wrestling / Columns

Will The WWE Superstar Shakeup Actually Shake Anything Up?

April 10, 2017 | Posted by Greg De Marco
WWE Superstar Shakeup

Last summer the WWE gave us the first Superstar Draft since 2011 and it got everyone reinvested in the product in a fresh and exciting way (especially for Smackdown).

The effects of the draft were immediate, as Smackdown had a renewed focus, AJ Styles got the world title run he deserved and new talent took opportunities to step up from both the midcard (Kevin Owens) and NXT (too many to list).

After the draft we also saw the addition of WWE 205 Live to the Network schedule, as well as some focus for the Cruiserweight Division on WWE Raw.

One year in and we’re coming off a WrestleMania that saw a ton of matches and most fans locked onto their screens for over seven hours. At RawAfterMania, Vince McMahon revealed two newsworthy items to the WWE Universe. One was the addition of Kurt Angle as the General Manager of Monday Night Raw…

… and the other was the first ever WWE Superstar Shake-Up.

Short of calling it another draft, the Shake-Up is much mirrors the “drafts” that followed the initial WWE Draft. In fact, the WWE has truly only had two full-on drafts, 2002 and 2016. The rest have been of the “Shake-Up” variety, usually involving matches where the winning brand got draft picks.

There was also no draft in 2003 (one year after the original), and 2006 only featured Paul Heyman getting to pluck one superstar from Raw and Smackdown to join ECW.

But now we’re focused on 2017, and what Vince’s Shake-Up announcement might lead to. We’ll (likely know by the end of Smackdown on Tuesday, but that hasn’t stopped folks from speculating as to what we’ll get.

Could we get AJ Styles moving to Raw? Charlotte or Sasha Banks moving to Smackdown? American Alpha on Raw? The New Day on Smackdown? What about Dean Ambrose going to Raw (with his Intercontinental Championship) to put all three members of The Shield on the same brand, all as faces? Kevin Owens taking the United States Championship to Smackdown in return? Could Enzo and Cass break up? Does Shinsuke Nakamura stay on Smackdown?

Can we at least see more of Emma?

So many questions linger, and even more suggestions are prevalent. But I have one of my own:

NO ONE MOVES.

Think about it – the first ever WWE Draft (mostly) stuck for two years before getting a shake up, and the 2016 edition was less than a year ago. Could it be too early for this to happen? You can shake things up by adding NXT talent (Nakamura, Dillinger, The Revival), turning someone heel (Big E anyone?), and (sadly) releasing talent. You don’t really need to do it via these trades, deals, and moves.

Plus, Vince McMahon himself said that Daniel Bryan and Kurt Angle could only had the “opportunity to make trades, deals and other moves that they feel fit.” He never said it was mandated. There are no matches that award draft picks.

So let’s get bold–really bold–and have Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan reveal that no trades went through. No deals were made. No moves are happening. Both men held their ground, neither gave an inch.

And just like the fans of the Clevaland Browns, they can say “maybe next year…”

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PHX Wrestling 发布于 2017年4月2日

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