Last year, WWE brought back the brand extension after almost six years and had a superstar draft which split the roster in half. Since that time, superstars have pretty much made their home on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live without much movement at all. Well, the rumors are starting to swirl, and there has been some speculation that another draft will come this summer, but it seems as if there will be some trades first.
On July 19 of last year, the long-awaited brand split took place with the roster being split right down the middle. Stephanie McMahon became the commissioner of Monday Night Raw with Mick Foley as her general manager while SmackDown Live saw Shane McMahon take charge with Daniel Bryan as his GM.
You can’t get two bigger power teams, and from there, they started to make their selections from the full WWE roster. As recapped by the official WWE website, Seth Rollins went number one overall to Raw with then-WWE Champion Dean Ambrose going to SmackDown Live.
Since the draft back in July, there hasn’t been a lot of movement at all. As a matter of fact, the only real change was Jack Swagger having his Raw contract expire, which allowed him to move to Tuesday nights. A few stars debuted on either brand and the cruiserweight division started on Monday nights, but there have been no trades.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, by way of Wrestling Inc., there is speculation that some roster moves are going to start being made soon. It seems as if things are going to stay the way they are for now, but after WrestleMania 33, look for some trades to start taking place.
There is no official word on when these trades may happen exactly or which superstars will be traded, but the past couple of months have had some storylines which might give a few hints. At different times, talks of trades and shipping one WWE superstar to another brand have come about, and they could have something to do with trades happening later this year.
While none of those trades actually went through, it would not be surprising to see Daniel Bryan and Mick Foley revisit them.
Right before Survivor Series last year, the two brands were going back and forth between each show to build up the elimination-style tag matches. As reported by Inquisitr, Daniel Bryan said that two Raw superstars, Sami Zayn and Cesaro, actually told him they were looking to be traded to SmackDown.
The next month, Zayn upped things a bit after being reportedly being mistreated by Mick Foley, and he ended up demanding a trade. Foley originally said it was a done deal, but then, he took it back and kept Zayn on the Raw roster.
Around the same time, the official website of WWE reported that Daniel Bryan wasn’t against trading The Miz to Monday Night Raw if he lost to Dolph Ziggler on the 900th episode of SmackDown Live. The “awesome one” ended up winning and kept his spot on Tuesday nights secure.
Trades are coming and knowing that, the speculation of who will end up where is going to heat up before too long.
If the rumors end up being true and WWE starts having some trades after WrestleMania 33, it will be interesting to see who switches brands. Many big names have found themselves at the top of the ladders of Monday Night Raw or SmackDown Live, and a trade could find them having to start from scratch. One of the main reasons the draft was brought back was to keep things interesting, and roster moves could be used to shake things up again.
