WWE Superstar Shake-Up: Grading Every Superstar’s Outcome From 2018
With the annual WWE Superstar Shake-Up starting tonight on WWE Raw, let’s look back at last year’s Shake-Up to see how everyone fared. There’s no doubt that, over the last year, there have been some clear winners and losers.
Last year we saw the second-ever WWE Superstar Shake-Up, which has essentially become a new form of the WWE Draft. Rather than a traditional draft format that sees the leaders of each brand make specific moves and picks, the WWE Superstar Shake-Up takes on a more fluid shape and gives us surprises every time a move is revealed.
The first WWE Superstar Shake-Up took place in 2017, seeing big moves like Alexa Bliss and Dean Ambrose moving to WWE Raw or Charlotte Flair and Jinder Mahal moving to SmackDown Live. Some superstars fared better than others, and that trend continued over the last year.
Whether swapped between brands or moved up from NXT, the Superstar Shake-Up saw several big changes that had a direct impact on the years of WWE Raw and SmackDown Live‘s male and female superstars. To start, let’s see how last year’s NXT call-ups fared.
Drew McIntyre from NXT to Raw
Easily the most successful call-up from last year’s WWE Superstar Shake-Up, Drew McIntyre made his triumphant return to the main roster after a dominant run in NXT that included a reign as NXT Champion. Once back on WWE Raw, McIntyre joined forces with Dolph Ziggler and the duo became a force to be reckoned with.
The duo captured the Raw Tag Team Titles in September, holding them for over a month before falling to Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. Since that loss, McIntyre has also been in notable feuds with every member of The Shield, including a losing effort against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 35.
Grade: A-, Despite a few lulls over the last year, and some haphazard booking at times, Drew McIntyre’s time has been relatively successful. Along with his tag title reign, McIntyre has become a significant threat as a singles star, and his stock is definitely up compared to his main roster debut.
SAnitY from NXT to SmackDown Live
During their time in NXT, SAnitY became one of the most threatening and unpredictable factions the brand had ever seen. When you consider the legacies of groups like Authors of Pain and The Wyatt Family, that’s no small task. Unfortunately, their trademarked brand of chaos came to a screeching halt once SAnitY got to the main roster.
In their scarce appearances, perhaps the only dominant one saw SAnitY defeat The New Day in a six-man tag team tables match at Extreme Rules. They went relatively unused in the months following that, recently resurfacing on SmackDown as minions of Shane McMahon only to lose a 3-on-1 Handicap Falls Count Anywhere Match against The Miz.
Grade: D-, Just barely avoid an F due to a strong start, but they’ve become completely irrelevant in recent months and have lost most of the intrigue the group once had.