It comes as no surprise that after another WrestleMania we see another shake-up occur between the rivaling Brands of Raw & SmackDown in order to make things interesting again as complacency can be a detriment when you have the same talent potentially repeating the same scenarios again for another year.
But it's like, anything, change can be good. And with the likes of The Miz being traded to SmackDown, to which I have no doubt that Daniel Bryan will be chomping at the bit to get his hands on the "must-see" Superstar as considering the amount of shade Miz has been throwing at Bryan in the last 2 years from stealing his moves and criticising why he's not in the ring whilst he was the GM will have the 3-time WWE Champion salivating at the prospect of retribution.
Jinder Mahal being drafted to Raw feels like Monday Night really did get the "raw" deal with someone who in my estimation is low-card Jobber-fodder.
Because let's be honest with ourselves a moment - what purpose does the man really serve?. He's awful in the ring, cannot carry a Brand as Champion as the presence and charisma of a wet dish-cloth.
Natalya being drafted to Monday Nights is good for Raw because this is a competitor that has been overlooked for the longest time when you consider this is the only woman to be trained in the Hart Dungeon and has the move-set from her Hall of Famer Uncle & 5x WWE Champion in Bret Hart.
Now with Jeff Hardy winning the United States Title this leaves the question of will he remain on Raw or will the Title go back to SmackDown should Randy Orton win at Greatest Royal Rumble. Seriously.....we get it, WWE! You're hyping it up. But you did that at the cost of WrestleMania. Your biggest Event of the year - and you treated it as an after-thought???
I got nothing.....
My theory is that Jeff will retain against Orton and Seth Rollins will get drafted to Tuesday Nights taking the Intercontinental Championship with him. I think the Blue Brand will serve him better. Especially with the prospect of a dream match with WWE Champion, AJ Styles.
That then also raises another important question - the US & IC Belts are not exempt from being drafted. But what does this mean for the Raw Tag & Women's Titles and the same for the SmackDown equivalents?
Say for example, Carmella, gets drafted to Raw. What will this do for the Women's Division on SD when both Raw & SmackDown Women's Titles are on Monday Nights?
I can see the Universal Title possibly getting drafted to SmackDown, but then you have the issue of the leather being jam-red. But then one would presume that Shane McMahon & new GM, Paige will just have their own version and have a Blue version of the Universal belt.
At this point, it's difficult to say.
Personally, and this is something I've felt since the beginning of this current Brand-split - why not just have 1 World Championship, 1 Women's Championship & 1 Tag Team Championship exclusive to both brands.
I say this because I have to echo the thoughts of Steve "The Vince" Wilton who said "they have too many belts that are pointless and don't know what to do with them." The man's right.
This is why they had the WWE & World Tag Team Titles unified together at WrestleMania 25 back in 2009.
Same shtick with the WWE & World Heavyweight Titles when they had them unified in a TLC Match at TLC 2013 in which it became the WWE Undisputed Championship once again (I know it was called the WWE World Heavyweight Title. But to me it makes more sense to call it 'Undisputed' because it's 2 World Titles unified to make 1).
And that lasted, what? 3 years?!
Remember that distinguished expression "those who don't learn from their history are just doomed to repeat it."
They did this in 2001 when Chris Jericho became the 1st WWE Undisputed Champion by defeating WCW Champion, The Rock & WWE Champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin on the same night at Vengeance 2001.
And what happened? 9 months later after Brock took the Undisputed Title to SmackDown after defeating The Rock to become the youngest WWE Champion ever at 25 years young, they introduced the World Heavyweight Title on Raw by awarding it to Triple H. And did the same 5 years later when Randy Orton was awarded the WWE Championship at No Mercy 2007 when John Cena was stripped of the belt due to injury.
Asuka being drafted to SmackDown is a win-win situation for Team Blue as the Empress of Tomorrow has no one left to mow-down on Monday Nights and making the transition to Tuesday nights was a natural move.
Glad to see Big Cass return after being out on the sidelines for so long due to injury. Him Vs Bryan will prove intriguing at the very least but I think it'll be more about Bryan finally getting the agitation of his system that the Miz has built up with his snide comments over the last 2 years.
Jeff Hardy coming to SmackDown is an interesting move as the man took the US Title from Jobber-Mahal on Monday becoming the only man in WWE History to be World Tag Team, Raw Tag Team, Intercontinental, European, Hardcore, Light-Heavyweight, World Heavyweight, WWE & now United States Champion. And like Chris Jericho has won every title in the old and new requirements to be a Grand Slam Champion.
I'm just hoping that Jeff can stay clean this time. For such a talented competitor, he has trouble beating his demons. Maybe a reign as US Champion will be the very thing he needs. We'll see...
The new set-up for Raw & SmackDown has taken shape and it looks like we're in for an interesting ride for the next 12 months.
