The New Day Getting Split Up Or Traded To ‘SmackDown Live’ During Superstar Shakeup

The New Day are the longest-reigning tag team champions in WWE history, but did not have a match at this past Sunday’s WrestleMania. Instead, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods were relegated, or promoted to the role of hosts for the special event in Orlando, depending how you look at it. The New Day trio had a trio of segments inside the Citrus Bowl, welcoming the audience to the show in their Final Fantasy cosplay, re-introducing The Hardy Boyz to the Universe and announcing the attendance record.

The New Day’s road to WrestleMania took a bit of a backseat in comparison to their run throughout 2016. Their weekly angles were designed to sell ice cream and engage in minor feuds with the likes of Titus O’Neill and the Shining Stars. But now that WrestleMania is over, The New Day will look to transition from hosts back to superstars who actually wrestle matches.

The New Day were thrown right back into the fire Monday night on RAW, issuing an open challenge to any tag team in the back. It was the perfect way to debut The Revival, a long-time top tag team with the NXT brand made up of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder. The New Day previously held the tag team championships for 483 days, but The Revival beat them on their first nights on the main roster.

During the same show, of course, Vince McMahon braced the WWE Universe for a ‘Superstar Shakeup’ in which RAW and SmackDown would have the opportunity to make trades next week. That has loomed over all the speculation about the angles and feuds that will be spotlighted in the aftermath of WrestleMania. And according to a new report, The New Day may be intricately involved in the transactions.

Unlike when the WWE re-initiated the brand split last July, it hasn’t been specified whether tag teams are eligible to be split up or if they have to remain intact. Regardless, The New Day is about to embark on a new day. During the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed three certainties about the shakeup. Roman Reigns would be staying on RAW, AJ Styles will be dealt from SmackDown to RAW and The New Day will join the blue brand on Tuesday nights.

On Wednesday, we noted how WWE officials were planning on moving Enzo & Cass to SmackDown, and now it seems The New Day will go instead. They recognize that SmackDown is lacking in the tag team division and are in need of a boost. The only titles that weren’t defended at WrestleMania were the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and the division took another hit this week when the company released one-half of The Vaudevillains, Simon Gotch.

Meanwhile, RAW, which already was the superior brand for tag team wrestling, added not only The Revival, but The Hardy Boyz as well. The division has been stacked if you figure in The New Day, Enzo & Cass, Cesaro & Sheamus, and Gallows & Anderson. The big indicators Monday that one of the babyface teams were getting moved came when The New Day lost to The Revival and Cesaro & Sheamus beat Enzo & Cass to become the new number one contenders to The Hardy Boyz’ titles.

During the match between The New Day and The Revival, the latter added injury to insult when they attacked Kofi Kingston after the match, injuring his ankle. The initial thought was that that move would extend the feud between the two teams and perhaps, put Kofi on the shelf. But if WWE officials are planning on moving The New Day to Tuesday nights, they can easily scrap the injury angle.

What made Enzo & Cass attractive to SmackDown was that it would provide a fresh feud for current champions, The Usos. Jimmy and Jey have worked with The New Day a lot going back to 2014-15, but back then, their roles were reversed with The New Day as heels and The Usos as the babyfaces. There had also been some discussion about splitting The New Day up to give Big E an extended look at a singles run, but that may be unlikely now thanks to their successful merchandise sales and the launch of their ice cream.

[Featured Image by WWE]