5 realistic contenders to move to WWE SmackDown Live in the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up
The 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-Up will take place on the April 15-16 episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Last year, a total of 10 Superstars/teams moved to SmackDown Live when WWE mixed up the rosters after WrestleMania 34, with SAnitY, Andrade and Zelina Vega among those to join the blue brand from NXT.
The Superstar who has had the most success since swapping Monday nights for Tuesday nights last year is arguably Asuka. Granted, “The Empress of Tomorrow” has had ups and downs as a member of the SmackDown Live roster, but she has still main-evented a pay-per-view, TLC 2018, in that time and established herself as one of WWE’s most popular women.
On the contrary, Big Cass only lasted two months on SmackDown Live before being released, while Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson have found television time limited since leaving Raw and they look likely to depart WWE later this year.
With the 2019 Shake-Up on the horizon, let’s take a look at five realistic contenders who could move to SmackDown Live a week after WrestleMania 35.
#5 Braun Strowman
When Roman Reigns announced in October 2018 that he had been diagnosed with leukemia for the second time, Braun Strowman seemed like the obvious Superstar to step up in his rival’s absence to become the main guy on Monday Night Raw.
As it turned out, “The Monster Among Men” lost yet another Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar – his fourth in 15 months – at Crown Jewel in November 2018, and he has since been unable to regain the enormous amount of momentum that he had through 2017 and in the first half of 2018.
Strowman has been a member of the Raw roster ever since the 2016 brand split, but he continues to fall short whenever he is placed in the Universal Championship picture. It has gotten to a point where it feels boring every time he gets involved in the title reckoning – something that would have seemed unthinkable when the Strowman character was at his most popular around 18 months ago.
If WWE is to allow the former Wyatt Family member to build up momentum again and be seen as a legitimate title contender, perhaps he should be given a fresh start on SmackDown Live.