12 Roster Moves WWE Must Make Right Now
It's time to shake things up again.
Although WWE's latest Superstar Shake-up back in April was necessary in freshening up the rosters and creating new rivalries, it can be argued that the pseudo-draft did more to hurt the existing rosters for Raw and particularly SmackDown Live than help them. In fact, it's been well-documented how SmackDown has been worse off since shipping The Miz, Dean Ambrose and others off to Raw and how the program has yet to fully recover from being gutted.
It was recently rumored that a second Superstar Shake-up was set to take place shortly following SummerSlam, but of course, that never happened. We are well into the month of September, and nothing has been announced as of now - but it is evident that changes need to be made to both brands in order for each to have the strongest line-up possible heading into the fall season.
In addition to stars switching from SmackDown to Raw and vice versa, 205 Live and NXT could benefit from an influx of fresh faces as well, and thus they should be kept under consideration during the next Shake-up WWE decides to hold.
Between those four shows, these are the 12 roster moves that are most needed right now.
12. The Authors Of Pain To SmackDown Live
While NXT mostly consists of established independent wrestlers at this point, the black-and-yellow brand should be commended for how they've handled The Authors of Pain over the past year, considering they started from scratch with them. The dominant duo quickly embarked on a path of destruction from the moment they arrived, winning the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic as well as the NXT Tag Team Championship.
Essentially, after being beaten for the first time by SAnitY at TakeOver: Brooklyn III last month, there's nothing left for them down in developmental. Plus, they went from being a fairly green pair of rookies to a pretty polished tandem, contesting excellent matches with everyone they've waged war with. With the addition of reDRAGON and The Street Profits to the division, Authors of Pain are no longer needed down in NXT.
Between Raw and SmackDown Live, The Authors of Pain would be a better fit on the blue brand. Raw's tag team division is stacked with The Hardy Boyz, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, and The Revival. SmackDown has The New Day and The Usos, sure, but the well runs dry after them. It's unknown whether Paul Ellering would be a part of the package as well, but he would continue to serve as a nice addition to their act.