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Rumour has it that bitter enemies-turned-best friends Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn could be moving from SmackDown Live to Raw in the build-up to WrestleMania 34.
Storyline-wise, it’d definitely make sense – the reunited duo have been making Shane McMahon’s life a misery for the last couple of months – but losing two major stars to the opposing brand would leave SmackDown a little light on roster members.
Since the Superstar Shake-Up in April 2017, we’ve already seen Jason Jordan and Kane move from Team Blue to Team Red with nobody going in the other direction, so wouldn’t it be better for Shane and Daniel Bryan to negotiate a swap instead of letting two main-eventers leave for nothing?
In this article, we look at five Superstars whose careers could benefit from a move to the blue brand if Owens and Zayn return to Raw.
#1. Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt has been a regular presence on WWE programming ever since he debuted the character on the main roster in 2013. However, for the first time since his call-up from NXT, “The Eater of Worlds” doesn’t appear to figure into the company’s biggest plans ahead of WrestleMania.
Looking back at the last four WrestleMania events, Bray has faced John Cena, The Undertaker and Randy Orton in singles matches, and in 2016 he was originally supposed to take on Brock Lesnar but injury meant he had to settle for a segment with The Rock.
Of course, there is still plenty of time to kick-start a storyline before next year’s “Show of Shows”, but Bray’s character has been damaged to such an extent in 2017 that you wonder if he’ll have a featured match at all when WrestleMania 34 comes around.
The former WWE champion needs a career revival, as we previously outlined, and there are plenty of fresh rivalries he could have if he returned to SmackDown – Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode, for example – or perhaps he could reunite with former Wyatt Family members Harper and Rowan.
#2. Neville
Neville appeared to be gone from WWE when he was reported to have walked out of the company before an episode of Raw in October 2017. He was edited out of the 205 Live introduction video and his name hasn’t been mentioned on television since.
However, PW Insider has since claimed that the former Cruiserweight champion could make a shock comeback to WWE, perhaps even by the end of November, after holding positive talks with Vince McMahon about his future with the company.
If Neville does return, one imagines he will no longer be part of 205 Live, where he has nothing left to achieve after holding the show’s one and only title on two occasions. Instead, he would be much better suited to SmackDown Live.
The Newcastle-born high-flyer is one of the best in-ring performers in current-day WWE and, following his entertaining run as “The King of the Cruiserweights”, is also among the most charismatic. If given enough TV time, he would be an adequate replacement for Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and he could be one of the biggest stars on the blue brand.
#3. The Club
Okay, so this suggestion features two Superstars rather than one, but you can’t have Luke Gallows without Karl Anderson.
In a year where tag matches have often stolen the show on WWE pay-per-views, The Club haven’t been involved in a meaningful storyline since WrestleMania 33 and seemingly every week there is a new report that their future with the company is in doubt.
Given the way they’ve been booked in 2017, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Gallows and Anderson leave WWE in the not-too-distant future. However, assuming they remain with the company, the next logical step would be to move them to SmackDown Live.
If they’re not going to reunite with Finn Balor on Raw, which surely would’ve happened by now if it was ever in WWE’s plans, then it’d do their careers the world of good to reform an alliance with WWE champion AJ Styles on Team Blue.
#4. The Miz
The Miz has been one of WWE’s best performers over the last 18 months and, having teamed with Maryse to face John Cena and Nikki Bella at WrestleMania 33, he deserves to be involved in a featured match at “The Show of Shows” for the second year in a row.
“The A-Lister” recently lost his Intercontinental Championship to Roman Reigns and, given the high number of title changes we’ve seen in 2017, nobody would be surprised if he were to win it back from the Shield member at some point in the next few weeks.
If that doesn’t happen, then a return to SmackDown Live could be the best option. After all, as entertaining as The Miz is as a character, it’s been proven again and again throughout his career that his matches only ever feel important when a title is on the line.
A move back to the blue brand could allow him to revive his feud with Baron Corbin, who won their Champion vs. Champion match at Survivor Series, and it could lead to a possible match over the United States title further down the line.
#5. Matt Hardy
For four months, the Hardy Boyz’s return to WWE seemed to be going well. Unlike the Dudley Boyz’s underwhelming year with the company in 2015-2016, Matt and Jeff won the Tag Team titles on their first night back and continued to have impressive matches until Jeff’s unfortunate shoulder injury in September.
With “The Charismatic Enigma” set to be sidelined until approximately April 2018, the former ECW Champion has been going it alone as a singles performer on Raw, to varying degrees of success, and his most recent match saw him lose clean to Elias at Survivor Series.
For a character as legendary as Matt, a certain future Hall of Famer, he deserves a better spotlight than what he’s received over the last couple of months on Raw.
A move to SmackDown, the show where he had his first singles push in 2002 with the ‘Matt Hardy: Version 1’ character, would give him fresh rivalries and add much-needed star power to the blue brand.
