Superstar Shakeup roster changes from SmackDown Live

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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/04/17/superstar-shakeup-roster-changes-from-smackdown-live/

The second night of the WWE’s Superstar Shakeup took place on Tuesday from the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Here is a complete list of all the talent moving to SmackDown.

The first performer moved over to SmackDown Live during Tuesday’s episode was Jeff Hardy, who was first announced by the WWE on Instagram. Hardy answered an open challenge and defended the United States title against Shelton Benjamin with a tease that Randy Orton will be challenging Hardy in his first program back on SmackDown. Orton won a #1 contender’s match last week for a shot at the title when it was still held by Jinder Mahal and would make sense that Orton will now face Hardy for the title. Hardy is also scheduled to defend the title against Mahal in a rematch at the Greatest Royal Rumble on April 27th.

They announced on a graphic that Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose are coming to SmackDown and reunited on the same show as Paige.

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The next addition to SmackDown was Samoa Joe, who came out and destroyed Sin Cara in a short match with the Coquina Clutch. Joe indicated his match with Roman Reigns at Backlash is still happening and will have the chance to win the Intercontinental title at the Greatest Royal Rumble in the ladder match he is scheduled for.

A promo ran for Sanity coming to SmackDown. We were told by one source that this will feature Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Killian Dane being called up, but Nikki Cross will not be joining them as she is earmarked for plans in NXT.

Daniel Bryan was interviewed by Renee Young when Big Cass appeared from behind Bryan and mocked Bryan’s height and doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about regarding Bryan. Cass laid out Bryan at the end of the show and appears to be the direction they are going with those two.

Following Charlotte’s win over Billie Kay, Carmella and Peyton Royce were involved and beat down Charlotte and Becky Lynch. This led to Asuka making her arrival as she made the save and stood tall with Charlotte and Lynch.

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The WWE announced on Instagram that Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows are going to SmackDown and will be reunited on the same show as AJ Styles.

New Day ran into R-Truth backstage for a comedy segment involving the four of them and Tye Dillinger. Truth was confused and thought they were on Raw together.

Sheamus and Cesaro announced in a promo they are coming to SmackDown.

A promo ran with Andrade Cien Almas and Zelina Vega announcing they are coming to take over SmackDown. This roster is amazing when you consider the talent and the fresh matches coming out of this shakeup.

The Miz was not on the show but cut a taped promo to hype up his “premiere” for next week on the show.

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I just noticed it was the IIconics (double I) similar to the double t for the riott squad. Is that new or was it like that last week?

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It was “The IIconics” last week as well, both on titantron & their TV key.

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Did I miss the announcement that Smackdown is moving to three hours? This roster is so stacked it seems impossible to fit all these guys in to a two hour show. The tag team depth alone would be enough to fill an hour.

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The Smackdown roster is getting insane, so it’s good that Sanity is being called up.

Joe, Styles, and Bryan on the same friggin’ show!

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So barring any further changes, Smackdown has:

AJ
Bryan
Nakamura
Joe
Rusev
Orton
Jeff Hardy
Cien
Miz
Gallows/Anderson
New Day
Usos
Asuka
Charlotte
Becky
Peyton & Billie
Naomi

I mean…

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Glad I won’t have to watch Raw for awhile. I can count on John and Wai to keep me up to date and I’ll just be watching Smackdown live :slight_smile:

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Plus The Bar, Sanity, Big Cass and I feel like I could still be leaving someone out

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It’s ridiculous how stacked SDL has gotten, when RAW is supposed to historically be the flagship. Guess I have three free hours on Monday nights again!

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Only way RAW can balance this out is to resign Nicholas.

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I’m actually confused as to why they’ve made SmackDown so good… with Raw pretty much full of deadwood. Raw’s tag division was bad before WrestleMania, was worse at WrestleMania and is now dead after WrestleMania.

I’ve always preferred SmackDown as Raw seems like the show they most use to appeal to casual fans/dumb fans but they’ve flooded SmackDown with talent that I want to see and not all will get time whereas Raw is the 3 hour show and there’s very little that’s interesting there. I’m confused. What are they trying to do? They’re trying to justify 3 hours for SmackDown aren’t they? I’m on board with that if they cut Raw down to 1 hour.

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I agree that the rosters seem soo unbalanced right now in a way that makes me suspicious. Like there’s another shoe to drop.

Maybe they aren’t done with all the moves and there will be more after Backlash? Like possiblly moving AJ to Raw after losing the title?

Or maybe they are saving room on Raw for more big returns like Chris Jericho and/or Rey Mysterio.

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I think joe was last minute. Notice Finn Balor s nifty new blue gear. I think Finn was going to sd but it changed I ha e two theories. After raw I noticed a lot of big dudes were moved to raw: mojo, baron corbin. Raw also has Kane abd Braun

Joe and Big Cass were added to sd live so maybe joe was brought to sd to give then a raw monster.

Theory 2: Roman is turning heel. Look at the ten men tag on raw the baby face side was way superior to the heel with guys like Bobby Lashley (another beast of a guy, notice raw has way bigger dudes than sd and who is obsessed both bodies and with raw wink Wink), finn balor, Braun abd seth. The heel side only had kevin owens realistically as an opponent to Roman. If you turn reigns heel he could spend the whole year feuding with the likes braun, seth, finn, and begin with a Bobby Lashley program.

In the heel side he doesn’t have joe after backlash anymore. He only has owens, zayn and… I can’t think of anyone. If he doesn’t turn heel this year it’s idiocy.

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Smackdown outdoes Raw in workrate now, but I feel like they are just about equal in star power. Raw still has Braun, Roman, Brock, Sami, Kevin Owens, Rollins, Balor, Ambrose, and Lashley. There’s plenty that can be done on Raw with that main event picture.

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So I guess the Bulle…I mean Balor Club is for everyone…except Gallows and Anderson.

Smackdown is by far the superior show, I’d like to see Gallows and Anderson back rolling with AJ, in a face stable of sorts, but the program that AJ is running with right now I don’t see it happening. I would have liked to see Finn Balor over on Smackdown but I am really happy with how the shakeup unfolded for Smackdown.

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I feel because the roster is so stacked, andrate cien almas might get lost in the shuffle in the end and they just decide to split him and zelina up because of it.

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I sure hope that isn’t true. If I were WWE I’d be throwing him post-backlash into a run for the US title…I’d love to see that belt on him. A program with Jeff Hardy, would be great for Almas.

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WHAT a roster…

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Safe to say Smackdown won the shake up, right?

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Raw gets smackdown disappointments and we’ll see how better thst writing team is.