WWE News: WWE Superstar Shake-Up Decisions Mostly All Made At The Last Minute
The WWE Superstar Shake-Up has come and gone, and now, many are trying to figure out what went down, and why things appear to look out of place now compared to before. There is a reason for that it seems. Various reports came out last week, linking certain stars to different shows, and a lot made sense. However, one of the biggest rumors involved AJ Styles moving to WWE RAW, but that did not occur.
The reason why seems simple as WWE did not know what they wanted to do at the time. The thought is that Vince McMahon came up with the shake-up idea just days before it was announced, and due to WrestleMania 33, Vince could not ultimately focus on what he wanted to do for it. This led to WWE having to figure out what they wanted to do within a week, with McMahon reportedly changing his mind by the day.
Now, according to Cageside Seats, it is confirmed that WWE made most of their decisions for the changes at the last minute. The changes are proof of that, as well, if you look at who moved compared to who stayed. WWE did not move either World, Women’s, or Tag Team Champion. The reason for this had mostly to do with the fact that WWE knew the craziness around doing it would be difficult to deal with.
Two titles did change in the WWE United States and Intercontinental Championships, which moved Dean Ambrose to WWE RAW and Kevin Owens to WWE SmackDown Live. Both of these were last minute, big time. The reason for people knowing it is the fact that WWE made a match for the U.S. Title at WWE Payback involving Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens the previous week. Owens was never meant to move brands at all, and neither was Dean originally.
In fact, Dean was set to defend the IC Title against Baron Corbin after Corbin beat him the previous week. This earned him a right to challenge for the title again, after losing to Ambrose at WrestleMania 33 with the title on the line. Originally, Corbin was even favored to win that match. The most glaring last minute change affected Bray Wyatt, who was always meant to get his rematch at WWE Backlash.
The House of Horrors match was going to be given more time to creatively come together, as WWE Backlash was going to be over a month and a half away. Instead, WWE is pushing the match for a WWE SmackDown Live World Title to a WWE RAW branded show in WWE Payback. This makes no actual sense at the end of the day as a challenger cannot get the title match on their grounds. WWE is okay with this, as it gives them a World Title match at the show.
WWE Payback will not give us a WWE Universal Championship match, so this allows the WWE RAW brand to see at least one World Title defended. The same issue occurs with the WWE United States Title, but this match was made before the shake-up occurred. Dean Ambrose, Apollo Crews, Bray Wyatt, and Miz and Maryse all flipped to WWE RAW. This was why WWE was cool with allowing AJ Styles to stay on WWE SmackDown Live.
WWE did still want to stack WWE RAW, but the Monday night show was willing to give up Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in order to get all they did out of the blue brand. In the end, Vince McMahon allowed one man to stay blue and flipped most everyone else red in order to stack WWE RAW but not totally murder WWE SmackDown Live. While things were last minute mostly, the rosters did not get destroyed. Fans do feel that switching guys too often is bad, but if it’ll bring life into WWE RAW and still allow WWE SmackDown Live to stay great, the shake-up may have been terrific for WWE.
[Featured Image By WWE]
