4 WWE Superstars who are surprisingly staying on SmackDown Live

The 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-Up featured 17 roster moves on Monday’s episode of Raw, and the two-night event will continue on Tuesday when more names are drafted to SmackDown Live.

The following Superstars have already been confirmed as Raw recruits: AJ Styles, The Miz, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Erik (Rowe), Ivar (Hanson), Andrade, Zelina Vega, Rey Mysterio, Lars Sullivan, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Naomi, EC3, Lacey Evans, Eric Young, Cedric Alexander.

This year’s Shake-Up is also giving Superstars from 205 Live and NXT the chance to move to the main roster, with former Cruiserweight champion Cedric Alexander joining Raw and War Raiders’ Hanson & Rowe (now known as The Viking Experience’s Ivar & Erik) also moving to Monday nights.

As for SmackDown Live, several names who were expected to move to Raw during Monday’s episode have been confirmed to be staying put on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at four Superstars/teams who are surprisingly set to remain on SmackDown Live.

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#4 Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe became a main-roster title holder for the first time when he won a Fatal 4-Way match in March to be crowned the new United States champion. Four weeks later, he successfully defended his title by defeating Rey Mysterio in just 60 seconds at WrestleMania 35.

Heading into the Shake-Up, many people predicted that “The Samoan Submission Machine” would return to Raw, where he previously spent 15 months between January 2017 and April 2018, along with his United States Championship. That would also have meant that Finn Balor and the Intercontinental Championship would head in the other direction to SmackDown Live.

However, while Balor lost against new Raw recruit Andrade in one of the featured matches of Monday’s episode, there was no sign of Joe, which presumably means that the Irishman will not be moving to SmackDown Live in a straight swap.

The Wrestling Observer is reporting that Joe is “very sick with a bad case of the flu”, so it is possible that his illness might have altered WWE’s plans for the Shake-Up.

#3 Shinsuke Nakamura

It is fair to say that things have not gone according to plan for Shinsuke Nakamura since he was called up from NXT to be part of the SmackDown Live roster in April 2017. Granted, he won the 2018 Royal Rumble, but the aura he had during his time in NJPW and NXT has completely disappeared.

“The King of Strong Style” has been involved in underwhelming rivalries with Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, Jinder Mahal, AJ Styles and Rusev since joining SmackDown Live, while his United States Championship reign in 2018 only lasted so long (163 days) because he barely appeared on television.

Having already been involved in the WWE Championship, United States Championship and SmackDown Tag Team Championship pictures, the 2019 Shake-Up seemed like the right moment to move Nakamura over to Raw and try to kick-start his career on a different brand.

However, after he did not appear on Monday’s episode of Raw, it looks like his tag team losing streak with Rusev will continue on SmackDown Live.

#2 The rest of SAnitY

WWE gave plenty of new Raw additions a big moment to introduce themselves on Monday’s episode, including The Miz, The Viking Experience, Naomi and Lars Sullivan, but the same cannot be said for Eric Young.

The leader of SAnitY was included on a graphic midway through the broadcast which showed which Superstars had been added to the Raw roster. Along with the likes of Miz and Andrade, Young’s face appeared at the end of the graphic despite the fact that he did not even feature during the episode.

The SAnitY faction has barely been given any opportunities on SmackDown Live since moving to the brand after the 2018 Superstar Shake-Up, so it is no real surprise that WWE is looking to make a change with the former NXT Tag Team champions, but it is a surprise that Young has moved to Raw by himself and the rest of his group are staying on the blue brand.

Time will tell if Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe (and possibly Nikki Cross) will remain together.

#1 Mandy Rose/Sonya Deville

Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville moved to the main roster as part of Paige’s Absolution faction in November 2017 and they have since established themselves as prominent members of the SmackDown Live women’s division.

After losing over 10 consecutive matches each throughout 2018, tensions grew between the two women in November and it looked as though WWE was about to split them up. However, following a victory over Charlotte Flair and Asuka, the former Tough Enough contestants got back on track and became legitimate SmackDown Women’s Championship contenders earlier this year.

Many people predicted that Deville would challenge for the title first but the opportunity instead went to Rose, who failed to defeat Asuka at Fastlane due to a communication error with her best friend. Since then, the two have continued to have disagreements and it seemed like the Superstar Shake-Up would be the perfect platform for one member of the duo to move to Raw.

But now, after Lacey Evans, Naomi and Zelina Vega were confirmed as new members of the Raw women’s division, it looks like Rose and Deville will stay where they are.