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What's the story?
Recently, rumours have spread of another Superstar Shake-up making its way to WWE. With Smackdown and Raw barely having time to adjust to the last one, it looks like the second shake-up will take place soon, as Sami Zayn is advertised for an upcoming Raw PPV.
In case you didn't know...
On April 10th and 11th, WWE's first ever Superstar Shake-up took place, with certain wrestlers and on air commentary personnel changing shows to "shake up" the landscape of the company after Wrestlemania. Some people often consider Wrestlemania as the end of the season for WWE, so it makes sense that WWE would want to change things up a bit at the beginning of the next "season."
Among the talent to swap from red to blue and vice-versa was none other than Sami Zayn. The former NXT Champion had a decent run on Raw, taking on the likes of Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, and Braun Strowman. However, he would be brought over on the April 11th edition of Smackdown Live to make a name for himself in the Land of Opportunity.
The heart of the matter
Multiple spoilers have been revealed over the past two weeks in regards to Monday Night Raw's upcoming pay-per-view, No Mercy. Before Summerslam, it was revealed in a leak that Brock Lesnar would be defending his Universal Title against Braun Strowman, spoiling Summerslam just days before the event took place. It seems, however, that this was not the only thing to be spoiled.
On the Staples Center website, the advertisement for WWE No Mercy mentions multiple RAW superstars along with one Sami Zayn. The advertisement states:
This RAW exclusive PPV brings a day of reckoning to the City of Angels. See: Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Bayley, Braun Strowman, Sasha Banks, Finn Balor, The Miz, Alexa Bliss, Sami Zayn, The Hardy Boys, Cesaro and Sheamus, and many more.
As per the norm, this is followed by "Lineup subject to change."
What's next?
Sami Zayn doesn't have much to do on Smackdown Live at the moment, so it's possible that he could find his way on Monday Night Raw. We've seen recently that we don't need a draft to bring superstars from one side to the other, specifically with the call up of Bobby Roode and Jason Jordan's swap back in July. No Mercy takes place on September 24th, so the WWE has a month to make the swap.
Author's take
To bring Sami back over to Raw now seems like a bit of a waste. He wasn't doing too much during his final months on Raw, feuding with Strowman and nothing else. It seemed that he was buried under the talent Raw was carrying at that point, and their roster has only gotten more stacked since the shakeup.
Sami has a chance to make a better impression on the fans on Smackdown Live. We've seen careers revitalized on Tuesday nights, with Breezango, Miz, and most importantly, WWE Champion Jinder Mahal.
Tuesday nights also offer a bit more variety in their roster, with a lot of talent that Sami hasn't yet fought. However, Raw's roster has changed enough in the past few months that Sami could go through a few fresh feuds before returning to a rivalry with someone like The Miz.
Like it said on the Staples Center advertisement, the card is subject to change. It's possible Sami stays on Smackdown. We'll just have to stay tuned to find out.
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