Should Rollins And IYO SKY Leave Raw For SmackDown?

With WWE no longer holding a traditional annual Draft, brand switches have become more fluid over the past two years, often dictated by storyline convenience rather than a formal roster shakeup. That flexibility has sparked fresh debate over which Raw stars might be better served moving to SmackDown, and two names stand out: Seth Rollins and IYO SKY.

Rollins hasn’t appeared in a WWE ring in over six weeks, with his last televised match coming at SummerSlam 2026 against Roman Reigns. He did return to in-ring action during WWE’s recent South American tour, but his extended absence from weekly programming suggests there simply isn’t a clear creative lane for him on Monday nights right now. Having already worked through his feuds with The Vision and The Bloodline, Rollins’ remaining options on Raw are fairly limited — a run at Chad Gable’s Intercontinental Championship or a program with The Judgment Day are about the only obvious paths forward.

SmackDown, by contrast, offers a deeper well of options, even if several of them involve familiar rivals. A move to the blue brand would put Rollins back in the mix for the Undisputed WWE Championship, something he can’t realistically chase on Raw without undercutting the closure of his SummerSlam feud with Reigns. That title currently belongs to Sami Zayn, whose character has evolved considerably since his last extended program with Rollins, giving that potential rivalry a different flavor than it would have had a year or two ago.

IYO SKY presents a similar case. After a standout 2025, her 2026 has been comparatively quiet. She won the Queen of the Ring tournament in June but came up short in the Women’s World Championship match that followed against Liv Morgan, and she’s largely faded from the main event picture since Stephanie Vaquer and Becky Lynch returned in the wake of SummerSlam. With Rhea Ripley still out with a knee injury and no firm timetable for her comeback, a SmackDown move could put SKY in position to chase the Interim WWE Women’s Championship — and set up the long-teased singles showdown between the two former Damage CTRL allies once Ripley is cleared.

Neither move is confirmed, and WWE’s current booking style makes it just as easy for either star to stay put and simply get folded into a new Raw storyline. But both cases underline a real structural issue: without a Draft forcing roster balance, talent can end up stuck in creative limbo simply because their brand’s current storylines don’t have room for them. For a former World Champion like Rollins and a former top title challenger like SKY, that’s a notable gap for WWE’s creative team to address one way or another as the fall stretch of programming takes shape.