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WWE has officially announced that the next WWE 'Superstar Shakeup' will take place just a couple of weeks after WrestleMania, on April 15th and 16th in Montreal. It will be the first time that a WWE draft has taken place outside the U.S.
The WWE Superstar Shakeup is generally a pretty exciting show to watch as it features superstars switching brands, and thus providing us with new fresh feuds and matches for RAW and SmackDown. And while it is exciting to see all of this play out, the aftermath doesn't always have the best results.
While some superstars, like John Cena going to RAW in 2005 and Randy Orton to SmackDown in 2011 are often the best decisions that could come out, there have also been some really bad roster switches that have nearly condemned a superstars career. So with that, I have decided to look back over the top 10 worst times that a superstar has been drafted from RAW to SmackDown, SmackDown to RAW, and even some to other brands too.
Note: I will not be ranking these superstars based on how big they and, I will only be including superstars who switched brands during the Draft lottery and Superstar Shakeup. NXT call-ups and roster jumps do not count here.
#10 Kurt Angle To ECW - 2006
Kurt Angle had a bit of a flip flop year right before he parted ways with WWE and joined up with TNA Wrestling in September 2006.
Kurt Angle was drafted from SmackDown to RAW in the summer of 2005 and spent about 6 months on the red brand before making a move back to SmackDown in January 2006. He would win the World Championship upon his return and drop it to Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 22, and would then feud with Mark Henry until his transfer to the newly revived ECW brand.
I think the best way to put his move to ECW was said by Jim Ross on TV, which was ''Kurt Angle in ECW is like feeding strawberries to a pig'', in other words, it just didn't make sense and was flat out weird. Angle moving to ECW made a little sense at the time because they needed some notable names for the debut of the show, but it still shouldn't have happened, in my opinion. While it is true that Kurt Angle left WWE regardless of where he was that September, I think SmackDown still needed him more at that time.
SmackDown was going through a rough patch at the time of Angle's transfer, as they were already very lite on big players. Batista was still injured, The Undertaker was just making appearances every other week, JBL had just retired, Randy Orton had been suspended and made his TV return on RAW, Chris Benoit was taking a several month leave of absence from TV and then World Champion Rey Mysterio had the worst booking a Heavyweight Champion ever had. So really, Angle's timing of leaving SmackDown came at the worst possible time.
#9 Chris Benoit To SmackDown - 2005
When Chris Benoit made his return to WWE SmackDown in 2005, he would spend the last two years of his life becoming a 3 time WWE United States Champion and had memorable feuds and matches with Booker T, Fit Finlay, MVP and others.
So looking at it that way, it seems like his transfer from RAW to SmackDown worked out pretty well. And while there have certainly been wort draft switches, as you will read here, this one still makes the list because it still was a step down from how the Rapid Wolverine had been treated on RAW.
After a great year and a half run on SmackDown the first time around from August 2002 until January 2004, which included some of the best matches of his career, occasional WWE Championship matches and along with Kurt Angle being the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions (the titles on RAW today), Chris Benoit won the 2004 Royal Rumble and jumped to RAW.
During his year and a half on RAW, Benoit would win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XX, frequently defeat Triple H and Shawn Michaels, beat other top RAW players like Chris Jericho, Edge, Kane and the other members of Evolution and remain the main event player until he was drafted. So while Benoit didn't have the worst treatment after returning 'home' to SmackDown, it was still a major step down from his status on RAW.
#8 Bobby Roode To RAW - 2018
Bobby Roode's underwhelming run on WWE's main roster has been talked to death about, but here's once more.
After incredible runs in Impact Wrestling and NXT, where he was a big star a Heavyweight Champion on both, Bobby Roode made his main roster debut on the post-SummerSlam episode of SmackDown in 2017. The naturally born to be a wrestling heel Roode would debut as a babyface, which totally killed his momentum. His run on SmackDown wasn't great, but he at least saw the main event from time to time, became WWE United States Champion and gave arguably his best overall WWE performance with Randy Orton at Fastlane.
The 'Glorious' one was drafted to RAW during the Superstar Shakeup after WrestleMania, and his career took a completely different turn. After a few months of a boring feud with Elias and next to no main show TV time, Roode formed an unusual tag team with Chad Gable. Surprisingly, the two became WWE RAW Tag Team Champions and held them for a few months before losing them to The Revival.
Now while his run on SmackDown was not Hall of Fame worthy, it was still far better than his run on RAW. I honestly think the only thing that can save him now is to turn heel and perhaps also return to SmackDown, where he has had far more success as a solo act.
#7 Matt Hardy To RAW - 2010
After years of being in his brother's shadow, Matt Hardy would turn heel on Jeff Hardy at the 2009 Royal Rumble and cost him the WWE Championship to Edge.
The turn took in a very mixed reaction from WWE fans, especially since most thought the then returning Christian would have been suited better for the role and due to the morbid and uncomfortable turn, the promos between Matt and Jeff took. After a couple of matches, Matt would be moved to RAW to help bring an end to the feud, but it would turn out to be a misstep.
Despite how uncomfortable the feud with Jeff was, Matt was still riding a wave of momentum thanks to some big wins over his brother. He was the new big heel in town, but WWE higher-ups still had their doubts about his star power. Matt's 'highlights' on his RAW return would be briefly pursuing the United States Championship and forming a brief tag team with William Regal. He then jumped back over to SmackDown in June and turned face.
His transfer to RAW was entirely wasted, pointless and it accomplished nothing.
#6 Heath Slater & Rhyno To RAW - 2017
When you think of the best WWE tag teams of all-time, you don't think of Heath Slater and Rhyno. Even so, the two formed a surprisingly entertaining team on SmackDown in 2016.
Even more surprisingly, the two would become the inaugural WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions at No Mercy that year, and although they lost the titles after just over two months, they would still remain in the challenger ranks until they were drafted to RAW on the post WrestleMania Superstar Shakeup.
Ever since they moved to RAW in these two years, they have done... Nothing. They challenged for the RAW Tag Team titles once or twice, other than that, have pretty much just been a jobber tag team. In fact, they even reached the point where they would already be in the ring after RAW comes back from commercials and wouldn't even get an introduction before another two-minute squash loss.
I don't know if they can be a credible team again, but on SmackDown at least, it's worth a shot.
#5 Edge To RAW - 2010
After just about three years of being the best reason to watch WWE SmackDown, Edge was drafted back to RAW in the 2010 Draft lottery.
At the time, it seemed like he had done all he could on the blue show, having been a 6 time World Champion on SmackDown before he left. Edge had returned from injury earlier in the year to win the Royal Rumble match and thus, turned face in the process. Before he did, Edge had been WWE's biggest and best heel for the previous 5 + years, but as he was cheered more and more every week even before his injury, it was time for a change.
Even though Edge had gotten over very well as a face, WWE still decided to turn him heel again upon his return to RAW. The turn quickly backfired and Edge would be highly cheered during his appearances every Monday night. Edge wouldn't get up to much during his RAW return, mainly having short feuds with Randy Orton and the Nexus.
The Rated R Superstar was traded back to SmackDown in October 2010, where he would spend the last few months of his in-ring WWE career as World Heavyweight Champion for the seventh time.
#4 Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson To SmackDown - 2018
Former Bullet Club members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson haven't had the big run that fans had hoped for when they came to WWE back in 2016.
They didn't start off too bad, reuniting with AJ Styles and aiding him in his feud with John Cena, before becoming WWE Tag Team Champions on the 2017 Royal Rumble pre-show... It has now been nearly two years since they lost the Tag titles, and they have done next to nothing ever since. The duo were doing so poorly on RAW, that many hoped they would get transferred over to SmackDown for a better run, and that is what happened... Well, the part about going to SmackDown at least.
Gallows and Anderson were drafted to SmackDown during the post-WrestleMania Superstar Shakeup last year and have done nothing ever since. At least when they were on RAW, they would occasionally show up on TV, but despite SmackDown having a smaller roster than RAW, they seem to be struggling to obtain TV time. They are arguably the most underused superstars in all of WWE today.
#3 Jinder Mahal To RAW - 2018
This would be a rather controversial one to have here, as Jinder Mahal does not have too many hardcore fans, but on a career highlight level, you could argue that he should be featured on the number one spot on this list.
Jinder Mahal was drafted from RAW to SmackDown in the 2017 Superstar Shakeup, and it was the best thing to ever happen in his career. After a few weeks of maintaining his jobber role, Mahal would surprisingly win a Six-Pack Challenge match to become number one contender to the WWE Championship, and even more surprisingly, would actually defeat Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at Backlash a few weeks later.
Jinder Mahal would be WWE Champion for 170 days, having successful Championship matches with Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura along the way, before finally losing the title to AJ Styles on SmackDown in Manchester that November. Following his loss, Jinder would remain in the spotlight and would become the WWE United States Champion at WrestleMania 34, before being drafted back to RAW on the post-WrestleMania Superstar Shakeup.
His career has taken a bit of a downward spiral since he returned to RAW. He lost his newly won United States Championship to Jeff Hardy during his first match back and ever since, has returned to his previous Man of Peace character, trying to get everyone to meditate along with him. I'm not saying I want Jinder to be WWE Champion today, but his run on RAW has been horrendous compared to SmackDown.
#2 Rob Van Dam To SmackDown - 2004
Rob Van Dam instantly became one of WWE's most popular superstars when he joined the company in 2001, despite being a heel.
RVD would be drafted to RAW during the original Brand Extension, becoming a top pick for RAW General Manager Ric Flair. He spent his first few months trading the Intercontinental Championship with Eddie Guerrero is a great series, and then feuded with Brock Lesnar and Chris Benoit, before challenging Triple H for the World Championship at Unforgiven 2002.
Now while things didn't go RVD's way at Unforgiven, he would still remain a prominent player on RAW throughout the rest of the year and all of 2003. Many often wondered during this time if he would do any better on SmackDown, as the 'wrestling show', seemed better suited for him. Many fans got their wish when RVD would be drafted to SmackDown during the 2004 Draft lottery.
As it turns out, RVD should have probably stayed on RAW. Rob didn't have many career highlights on the blue show as he mainly teamed with Rey Mysterio, where they would have a month-long reign as Tag Team Champions and would also occasionally challenge for the United States Championship. RVD went down with an injury at the end of the year, and returned to RAW in 2006, after being drafted back in 2005.
Overall, RVD's SmackDown run was overwhelmingly disappointing, he gave next to no memorable performances and suffered from poor booking decisions.
#1 Bray Wyatt To RAW - 2017
Where did it all go wrong for Bray Wyatt?
Much like the previously mentioned Bobby Roody, Bray Wyatt's disappointing main roster run in WWE is something that has been talked to death now, so I won't dwell on it, you know his story. But after years of poor booking decisions, it seemed like WWE were finally going to do something with him when, as a member of the Smackdown roster, Wyatt won his first Championship in WWE at the end of 2016 becoming a Tag Team Champion. He then did one better and became WWE Champion at the Elimination Chamber event in 2017.
It was well deserved, but many already saw where it was leading to, a title loss to Royal Rumble winner Randy Orton at WrestleMania, and it did. Following this, Wyatt would be drafted to RAW in the post-WrestleMania Superstar Shakeup, and it all went back to going downhill, and very fast. After a decent feud with Seth Rollins, Wyatt entered a weird and overly long feud with Finn Balor, which almost resulted in Wyatt performing in drag as Sister Abigail.
After this was thankfully avoided due to a minor injury for Wyatt, he returned for a feud with 'Woken' Matt Hardy, which ended in them becoming a Tag Team. WWE didn't really know where they were going with this apparently, and when Hardy had to take time off TV, Wyatt was removed as well. Despite being perfectly healthy, Bray Wyatt has been sitting at home for the past 7 months and counting, because WWE creative has nothing for him on RAW. He should have stayed on SmackDown to begin with.
