There are some key changes afoot for WWE coming up soon. Word is that sometime soon, the era of single-branded PPVs is over. That’s a change that has drawn mixed reactions and that, if nothing else is going to make things more competitive on each brand as there will be fewer PPV spots to go around and more TV time, too, will likely be allotted to those performers who are wrestling on PPV. Additionally, word is that next brand draft is around the corner, with the potential for a variety of talents to move from one show to other, as well as for NXT talents to graduate into the main roster mix.

So who should move where? There are a variety of considerations at play. Raw tends to have a brighter spotlight and more of an emphasis on big personalities, whereas SmackDown tends to afford more upward mobility and a greater focus on the in ring product. In some instances, a talented would be better served to have the opportunity to work the specific performers from another roster. Sometimes it’s a matter of a crowded scene at that performer’s spot. In other situations, a performer may have simply grown stale for over-exposure on one brand and have the opportunity to shine with a fresh slate of opponents, or may have been locked into a specific role, and would do better with a chance to try something new.

For all of the reasons described above, this article looks at eight wrestlers who should go to Raw as soon as this spring, and eight who would be better served to go to SmackDown.

16 To Raw: AJ Styles

If there’s one wrestler who benefited the most from the 2016 brand split, there’s a real argument to be made it was AJ Styles. With fewer top stars to get lost in the shuffle with, John Cena transitioning toward more of a part time schedule, and Dean Ambrose going lukewarm as the face of the brand, Styles was in the perfect position to take over as the standard bearer.

There’s an argument to be made Styles should stay put where he can work WrestleMania rematches with a heel Shinsuke Nakamura and work toward a dream encounter opposite Daniel Bryan. There’s also a case to be made that, as WWE’s best in ring performer of the last two years, and arguably its best all around performer, Styles deserves an opportunity to perform where the lights are on brightest, for WWE’s largest audience. On Raw, Styles could up the level of in ring competition and solidify his legacy as one of the biggest stars of the current era.

15 To SmackDown: Braun Strowman

Braun Strowman was one of the most over acts in WWE over the last year. He hit a glass ceiling, however, in posing a formidable challenge to Brock Lesnar, but never beating him. He did get to beat Roman Reigns more than once, but was generally booked to go 50-50 with The Big Dog, and the writing was on the wall that Reigns was the chosen one to return to the Universal Championship picture come WrestleMania season.

So Strowman couldn’t really overcome Lesnar or Reigns. Meanwhile, he was booked as head and shoulders above anyone else on the Raw roster, to the point that come WrestleMania season there was no single credible threat left for the Monster Among Men, causing WWE to wedge him into the tag team picture and win the titles with a kid. Strowman has connected with the fans enough to justify being the face of brand. That’s not going to happen on Raw unless Reigns gets injured, but the field is much more open on top on the blue brand.

14 To Raw: Sami Zayn

While many fans looked at Sami Zayn as the definitive white meat babyface of his generation, his heel turn this fall was captivating. As a partner in crime to Kevin Owens, Zayn has demonstrated impressive range. He can do comedy. He can sell a mean streak. Perhaps best of all, as he described in a visit to Edge and Christian’s podcast, he has succeeded in transitioning all of his quirky face eccentricities into annoying, heat garnering heel mannerisms.

With this new personality, Zayn is ready for primetime and could be a lot of fun filling the void The Miz will leave during his paternity leave, or even working his way into the Universal Championship picture. Zayn did nicely as an antagonist to Shane McMahon for the last half year, and it could be a lot of fun to see him cause problems for Kurt Angle at the helm of Raw moving forward. His recent failure on RAW to cash in a RAW contract was likely due to a short hiatus he needs to take, but he should be on RAW when in fact he does make his return.

13 To SmackDown: Johnny Gargano

Johnny Gargano was an indie darling who has positively shone in NXT. His never say die underdog tag team run as half of #DIY put him on the map. Subsequent feuds with Cien Almas and Tomasso Ciampa have shored up his spot as one of the very best performers WWE has under contract, and particularly in the white meat baby face role.

One has to assume he’s moving up to the main roster soon. If Gargano were to be drafted to Raw, there’s every risk of him getting lost in the shuffle and, in a worst case scenario, squandered on 205 Live. On SmackDown, Gargano should get a greater opportunity to get over, especially by putting on great matches. It will probably quite a while before Gargano is a main roster main eventer, if it ever happens, but on SmackDown he’s got his best shot of organically getting over with the fans and working toward that goal.

12 To Raw: The Usos

The Usos are an anomaly for having been together as a main roster tag team for nearly a decade, and yet still feeling like they have miles to go with the company. One of their keys to success has ben their ability to adapt and evolve, progressing from a relatively generic heel act in the tradition of The Wild Samoans, to a fun face act, to cutting edge and hip heel act that got over enough gradually slide them back toward face territory.

The Usos enjoyed a career renaissance on SmackDown since the 2016 Draft. Before the act gets stale on SmackDown again, now is perfect time to transition them to Raw where they can add depth, diversity, and talent to a so-so pool of teams, including a proper feud with The Bar or potentially The Hardys when Jeff is back in action. They'll likely lose their match with the Bludgeon Brothers at the Greatest Royal Rumble, which should make their transition to RAW all the smoother.

11 To SmackDown: Jason Jordan

Jason Jordan got a big opportunity when he was moved from SmackDown to Raw and was cast as Kurt Angle’s estranged son. It was a sink or swim, under a microscope spot that, to be fair, wasn’t exactly set up for a success, but did offer Jordan an opportunity to make lemons into lemonade on the highest level and emerge a new top star. As it turned out, the odds were stacked too high, and Jordan wasn’t able to overcome them. The hints at a heel turn before he went down to injury suggested reason for hope, but the jury was still out on how that was going to go over.

Jordan has ready made stories with Angle and Seth Rollins were he to return to Raw, but after his big 2017 angle was mostly a bust, the best thing for the talented young man may well be to distance him from those memories. Given the opportunity to get over doing what he does best—actually wrestling—he could have a bright future on the blue brand.

10 To Raw: Jinder Mahal

Jinder Mahal exploded from the mid card, and arguably even the lower mid card, to world champion status in 2017. The abrupt shift was mostly a failure, as Mahal didn’t have the chops to succeed in such a high profile spot and business—even in the target market of India—suffered under his reign. Now, he’s in an awkward position on SmackDown as a former world champion who has kayfabe claim to being better than much of the roster, without the actual skillset to back that up or justify a new push.

Switching to Raw would be a good chance for Mahal to reestablish himself, and perhaps even test drive a babyface run. If he can find a way to get over on the more crowded roster, under the more intense scrutiny of management, it may well salvage his career before it enters a full on free fall.

9 To SmackDown: Seth Rollins

Yup, we're feeling a swapping of the Intercontinental and United States championships between shows.

When WWE split up its roster in 2016, the company cast Dean Ambrose as the face of SmackDown and Seth Rollins as the face of Raw. To be fair, Rollins was only kind of the standard bearer, as he never actually got his hands on his brand’s top title, and often as not took a backseat to Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens, and Braun Strowman.

Since then, however, Rollins has worked his way up and down the card, feuding with an array of talents and largely stalling out, as WWE doesn’t seem interested in going all the way with another world title push for him. A move to SmackDown would offer Rollins the opportunity to reboot, and particularly the chance to do so outside the shadow of Reigns, and without prospective Shield reunions taking precedence over his singles standing. Add in fresh matchups against the likes of AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, and others, and Rollins switching over could be best for business for everyone involved.

8 To Raw: Randy Orton

Randy Orton has spent the last year as one of the most awkwardly positioned wrestlers on SmackDown. Yes, he beat Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 33, but the feud was unevenly booked with downright dismal matches when the two actually hit the ring. From there, Orton dropped the title to Jinder Mahal in more bad matches, and then aimlessly drifted between programs with Rusev, helping Shane McMahon in his war with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, and pursuing the United States Championship. Orton is simultaneously too big of a star to drift far from the main event picture, and too stale to justify giving a meaningful push.

A move to Raw would, at the least, freshen Orton’s slate of opponents. Additionally, while The Authority may take a sabbatical after WrestleMania, they surely won’t stay away too long, and there’s always history to play off of and the potential for intrigue when Orton and Triple H are on the same brand.

7 To SmackDown: The Authors Of Pain

At first blush, The Authors of Pain could be mistaken for a generic big man tag team, loosely in the mold of the Road Warriors. Over the past year in particular, the guys have proven themselves as much more, combining their obvious size and power with surprising athleticism and technical expertise to emerge as a legitimately entertaining act on NXT. And not only can thrive in their more obvious heel role—opposite The Undisputed Era, they proved themselves capable of working surprisingly well as de facto faces as well.

The Authors of Pain are more than ready for prime time, and may well be the smash mouth team WWE always wanted The Ascension to be. They made their debut on RAW, but no one is exempt in the Superstar Shakeup. By going to SmackDown, they can go to finishing school. In particular, there’s the potential for a truly excellent war between them and The Bludgeon Brothers this summer.

6 To Raw: Kevin Owens

Kevin Owens has overachieved at every level of WWE thus far, arriving as one of the company’s most dependable, if under-appreciated main event workers. Getting to spend a year on SmackDown, and his inspired heel partnership with Sami Zayn was great for his character. There’s a real argument that he’s ready to return to primetime now.

Particularly with Roman Reigns presumably moving forward as champion, and Brock Lesnar out of the picture for the time being, Owens and Zayn could be fun thorns in Reigns’ side moving forward, besides fluidly moving in and out of the tag title picture to help bolster its depth and credibility. Finally, we may also arrive at the face turn for Owens that Paul Heyman and others have been calling for, as we see what KO can do with the fans behind him.

5 To SmackDown: Apollo

NXT is rightly celebrated as a successful developmental space to craft main roster talent, besides being a wildly entertaining brand in its own right. One of the few abject NXT failures however, has been Apollo Crews. That’s not a knock on Crews, whose unique combination of power and athleticism in particular make him a special talent. However, he’s someone who was just starting to find his footing in developmental when he was called up to main roster. Not so surprisingly, he has floundered since.

Crews has enjoyed his best success as part of Titus Worldwide, as having O’Neil as a mouthpiece, and some sense of a creative direction have been good for him. However, the faction itself is largely locked into a lower mid card spot, and a natural talent like Crews deserves better than that. A brand change and character reboot, potentially with a heel turn, could work wonders to help Crews at least compete at the US Championship level.

4 To Raw: The Fashion Police

The Fashion Police were one of the best bootstrapping, underdog stories of 2017. Under utilized Tyler Breeze and Fandango made the absolute best of their random tag team pairing on SmackDown to cultivate an identity, take advantage of online platforms and video opportunities, and emerge as one of the best comedy teams in recent memory. The guys were successful enough to even take The Ascension along for the ride, redeeming the wayward team for at least a few months as their frenemies.

There’s a shelf life on comedy acts in WWE, though, and the pair already looks to be running out of things to do on SmackDown. A move to Raw, which certainly could use an influx of focused tag team talent, would be mutually beneficial, and could add another year or two of relevance to the Breezango tandem.

3 To SmackDown: Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss has already proven she can excel in either environment, be it on RAW or SmackDown. After putting over Nia Jax at WrestleMania, Jax seems primed for an extended run with the RAW Women's Championship after Alexa dominated the brand for a majority of the year. Alexa can instead move over to SmackDown where she can possibly have her first run as a babyface on the main roster. While it would be a risk given how well Alexa has done as a heel, she's talented enough to make a babyface run work. With the Iconic Duo now on SmackDown, that could be an interesting feud to kick things off for Peyton Royce and Billie Kay and give Alexa the perfect heel duo to combat.

2 To Raw: Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler is one of the most complete talents of his generation. This spring, talk emerged about the fact that he’d never worked a one on one match at a WrestleMania, and the point underscored how often he had been overlooked or marginalized in favor of bigger guys or part time talents returning for ‘Mania season. Since the launch of the new brand split, Ziggler has taken up residence as an upper card gatekeeper, moving in and out of the US and Intercontinental Championship pictures, but mostly just hanging out to help talents like Shinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin get over on their way up the card.

While Ziggler isn’t likely to get a headlining spot, or even his WrestleMania match with a move to Raw, that shift could at least offer the talent performer some fresh matchups, and insert him as a player in the mid-card title scene there. Particularly with The Miz taking time away from the ring, Ziggler could nicely fill the void of a brash, reasonably over, upper mid card heel.

1 To SmackDown: The Revival

Of all of the acts to thrive in NXT and then completely flop on the main roster, few stories are sadder than that of The Revival. This team was the anchor of NXT’s celebrated tag team division, helping teams like American Alpha, Enzo and Cass, #DIY, and the Authors of Pain get over. When they finally did get their call up to Raw, big things looked to be in store with potential feuds against the recently returned Hardy Boyz, and the potential to work The Bar, The New Day, or reprise their issue with Enzo and Cass.

To be fair, it’s nobody’s fault that The Revival spent half of their freshman campaign on the disabled list. That’s just bad luck. When they were healthy, though, management seemed to have lost faith in them, wedging them into middle to lower parts of the tag roster. The fact that they’re at their best in longer matches, and rarely got more than ten minutes to work with on Raw didn’t help matters.

The Revival deserves a fresh start, and an opportunity to find themselves on the main roster with a little less scrutiny bearing down. A move to SmackDown could be just the ticket as they work their way up the blue brands’ ranks to re-earn a featured position on the card.