14 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown Superstar Shake-Up

4. Big Blue Balor

Finn Balor
WWE.com

Raw and SmackDown effectively swapped their midcard champions last night.

Although the flu forced Samoa Joe to pull out of a scheduled Raw appearance, all signs pointed towards the United States champ moving to Monday nights sometime within the next few days. With him gone, SmackDown had a void to fill, and they did so by bringing in Intercontinental Title holder Finn Balor, who, just 24 hours prior, looked to be entering a new feud with Raw's Andrade.

The Irishman came out to a big reception from the Montreal crowd. Fans have been pining for him to come over to WWE's strongest booked main roster brand for a while, and it became a reality in SD's first hour. It should, theoretically, be a great move. Undermined so often throughout his main roster run, Balor will now benefit from Team Blue's tighter writing and presentation, avoiding terrible programmes like the Bobby Lashley and Bray Wyatt debacles and, hopefully, pushing himself back towards the main event scene.

We'll take a workrate-heavy IC reign before that, of course.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.