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The 2018 Superstar Shake-Up has largely received positive reactions from the WWE Universe, with a total of 25 roster changes taking place between Raw and SmackDown Live over the last few days.
The general consensus among fans is that SmackDown has vastly improved their roster, while Raw has lost some major star power following the departures of The Miz, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe and Asuka.
In this article, let’s take a look at the five WWE Superstars who are likely to benefit the most from the Shake-Up.
#5 Big Cass
Just when Big Cass was on his way to becoming one of the biggest heels on Raw, he suffered a torn ACL in a match against Enzo Amore in August 2017 and he hasn’t competed since.
Now, eight months on, the former “Realest Guy In The Room” is back on television and he immediately made a huge statement by attacking Daniel Bryan – the biggest fan favourite in WWE right now – at the end of Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live.
With Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin having all moved to Raw on Monday, SmackDown was in desperate need of some major heels on the second day of the Shake-Up, and it looks like WWE will trust Cass in one of those roles moving forward.
#4 Jeff Hardy
One of the biggest surprises of this week’s WWE programming saw Jeff Hardy win the United States Championship from Jinder Mahal at the start of Raw. Then, one day later, he sprung another surprise by moving to SmackDown Live.
With Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt proving more popular than anticipated as the unlikely #1 contenders for the Raw Tag Team Championships, it makes sense for Jeff to move away from his brother to be a singles competitor again.
He has several dream opponents waiting for him on the blue brand, from Andrade “Cien” Almas to Shinsuke Nakamura, while his chances of featuring on future PPVs have increased significantly following his US title triumph.
#3 Andrade “Cien” Almas
WWE’s track record of utilising NXT talent to the best of their ability on the main roster has been hit-and-miss over the years, but it would be very surprising if Andrade “Cien” Almas fails to become a major star on SmackDown Live.
With villainous business manager Zelina Vega by his side, “El Idolo” has been one of NXT’s best performers over the last year and his epic battle with Johnny Gargano at TakeOver: Philadelphia in January will go down as one of the best in the brand’s history.
Now that he has earned a well-deserved call-up to the main roster, there are dozens of new opponents for Almas to face on Tuesday nights, with United States Championship matches, and possibly even WWE Championship matches, surely set to come his way in the next year.
#2 The Riott Squad
Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan were involved in one major rivalry during their five months on SmackDown Live, taking on the babyface trio of Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Naomi in various matches between November 2017 and April 2018.
While they certainly made their mark on the blue brand, The Riott Squad ultimately failed in their quest to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship, with Ruby losing to then-champion Charlotte at Fastlane, so the group likely would’ve had to wait a long time to re-enter the title picture if they stayed on Tuesday nights.
Instead, the trio are now on Monday Night Raw for the first time and they made an immediate statement this week by attacking Sasha Banks and Bayley. And who knows, with Ronda Rousey seemingly aligning with Natalya, perhaps they could even be involved in high-profile segments with the former MMA star before too long.
#1 Samoa Joe
It’s crazy to think that Samoa Joe has been a major part of WWE programming over the last year, yet he has only been involved in one singles match on PPV (vs. Brock Lesnar at Great Balls of Fire) since April 2017.
Granted, “The Samoan Submission Machine” was sidelined for four of those 12 months due to injuries, but even when healthy he was constantly being added to multi-man matches during his time as a member of the Raw roster.
A move to SmackDown Live represents the perfect opportunity for Joe to mix it up with new one-on-one WWE opponents, including Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles, and it’ll be a surprise if he hasn’t won his first main-roster title by the end of 2018.
