WWE Raw: 5 Shockers & Surprises from this week’s episode (April 22, 2019)
Raw tried to deliver its most diverse episode of the year right after the 2019 Superstar Shake-up shuffled the rosters of Raw and SmackDown Live.
Not only did we watch the top men from SmackDown who moved to Raw compete during the night, but also saw a few more superstars jump ship from Raw to SmackDown and from SmackDown to Raw.
As we saw two near A-grade triple-threat matches play out to determine the contenders for the Universal Championship, we also saw WWE trying to build Naomi as a singles competitor after her move from SmackDown.
While men like Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley were nowhere to be seen during the episode, we got to saw 205 Live competitor and now Raw superstar Cedric Alexander compete with Cesaro, and Robert Roode took on Ricochet in a couple of interesting bookings.
The creatives left us with a few surprises during the night, and we take a look at the top 5 surprises from this week’s Raw.
#5 Goodbye Andrade
Andrade came into Raw last week as part of the Superstar Shakeup and made an immediate impact as he defeated Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor in a non-title match. The following night, Balor was drafted to SmackDown, separating the two superstars for now.
However, in a surprising turn of events, Andrade has been sent back to SmackDown Live. While reasons for the move is still not clear, it seems like Charlotte Flair may have pulled some strings to get back closer to her boyfriend.
Andrade could have done wonders on the red brand as Raw is deprived of quality mid-card heels who aren’t running after the Universal Championship.
What makes things interesting now is that Balor is now on SmackDown where Andrade has been redrafted. Since Andrade has already defeated Balor in a non-title match, will WWE continue this story and give him a title match against Balor?