WWE Rumors: Veteran Superstar Reportedly Moving From ‘SmackDown’ To ‘Raw’
It appears that WWE isn’t done making changes to the rosters of its two main brands, as Friday Night SmackDown star Dolph Ziggler is reportedly on his way to Monday Night Raw.
In a tweet posted on Thursday night, the WrestleVotes account cited an unnamed source, noting that Ziggler will be moving to Raw as part of the earlier “trade” that sent AJ Styles to SmackDown. It wasn’t specified when the 15-year WWE veteran will be showing up on the red brand’s programming. However, if the rumors are accurate, this would mark the end of his involvement in the romantic storyline with Otis and Mandy Rose — an angle that culminated when the latter duo became an onscreen couple at WrestleMania 36 in April.
It’s not clear either whether there is an offscreen reason behind Ziggler’s move to complete the so-called “trade” involving Styles, but WrestlingNews.co wrote that the latter’s reasons for wanting to move to SmackDown made the rumor mill last week. Supposedly, Styles was not getting along with Raw‘s executive director at the time, Paul Heyman, though the decision to transfer “The Phenomenal One” to the blue brand’s roster was made before WWE fired Heyman last week.
.@otiswwe is COMMMMIIINNN' in this deeply personal battle with @HEELZiggler at #WrestleMania! pic.twitter.com/rvCnfCtwXf
— WWE (@WWE) April 6, 2020
If Ziggler’s move to Raw becomes official, he will become the second superstar in about a week’s time to jump from one main roster brand to the other. Earlier in the week, Mustafa Ali was traded from Friday Night SmackDown to Monday Night Raw, weeks after rumors suggested that he was the man behind the mystery hacker gimmick on the show. Unlike Ziggler and Styles, Ali has not competed in a match in several months, with his last televised appearance taking place in December 2019, as shown on his ProFightDB page.
During the last time that Ziggler was part of the Monday Night Raw roster, he was in a tag team with Drew McIntyre. The duo, however, split up toward the end of 2018, with Ziggler throwing McIntyre off the top rope at the men’s Royal Rumble match in January 2019. Rumors before and after that year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view suggested that Ziggler was on his way out of WWE, though it was later revealed that he was on a “handshake deal” with the company that allowed him to take time off to focus on non-wrestling pursuits such as his stand-up comedy career.
Given that McIntyre is now WWE Champion and Ziggler has mostly been used in a mid-card role in recent years, it remains to be seen whether their previous alliance and eventual fallout will be revisited on future episodes of Raw.
