5 WWE Superstars who asked to move brands

Since 2016, WWE Superstars have been assigned to one specific brand – RAW, SmackDown or NXT – and there is usually a storyline reason if they appear on another show.

In 2017, for example, Jason Jordan was revealed to be Kurt Angle’s storyline son. This meant he was able to switch from SmackDown to RAW, but his tag team partner at the time – Chad Gable – had to stay on the blue brand.

Two years later, Becky Lynch won the 2019 Royal Rumble during her time as a SmackDown Superstar. As she initially selected RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey as her WrestleMania 35 opponent, “The Man” was allowed to appear on both RAW and SmackDown.

The brand rules have been extremely lenient since WrestleMania 35, with the 2019 ‘Wild Card Rule’ and 2020 ‘Brand-to-Brand Invitational’ permitting some Superstars to move between shows without much warning.

Now, although specific brand assignments are not as strict as they were between 2016 and 2018, certain Superstars have still asked WWE if they can permanently switch to a different show.

In this article, let’s take a look at five of those Superstars, as well as the reasons why they wanted to move.

---

#5 Naomi asked to join WWE NXT

Naomi revealed in an interview with Women’s Wrestling Weekly in February 2020 that she requested a move to WWE NXT in early 2019.

At the time, the former Funkadactyl was a member of the WWE SmackDown roster but she had not been involved in a SmackDown Women’s Championship storyline since failing to recapture the title from Natalya in September 2017.

"I asked about a year ago to go down to NXT to work. I just think NXT is awesome. I love NXT and also, the time I wasn't being used much on the main roster, so I was like, 'Dang, can I go down there and just see what I can get into, what could happen, and the talent down there is just so good.'" [H/T POST Wrestling]

The two-time SmackDown Women’s Champion was also keen to work with Bianca Belair, either as her new tag team partner or as her opponent, but she did not end up returning to the brand.

Naomi added that it is a dream of hers to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles with another African-American Superstar – something that has never happened.

#4 AJ Styles asked to join WWE SmackDown

After working on WWE SmackDown for three years between 2016 and 2019, AJ Styles moved to WWE RAW in the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up and reformed The Club (aka The O.C.) with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.

In April 2020, WWE released Gallows and Anderson as a cost-cutting measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting Styles to say on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast that he needed to get away from RAW after feeling “crushed” by the departure of his fellow faction members.

Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue reported that Styles had also received flak from members of the RAW roster for his world views, which led to him “not feeling at home” on the red brand.

"There has apparently been a lot of situations where AJ Styles has been mocked, and he has said to not be feeling particularly at home."

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer also reported that Styles blamed Paul Heyman – RAW’s Executive Director at the time of Gallows and Anderson’s departure – and he wanted to join a WWE brand where the head of creative, Bruce Prichard, was not "fighting Vince McMahon".

#3 Cameron asked to join WWE NXT

While the other four Superstars in this list asked to move brands a long time after the WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown rosters separated, Cameron went back to WWE NXT in 2015 after previously asking to do so in 2014.

Naomi’s former tag team partner competed in two matches on NXT television in early 2013 before she began appearing regularly as an in-ring competitor on RAW and SmackDown.

In late 2015, her unhappiness with her storylines on the main roster led to her finally getting her wish to return to NXT. As you can see in the video above, her decision to move to the black and gold brand even featured on an episode of Total Divas.

“I didn’t like where I was at the time. I wasn’t happy. I wanted to have a storyline. I wanted to get better and … sometimes you have to take a few steps backwards in order to move a few steps forward.” [H/T The Edmonton Sun]

Cameron appeared on NXT from October 2015 to January 2016, with her final match coming in a losing effort against Alexa Bliss. She was then released from her WWE contract in May 2016.

#2 Velveteen Dream asked to join WWE RAW/SmackDown

Velveteen Dream took an enormous gamble in August 2018 when he sent a message to Vince McMahon during his match against EC3 at WWE NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV by wearing tights which contained the words ‘Call Me Up Vince’.

This match happened over a year before WWE NXT moved to the USA Network and became a legitimate rival to WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown in a storyline at Survivor Series 2019.

At the time, it was common for NXT Superstars to move to RAW or SmackDown in the days following WrestleMania and SummerSlam, which is presumably why Dream chose a match on SummerSlam weekend to grab the attention of McMahon.

Triple H, who had not seen Dream’s tights before the match, said he admired the former Tough Enough contestant’s willingness to take a risk, but he was unsure how WWE's Chairman would react.

"If he is talking about Vince McMahon, there are a couple different phone calls you could get from Vince McMahon. One you want to get, one you really don't want to get. So you have to be careful when you say, 'Vince, give me a call.' Because you never know what kind of call you're going to get." [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

#1 Tyler Breeze asked to join WWE NXT

Tyler Breeze established himself as one of WWE NXT’s most popular Superstars during his time with the brand, but he was unable to make as much of an impact on WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown after joining the main roster in October 2015.

In fact, in the year prior to Breeze’s NXT return in April 2019, almost all of his televised matches as a member of the RAW roster came on Main Event.

Following a brief spell back with NXT at live events in 2018, he permanently returned to the black and gold brand in 2019 when he unsuccessfully challenged Velveteen Dream for the North American Championship at WWE NXT TakeOver: XXV.

In June 2019, Breeze confirmed on Twitter that it was his idea to leave RAW and make a full-time return to NXT.

I asked them https://t.co/mEuZwWp2Ts

— Prince Pretty (@MmmGorgeous) June 3, 2019

He has since started competing in matches on WWE 205 Live, while he joined forces with Fandango again on NXT to reform the Fashion Police tag team.

As of the time of writing, the duo’s biggest victory so far came in June 2020 when they defeated Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong and Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan to become the No.1 contenders for the NXT Tag Team titles.