Grading each move for SmackDown Live in the WWE Supertstar Shakeup

Rusev’s on the blue brand now and that rules

Roman Reigns … er, I’m sorry, Rusev (MACHKA!) is now a member of the SmackDown Live roster after Tuesday night, which is a great move for him and the blue brand as a whole.

Why did I slip and call him Roman Reigns? Because that’s his alias on Xavier Woods’ YouTube-famous UpUpDownDown video game-based show because “Roman Reigns never loses.” (Those are his words, not mine. I love him very much for saying that.)

Rusev has been on the cusp of the main event picture for forever it seems like and this move to SmackDown feels like a perfect thing for him when he returns from injury. He’s such an entertaining heel — and that’s with his tweets included in this as well — and I’m going to be very disappointed if his nameplate during his entrances on Tuesdays doesn’t say “HANDSOME RUSEV”.

Grade: A- (but only because he’s injured right now and we won’t see him for a bit)

Lana is on SmackDown Live, too … but as a wrestler?

So, let’s recap Lana’s vignette on Tuesday night: The woman is absolutely stunning and Rusev is the luckiest man on the face of the planet to be married to her. But, it looked like the first Jessica Rabbit scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit and every one of Summer Rae’s old promos.

If she’s getting in the ring again — and performs well — this could work similarly to Maryse as “the gorgeous international woman who can win some matches, too”, but you’re not wrong to be hesitant over what to expect from Lana. This could go surprisingly well or it could lead to her just being Rusev’s valet once more.

Grade: Lana gets a ?+ because we have no idea what she’s doing going forward