Backstage Creative Reason Behind Sami Zayn & LA Knight’s WWE Brand Switch
Sami Zayn and LA Knight were essentially traded for eachother, even though WWE doesn’t try to explain these things to the audience.
The WWE brand split exists because it is the company’s way of making wrestlers feel more special by making them exclusive to either Raw or SmackDown. It is something that WWE has done for most of the last 23 years since the first brand split happened in 2002.
While WWE hasn’t had a “Draft” in more than a year, they do move wrestlers around to different rosters sometimes. They also don’t strictly enforce the brand-exclusive rules. There are occasions where WWE actually announces trades, but most of the time, it’s simply a case of a wrestler joining SmackDown or joining Raw.
Two recent examples of WWE moves are LA Knight going to Raw to feud with Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn going to SmackDown to feud with Solo Sikoa.
According to Fightful Select, Knight to Raw and Zayn to SmackDown were essentially traded for eachother to freshen up the babyface rosters on Raw and SmackDown. Zayn is a former Intercontinental Champion, and Knight is a former US Champion, so both guys are around the same level in terms of their place on the roster. Fightful added that WWE could acknowledge the “trade” on commentary, but it really hasn’t been addressed formally.
LA Knight is already in the World Heavyweight Title scene on Raw, since he has challenged Rollins for the gold already. At WWE Clash in Paris on August 31st, Seth Rollins will defend the World Heavyweight Title against LA Knight, CM Punk, and Jey Uso in a match where Rollins could lose the title without being pinned.
Sami Zayn Challenging For US Title
During his ten-year run on the WWE main roster, Sami Zayn has won numerous titles, but he hasn’t been a World Champion or a United States Champion.
On the August 8th edition of WWE SmackDown, Sami Zayn made a surprise appearance and beat the US Champion Solo Sikoa in a non-title match. One week later, Zayn confirmed that he had been moved to SmackDown officially.
It has also been announced that Sami Zayn will challenge Solo Sikoa for the US Title on the August 29th edition of SmackDown in Lyon, France. It should be one of the loudest crowds of the year, and they will be strongly behind the French-speaking Zayn as he goes for championship gold.