Last week's announcement of WWE's Superstar Shake-up promised to change the landscapes of Raw and SmackDown Live significantly, and with the pseudo-draft officially in the books, it's safe to say it was successful in doing just that.The first part of the Shake-up took place on Monday night and featured several stars from SmackDown Live making the move to Raw. Almost immediately, The Miz, Maryse and intercontinental champion Dean Ambrose all proclaimed their allegiance to Raw, making the prestigious prize property of the flagship show in the process.These were two big blows to the blue brand considering Ambrose and Miz have been prominent players on the program since the summer, both having held gold on multiple occasions. They are excellent additions to Team Red, though it remains to be seen whether they will receive the same high-profile opportunities on Raw.Thankfully, it wasn't long before SmackDown retaliated by picking up United States champion Kevin Owens the very next night, along with Sami Zayn. It was certainly a fair trade as Owens and Zayn should be positioned as top-tier talent on the blue brand going forward.Owens and Zayn should have been separated in last year's draft and once again find themselves on the same show, but on the bright side, they appear to be going in different directions with Owens apparently primed to feud with AJ Styles in the near future.Speaking of Styles, his staying put on SmackDown was perhaps the biggest takeaway of the Superstar Shake-up, along with Shinsuke Nakamura. Both men should be cornerstones of the "land of opportunity" over the next year.Bray Wyatt, the former WWE champion, was also sent packing to Raw on Monday night, putting an abrupt end to his recent rivalry with Randy Orton. Although the two will do battle one final time at Payback later this month, they have been involved with each other for close to eight months and thus splitting them up was for the best.In return, SmackDown received a sleeper pick in Rusev, who is out injured according to F4WOnline.com (h/t Wrestling Inc). He should be a much bigger priority on Tuesday nights than he ever was on Raw, and his wife Lana also appears to be branching out on her own in the women's division.With the women, SmackDown lost two of their strongest stars in Alexa Bliss and Mickie James, and they will surely shake up the stagnant division on Raw. Meanwhile, SmackDown scored several new faces in the likes of Lana, Tamina and, most notably, Charlotte Flair.Furthermore, the tag team scenes on both brands were altered a bit. Raw's division was already stacked thanks to the return of The Hardy Boyz and the debut of The Revival, so The New Day making the move over to SmackDown was a wise choice.Other interesting show switches included Apollo Crews, Kalisto, Curt Hawkins, Heath Slater and Rhyno heading to Raw while Sin Cara, The Shining Stars and Jinder Mahal joined SmackDown. Although there was a definite imbalance on Monday, the playing field has certainly been evened coming out of Tuesday's SmackDown.Raw is undoubtedly stacked with star power at the moment, but fans shouldn't underestimate SmackDown, which received the short end of the stick in the 2016 WWE draft and still beat out Raw as the better overall show. Expect that to be the case this time as well with the exceptional core group of athletes SmackDown now possesses.All things considered, both brands emerged as winners in the Superstar Shake-up, but the slight edge goes to SmackDown for the potential it has to make something special from their roster. At three hours long, Raw has more than enough time to provide people with a platform where they can build credibility, but a number of promising stars are bound to be lost in the shuffle.Regardless of what show you stand with, there is no denying that the coming weeks will be must-see TV for Raw and SmackDown as a result of these massive moves.GrahamMirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a Digital Journalismmajor atEndicottCollege. Visit his website,Next Era Wrestling,and "like" his officialFacebook pageto continue the conversationon all things wrestling.
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