Recent reporting has indicated that WWE SmackDown on USA Network will move to three hours at the start of 2025.
With an extra hour to fill, SmackDown will likely need some more bodies to expand the roster.
Here are eight WWE stars who could switch brands to SmackDown for the show’s move to three hours.
8. Wyatt Sicks
One of the things that may come with SmackDown’s extra hour is more ‘variety’ in gimmicks seen on the show.
With more time to fill, SmackDown may need to spruce things up and add a little bit more of the wacky stuff to fill in the show and make things dare we say ‘less boring’ if there’s a whole three hours to fill.
Raw definitely has more of that than SmackDown right now, with the Wyatt Sicks being a perfect example.
The Final Testament and even Alpha Academy as a comedy act could fall under this same bracket and reasoning too.
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7. American Made
American Made could be grouped in with those factions previously mentioned, but because of their connection to the Wyatt Sicks, there’s a separate point to make.
If you’re doing a draft or roster shake-up or whatever you want to call it, it might be best to separate the Wyatts and American Made.
Therefore, wherever the Wyatts land, American Made should do the opposite – if the storyline is finished, just keep them apart and don’t even have them on the same show.
If the decision is made to keep the Wyatts on Raw, then shift American Made to SmackDown instead, but if it’s the Wyatts to SmackDown for the reasons previously mentioned, keep American Made on Raw.
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6. Ethan Page or Trick Williams
As well as shifting people between WWE Raw and SmackDown, there’s an opportunity for NXT call-ups here too.
One of those could end up being either current NXT Champion Ethan Page, or former champion Trick Williams.
Essentially, whichever one of them isn’t the champion coming out of the CW Network debut episode of NXT on October 1.
They’re set for a title match on that show with CM Punk as the special guest referee, so whoever wins should stay put in NXT, but whoever loses would be a candidate to be called up.
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5. Drew McIntyre
Drew McIntyre’s feud with CM Punk is seemingly about to culminate in a Hell in a Cell match at WWE Bad Blood, with Punk the most likely winner.
In a similar theory to the Wyatt Sicks and American Made, it might be a good idea to keep McIntyre and Punk apart for a while after their blow-off match.
McIntyre could just be off TV for a while and that would achieve the same thing, but SmackDown needs bodies, so the opening is there to achieve two things at once.
Perhaps he could end up back in the fold on Raw for the Netflix launch – maybe just a couple of months stint on SmackDown before Nick Aldis fires him and he lands back on Raw or something like that.
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4. Gallus
In a move that you could easily connect to Drew McIntyre, another NXT call-up that we could see is that of Gallus’ Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey and Wolfgang.
Gallus have been in the WWE system for years now, first in NXT UK and now in regular NXT, and they’re always talked about as potential main roster call-up candidates.
One potential opening to bring them up would be as members of a group led by Drew McIntyre based on their shared Scottish backgrounds.
They’re clearly well trusted as they helped train The Rock for his WrestleMania 40 return, so a call-up does seem like just a matter of timing and planning, and this extra hour could be the opening for it.
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3. Jacy Jayne And/Or Fallon Henley
Staying in WWE NXT, and two more names who have been in the system for a while and have yet to be called up are Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley.
They could either be called up as a tag team or separately, but they’ve both reached the point in NXT where there’s not really much else for them to do – hence shoving them together in a faction.
You could of course call-up all of Fatal Influence as a group, but Jazmyn Nyx is a lot newer and might not be deemed ready yet.
One of the big things that an extra hour for SmackDown will hopefully pave the way for is more time dedicated to the women’s division, so adding to that roster would be a bonus.
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2. Sami Zayn
While it’s still not 100% clear, many have long expected the direction for this year’s WarGames match at Survivor Series in November to be a Bloodline vs Bloodline affair.
That would be, as things stand, Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa on one side, with Roman Reigns leading an ‘original’ Bloodline team against them.
Expected for that original Bloodline team would be the reunited Usos, as well as Sami Zayn, which would likely mean Zayn switching to SmackDown to allow that to happen.
Plus, with SmackDown star Kevin Owens’ WWE contract set to expire at the end of the year, it could be the last chance to get a Zayn vs Owens match in one more time.
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1. Jey Uso
As mentioned with Sami Zayn, the Usos are also expected to be part of the WarGames match, which would mean Jey making the same move from Raw to SmackDown.
You could argue Jey Uso is ‘more likely’ than Zayn to make the switch given his literal family connection to what’s been going on with the Bloodline.
Uso and Zayn may even win the World Tag Team Championship from Judgment Day before that as an equalizer for Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa being WWE Tag Team Champions.
The whole Bloodline saga might find itself on Netflix’s Raw at the start of next year, but until then, it seems like it’ll be staying a SmackDown deal.
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