10 WWE Roster Trades That Must Happen In 2018

It's time to shake things up again.

Randy Orton
WWE

The annual WWE Draft is one of the great touchstones of the annual wrestling calendar.

Or: used to be, anyway. As of last year, it's known as the Superstar Shake-Up for reasons that are still to make themselves clear (maybe it's supposed to really drive home the idea that WWE wrestlers are, in fact, superstars as opposed to mere wrestlers).

Since Vince McMahon makes the rules up as he goes along - well, he is the Father Christmas of the squared circle, after all - it's not like he really needs to wait until April or May to start playing musical chairs with his roster.

Trades could happen at just about any time of the year, to the extent that it wouldn't surprise many if Jinder Mahal popped up on Raw next Monday to reissue his doomed challenge to Universal Champion Brock Lesnar.

We're focusing, however, on the roster moves that are likely to happen next year, whether it be down-on-their-luck Raw stars seeking their fortune on Tuesdays, SmackDown stalwarts making the step up to the A-show or, perhaps most excitingly, NXT grads moving up to the main roster.

10. Randy Orton To Raw

Randy Orton
WWE.com

You'd never say it to his face, but doesn't it sort of feel like Randy Orton has been phoning it in a little over the last 18 months?

Granted, this could have more to do with the opponents he's been paired with than anything else. Producing your best work with an inexperienced Jinder Mahal, or worse yet, inside Bray Wyatt's House of Horrors, can't be easy - regardless of how polished a performer you are.

But it does seem like The Viper needs a fresh challenge, and more to the point, a shift in character. His SmackDown run has been disappointing largely because of the fact that he's remained a face throughout, despite clearly being more natural as a heel.

With a bigger roster and one or two opponents that he is yet to really lock horns with, Raw would be a good place for the company to reignite some of that Legacy-era Randy Orton fire. And, if nothing else, it would at least allow him to have another run at Brock Lesnsar, who he never did get back at for caving his head open at last year's SummerSlam.

In this post: 
Randy Orton
 
Posted On: 
Contributor