Authors of Pain as well as Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt forming a new tag team, the red brand's once woeful tag team division could suddenly be a bright spot on Monday nights.
Rusev
Credit: WWE.com
One of the worst things about SmackDown being two hours is that, with such a limited amount of TV time, many superstars are consistently left off the show no matter how talented or popular they might be.
That applies to guys like Tye Dillinger and Chad Gable, but is perfectly personified by Rusev, who has been generating some of the best reactions in WWE for several months but only recently got a consistent spot on TV and even reportedly asked to be release because he was frustrated with his lack of TV time. Although Rusev challenged for the United States Championship at WrestleMania 34, he got pinned in that bout after he spent multiple months being left without a substantial storyline on SmackDown, despite the fact that he had become WWE's hottest merchandise seller.
While Rusev's impressive merchandise sales reportedly helped him earn his way into that US title match at WrestleMania 34, the questionable and inconsistent booking of his character on SmackDown doesn't exactly instill a lot of faith in fans about that push continuing for the long haul. After all, Rusev was reportedly was supposed to get the push that Jinder Mahal got last year, and the fact that Mahal held the title for roughly half a year while Rusev toiled away in No Man's Land suggests that Rusev may be better off on Raw.
There is no guarantee of a sustained push for Rusev on the red brand either, but with an extra hour of TV time each week, that makes it much more likely that Rusev has a consistent presence on TV. And of course, you have to be on TV to get a push, which is exactly what Rusev deserves given his undeniable and very organic popularity.
">WWE needs to make a number of drastic changes to restore the balance between Raw and SmackDown.
Credit: WWE.com
Last year's "Superstar Shakeup," though it accomplished WWE's goal of temporarily increasing TV viewership, was widely seen as a big swing and a miss by WWE. It was then that the company ripped SmackDown of much of its core, including Dean Ambrose, The Miz, Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss, which was detrimental to the quality of the show's programming. The main reason why is that it resulted in the blue brand overexposing Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, while Raw clearly had more overall star power, including the likes of Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman.
The return of Daniel Bryan has certainly helped SmackDown, but it's still rather obvious that WWE needs to shift some marquee names around to breathe new life into its feuds and storylines. While there is a plethora of Raw stars who would benefit from a move to SmackDown (and in turn, help out their new home as well), there is also plenty of stars from the blue brand who could reap the rewards of a shift to the red brand.
With the "Superstar Shakeup" set to take place on next week's editions of Raw and SmackDown, here are five major SmackDown superstars who should switch to Raw during WWE's version of the NFL Draft.
The Usos
Credit: WWE.com
The New Day and the Usos are in a league of their own in WWE's tag team division, which is exactly why they should be on separate shows.
The two star-studded tag teams have carried SmackDown's tag team scene for much of the last year (and feuded on and off for most of it), and the Usos have excelled so much over that span that Paul Heyman has said they could eventually go down as the best tag team in WWE history. That's high praise from Heyman, who recognizes just how innovative the Usos have been, especially over the past year or two when their unique and creative promos have made them one of WWE's most popular acts.
In 2014, the Usos cemented themselves as top merchandise movers, but fell off for a couple of years before recent reestablishing themselves as elite merchandise movers once again, a true testament to their ability to adapt and refresh their characters. With The New Day also ranking among WWE's best merchandise sellers and WWE's tag team division not really having enough overall depth to keep both tag teams on the same show, the smart move is to ship the Usos over to Raw because they've spent the last two years on SmackDown and have nothing left to do there.
Raw's tag team division desperately needs a consistent tag team beyond The Bar, and the Usos would undoubtedly give it one. Plus, with the call-up of the Authors of Pain as well as Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt forming a new tag team, the red brand's once woeful tag team division could suddenly be a bright spot on Monday nights.
Rusev
Credit: WWE.com
One of the worst things about SmackDown being two hours is that, with such a limited amount of TV time, many superstars are consistently left off the show no matter how talented or popular they might be.
That applies to guys like Tye Dillinger and Chad Gable, but is perfectly personified by Rusev, who has been generating some of the best reactions in WWE for several months but only recently got a consistent spot on TV and even reportedly asked to be release because he was frustrated with his lack of TV time. Although Rusev challenged for the United States Championship at WrestleMania 34, he got pinned in that bout after he spent multiple months being left without a substantial storyline on SmackDown, despite the fact that he had become WWE's hottest merchandise seller.
While Rusev's impressive merchandise sales reportedly helped him earn his way into that US title match at WrestleMania 34, the questionable and inconsistent booking of his character on SmackDown doesn't exactly instill a lot of faith in fans about that push continuing for the long haul. After all, Rusev was reportedly was supposed to get the push that Jinder Mahal got last year, and the fact that Mahal held the title for roughly half a year while Rusev toiled away in No Man's Land suggests that Rusev may be better off on Raw.
There is no guarantee of a sustained push for Rusev on the red brand either, but with an extra hour of TV time each week, that makes it much more likely that Rusev has a consistent presence on TV. And of course, you have to be on TV to get a push, which is exactly what Rusev deserves given his undeniable and very organic popularity.
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