With WrestleMania right around the corner, which superstars will be finding themselves in a new home once the dust has settled on the event?
WrestleMania 35 is now just a little less than a month away, and with Fastlane now in the history books, the WWE Universe can finally turn their full attention towards the event.
The show, in many ways, is seen as the end of the year from a narrative perspective for the WWE, and the company often take the opportunity to reshuffle the pack and reboot their rosters immediately following the event, creating plenty of mouth-watering new feuds and building up new superstars in the process.
The company’s annual post-WrestleMania Superstar Shake-Up is often one of the most interesting nights of the year, and often provides fans with an interesting insight into what exactly the WWE has planned for the months following WrestleMania.
With such a huge collection of talent to choose from, including those working in the WWE’s ‘developmental’ brands- NXT and NXT: UK, the company could decide to change the whole landscape of the company once the dust has settled in New Jersey on April 7th.
With that in mind, let’s take a (rather optimistic) look at which superstars could be finding themselves in a new home when this year’s Superstar Shake-Up rolls around.
5: The Revival- Raw to SmackDown
The Revival may have finally gotten their hands on the Raw Tag Team Titles last month, but one good moment doesn’t undo nearly two years of horrendous booking for the former NXT Tag Team Champions.
The group has been largely treated like a joke since they made their main roster debut, and while it’s nice to see them holding the gold on Raw right now, the fact that the belts have changed hands so much and become so irrelevant in recent months has done nothing but tarnish their victory. Their recent feud with Aleister Black and Ricochet has helped elevate the belts a little over the last few weeks, but given the company’s track record with recent call-ups, there is every chance it will fizzle out very quickly.
What the group need now is a fresh start, and providing they stay signed with the WWE, the Superstar Shake-Up is the perfect opportunity for that.
SmackDown will present the team with a chance to reinvent themselves and will also provide them with fresh match-ups against the likes of The Bar, Sanity, The Usos, and The New Day.
The Revival have the potential to be the best tag-team in the entire WWE, and unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen while they are competing on Monday nights.
4: AJ Styles- SmackDown to Raw
AJ Styles moving from SmackDown to Raw feels inevitable at this point, and with Monday nights lacking in any clear stars right now, there has never been a better time than after this year’s WrestleMania.
Styles has achieved everything there is to achieve on SmackDown Live, and while he is arguably the face of the brand, and a move to Raw could damage SmackDown, there is also the risk of Styles simply becoming stale on Tuesday nights.
Moving to Raw will give Styles the chance to engage in exciting new feuds with the likes of Seth Rollins, Finn Balor and plenty of others, and could also keep rumours of an eventual move to AEW at bay.
The fact of the matter is that Styles is not getting any younger, and the WWE needs to capitalise on his star power while they still can. With AEW sniffing around and Raw’s ratings, and overall quality, dropping by the week, Styles is exactly what the brand needs to revitalise itself right now.
With Rollins on top, and Styles and Balor chasing the title, while the likes of Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman bring some power to the table, Raw can finally begin to establish the main-event scene it has been in desperate need of for so long.
There is also the possibility of a mouth-watering rematch with Brock Lesnar if the current Universal Champion decides to stick with the company after WrestleMania 35.
3: Sami Zayn- Raw to SmackDown
Sometimes, you shouldn’t always get what you want.
Back in 2016, fans were desperate to see Sami Zayn’s character get some kind of reboot. He had become lost in the shuffle and was quickly becoming an afterthought in the eyes of the WWE Universe.
While his initial heel turn and run with Kevin Owens showed plenty of promise, he quickly became nothing more than a pawn in the infamously confusing feud between Owens, McMahon and Daniel Bryan, and was quickly moved over to Raw just after WrestleMania 34.
Sadly for Zayn and his fans, it was all downhill from there. Zayn ended up in one of the worst feuds of 2018 with Bobby Lashley and was quickly made it into a joke on Monday nights.
Zayn has been injured since mid-way through last year, and when he does finally return, the WWE needs to take that opportunity to refresh his character once again. A return to Tuesday nights could provide him with that opportunity.
The landscape of SmackDown has changed quite a bit from the one that Zayn left after Mania 34, with the main-event now being dominated by smaller, more talented performers.
The recent rise in popularity of Kofi Kingston and Mustafa Ali is a testament to this, and Sami Zayn could finally get a chance to fulfil his potential on the main roster if he were booked in a similar way to those two.
2: Walter- NXT:UK- SmackDown
Okay, so admittedly, this one is much more in hope than expectation, especially given the way that the WWE has treated called up talent in recent years.
The WWE’s roster has never been deeper than it is right now, and the company has not only NXT to dip into to help fill out their main roster, but it now also has NXT: UK.
Walter, who is set to challenge Pete Dunne at NXT Takeover: New York for the WWE United Kingdom Championship, is one of the biggest talents in the company’s UK brand, and it is surely only a matter of time before he breaks away from there and ends up on the main roster.
Having Walter debut on SmackDown after WrestleMania and destroy someone like Mustafa Ali or Kofi Kingston would instantly establish him as a force to be reckoned with on the big stage, and he could easily end up being the blue brand’s answer to the likes of Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar.
Of course, Walter is likely to dethrone Pete Dunne in Brooklyn on April 5th and that will guarantee that he won’t be making a move up to the main roster anytime soon, but it’s nice to dream from time to time.
1: Ronda Rousey- Raw to SmackDown
Ronda Rousey’s status with the WWE post WrestleMania is currently unknown. There have been rumours that suggest that the current Raw Women’s Champion is on her way out of the company after the event, but there has been nothing concrete released from the WWE.
Given the fact that the company has seen ratings stagnate in recent months, and that the company’s upcoming partnership with Fox Sports is on the horizon, they are likely going to try and do everything they can to their hands on one of their star attractions.
With Brock Lesnar not likely to stick around, and appearances from John Cena becoming less and less frequent, the company will need a big star present on Tuesday nights and fewer superstars fit that bill more than Ronda Rousey.
Rousey has had one of the most incredible rookie years in the history of the WWE, and a run on SmackDown would provide her with plenty of fresh faces to square off with.
A match between Ronda Rousey and Asuka is a mouthwatering prospect, while a prolonged one on one feud with Charlotte Flair while Becky Lynch runs riot on Raw could easily lead to the two women making history again and headlining SummerSlam.