2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up

2018 WWE Superstar Shake-Up
Information
Date	April 16, 2018 (Raw) April 17, 2018 (SmackDown)
Event	Raw SmackDown
Venue	XL Center (April 16) Dunkin’ Donuts Center (April 17)
City	Hartford, Connecticut (April 16) Providence, Rhode Island (April 17)
Brand	Raw & Smackdown
Last	2017
Next	2019

The 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up was the twelfth WWE draft, produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between the Raw and SmackDown brands. It was a two-day event, taking place on the April 16 and April 17 episodes of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, respectively, on the USA Network in the United States. Raw broadcast from Hartford, Connecticut at the XL Center, and SmackDown Live broadcast from the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

Background

On the April 9 episode of Raw, WWE announced that on the April 16 and April 17 episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live, respectively, the Superstar Shake-up would occur. Instead of a traditional draft, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle and SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan have the opportunity to make trades between their respective talent and other deals. The following day on SmackDown, Paige, who announced her in-ring retirement the previous night, replaced Bryan as the SmackDown General Manager as Bryan returned to being a full-time wrestler.

Selection

Raw

The following is the list of wrestlers and other personnel who changed brands on the April 16 episode of Raw.

Pick #	Brand (to)	Employee	Role	Brand (from)	Notes
1	Raw	Jinder Mahal with Sunil Singh	Male Superstar	SmackDown	WWE United States Champion Drafted as a superstar/manager combo.
2	Raw	The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan)	Stable	SmackDown
3	Raw	Kevin Owens	Male Superstar	Free agent	Owens and Zayn were (kayfabe) fired from SmackDown Live on March 20, 2018, and failed to regain their jobs at WrestleMania 34 and the following Raw, however were awarded contracts by Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon.
4	Raw	Sami Zayn	Male Superstar	Free agent
5	SmackDown	The Miz	Male Superstar	Raw
6	Raw	Breezango (Fandango & Tyler Breeze)	Tag Team	SmackDown
7	Raw	Natalya	Female Superstar	SmackDown
8	Raw	Dolph Ziggler	Male Superstar	SmackDown
9	Raw	Zack Ryder	Male Superstar	SmackDown	Announced his transfer on Twitter.
10	Raw	Drew McIntyre	Male Superstar	NXT
11	Raw	Baron Corbin	Male Superstar	SmackDown
12	Raw	Mojo Rawley	Male Superstar	SmackDown	Announced on WWE's YouTube channel.
13	Raw	Bobby Roode	Male Superstar	SmackDown
14	Raw	Mike Kanellis	Male Superstar	SmackDown	Announced on WWE's Twitter.
15	Raw	The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor)	Tag Team	SmackDown	Announced through WWE's Instagram.
16	Raw	Chad Gable	Male Superstar	SmackDown	Announced on WWE's Twitter.

SmackDown Live

Pick #	Brand (to)	Employee	Role	Brand (from)	Notes
1	SmackDown	The Miz	Male Superstar	Raw
2	SmackDown	Jeff Hardy	Male Superstar	Raw	Drafted with the WWE United States Championship.
3	SmackDown	Absolution (Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose)	Female Tag Team	Raw
4	SmackDown	Samoa Joe	Male Superstar	Raw
5	SmackDown	Sanity (Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, Killian Dain & Nikki Cross)	Stable	NXT
6	SmackDown	Big Cass	Male Superstar	Raw
7	SmackDown	Asuka	Female Superstar	Raw
8	SmackDown	Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson	Tag Team	Raw
9	SmackDown	Sheamus & Cesaro	Tag Team	Raw	Challengers for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship at Greatest Royal Rumble
10	SmackDown	R-Truth	Male Superstar	Raw
11	SmackDown	Andrade "Cien" Almas with Zelina Vega	Male Superstar and manager	NXT

Aftermath

Immediately after being traded to Raw, Kurt Angle announced that Jinder Mahal would defend his United States Championship in an open challenge against the Raw roster, which was answered by Jeff Hardy. Hardy won the following match, and Mahal invoked his rematch clause to gain a match at the Greatest Royal Rumble.

See also

• WWE Draft

External links

• Raw 2018 WWE Draft
• Smackdown 2018 WWE Draft