WWE RAW News: WWE Wildcard Rule Explained. WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon introduced a new Wildcard Rule. But what does it mean and what are it’s implications?
Tonight’s episode of WWE Raw saw 3 of SmackDown’s top superstars kick off the show. Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston all showed up at the Red Brand. Vince McMahon was also present in the ring. He claimed that he just had an epiphany and then introduced the new ‘Wildcard Rule’.
AJ Styles confronted the WWE Chairman over the presence of the SmackDown Stars. The Chairman responded to the No.1 contender for the Universal Champion by saying that he had just come up with a new rule, He explained that any 3 superstars from either brand could jump ship every week. The number was increased to 4 after Lars Sullivan intimidated the Chairman.
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Funnily, despite originally stating that the Wildcard rule would allow 3 and then 4 Superstars to move between brands for one night only appearances, this episode of Raw featured 6 Smackdown superstars! Becky and The IIconics are allowed to move freely between brands. Apart from them, the Smackdown stars that appeared at Raw were: Roman Reigns. Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston, Lars Sullivan, Shane McMahon and Elias.
WWE offered some clarity on the rule by posting the following on their website:
“The latest wrinkle in the ongoing Superstar Shake-up emerged this Monday on Raw when Mr. McMahon announced a new “Wild Card Rule” in which a limited number of Superstars from Raw or SmackDown would be invited to cross brand lines for one-night-only appearances, with unauthorized jumps to be penalized by fines or even potential firing”.
What can we expect from @VinceMcMahon's new #WildCardRule moving forward on #RAW and #SDLive? https://t.co/t8PBgA2pgl
— WWE (@WWE) May 7, 2019
The WWE acknowledged that their Stars have crossed brands before. They went on to write that the new rule is the first officially-sanctioned blurring of the lines between Team Red and Team Blue Superstars. WWE also confirmed that they weren’t doing away with the Brand extension and expressed excitement over the resulting implications and consequences.
The first Raw with the Wildcard rule saw the WWE Championship (Smackdown’s Top Prize) be defended in the Main event. It will be interesting to see who turns up from Raw to SmackDown.
However there are still a lot of questions regarding the WWE Wildcard rule. Hopefully we will find our answers on SmackDown today.
