The Good, The Bad and The NXT: Our weekly look at WWE's winners and losers
Thursday 19 April 2018 16:50, UK
The second annual Superstar Shake-up took centre stage this week as both the Raw and SmackDown rosters changed shape ahead of the new era without the brand split on pay-per-view.
NXT superstars were also made part of the reshuffle as the NXT brand now looks to reshape itself following a number of departures over the past few weeks.
Despite superstars switching brands this week, WWE still had to continue to build towards The Greatest Royal Rumble next week and a number of superstars have been able to stand up and be counted ahead of the historic show.
Good Week
Jeff Hardy (Raw)
Technically, Jeff Hardy is now a SmackDown superstar, but he started the week on Monday Night Raw and has only been back in action for a week after returning from injury following WrestleMania.
This is why it was such a shock that he was able to defeat Jinder Mahal and become not only the new United States champion, but also a Grand Slam champion. Hardy then moved over to SmackDown on Tuesday night and was able to make a statement when he defeated Shelton Benjamin in his first match.
Hardy has a rematch with Mahal next week at the Greatest Royal Rumble, but he will also be looking over his shoulder at former champion Randy Orton who is still looking at his rematch for the title at Backlash.
Big Cass (SmackDown)
It wasn't just a week of debuts, it was also a week of returns and one of the biggest was the return of Big Cass, who made quite the statement when he invaded the main event tag team match which pitted AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan against Rusev and Aiden English.
Cass interfered in the match, along with Shinsuke Nakamura, and it was made clear that Bryan was the focus of his attention.
He had earlier confronted the former champion backstage but also decided to get physical with the superstar, who was only recently cleared to return to the ring after more than two years on the sidelines.
It is reported that there are big things coming in Cass' future, so he could be about to receive the push he missed out on when he was first injured last summer.
Candice LeRae (NXT)
It's been a great few weeks for Candice LeRae and her husband Johnny Gargano, who was able to win back his job in NXT with his victory over Tommaso Ciampa at NXT Takeover: New Orleans.
This week on NXT, LeRae finally made her long-awaited in-ring debut on the brand and forced Zelina Vega to tap out to the Gargano Escape.
Johnny Wrestling was at ringside and also locked the Gargano Escape on Andrade "Cien" Almas when he tried to interfere.
It seems that the rivalry between Gargano and Almas has now come to an end with his promotion to SmackDown Live and Gargano and LeRae will now focus on challenging Aleister Black for the NXT Championship next week.
Bad Week
The Miz (Raw)
The Miz started the week on Raw, which was where all of his problems started. Miz thought that he had found new allies in Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens before Raw general manager Kurt Angle revealed that he had been moved over to SmackDown without The Miztourage.
Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel later turned on Miz and left him to be defeated by Braun Strowman in the main event of Raw, but the real story here is the fact that former GM Daniel Bryan requested that Miz was brought to SmackDown.
The feud that has been building between the two former friends could finally be about to reach boiling point and this time around, Bryan can back up his words in the ring.
The Usos (SmackDown)
The Usos were the SmackDown Tag Team Champions two weeks ago but their downward spiral continued this week as they were once again decimated by The Bludgeon Brothers, so much so that the only person in the locker room who could come out and save them was Naomi.
Jimmy Uso's wife, the former SmackDown women's champion, ran to the ring to plead with the dominant duo to leave her husband alone, which the duo did before slowly exiting in the arena.
The Usos have gone from being one of the best heel teams on the roster to hiding behind Naomi in a matter of months; is there a way back for the Samoan brothers or have they finally reached rock bottom?
Killian Dain (NXT)
Killian Dain may have been promoted to the SmackDown Live roster along with SAnitY team-mates Eric Young and Alexander Wolfe, but his final match in NXT didn't go to plan since he was defeated by Lars Sullivan in a no-disqualification match.
The Beast of Belfast was definitely put through his paces by Sullivan and wore the scars from the battle all over his body. Sullivan will now move on to his next challenger after what will definitely be a confidence-boosting win for the monster, while Dain will be looking to make an instant impact on the main roster.
