Top ten superstars who benefited from the WWE brand split.
10. Heath Slater.
He was involved on the drafting of Rhyno and also the return of Jindhar Mahal. He was put in a match against both and winner got drafted, culminating in him losing to both.
He was eventually offered a Smackdown Live contract but after confusing Shane Mcmahon for his sister and rival Stephanie Mcmahon it was taken away. He interrupted Shane and Daniel Bryan during a segment where they introduced the new Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships.
During this Shane promised Slater a contract, if he won an entire tournament to be crowned the first ever Smackdown Live Tag Team Champions.
Slater would surprise many by winning it all.
9. Baron Corbin.
“The Lonewolf” Baron Corbin has had a remarkable career since the draft. Although he may have won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 32, he was never really pushed other than that until joining Smackdown Live.
He has been in bad feuds and good feuds since the split, but his current feud with Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose is extremely good and one of the best feuds currently going on. Could we potentially be seeing our next Intercontinental Champion?
Besides that, he was involved in the Elimination Chamber match and has had a WWE championship shot before this in a triple threat involving Dolph Ziggler and former champion Aj Styles.
8.Finn Balor.
Now this is one of WWE’s best talent in many years. He was amazing during his days in NXT becoming the longest reigning NXT champion at 292 days.
He came up to the main roster as the 6th pick during the draft heading off to Raw. He would be higher on this list but at SummerSlam 2016 Seth Rollins injured him during their match for the Universal title.
Excluding this Finn Balor is undefeated in his first 3 main roster matches, one being a fatal 4 way. On his first night on Raw he won a fatal 4 way advancing to a 1 on 1 match with Roman Reigns. After he beat Reigns, he advanced to face Rollins at SummerSlam. He became the first ever WWE Universal Champion, but the run was short lived. The hype is beginning to grow right now!
7.Braun Strowman
Former member of the Wyatt family Braun Strowman has improved incredibly since the brand split. Started off with a new look and destroying local talent and eventually proceeded to stars like Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns.
He may not have won any titles but from being in the Wyatt Family to devouring talent we can all see the draft was a positive for Strowman.
6.Dolph Ziggler.
As amazing as this superstar’s career has been before the split he has definitely gone forward since the split. He was on the brink of leaving the WWE but went and got a push in the company. He was in a feud with the Intercontinental Champion at the time with The Miz, putting his career on the line and managed to get himself the title back.
He did eventually lose the title and went into a miniature feud with Aj Styles, losing the matchup. He has now turned heel and feuding with young superstars Apollo Crews and Kalisto.
5.Alexa Bliss.
Alexa Bliss is maybe one of the top performers in WWE at the minute. She has impeccable mic skills and her in ring ability is amazing. She is an amazing heel and after starting down in NXT and being unsuccessful to getting gold down there, she has definitely turned that around becoming the first ever two time Smackdown Live Womans Champion. She has worked with Mickie James since joining the main roster and proceeded to Wrestlemania 33 with the biggest match of her career defending against every available woman on the Smackdown Live roster. I can not wait to see the future if this remarkable wrestler.
4.Neville.
All WWE fans will know that Neville career has gone off the rails recently. Been called the best heel going by many critics and WWE have managed to make the “King Of The Cruiserweights” Neville one of the best things going.
Being one of the most successful down in NXT, coming to the main roster he did not do much and would suffer an injury going into Wrestlemania 32. He later returned after the draft but was injured once again.
When he returned at Roadblock 2016 he attacked the current Cruiserweight champion and former protege Rich Swann and later won the title. He is the current champion and so is far dominating the talent. Can we see Neville beat the recently returned Austin Aries at Wrestlemania 33?
3. AJ Styles
Making this list at number 3 we have the “Phenomenal One” AJ Styles. He has had an amazing career outside of the WWE and even before the draft he was doing good for himself.
But since the draft we saw him take the WWE Championship and beat some talent such as John Cena, Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin. He certainly made his mark as one of Smackdown’s top stars.
We know his past and present and judging on that we all know the future of Aj Styles will be the best and a great start to become the best superstar WWE has got right now.
2.Cesaro.
Now since the brand split the “Swiss Superman” has made his mark. He has beaten a lot of the talent on the RAW roster and was in a feud with Sheamus, ending up a best of 7 series. He eventually got paired with rival and managed to end the historic reign of the New Day taking home tag gold.
Cesaro and Sheamus are still tearing up the tag team division and looking to head to mania with their eyes on the prize.
1.Bray Wyatt.
Anyone who disagrees with Bray Wyatt being number one must have had their eyes closed. Winning nothing before the brand split to winning the WWE Championship, ending the historic 16th world title reign of John Cena is not something to be taken lightly.
He won what was supposed to be on of the best Elimination Chamber matches last pinning Aj Styles is an achievement on its own. Previous to this he won his first main roster title in the WWE by winning the Smackdown Live Tag Team Titles with former ally Randy Orton and showing the WWE his true dominance.
He is now Main Eventing Wrestlemania 33 against Royal Rumble 2017 winner Randy Orton hoping to get the win he deserves. Thank you WWE.
Looks good