Most fans have come to the conclusion that Smackdown did better than Raw did during the Superstar Shakeup. Among the talents who have been traded over to WWE’s Tuesday night show were Cesaro, Sheamus, and Asuka, but another big name who moved over to the Smackdown roster as part of the Superstar Shakeup was Samoa Joe. The move may seem odd given that Joe is still currently feuding with Raw Superstar Roman Reigns, but there does appear to be a reason for the trade. PWStream claims that Joe will be moving on from Reigns after their match at the Backlash pay-per-view as the company intends on positioning them as top stars for each brand later this year.
Per source: Samoa Joe moved to #SDLive to avoid Reigns. The two will have a match soon, however following that, Reigns, as expected, will be running #Raw. As such, Joe wouldn’t be a pivotal part of the show. WWE want him to play a big role — he wouldn’t be on Raw, hence the move.
— PWStream (@PWStream) April 22, 2018
WWE is expected to announce a new television partner at some point later this year. WWE currently broadcasts both Raw and Smackdown on the USA Network, but with their TV contract set to expire in 2019, there have reportedly been several networks interested in airing WWE’s programming. The Fox network in particular is currently very interested in working with WWE soon. There still have not been any deals made as of right now, but WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross just provided an update on the negotiations between Fox and WWE. During a recent edition of The Jim Ross Report podcast, Ross said, “a lot of talk about Fox, very interested in the WWE. I had dinner in Los Angeles on Tuesday night with some Fox executives and I can tell you they are keenly keenly interested in the brand WWE.” Although their deal with USA Network does not expire until next year, WWE is expected to announce their new television partner within the next few months.
Batista has just about done it all in professional wrestling. The former WWE Champion is now concentrating on an acting career, and he has appeared in film such as Spectre and Blade Runner 2049 in recent years. He is best known for portraying Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the Galaxy films within the Marvel movie franchise. He will be portraying Drax once again later this week and ABC has confirmed that Batista will be appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live very soon. Batista will be joined by Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hiddleston, and Danai Gurira to promote the Avengers: Infinity War movie coming out this Friday. Don’t miss Batista’s appearance on the late night show tomorrow at 11:35pm ET.