7 Mistakes WWE Made With The 2019 Superstar Shake-Up
2. Samoa Joe Moved To Raw One Week Late
Another Superstar who was conspicuous by their absence during the Superstar Shake-up was Samoa Joe, who had been a staple of the SmackDown Live roster for nearly a year.
From feuding with AJ Styles to capturing the United States Championship, Joe dominated the singles ranks on SmackDown. Coming out of WrestleMania 35, no indication was given that he'd be switching shows, and if anything, Braun Strowman would move to Tuesday nights to feud with him as had been teased two weeks ago.
As we later found out, Finn Bálor was SmackDown bound, and he was taking the Intercontinental Championship with him. That put the Intercontinental and United States titles on the same show again, meaning Joe had to be traded to Raw in order to justify moving Bálor.
The issue was, Joe was nowhere to be seen that week on Raw, and per the rules of the Shake-up, all of the moves were finalized (or so we were led to believe). It looked like he would remain on the blue brand, until he surfaced on Monday's Raw with no mention of how his move came to be to begin with.
Reportedly, an illness prevented Joe from appearing on Raw during the Shake-up. A simple graphic explaining the switch would have sufficed, but WWE chose to take the lazy route by assuming fans wouldn't notice.