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With the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up been and gone, WWE’s new post-WrestleMania 35 era officially kick-started on the April 22 episode of Raw.
Much of the show revolved around the Universal Championship, with two Triple Threat matches taking place (AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Rey Mysterio and Baron Corbin vs. Drew McIntyre vs. The Miz) to determine who would battle it out in a #1 contender match later in the night.
The winners of the matches, Styles and Corbin, went on to meet in the main event, which saw “The Phenomenal One” pick up the victory to set up a match against Seth Rollins for the Universal title at Money In The Bank on May 19.
The episode also saw Becky Lynch defeat Alicia Fox before being struck with two Woman’s Rights by her upcoming Raw Women’s Championship opponent, Lacey Evans, while Sami Zayn insulted the crowd in his latest in-ring promo about the “toxic” WWE atmosphere.
Elsewhere on the show, five WWE Superstars/teams underwent surprising transformations that nobody would have seen coming just a few days ago.
In this article, let’s run through those Superstars and take a look at the possible reasons why WWE has chosen to alter their characters.
#5 Bobby Roode became Robert Roode
Bobby Roode established himself as one of the top bad guys in NXT during his seven-month reign with the NXT Championship in 2017, yet he has only ever been used as a babyface in his 20 months as a main-roster WWE Superstar.
That looked as though it could change recently when he showed a more villainous side to his character during his tag matches alongside Chad Gable, and the transformation was completed on this week’s Raw when he demanded to be known as ‘Robert Roode’ instead of ‘Bobby Roode’ and he sported a moustache instead of his usual beard.
“The Glorious One” went on to defeat Ricochet in one of the featured matches of the night on Raw, while he cemented his status as a heel by referring to Gable as “dead weight” following the end of their run together as a tag team.
#4 Cesaro became a singles competitor
When former Raw GM Mick Foley forced Cesaro and Sheamus to team together following the end of their ‘Best of Seven Series’ in 2016, it looked as though the long-term rivals would be unable to co-exist and they would soon go their separate ways again.
However, after settling their differences and becoming The Bar, the European duo went on to rack up a total of five Tag Team Championship reigns during their two-and-a-half years together, while they even managed to compete on the main card as a tag team at three successive WrestleMania events.
The duo initially remained together as members of the SmackDown Live roster after the Superstar Shake-Up was finalised last week, but Cesaro surprisingly appeared on Monday’s episode of Raw and it was confirmed that he will now be part of the red brand.
“The Swiss Cyborg” defeated Cedric Alexander on Raw and then acknowledged the end of his tag partnership with Sheamus by holding up his thumb in the same way that The Bar used to.
#3 The Viking Experience became The Viking Raiders
Hanson and Rowe established themselves as one of the most dominant tag teams in NXT history during their one-year run as The War Raiders, so it was no surprise that they were on the main-roster radar during the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up.
It was a big surprise, however, when they emerged for their Raw debut last week and it was revealed that they will now be known as Ivar and Erik and their tag team name has changed to The Viking Experience.
After a week of strong opinions from fans and former Superstars on the questionable name change, WWE made the wise decision to appease the audience by altering their name to The Viking Raiders.
The NXT Tag Team champions were supposed to face Lucha House Party in a tag match on this week’s Raw but they attacked the cruiserweights before the encounter began, meaning the bell did not even sound.
It was also noteworthy that the phrase ‘The Viking Experience’ will still be mentioned on WWE programming, but it will be the name of The Viking Raiders' finishing move, as opposed to their tag team, instead.
#2 Ricochet became a singles competitor
News emerged a few hours before Raw that WWE had moved three of the red brand's new recruits – Andrade, Aleister Black and Zelina Vega – over to SmackDown Live.
Why? The reason is still unknown, but the most common theory amongst fans is that WWE did not want to split up too many couples in the Superstar Shake-Up, so Andrade has moved back to the blue brand due to his relationship with Charlotte Flair. In turn, that means Vega has followed her storyline ‘business associate’ back to SmackDown, while Black has moved due to his real-life marriage to Vega.
Regardless of the reason, the surprise roster changes mean that Ricochet’s tag partnership with Black has come to an end just two months after they joined the main roster and began teaming with each other.
“The One and Only” went on to compete in his first Raw match as a singles competitor in over a month, losing to Robert Roode.
#1 Bray Wyatt became a children’s TV host
Eight months on from his last appearance on WWE television, Bray Wyatt returned to Raw this week in a pre-recorded segment towards the end of the episode.
WWE fans are used to seeing the Wyatt Family leader in a dark room surrounded by smoke when he has spoken from unique settings in the past. On this occasion, however, he spoke from a completely new setting, “The Firefly Fun House”, and promised that he has seen the error of his ways and he is no longer a “bad man”.
The segment, which also featured two of Wyatt’s new toy sidekicks (Mercy The Buzzard and Pammy The Witch), has received mixed reviews from fans on social media, with some enjoying the weirdness of it all and some questioning why WWE has decided to go down this bizarre route.
Either way, everybody is talking about Wyatt, for both good and bad reasons, and it’ll be intriguing to see where this storyline goes next.
