SmackDown Live Winners & Losers: Shaking Up The Roster

The second night of the back-to-back Superstar Shake-up nights was potentially more interesting than the first. WWE proved that they weren't about to neglect SmackDown Live for Raw and brought over some major powerhouses leaving no rock unturned.

Not only was it a night of red brand talent coming to the blue, but NXT stars made their debuts and returning stars made the night as much about them an overall shake-up as Tuesday was about Raw stars coming over. Not everything was perfect, but for the most part, SmackDown Live was better than Raw.

Here are your winners and losers from SmackDown Live on April 17, 2018.

Loser: Rusev

It appears Rusev and WWE are anything but on the same page. He's been removed from matches and brought back to them. He's been tweeting and using Instagram to send cryptic messages to Aiden English and the WWE Universe, but it is business as usual on TV. In short, it's like Rusev is going one direction and WWE is going another.

On Tuesday however, he was used again in the enhancers role, putting over AJ Styles in an all too familiar way. We suppose the good news is that he was on TV and getting a prime spot. The outcomes still just don't favor the Bulgarian Brute and Rusev Day.

Winner: Jeff Hardy

For the second straight night, Jeff Hardy was a winner, this time for returning with the U.S. Title to SmackDown Live. There was a ton of speculation that Seth Rollins and the Intercontinental Title would be the asset coming over but the blue brand gets the United States Championship back and the "Enigma" known as Jeff Hardy might be looking at an interesting feud with Randy Orton upon his arrival.

Shelton Benjamin took the loss here but he got some air time explaining what life without Chad Gable will look like and the match between Benjamin and Hardy was good, bringing back glimpses of a decade earlier when these two were quite popular in WWE.

Winner: Samoa Joe

Some may suggest Samoa Joe's move to SmackDown Live may be the biggest move of all the changes to occur over the two nights and they may be right. He's got the potential to completely shake-up the heel side of the show and he wasted no time by calling out almost everyone that represents the blue brand as a babyface.

It might seem odd to make this switch in the midst of him having a beef with Roman Reigns, but WWE can always revisit that, plus Reigns is still busy with Brock Lesnar. The promo he delivered was excellent and the idea of the dream matches he could have with Bryan, Styles, and Nakamura can make you salivate.

Winner: Carmella

Something suggests people are going to be surprised with how effective a heel Carmella will make. She may not be the most talented wrestler on the show, but she could be one of the better talkers and that is almost more important as a heel champion. On Tuesday, she offered up her "Carmellabration" and she was effectively annoying as the new Princess of SmackDown Live.

The segment started and ended strong with Charlotte and The Iiconics showing up and when Becky Lynch made the save, a match resulted which led to confirmation Asuka was now an official part of SmackDown Live. It was an effective way to get the top ladies a showcase. And with that, the Women's Division became interesting.

Loser: Big Cass

It is great to see Big Cass back in WWE but there is going to be some argument that putting him in a program with Daniel Bryan right off the hop is not a smart move because there's no way he can come out on top of things. Bryan will go over and Cass may suffer as a result.

Perhaps it would have been better to bring him to destroy a few names first before moving up to the bigger fish. The interesting part of all this is that the company aligned him with Nakamura which might be fun to watch. SmackDown Live definitely has a stronger stable of heel characters after the Shakeup came and went.