Grading the RAW roster moves in the WWE Superstar Shakeup

Following the moves during this week’s WWE Superstar Shakeup, here are the grades for those now making their home on Monday Night RAW.

The WWE Superstar Shakeup took place this week on Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live, and while it didn’t take place the night after WrestleMania to set up the next year, it was close enough and I’m really hoping that this becomes a yearly event. While not every trade (I know they’re not officially calling them that but if you look at what happened, that’s exactly what went down) was a winner, I really liked a lot of the moves that were made to shake up the rosters and possibly set up some new feuds for the upcoming year.

We’ll take a look at the new additions to SmackDown Live in a separate piece, but today we want to focus on the 13 new faces that will be coming your way every Monday night for the foreseeable future, including two former world champs, the current Intercontinental Champion, former tag champs, two former women’s champs, a great addition to the cruiserweight division and, yes, a few duds in there as well.

So let’s take a look at how the Superstar Shakeup affected Monday Night RAW and have some fun throwing a few grades around. And just so we’re not playing any favorites, let’s do this in alphabetical order.

Dean Ambrose

Grade: A-

It’s always a big deal when a title changes brands, and when a big name like Dean Ambrose comes along with it, it makes it all that much better. The Lunatic Fringe coming to Monday Night RAW does open up a lot of possibilities, including a Shield reunion that I’m sure was the first thing to come to many people’s minds when he showed up during the opening segment a few nights ago.

One possibility is that the Intercontinental Championship may end up being the most coveted title on RAW for a little while, what with the Universal Championship currently being held by part-timer Brock Lesnar. However, that may not end up being the case but I’ll talk more on that in a few minutes. Ambrose is a big fan favorite with drawing power that will give a boost to any brand he’s on. I just wish we’d been able to see him interact with Shinsuke Nakamura before he left SmackDown Live.

Alexa Bliss

Grade: B

SmackDown Live still got the better end of this deal, with Charlotte leaving for the blue brand, but I still like this move. Both women’s divisions had gotten a little stale and this opens up the door for the former champion to get into some nice feuds on Monday Night RAW. I think a program with her and Bayley would be very interesting and fun as they obviously have completely different characters. My only concern is that, at some point, Nia Jax might actually break her in half. We saw what she almost did to Charlotte a couple of times this past Monday night and I don’t think Alexa would bounce back the same way. Still a nice get for team red.

Apollo Crews

Grade: F

What exactly did this accomplish? For a year now, Apollo Crews has been stuck in bad programs with no support from anyone in the back and he barely gets a reaction from the crowd. Surely that year could have been better spent honing his craft and getting into the title picture in NXT.

He didn’t really get anywhere during his time on SmackDown Live and now he’s part of a bigger show with a bigger, deeper roster, and he’s just going to get lost unless he finds himself a tag team partner at some point. Don’t get me wrong. I like Apollo Crews and his potential — but this move to Monday Night RAW isn’t going to help anyone.

The Drifter

Grade: I

The “I” here is for incomplete as we still don’t quite know what the plan is for Elias Samson. But we do know that he’s here to stay on the main roster seeing as he lost a “Loser Leaves Town” match to Kassius Ohno a few weeks back on an episode of NXT. What I do know is that he’s more likely to be in the category of former NXT superstars like Tyler Breeze, Apollo Crews and Adam Rose on the lower end of the card rather than in the upper echelon that includes Samoa Joe, Finn Balor and Kevin Owens. But hey, if we get Corey Graves reacting to him every week like we got on Monday night, I’m all for this move.