Friday Night SmackDown just got a new acquisition, as it was announced on the January 27, 2025 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw that Zelina Vega will be traded over to the blue brand going forward.
During a match between Rey Mysterio and Xavier Woods, wherein Mysterio was accompanied by the Latino World Order members Zelina Vega, Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde (Dragon Lee's been MIA recently after the birth of his daughter), Michael Cole mentioned that this would be the last episode of Raw for Zelina Vega for the time being as she will be sent over to Friday nights via the "transfer window" that has been happening as of late.
Cole directly specified that this means Vega is splitting off from the LWO, too, as opposed to them going with her. This implies, naturally, that the rest of the LWO will be staying on the Raw roster.
Interestingly, Vega has an ally on SmackDown already with Andrade, who Vega used to manage primarily during their time on the NXT brand. However, much more likely than Vega teaming back up with El Idolo is that this could signify SmackDown as the brand we'll eventually see Aleister Black show up in.
WWE tends to keep married couples together so they can have the same traveling schedule, and Vega and Black have been married since 2018.
Black has been with All Elite Wrestling since July 2021, roughly a month after he was released from WWE in June 2021. After wrestling a few years with AEW under the ring name Malakai Black, he supposedly requested his release a while back and will be free to re-join the WWE roster very soon—possibly even at the Royal Rumble this weekend.
As far as other trades that have happened during this transfer window, so far the following moves are confirmed or at least hinted at:
- Logan Paul was the first to be announced to go to the Raw roster
- The Wyatt Sicks were sent over to SmackDown
- Bayley is now part of the Raw roster
- The Miz was sent to SmackDown
- Damian Priest was sent to SmackDown
- Austin Theory and Grayson Waller were sent to Raw
- Not Confirmed: Braun Strowman to SmackDown
- Not Confirmed: Nia Jax to Raw
What do you think of Zelina Vega going over to SmackDown? Got any great feuds in mind for her? Do you think that's confirmation Aleister Black goes to SmackDown soon, too? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!