What's the story?
As reported by Cageside Seats, WWE apparently views moving Superstars from SmackDown LIVE to Monday Night Raw as something of a promotion. This news comes less than 24 hours after a string of names from the blue brand made the switch during part one of the Superstar Shake-Up.
In case you didn't know...
For months and months now, SmackDown LIVE’s programming has been critically acclaimed. The majority of people believe that the supposed 'sister' show has been outshining Vince's flagship show, which could be the reason why so many top names jumped ship last night.
The heart of the matter
In the aforementioned report, it's noted that part of the actual philosophy behind the brand split was that SmackDown was seen as an incubator for talent that WWE can one day "promote" to the flagship show.
Also read: Best and Worst of Raw: April 10, 2017
The response to this news probably won't be one of shock, with Vince's favouritism towards Raw being a well-known fact ever since the split first came into effect.
What's next?
Part two of the Superstar Shakeup will set up the blue brand for the foreseeable future. It'll be a good indication as to how SD Live is viewed in comparison to Raw, as their entire product could change with WWE potentially choosing to hit the reset button.
Author's take
With one-half of the Superstar Shake-Up complete, we're left to ponder how things will go on the Blue Brand. On the face of it, SmackDown appears to have lost a number of top stars, and in quite an unusual way too, with the format of the event being quite odd. Nonetheless, we'll give WWE the benefit of the doubt as things could balance themselves out.
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