Phase One Of The WWE's Superstar Shakeup Is Complete

Last night was our first “Superstar Shakeup” since the 2016 Brand Split, and to be honest, it was confusing as fuck. When Vince McMahon announced it last week, it sounded like Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan would be making trades and deals on screen, swapping a few members of their respective rosters. Instead, all “trades” (I don’t know if they’re straight trades or what) happened before the show went live, and Daniel Bryan was nowhere to be found. As the episode went on, multiple members of the SmackDown Live roster appeared and are now members of the RAW roster without explanation. Tonight on SmackDown, I assume the same will happen vice versa.

Here’s all of the SmackDown Live superstars that made the jump to the red team last night:

-Apollo Crews
-Miz/Maryse
-Dean Ambrose
-Curt Hawkins
-Bray Wyatt
-Kalisto
-Rhyno/Slater

And for your weekly recap…

The Miz and Maryse carried over their John Cena/Nikki Bella cosplay to Monday nights to open the show, which set a weird tone right away. Like I mentioned, there was no real explanation given as to why they were suddenly on this brand, other than a SHAKE UP™!

Dean Ambrose interrupted, did his WWE style comedy (mistaking the duo for the real Cena/Nikki), and gave Miz the Dirty Deeds. This bothered me, because Daniel Bryan should not be trading away his Intercontinental Champion in kayfabe. Unless he’s locked down SmackDown Live contracts for both Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, he’s an incompetent General Manager trading away his midcard title.

The New Day received a rematch against The Revival, and once again, it was awesome. Kofi Kingston was out with a “broken ankle” after Dash and Dawson hit him with the chair gimmick last week, which was a great decision for everyone. Revival gets over as killer heels, Kofi is set up for a triumphant return, and Xavier Woods gets ring time.

The finish of the match was a BRUTAL Shatter Machine out of nowhere, and it popped me huge.

I understand the Curt Hawkins gimmick, but I’m not sure what the point of moving him to RAW is if he’s going to job to The Big Show right away. This almost seemed like a segment to fill time, and do nothing else.

TJ Perkins vs Austin Aries was an enjoyable TV match between two very unlikable characters. This was the first Aries match other than the Mania one against Neville I’ve liked since his move to WWE. TJP turned heel after the match, and it predictably didn’t hit too many heartstrings, because Aries puts off a heel vibe so often it’s hard to feel sympathy for him.

Seth Rollins was out to cut a promo, where he just wanted to thank the crowd and tell us how much we mean to him and how much he loves Monday Night RAW! Like all Seth Rollins babyface promos, this was, ahem, actually bad. General Manager Kurt Angle came down the ring to let Seth know that he can’t control what Stephanie does, but if it’s up to him, Rollins will stay on RAW. Much like the Curt Hawkins segment, this felt more like a time killer than anything, until Samoa Joe ambushed the Architect. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole show, just because seeing Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle in a WWE ring together was surreal. They had some BANGERS in TNA.

Also, Angle not knowing what to do with the brawl was hilarious…

Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax’s match was clunky, and it was clear that Charlotte was desperately trying to carry Nia, but it was still pretty good. A few moments did make me worry about Nia being a danger to her opponents for real, because she’s still very green.

Charlotte going all out, doing the top rope moonsault to the floor, letting Jax kick out of the Natural Selection, and putting Nia over means this was most likely her RAW sendoff, and the Queen will be on the Blue Team tomorrow.

This was kind of strange! For a guy who won a fatal four way and defeated Roman Reigns clean in his first night on RAW, Finn Bálor sure had some difficultly putting Jinder Mahal away.

Jinder was unnecessarily stiff the entire match, and really banged Bálor up.

Bray Wyatt appeared on the titantron after the match, to set up another ~SPOOKY~ feud with a Demon! Again, what is the kayfabe logic behind Daniel Bryan trading away someone who has a WWE Championship match in the next month? He is now running the risk of losing both men’s singles championships in one night.

Anyway, I was hoping Finn would get the call to SmackDown Live tomorrow, but after this, it seems he’s on RAW to stay.

This was a really fun tag clusterfuck! The Hardy Boyz on RAW are such a great addition, and Matt seemed particularly BROKEN last night. When The Dudley Boyz came back in 2015, it was a little deflating, because their matches just weren’t up to par. This is already the opposite. Matt and Jeff can have a 7 minute match every night where they just do the greatest hits and I’ll never get tired of it as long as the crowd reacts.

The highlight of RAW, far and away, was this segment…

I wrote an entire blog on this last night (click here), so for this blog, I’ll just say:

BRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.

Alexa Bliss and Mickie James debuted on RAW, so RIP to the classic “Daniel Bryan Is A Dad” segments.

I’m VERY excited to see the Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss interactions going forward, because there’s legitimate heat between the two.

Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose closed the show in a fine Champion vs Champion match, which Owens lost clean. This, and the fact that the Intercontinental Championship is now on RAW should tell you Owens is about to be a Tuesday guy. Jericho got revenge for the beatdown last week, and the show faded to black. I was relived when it did, because I was petrified that AJ Styles was going to RAW.

After RAW went off the air, this video was published on WWE’s social media pages:

I’m gonna be honest, weird look. Not sure who thought this one through, but it’s pretty transparent what they are doing by swapping Byron Saxton and David Otunga.

My predictions for the wrestlers SmackDown will acquire tonight are:

-Seth Rollins
-The New Day
-Enzo and Cass
-Kevin Owens
-Sami Zayn
-Charlotte
-Rusev/Lana

And I’d hope many more, because their roster was stretched thin last night. We’ll see!