WWE Raw: Still The Better Show After Superstar Shake-up

After the Superstar Shake-up, SmackDown Live ended up with one of the best talent rosters in all of wrestling. But will that translate into more success than WWE Raw? Maybe not.

This past week, WWE once again made some changes to the talent rosters for all brands. The Superstar Shake-up resulted in WWE Raw, SmackDown Live, and NXT sending superstars packing to another show. And while everyone has their own thoughts as to who made out the best, most fans are of the opinion that SmackDown was the clear winner of the event.

But just because the Blue Team has assembled one of the greatest talent rosters in recent memory, it doesn’t mean they’ll have the better show. Sure, on paper there’s no denying the amount of top tier superstars they’ve put on one show. AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, The Usos, Charlotte Flair, and Shinsuke Nakamura are now joined by Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy, Asuka, The Miz, Andrade Almas, SAnitY, and Cesaro & Sheamus. How could it not outperform Raw?

Simple: As far as anyone can tell, the brands all still have the creative teams in charge behind the scenes. And it doesn’t matter what kind of talent you have in front of the camera if the crew behind the lens doesn’t maximize their potential. Time and time again, great rosters have been squandered by poor booking and uninteresting storylines.

Take WCW towards the end of its run. Despite having numerous talented wrestlers on the roster, the convoluted storylines and insistent focus on the nWo — long past its prime as a top stable — resulted in poor television. Meanwhile, Vince McMahon and company got every last ounce of potential out of its roster, and better (comparatively) stories unified the show. We could be seeing the same thing now, albeit within the same company.

Remember, for the past year or so, SmackDown has had a rough go of it creatively. And even before the Superstar Shake-up, Styles, Nakamura, and The Usos were around on Tuesday nights. But how much compelling storytelling has come out of it? 90% of the programming was centered around Shane McMahon being a big old jerk to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, a pair of big old jerks.

That same story sucked in AJ Styles on more than one occasion: first when he was US Champion, and again while he was WWE Champion. Over the same time period, there wasn’t really a single compelling story in the women’s division outside the first Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match. And even that wasn’t really a story, until the match was won by a dude. In fact, the most interesting thing to come out of SmackDown in the past year or so has been Fashion Files.

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Meanwhile, Raw has quietly been better (again, comparatively) in the storytelling department. The Ronda Rousey debut, aside from possibly overshadowing the Women’s Royal Rumble Match, was pretty well done. Braun Strowman has taken everything he’s been given and killed it. Pre-WrestleMania, Roman Reigns was booked strong in a believable way, and his promos actually helped his character. And the Woken Universe has done well, as has (almost) anything involving Seth Rollins.

So even though the loss of Samoa Joe, Asuka, The Bar, and Jeff Hardy were coupled with the additions of Zack Ryder, Mojo Rawley, and Baron Corbin, there’s still plenty of good talent on Raw. Bobby Roode came over — maybe escaping the SmackDown creative rut will be the jolt his career needs to pick up some steam. Bobby Lashley returned, which should provide some exciting matches in the foreseeable future. And sure, the tag team division might be in trouble, but the last time that happened we saw the birth of Cesaro and Sheamus as a team, and that’s worked out pretty well. Maybe lemons can become lemonade once again, maybe even with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn could be a shot in the arm of the tag division if that’s the direction WWE wants to go.

Of course, for all I know, maybe the Shake-up affected more than just on-screen talent. Commentary teams have been switched up in the past, so why not writing crews? But my gut tells me that this was basically everyone backstage getting new toys to play with, so I’d wager that all the writing teams are still intact. Can SmackDown come up with more compelling storylines? Is the roster good enough to overcome any writing faults?

Next: Grading Each Brand After The Superstar Shake-up

Time will tell with all this. But don’t be surprised if by next year’s Superstar Shake-up, WWE Raw is still the better of the main roster shows. And then we can have this same conversation again…