WWE News: Former WWE Champion drafted to SmackDown Live in extended Superstar Shake-Up

What's the story?

SmackDown Live (results here) continues to accumulate superstars following the announcement from WWE that the Superstar Shake-up is still in effect.

Former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal was drafted to SmackDown on this week's episode of Raw, joining Andrade, Zelina Vega and Aleister Black in their return to the blue brand.

In case you didn't know...

Mahal and the Singh Brothers made their return to SmackDown after a match between Kairi Sane and Peyton Royce ended. Mahal was scheduled to face Chad Gable in singles competition, but the match never started due to an attack from Lars Sullivan.

Sullivan went after Mahal, but the Singh brothers held him back long enough for Mahal to leave the ring.

The heart of the matter

The decision to draft Mahal back to SmackDown Live came out of nowhere amongst the unexpected roster changes by WWE.

Andrade, Black and Vega were all drafted to Monday Night Raw during last week's Superstar Shakeup, but the decision was changed this week.

The belief behind their return to SmackDown was due to FOX allegedly wanting a Latino superstar on the show, since there were none after WWE drafted Andrade and Rey Mysterio to Raw.

Vega and Black were brought along because they're married in real life and WWE rarely breaks up couples via brand splits who are engaged or married.

What's next?

The reason behind Mahal being drafted back to SmackDown has not been revealed yet, but it could be similar to the reason why Andrade was drafted because of FOX wanting a wrestler from a specific demographic, but that is pure speculation.

Mahal had most of his success as a member of the SmackDown roster in 2017 when he defeated Randy Orton to become the 50th WWE Champion. He held the title for 170 days before losing the title to AJ Styles.