Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Bayley and The Miz: Rating the winners and losers from the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up

A look who has gained, and who has not, following this week's trades on Raw and SmackDown

Roman Reigns - winner: Putting him on SmackDown gives him fresh opponents and a revisit of his feud with Vince McMahon in 2016. It is unlikely he would be the one to dethrone Kofi Kingston, but the WWE World Heavyweight title is undeniably in his future. All images courtesy of WWE

Kairi Sane - winner: The former NXT Women's champion is a welcome addition to SmackDown. While she will be in a tag team initially with Asuka there is a lot of upside to Sane and she should be in the title picture by the end of the year and moving towards WrestleMania 36.

Buddy Murphy - winner: The Australian has been superb on 205 live and should do well on SmackDown in the midcard. Could well be challenging for the Intercontinental title against Finn Balor by the end of the summer, if not before.

Samoa Joe - undecided: This is speculated that he is heading to Raw, as there is no way he as United States champion, and Finn Balor, as Intercontinental champion, will be on the same brand on SmackDown. Joe could be good on Raw, but it is likely to be more of the same from SmackDown. Namely putting over faces like Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman.

Finn Balor - undecided: The Irishman is remarkably over the crowd despite the inconsistent booking he has received. If he has a decent run on SmackDown as Intercontinental champion then this could be a success, but the lack of heels on the roster looks an issue.

Bayley - loser: Being moved away from Raw and a pay-off with Sasha Banks as tag team partners is not a good move, given that storyline had been 15 months in the making. Bayley has lost so much momentum on the main roster from her NXT days, and she could be easily lost in the shuffle on SmackDown.

Drew McIntyre - winner: The shuffling of the rosters leaves him as the top heel on Raw. That doesn't mean he'll be getting the Universal crown anytime soon, but feuds with Seth Rollins, AJ Styles and Braun Strowman should keep him at the top of the card for much of 2019.

Elias - loser: WWE have something with Elias. He has charisma and a great knack for interplaying well with crowds. But he continues to be buried in the booking. Being on the same brand as Roman Reigns, and being beaten down on his opening night on SmackDown does not bode well.

AJ Styles - winner: Had become stale on the blue brand after feuding with almost everyone there was to do fight. Raw mixes things up and him taking on Seth Rollins is a mouthwatering prospect. Whether he stays face or returns to the dark side will be an interesting aspect as while massively popular his best WWE work so far has been as a heel.

Randy Orton - winner: The viper wins out by not moving as others have. There are few top heels on SmackDown at present, with Daniel Bryan injured at present. His work with AJ Styles was comfortably the most interesting Orton has been in five years and a feud with Kofi Kingston for the WWE World Heavweight title could be fun, given their history and that infamous moment when he admonished the New Day star in the ring almost a decade ago for botching a finishing sequence.

The Miz - loser: A strange move given his beef at present is with Shane McMahon, the SmackDown general manager. The feud can still go on despite different brands. But continually swapping brands hurts Miz and it is hard to see where he fits in on Raw, with his new face persona, unless he goes over Samoa Joe's United States title. Which would be a backwards step given Miz is at a level where he should be in the world title picture. But unless his face run is abandoned it is hard to see a Rollins v Miz programme.

The WWE's Superstar Shake-up is done and dusted for another year after this week's editions of Raw and SmackDown.

There were a number of superstars who moved between the brands, as well as a couple of call-ups from NXT and 205 Live.

Here is a look at how the shake-up has affected some of the stars, be it good, bad or too early to tell.

Those include Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Bayley, Kairi Sane and Randy Orton. Check out the analysis and explanation for the 11 superstars assessed in the gallery above.

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