WWE Top five rumors of the week and Analysis: April 10th, 2017

Lesnar to take time off

The conclusion of WrestleMania 33 marked the start of an exciting new phase in the WWE’s calendar. The promotion’s desire to shake up the rosters of both SmackDown Live and Monday Night Raw in this particular phase was evident from the booking decisions it made this past week.

Debuts, returns and a string of surprises rained down on both brands last week and the Superstar shake up is bound to continue that momentum this time around. These developments ensured that there was no shortage of rumours this week, and in this piece, we are going to take a look at the most interesting ones from this long list.

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#5 Shinsuke Nakamura to replace John Cena

Cena to take time off

The rumour: According to Cageside Seats, Shinsuke Nakamura was called up to replace John Cena as the top star of the SmackDown.

The potential: Shinsuke Nakamura is arguably one of the most over babyfaces in the WWE roster right now. He was a top star in NXT and it makes sense to push him as the top star of SmackDown as well.

It might be hard for a few to digest that he is called up as a replacement for ‘the’ John Cena. But if we think about it, the Cenation leader is set to take another hiatus and WWE needs a credible name to fill the void; meaning that this rumour could be true to an extent.

The Fallout: With Cena’s lighter scheduled in place, WWE is likely to push Nakamura to the skies. He gets a pure babyface reaction which is rare these days in the WWE. As an add-on, Nakamura has enough charisma to steal the show on a weekly basis as well.