The Raw and SmackDown Live shows presented after WrestleMania 33 were certainly newsworthy.
2017 Hall of Fame Inductee Kurt Angle has been named the new GM of Raw. NXT’s The Revival, Shinsuke Nakamura and Tye Dillinger have all been called up to the main roster. Finn Balor and Emma are back on the road and in good health. But the biggest news of all was Vince McMahon’s announcement of a Superstar Shakeup. Both the Raw and SD Live rosters will get changed around and hopefully give some of WWE’s more slept on talents a new lease on life. WWE’s best male and female talents will find themselves on a new brand and continue the epic fallout from WrestleMania 33. After this week ends, the landscape of the WWE will look vastly different.
After witnessing the big 2017 Superstar Shakeup, we’re here to speak on how we think each Superstar’s career should now flourish.
Apollo Crews (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
WOW! So this roster move got announced out of nowhere before Raw even started. So here’s the thing – Apollo Crews is immensely talented in the ring. He can go with anyone who’s put up against him and it’s hard to root against such a fun-loving guy. But as far as his promos go and having an actual character trait we can all get behind, Crews is severely lacking in those areas. We hope his move over to Raw will provide him with the fire he needs to finally adopt some type of gimmick that backs up his amazing in-ring repertoire. We just want to see the man succeed since he’s so fun to watch perform. Of course, he’ll move around the mid-card ranks and vie for the United States Championship. But that’s not all he should be doing on the Raw Brand. Crews needs a good feud to sink his teeth into to really take advantage of this big move. Crews vs. Samoa Joe could be just what the doctor ordered. We’re dying to see Crews ditch that smile and become a bit more hard-edged.
The Miz & Maryse (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
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SmackDown Live’s It Couple are now back on Monday Nights! The Miz’s run on the Blue Brand managed to breath new life into his career. His feud against Dolph Ziggler, entertaining IC Championship reign and duo comedy relief routine with his wife Maryse have all done wonders for him. So now that The Miz and Maryse are as hot as they’ve ever been, they can take their act to Raw and make it even more amazing. We’re more interested in him going back and forth on the mic with Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Enzo Amore and some of the other top talkers on Raw. The Miz will stick to the midcard as usual, so it’ll be more of the same when you really think about it. That’s fine, though. Hope we get a few more John Cena and Nikki Bella skits, though.
Dean Ambrose (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
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With this move being made, we now get to see the IC Championship switch brands. Dean Ambrose took a big loss from his rival Baron Corbin (who we hoped would have followed him to Raw), but it looks as if he’s onto some fresher opponents. Ambrose as the loose cannon should mesh well with some of the other hot heads on the roster. Ambrose can mix it up with Rollins and Reigns once again, but we’d like to see him get into some new feuds with Finn Balor, Jeff Hardy, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe etc. Dean’s done everything there is to do on SD Live, so this unexpected switch is one of the better ones. Hopefully he gets another run at the top, but we doubt that’ll happen while Lesnar’s still holding onto that Universal Championship. Ambrose can go up and down the card at will and still maintain a fan base, so he should be OK on Raw.
Curt Hawkins (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
Another meaningless jobber to the stars? Check. He’s going to play that same role on Raw so…yeah. We’re sure him and the rest of Raw’s C-Team will become the best of friends during their many future appearances on WWE Main Event.
Bray Wyatt (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
Now this was shocking! Bray’s still in the middle of his epic grudge with Randy Orton. Aren’t they supposed to have some type of House of Horrors match for the WWE Championship? That’ll probably still go down at Extreme Rules, but who knows at this point. Anyways, our fantasy booking has already come true. Bray Wyatt aimed his sights on Finn Balor and we know where this gonna go. “The Eater of Worlds” will engage in tons of mental mind games with Balor and his more demonic side. We’re so ready for that to go down a deep, dark road with the both of ’em speaking in cryptic tones.
Kalisto (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
Guess who’s going to the Cruiserweight Division? This moves makes all the sense in the world, doesn’t it? Kalisto was floundering on SD Live anyways. Entering the purple squared circle and fighting for the Cruiserweight Championship is the perfect scenario for the lil’ “Lucha Dragon.”
Heath Slater & Rhyno (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
Are we gonna get a 2-Man Band Reunion? Oh wait…Jinder Mahal kicked him square in the face without a care in the world. Heath Slater’s turned into one of the more over talents on the roster due to his hijinks with Rhyno. We don’t see that same magic blossoming over on the Raw side of things, though. Slater seems more slated to get caught up in some random lower-card beefs and Main Event matches. Rhyno’s the wily veteran who’ll do the same, we think. A heel turn can give “The Man Beast” something to really sink his teeth into during this final leg of his hardcore career. But we have a feeling they’ll start tagging during the start of their brand move, then transition into their proposes singles positions when it’s all said and done.
Elias Samson (From NXT to Raw)
“The Drifter” has made his way onto Raw. Corey Graves threw up in his mouth a little bit. We can’t even front – we know the guy’s not all that intriguing on the mic or phenomenal between the ropes. But even still, Elias doesn’t annoy us as much cause we simply appreciate a guy who fully embraces his act. Truth be told though, he’s not going to do much on Raw except participate in backstage skits and get squashed by higher-tier midcard talent. If he lasts past the summer time, we’ll be shocked though. Elias seems like the type of talent who’ll pop up on an annual WWE release list. We hope the best for the guy, but we’re not gonna get our hopes up too much.
Alexa Bliss (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
MISS BLISS! We love her. Like, purely fascinated by her and her many GIF worthy facial expressions. She had a pretty tight partnership with Mickie James back on SD Live. That’s been broken in half, so now we think Bliss would be better off aligning herself with Nia Jax. A conniving Bliss who’s always one step behind the behemoth that is Miss Jax could be fun to watch. Bliss did a great job of solidifying the reputation of the SD Live Women’s Championship. Now we’re ready to see her mix it up on Raw with Bayley, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Emma and more.
Mickie James (From SmackDown Live to Raw)
Mickie James, huh? Looks like she’ll fit right back into her position as the cagey veteran who mixes it up with the younger ladies. The old lioness who can still put on a good match or two? Yep, that’s Mickie’s Raw role in a nutshell.
David Otunga (From Raw to SmackDown Live)
We usually tune him out when he’s commentating on SmackDown Live. We’re going to do the exact same thing now that he’s on Raw. Thanks for making Raw’s commentary team somewhat salvageable, Corey Graves.
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.
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