By Wade Keller, Torch editor

Matt Hardy didn't spill any beans that WWE.com didn't report shortly after Raw anyway. Here is the complete list of trades between the three brands:

Moving to the Raw roster:
Gail Kim
Alicia Fox
Jack Swagger
Evan Bourne
Mark Henry

Moving to the SmackDown roster:
Matt Hardy
Finlay
The Hart Dynasty - David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya

Moving to the ECW roster:
Shelton Benjamin
Goldust
William Regal
Brie & Nikki Bella

Keller's Analysis: I like the trade for ECW. Since ECW has such a small roster, moving three top stars out but replacing them with three intriguing additions means ECW is fresh again. I'm especially interested to see how Shelton Benjamin does as a centerpiece singles wrestler on ECW. I have a feeling this will be a big test for him and will make or break his chance to move into a top tier spot in six months or a year on Raw or Smackdown. Goldust deserves better than being purely a comedy sideshow Oddity, as Dustin Rhodes when he's in shape and motivated can be a second tier player. William Regal can take Finlay's place on ECW, but hopefully have some showcase matches perhaps against Shelton, with one or them going babyface to make it work. As good of a heel as Regal could be, I think he might be better off as a snooty babyface who sticks it to cocky heels with his street toughness and underrated wit on the mic. Or if Regal stays heel, he can feud with Christian as Shelton feuds with Goldust. Not a lot of options with such a small roster, but this trade gives ECW a new look.

As for Raw, they get a needed injection of fresh faces with Evan Bourne giving the roster a much-needed dose of athleticism, Mark Henry a potentially fresh second-tier babyface to play a gatekeeper role (I'm not crazy about watching Henry on Raw in 10 minute matches every week, but in counterpoint to Radican's Take, I think as a personality, there's something there after all of these years; I'd even settle for a Henry & Bourne odd-couple tag team to feud with DiBiase & Rhodes). As for Swagger, he is totally needed on Raw to be in the top mix, whether he's feuding with Triple H or John Cena, both of whom desperately need fresh foes and Swagger is as close to anyone on the roster to being ready to jump into the top tier. Despite his lack of experience relative to some others (such as Matt Hardy, who once seemed destined to be elevated to top tier on Raw), he has the most upside by far.

Smackdown didn't lose much, but it gained Matt Hardy back (not sure where he fits in, though), Finlay (just a role player, I hope, rather than a babyface feuding with, say, Chris Jericho for six months), and the Hart Dynasty (who will be exposed to a whole new audience now).

WWE needed some changes and this does it. It shows the value of the brand split and the ability to do trades whenever deemed necessary to freshen up the product and create new mixes on the shows.

Did WWE plug on Raw that the trades would all be revealed on WWE.com and I missed it? If not, it was a missed opportunity to push for some strong Monday night traffic.

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