WWE Superstar Shakeup Rumors: AJ Styles and The New Day Likely To Swap Shows
AJ Styles is apparently headed to Monday Night Raw and The New Day will switch over to SmackDown Live, according to the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer.
The newsletter also notes that AJ has no story at the moment (his presence on this past week’s SmackDown was kept to a minimum, simply burying the hatchet with Shane McMahon), and with the NXT call-up of Shinsuke Nakamura, the brand does have room to shuffle around a major superstar.
As for The New Day, from a writing and creative standpoint it is no surprise that WWE wouldn’t mind switching them over to help inject some life into the near comatose SmackDown tag division. Not to mention, they have feuded with literally everyone on Raw multiple times and held the championships for over a year.
It should also be a given that WWE will also want to make a change to both women divisions. Charlotte is most likely to make a switch going over to SmackDown, as she has accomplished everything that can be done on Raw and has no real story going forward. In her absence, Raw will most likely move forward with a Sasha Banks heel turn that allows her a lengthy feud with the current champion Bayley. Ideally, Raw would get a popular female superstar in return for fresh matchups, so I could see Becky Lynch or Alexa Bliss heading to Raw. Possibly Alexa considering she already got her championship rematch this week.
Roman Reigns, if you’re wondering, was originally going to Smackdown according to the Observer, but it’s expected that he’ll stay where he is on Raw.
Rob’s Hot-Take:
I’m all for the Superstar Shakeup and feel that the aforementioned moves will help refresh both brands. For a while, things really stagnated and got boring seeing the same matches every week. Also, if AJ Styles goes to Raw then we will get to eventually see him go one-on-one against Finn Balor, to which all I have to say is this:
Also, although it’s not likely because Kevin Owens is already scheduled to defend his US Championship against Chris Jericho at Payback, it would be hilarious to see Owens overjoyed to be traded and free from Sami Zayn, only for Sami to also get traded five minutes later.
Nevertheless, those are three fairly large rumored roster movements that will do wonders for each division. The Superstar Shakeup will unfold over the course of two nights, set for next week’s episodes of Raw and SmackDown.