Byron Saxton (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
What. A. Downgrade. We went from the super energetic, catchphrase machine that is Mauro Ranallo to the the weakest voice from Raw’s 3-man booth. Sigh…
Kevin Owens (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
“The Kevin Owens Show” just went from red to blue. It’s great so see Mr. Owens hop over to SD Live since there’s a great amount of interesting challengers for him to contend with. Owens will provide the same great match quality he displayed against Raw’s Superstars when he takes on guys like Shinsuke Nakamura, Tye Dillinger, Randy Orton etc. Owens is ready made to bask in the midcard for a while, but we think his chances of getting a WWE Championship run are pretty high. It won’t happen for a good while, but Owens will eventually make his way up to SD Live’s #1 championship. Owens is the most exciting roster pickup for Raw because he has the potential to rebuild his heel act even more after a disappointing WWE Universal Championship run. Hopefully by SummerSlam this becomes a thing.
Sami Zayn (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
Zayn is going to thrive on SD Live! Trust us on that. On Raw, he was mostly used as cannon fodder for the much bigger men and rarely got the bigger wins he deserved. SD Live gave 2nd chances to guys who probably wouldn’t have been as hot as they ended up being if the rosters weren’t split. Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Bray Wyatt etc. realized their full potential on SD Live. Zayn can do the same. He’s a guy that we think’s slated to take on SD Live’s midcard competition and enjoy a run with the US Championship. He’ll rekindle his never ending war with Owens of course, but you should also expect to see him compete in 5-star affairs with AJ, Orton, Nakamura, Orton etc. If they build him up correctly, he could pull off the same main event feats Daniel Bryan did during his climb to the top. Sami Zayn as DB 2.0 may finally come to fruition on the Blue Brand. Zayn vs. Owens for the WWE Championship? Hey, it has a better chance of happening now!
The Shining Stars (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
Epico and Primo can wrestle their asses off, but their Puerto Rico booking agents act does nothing for us. It’ll continue to do nothing now that their on SD Live. They’ll just get fed to more over teams like American Alpha and The Usos anyways.
Jinder Mahal (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
Now that Curt Hawkins is gone, SD Live needs someone to fill their “Jobber to the Stars” position. Enter Jinder Mahal!
Tamina (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
Whoa! Where’s she been at? Well, we’re actually happy to see her back. Naomi’s the SD Live Women’s Champ and a former ally of Tamina, so we get the feeling they’ll be going at it soon. Other than that, Tamina looks like she’ll be slotted into the lower portion of the Blue Brand’s Women’s Division.
Charlotte (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
This move was a forgone conclusion. After getting handily defeated by Nia Jax, we got the feeling that that loss was meant to send her off to newer pastures. Charlotte excelled on Raw and now we can’t wait to see her lock up with Naomi, Tamina, Becky Lynch and the rest of the female competition. She reigned as the #1 female competitor on Raw and she’ll do the same on SD Live.
Sin Cara (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
Him and Jinder Mahal are gonna be looking up at the lights a lot cause their pure jobber fare.
Rusev & Lana (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
YES! This is one of the Superstar Shakedown roster moves we were banking on seeing the most. Rusev has done NOTHING since the latest brand split kicked in. When he got the chance to do anything on TV, he got to tap into his more humorous side with Jinder Mahal and Lana by his side. “Handsome Rusev” was a guilty pleasure of ours. But enough of the funny, ha-ha Rusev. SD Live is where Rusev could return to the unbeatable Russian beast run he experienced before he took that loss to Cena at ‘Mania 31. He didn’t really get the chance to lock up with some of Raw’s better talents, but now he has the chance to do so on SD Live (him vs. Kevin Owens has us excited). Rusev is so slept on, it’s not even funny. The dude can put on a solid match against Superstars of any and all sizes. We’d like to see him get another strong US Championship run and increase his stock by having great matches with AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Luke Harper etc. SD Live could bring us back to the dominating age of Rusev circa 2015.
The New Day (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
After getting thrashed by The Revival, it was pretty evident that The New Day were on their way out of the Raw tag team division. Kofi’s gonna be out of the picture for a while due to being injured and having surgery. To be quite honest, The New Day act has grown a bit stale. We think it’ll be cool to see it still live on for a while, but SD Live should be the brand where they finally break up. Out of the entire stable, Big E has the most promise when it comes to experiencing a nice singles run. Let Big E get back to his 5-count gimmick, ditch his happy-go-lucky crew members behind and allow his new home to build him into a top solo title contender.