The first night of the Superstar Shake-Up provided many surprises and interesting developments for Monday Night Raw. Not only did we see the acquisition of budding NXT stars but also a few SmackDown mainstays who are now taking up residence on the red brand.
At this point, it’s easy to say that going forward Raw is unbelievably stacked, but with another night of drafting coming up, things could drastically change.
Here is a definitive list of all superstars that were shaken up and are now a member of the Monday Night Raw roster.
– AJ Styles
– The Miz
– Aleister Black
– Ricochet
– Erik & Ivar (War Raiders)
– The Usos
– Rey Mysterio
– Andrade
– Zelina Vega
– Naomi
– Lars Sullivan
– EC3
– Lacey Evans
– Eric Young
– Cedric Alexander
One of the most intriguing draftees of the night were the current NXT Tag Team Champions, the newly dubbed ‘Viking Experience’. Now completely rebranded as Erik and Ivar, the two steamrolled over Hawkins, Ryder and The Revival. A pretty impressive debut for the tandem who only recently broke out onto the scene in NXT.
Cedric Alexander from 205 Live was also a shocking name to see included. The former Cruiserweight Champion is definitely not someone to sleep on. It’s great to see that certain members of that roster have cut ties with the purple brand and have moved to greener pastures, with Buddy Murphy having an incoming cameo on NXT and now Alexander being brought to Raw. Hopefully he’ll be an exciting addition to the mid-card scene in the coming weeks.
Raw seems to have swept up the majority of free agents too, leaving only Heavy Machinery, Sami Zayn and Nikki Cross left without a home. Assuming they are all SmackDown bound, it definitely seemed like Raw got the better end of the deal with Aleister, Ricochet and a budding Lacey Evans, who has just earned a title shot against Becky Lynch.
Quite possibly the biggest draftee of the night was AJ Styles. The Phenomenal One has been the face of SmackDown Live, holding down the fort for well over three years. After defeating Randy Orton at WrestleMania, what better time for him to look to freshen up his career with a few new dream matches and title reigns on the other side of the curtain? Styles is a huge name to make the jump, which couldn’t have come at a better time for the one of the longest reigning WWE Champions of the modern era.
It seems that Raw got away with a winning draft night, picking up some huge headliners and burgeoning stars that could make for a really entertaining year. I truly hope that certain new members of the Raw roster won’t be thrown to the sharks and have their main roster careers made into a joke — I’m looking at you, Eric Young and EC3. Only time will tell, and with another night of Superstar Shake-up to come, there’s still a lot of change to look forward to.
MORE WWE:
– Current WWE Champions: The Complete List
– Current WWE Roster: All The SmackDown Live Wrestlers
– Current WWE Roster: All The RAW Wrestlers
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
