Is it time to end the brandsplit? [Archive]

FTS

04-16-2008, 03:53 PM

Note: I looked around for this thread and didn't see it, so if it exists, please just merge it and don't sanction me. Any reoccurance of the thread is accidental.

I have thought for a while that the "E" is getting stale, and a draft wouldn't help.

Let's take a look:

1. Storylines have to be rushed with only 2 hours of time for each show. During the height of popularity, Stone Cold and the Rock could feud on multiple shows and draw so many more people into their feuds. People are underutilized. Burchill has nothing to do, but with 5 hours a week for everyone, they could find five minutes to get his sister's fine ass on my TV.

2. With shows being split, we get stuck with Finlay on Elimination Chamber matches. That match would have been so much better if it was HHH, HBK, Jeff Hardy, Taker, Batista, and Y2J. The bran split will only serve to make new feuds stale after a few months. Taker and Batista feuded for a year. Let it go four months, then move on the Edge and Taker, and Batista would have someone to feud with. Umaga last month, HBK this month, and then what? MVP has Matt Hardy already.

3. The tag division would be outstanding with everyone together. Cantino vs. Moor/Wang, Miz/Nitro vs. Londrick (I hate them, but matches with shaman and the magnet could be entertaining) Jessie and Festus vs Cade and Murdoch might not even suck.

4. Title changes would be signifigant. If Jeff Hardy goes to SD! and beats Edge, cool, I'd be happy. With one belt, a Jeff hardy win would make me shit myself. I know we complain about no one being elevated, but that's because the title scene is stale with the same matches over and over. With a top tier of Taker, Orton, Cena, HHH, Batista, Edge, JBL, and Y2J the possibilities are great. Throw Hardy, MVP, and Kennedy in there and you have quite a top and uppermid card. Plus the IC and US belts at this point are props. Ending the brand shift would make that something. When Warrior beat Rick Rude for the IC title at Summer Slam 89, I nearly shit myself, and it propelled him almost immediately to the top.

5. I understand that some guys would get lost in the shuffle. This is why I propose ECW sticking around, as the top developmental. Keep the "E" guys off of ECW, and keep ECW guys off of "E" programming, unless you plan to keep them there. Seeing the Bros. of Destruction was cool, one time, but I have no idea who Kane, Morrison, Miz, etc. work for now as they are on two shows. The top developmental could be televised for one hour a week. Imagine seeing the Batista/Lesnar matches from OVW on TV. That would get you excited for new guys. It's like watching college basketball and wondering what that guys could do for your team.

6. Taking the best writers and putting them together gets rid of who's the midget's daddy and is he going to fuck his sister storylines. Maybe getting the best bookers and writers together gets us Invasion, Corporation, Ministry, Austin 3:16, and the Rock says again.

7. Ratings will rise on both shows because you have to watch to follow your favorites. If you love Taker and hate Cena, then you might not watch Raw as much. If they were in the same "league" you would be forced to watch. Ratngs up, exposure up, both good.

8. Everyone would have to step up to get TV time. This would lead to better wrestling, better acting, and less stupid shit like Shelton Benjamin saying, "I'm the man, so there ain't no...." and that being his only promo. Shelton, get better on the mic, and you get a push, keep sucking and you get sent down to ECW. Sounds like he would try harder.

Anyway, that was all just my idea. I would love to have it critiqued.

Audioslave

04-16-2008, 04:10 PM

Ending the brand split takes television opportunities away from lower tier guys trying to get over and for that reason alone it should not end.

They can easily up the ratings if they adapted a somewhat more action packed feel to their shows and gave the undercard guys more meaning.

On Smackdown, you've got Undertaker, Batista, MVP, Edge and Matt Hardy.. and that's all the feature stars I can name on that show. Those are the guys that get emphasis. If they started packing the shows a bit more, then they could potentially bring up ratings. Same goes for Raw. Except they seem to be playing a bit with the tag team division, so that's good.

I don't think the WWE understands the value that lower card titles have and how midcard storyline stuff can help the overall product draw. That's what needs to be remedied. Ending the brand split would take opportunities away from guys who normally wouldn't be called up for years.

SpiralHands

04-16-2008, 05:29 PM

I think WWE has put themselves into a bit of a problem, they have made too many stars, if they were to carrying on Raw on Smackdown and so on, then theres no room for Undertaker, Batista, HHH etc. too many stars! Simple as. I cannot see the brand split ending anytime, makes too much money for WWE and I dont think they need to, if they did forget about the mid cards etc no room for them!

L4L

04-16-2008, 05:42 PM

I don't think ending them is a good idea I would like to see WWE make the brands more even though, I mean Raw and Smackdown are evenly split with talent but ECW has next to no one on there roster. I would like to see them get a 2 hour timeslot and distingusih themselves from the other brands with there own style. Raw and Smackdown are the same just a different brand name. I would like to see the WWE use the same approach as NJPW does with there different brands each with its own seperate style of Wrestling. I know its not going to happen but I can dream can't I.

NJPW- Uses the strong style as they call it. basically a modified Fighting stlye mixed with Pro wrestling and relativley stiff action.

Lock Up- Choshu's brands this is a more tradition pro Wrestling stlye very stiff hardhitting traditional wrestling action.

Wrestleland- This is a style based more on Gimmicks and storylines with wrestlers cutting promos basically WWE's style of Wrestling.

This is what I would like to see WWE do maybe not the exact same thing but make the brands distinguishable from each other.

Canadian Knight

04-16-2008, 06:08 PM

No, because they would have to merge the belts again. You might lose some wrestlers to more useless roles in the organization. What they should do is move people over to the other brand for a little while to make new story lines. Why not have HHH go to Smackdown for a month or two while Undertaker goes to Raw. Ending the split may sound good but what would you do with Smackdown and ECW? Would you improve them or hurt the other brands?

mark4life

04-16-2008, 10:09 PM

I totally agree with this thread. I mean the brand entension to me was an experiment because the WWE had no competition at the time so Vinnie Mac decided mind as well compete within his own company between the shows. TNA was still a baby at the time so they really couldn't touch the WWE. Granted the extension showcased the stars on a bigger platform today than they were before the extension ( ex. Edge, Cena, Orton, JBL, Batista, Jericho, Hardy's just to name a few) Everytime I read one of these type of threads so many ppl are so pro brand extension & that's fine ya know that's their opinion. I just think when watching the WWE before the extension you had guys busting their ass to get their spots(Triple H, Rock, Austin, Foley, Big Show, Kane, Angle just to name a few) and ya know what the people weren't complaining then about these guys getting held back because there were so much talent in one company. I'm sorry but if you are a wrestler you then or even now I believe that in your own hearts that you try to get yourself over and perform on the level that will get you notice(that covers all basis-work ethic, promos, behavior) . The stars of today are fortunate enough to be where they are now because yes they are profiled even more exclusively than they were 5-10 yrs ago, but just like that one guy said that Finlay in Elimination Chamber match is kinda fuckin wrong here. Not take any of his talent but it seems like that he's just a filler and really doesn't have a damn chance in the match. Hell they even had Khali & Big Daddy V in the bout. Come on. Let me wrap this up. Latley the brand extension has pretty much run its course. Storylines are very predictable & the feuds are getting stale. To me the talent is kinda going through the motions & not really pushing themselves to the level of where they should be. Especially for me & I'm sure others to enjoy the same product week after week, month after month, year after year. So please Vince, end it already. Take me back to great unpredictably days of wrestling where anything can happen in the WWF(E) So before anybody roast my reply, yea this is my opinion. Get over yourself.

"Rush" GSP

04-17-2008, 12:27 AM

JPK

04-17-2008, 07:38 AM

I think the brand extention still works , its just mismanaged so badly. I'd be happy to have the lower card float between Raw and Smackdown!. I still believe that there are too many big guys to have them all put together. I'd still like to keep them on separate brands. But the rest I'd want to be able to compete on both shows.

As for ECW , I'd still keep it. As a high profile feeder brand. Give the likes of CM Punk exposure that the need to 'test the water' if you like.

mynettv

04-17-2008, 07:53 AM

Wwe Will Never End The Brandsplit Because It Makes Them Too Much Money.

It Allows Wwe To Run Double Tour Groups In Different Places At The Same Time .

With This European Tour, Wwe Is Running 20 Shows Instead Of 10 Which Means More Money For The Wrestlers Who Work The Tours.

THE COMPANY PROMOTES ITSELF UNDER 3 BRANDS .

HOWEVER, WRESTLERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO APPEAR ON OTHER SHOWS FOR ANY REASON WWE SEES FIT LIKE TO GIVE A SHOW A RATINGS BOOST OR FOR STORYLINE PURPOSES.

NYSandman

04-17-2008, 12:20 PM

I don't think it will happen anytime soon. WWE, as mentioned earlier in this thread, simply has too many guys. If there were only one brand, there would only be room for a few top guys. HHH and Cena would be all over all three brands, and no one else would get a shot at the top.

I think instead of remerging, WWE should try to make things more interesting.

This was tried before, but of course was ruined. We need a really hardcore battle of the brands. It could start off with Vince making comments about Smackdown and ECW, saying shit like Raw is and always will be the top brand, and the guys on those brands are worthless. I know, it could be considered bad for ratings, but hear me out.

ECW/Smackdown guys could get pissed at this, and try to prove themselves by invading Raw and leaving top guys laying. I mean it has to be pushed hard, almost like the NWO. Fans would pick sides, and T-shirts could be made with Smackdown, ECW and Raw specific logos and the such, and you could have Raw stables and Smackdown stables. I mean, it HAS to be done right, with true hatred seemingly emerging between the superstars.

I know the idea sounds old, but IMHO it has never been done correctly! Vince could say how his company is in turmoil, with guys fighting backstage and jumping each other in the parking lot. It has to appear that both sides have true venom for each other.

Remerging the brands is too complicated right now, and I don't think the company will head in that direction. They need to stop stripping ECW and Smackdown of talent. They need to stop having 2 matches on ECW, and push it harder.

I'm not sure what the final solution is, but as of right now the shows could be better. Perhaps a draft lottery will help, but who knows?

Kyphael

04-17-2008, 04:13 PM

First off, I would revamp ECW. Bring Paul Heyman back and let him book outside the box. Separate ECW as much from SmackDown as possible and re-establish its spirit. That would lure free agents such as RVD, Raven, Credible and others to come back which would mean higher ratings. Of course, for this to happen Vince has to put his eho aside which is very unlikely...

RAW? Turn Cena heel. Have him turn on the fans and just shoot on everyone out of frustration that no matter what he does, the people still jeer him. He targets The Canadian Bulldog and Cody Rhodes, claiming the crowd only support guys like that because of their last name, opposed to guys like himself that got to the top because he can, not because he's second generation wrestler. These feuds would help Cody and Smith get over to the midcard, where Jericho whould be waiting to feud with and bring prestige back to the IC title.

The title picture needs a shake-up and JBL is due for another title shot. He pins HHH, who Orton then targets, blaming him for the loss. But this won't just be the continuation of their feud; things get personal. Like the snake he is, Orton targets HHH's family (everyone knows he's married to Stephanie now.) It culminates at Summerslam after a series of brutal matches.

JBL goes on to defend the gold against other main event guys and up and coming midcard talent such as Kennedy, King Colon (Carlito = KOTR winner) and Punk (after draft, who finally dethrones him.)

Over on SmackDown, Undertaker defends his title against every heel that comes at him, from Edge, Big Show, John Morrison and MVP. Matt Hardy would have the US title by now and defend against the likes of Shelton Benjamin, The Miz and others before Elijah Burke gets a push with the title.

The tag team divisions are united into one; have both sets of champions face off to determine the undisputed WWE tag team title holders. The titles would be more prestigious and have a better chance at being featured on PPV's.

Audioslave

04-17-2008, 09:36 PM

Turning Cena heel is probably the dumbest suggestion people have for the WWE. He sells the most merchandise in the company and he gets the best reactions out of anyone there, whether it's face or heel. He may get largely BOOED up in the northeast, but he still has a significant fanbase that cheers him and likes the guy. He's perfect where he is right now. Making him go off on everyone would alienate those that DO cheer him.

Again, ending the brand split would cause a lot more problems than it would solve. Guys like Burke, Benjamin, Yang, Morrison, Miz, Kingston, and various tag teams wouldn't get a shot on the main roster. The way things are now it allows for those type of guys, and young dudes in developmental, to get a shot on the main roster.

ALL they need to do is start diversifying the brands. Get an idea of what you want each one to be and go for it. I'd keep Raw as it is, but give the lower card a bit more time to get over. I'd make ECW the Attitude-esque Crash TV type of program, but intelligently booked. Not sure what they could do with Smackdown, but it'd be great if they booked it like they did during the Smackdown Six era, where Brock was the top guy on the brand.

Kyphael

04-17-2008, 11:51 PM

Keeping the man face when you can use him to breed new babyfaces can also be determined a dumb move. He only gets cheered when he's facing someone the fans hate even more than him. Put him in there with someone who is a superior wrestler and they boo him out of the building when he starts throwing fake haymakers and that clusterfuck of an elevated fireman's carry he so creativelly calls "FU."

And gee, wasn't heel Cena over on SmackDown the one getting huge pops and at one point was even called the next Rock? Face it, watered down baby Cena blows chunks. Heel Cena got cheered and now that he's a household name, people wouldn't suddenly stop buying his merchandise just because his character became edgy again. The fans who boo him now would support him again. The moment they made him Hogan 80's with a buzz cut, the fans with half a brain about the business shit all over it. Just watch the main event of Wrestlemania 22; I was there.

FTS

04-18-2008, 05:52 PM

I don't think NYSandman read anything past the title of the thread. Let me explain this again.

Raw and SD! would be one brand. HHH, Undertaker, HBK, JBL, Jeff Hardy, Batista, Edge, Cena, Orton, Kane, MVP, Y2J. If they feuded amongst themselves, and were given 15 minutes on each show (which would way more than it would actually take being that feuds would be combined to where two of them could develop in one 20 minute span.) That would be 165 of 240 minutes. There are 48 minutes of commercials. That leaves 37 minutes garbage like Palumbo. ECW gets an entire hour as a developmental. There are 0 WWE stars on ECW. You go from one to the other like AAA and the bigs. FCW becomes AA.

Anyway, in 37 minutes of TV you can get two diva segments, a tag title match not featuring any of the big 12, and a singles match or two. After you take into account that not everyone of the big 12 is getting a promo, some weeks they might just get a run-in, some weeks they might be in a tag match that encompasses multiple feuds, that would leave something like 57-78 minutes (just crunching numbers on the fly) depending on circumstances. That is plenty of time for Morrison, Miz, and Punk, Burchill, Shelton, and Burke to be developed, and to look at Torrie's boobs, Kelly's smile, and Michelle's, well, everything. Santino can be funny, and Carlito can be technically sound, Matt Hardy can continue to struggle to find an identity without his brother. Big Show can be Big and Finlay can fight. All these people don't need to be on TV every week. LAX and the machine guns aren't, that's why people aren't tired of them. Curryman and Sharkboy are super-over, and they weren't on TNA last night. WWE can take a page from their book. Plus, you can get rid of deadweight like V and Khali. Put em on ECW or on Heat. Take 3 minutes out, give a heat recap and make it seem like there is a struggle to get on to Raw. That would benefit Heat, maybe get it back on TV. I wouldn't be upset if I didn't get to see Jamie Noble every week.

Is there anything outside of the big 12 that you think can't fit into an hour of TV? Don't say Londrick. You only like them to feel like a workrate mark. You know you can't suspend disbelief for them, and you think you could kick both their asses at the same time. :)

I think the problem with WWE, the reason people bag on it, is that the brandsplit forces us to see Chuck Palumbo, Mark Henry, and Supercrazy because the WWE can't fill out a show with solid talent up and down for 8 matches and 12 promos over the course of two hours.

originally posted by someone

Again, ending the brand split would cause a lot more problems than it would solve. Guys like Burke, Benjamin, Yang, Morrison, Miz, Kingston, and various tag teams wouldn't get a shot on the main roster. The way things are now it allows for those type of guys, and young dudes in developmental, to get a shot on the main roster.

Really? They would have their own show (ECW, or be given signifigant TV time with the real roster, not amongst themselves to open SD!)

Plus, if the brand split gives these guys such a showcase, then what the fuck are Hacksaw and Super Crazy, and Val Venis doing on my TV?

Total Impact

04-18-2008, 06:13 PM

I would like to see the Brand split end as it has made for some great wrestling on brand and you get something different to watch from the three different brands. You got your storyline driven Raw, Younger Talent of ECW and the rasslin of Smackdown so it makes for good wrestling in my opinion. I think the WWE is doing a great job with what they are doing and putting the brands together wouldn’t be great right now or in the future as the WWE took time to build this different brands and putting them together would cause a clusterfuck of storyline and feuds. I like where the WWE product is right now and hopes it never changes as bring the brands back together wouldn’t be good, just see what it has done with the ECW-Smackdown talent exchange, no change in the ratings for either brand and nothing major that says we need just one WWE brand.

Evan Snow-Wolf

04-18-2008, 07:20 PM

Of course they need to end the brand split.

In fact, it should have ended 5 years ago, in my opinion. It was a cute idea, it had its merits, and now instead of opening up a world of possibilities it just limits everything. And when we want a cross brand feud, it just happens without any real reason. I remember back when crossing a brand got them suspended in kayfabe. So if we are getting rid of that, might as well get rid of the entire brand concept.

On a side note, ECW hasn't been ECW since the very first One Night Stand pay per view. LET IT DIE IN PEACE!

Los666

04-20-2008, 04:12 PM

Ending the brand split would have pros and cons so lets go through them.....

Pros:
- The return of the Undisputed Championship which was a far better belt then the current WWE Title.
- Better Tag Team division, more tag teams challanging for only one set of titles.
- Keep I.C. and US Titles and allow them to have equal value. They would have to keep them because all the midcarders from Raw, Smackdown and ECW couldn't be expected to challenge for just one belt!
- Better rivelrys
- Better womens division, well kinda.
- ECW title could be fought for only under extreme rules and therefore would be the WWE's new version of the Hardcore title.

Cons:
- Too many main eventers, some people would have to drop to the midcard.
- Too many midcarders, again, some of them woud have to wrestle on Heat, Velocity or ECW.
- Some wrestlers careers have been made because of the brand split (Cena, Batista, Orton, etc.). Get rid of it and how many wrestlers will be able to goto the top with so many already up there.

Besides, technically the brand split is already over. Too many wrestlers can jump from Raw to Smackdown and back again. Its nothing like when it first started, when wrestlers could only wrestle on their own brand. They each had there own brand exclusive pay-per-views, but now they all share the same ones. WWE is already trying to put the company back together, they're just doing it slowly, thinking no-one will notice.

justinsayne

04-20-2008, 04:31 PM

You know I've thought about this, and I really don't see much point in ending the brand split, if you did, then you'd just see the same guys on two-three different shows a week, and others would get less time if any TV time, I say just leave it as they have it now, sure they could use a few minor tweaks here and there, but for the moist part your getting to see more guys preform each week, I mean does any one really want to see the same guys ME both Raw and SD!?

HellBoundPower

04-20-2008, 04:56 PM

The Brand-Split has run it's course. All the titles on the roster are devalued because there are just too many titles. Feuds are limited to people on the rosters, and unless there are drafts yearly or even twice a year, all the feuds go stale pretty quickly. Honestly it's just a waste. If all the brands were back together again, ratings would go up. I think the casual viewer gets confused, having to pay attention to who is on which show, and it creates more trouble than it's worth. Have everyone available for every show, to feud with anyone on the roster, and you get a better product.

Everyone likes to bring up the fact that a lot of talent wouldn't be used. The easiest way to solve this problem is cut 1/3 of the roster. The roster is too big as it is, and there are a lot of people that are useless. WWE should just keep the best of the best, and cut all the rest. So what if they go to TNA. You still have your Main Event players, which are the people most casual fans want to see in the first place.

Have all the WWE Titles (WWE, Intercontinental, WWE Tag Team [use the World Tag Titles, but change the name to WWE], and WWE Women's) on both brands, and drop the WCW Titles (World Heavyweight, United States, World Tag Team [WWE right now]), and keep the ECW just on ECW. Now the WWE Titles have all raised in value and prestige just on the fact that they're the only Titles. People would be interested in them again, and there would be multiple challengers (so you don't see Undertaker vs. Batista for a year).

I personally think that this would bring more interest back to the WWE, seeing as how a lot of people tuned out when the Brand-Split happened. The best of the best would earn there spots on the Roster, just like it used to be before Vince purchased WCW. People that stopped watching might be convinced to watch again, knowing that they're favorite wrestler is on both shows, instead of just one. I think WWE would be in better shape if they ended the split.

Player_1

04-20-2008, 11:14 PM

I think the brands being split is still a good idea. I just think it needs to be managed better. I agree with one of the posts earlier, bring back Paul Heyman and let him run ECW the was it should be run. The company will still fall under Vince McMahon anyways. As far as "too many talents" goes, it is necessary to build future stars for the company. Some of these wrestlers are just hit or miss. Just remember that at one point all the top stars of today were considered useless and boring.

AnthonyMango/NoFate007

04-20-2008, 11:56 PM

The way its set up now, you have one brand for your biggest stars and not so much of a focus on midcarders and tag teams (Raw), one brand for a focus on midcarders and tag teams with less of a focus on the biggest stars (Smackdown), and one "grab-bag" training ground show for people that want to move up, whether it be just that you're being introduced and you want to become known or you're a midcarder who wants to be moved up to the main event (ECW).

That being said, if you eliminate the brand concept in its entirety, you open up more possibilities for Creative. People that feel there aren't enough feuds for main titles and that we see too many repetitive matches, this would help it out - but only if the WWE is willing to look outside their core 4 (HHH, Cena, Taker, and Batista).

The downside AND upside to this = demotions. Not everyone who is near the main event would even be close to it if you still had a good ten heavy-hitters like the four above along with people like Orton, Edge, HBK, and Jericho. Now, that's a positive because it gives a legitimacy to the Intercontinental title, as you'd have guys like MVP, Kennedy, CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, John Morrison, and so forth, all competing for it. The downside? You don't have guys like MVP, Kennedy, Morrison, Hardy, etc, fighting for the top title, as by the time you get done with all the feuds of the "top ten guys" then its time to rotate the ten again with other people. Another positive is that the lower guys on the food chain that aren't big enough for the IC title would move down to become extremely solid tag teams. This includes people like The Miz, Elijah Burke, Carlito, and so forth. I wouldn't mind seeing Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore as a solid tag team, would you? However, the down side to that along with everything else is that you've got a laundry list of guys that are fantastic at this low level, but are going to waste as they can't be featured all the time.

So overall, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to only have two brands (Raw and Smackdown). That way, you split up the "power 10 or so", boost up some of the nigh-main event guys (like MVP, Morrison, and Jeff Hardy) while still maintaining a very solid midcard and a much, much improved tag team division. That gives you more than enough room and justification for two top titles, two midcard titles, two tag team titles, a women's division, and maybe one more "fun belt" like a Hardcore/TV championship just for people with nothing else to do. The people that you would "cut" if the rosters were too large, just put them as some of the jobber tag teams that don't show up that often (ala people like Super Crazy and Funaki that don't matter at all).

Firefox is lagging too much for me to elaborate any more than that, but I don't think I really have to anyway, do I? I think I pretty much made my points clear after all that lol.

FTS

04-21-2008, 02:53 PM

originally poster by Los666

Cons:
- Too many main eventers, some people would have to drop to the midcard.

Which would lend legitimacy to the IC/US belt. Ultimate Warrior fought Rick Rude for the IC belt. That feud was great. When he had it, you felt like he was the number 2 guy in the company. It meant more. WCW used to do rankings weekly on the Saturday morning show. The US champ was always #1 contender. If you do it that way, #1 contender matches become a bigger deal, because someone is jumping in the rankings, as opposed to being thrown into a match.

- Too many midcarders, again, some of them woud have to wrestle on Heat, Velocity or ECW.

So you improve the quality of those shows, and maybe get them back on TV? Increased revenue to WWE? Not a bad thing for stockholders. (I bought 100 shares a few years ago.) Plus, when you make it seem like the guys on Heat are on constant audition status for Raw, you make those matches more meaningful, and probably better.

- Some wrestlers careers have been made because of the brand split (Cena, Batista, Orton, etc.). Get rid of it and how many wrestlers will be able to goto the top with so many already up there.

Undertaker, HHH, HBK, and Kane are all getting up in years. Plus, having to use all those guys every PPV implies non-title feuds. If HHH is tied up with Taker for six months, someone can move up to challenge for a title and then go back down, because the mid card is important. HHH and Rock had a great feud over the IC title while Austin and Michales were worried about the big belt. Bret Hart had an awesome IC reign.

Adding legitimacy to belts and importance to matches is never a bad thing. Improving the midcard is always beneficial, and making the action on all the shows better is of the utmost importance to the future of the company.

I_Like_All_Wrestling

04-21-2008, 03:05 PM

For the sake of creativity and interest, the brand split needs to be ended. However, WWE is a business, and a public business at that. Because of that the brand split with never end unless they are explicitly losing money.

Also, for younger fans who didn't experience the wrestling boom of the late 90's they have no idea what they are missing. They don't know what it's like when you have a stacked roster with good matches and promos from top to bottom so they don't really have a need to see a combined roster. What a shame.

The bottom line is, as long as WWE is making money now there will be no combined rosters. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw even more brands/shows pop up in the future.

FTS

04-21-2008, 06:15 PM

I don't think there will be new brands. CW wouldn't keep SD!. That's enough to tell me, at least, that the WWE won't be expanding.

I do agree with you that younger viewers don't know about a stacked show. I think those are the people who are calling for more London and Kendrick. I would rather see Shelton and Burke. They do the same stuff as Londrick, but they are believable. I think the brandsplit leads to unbelievable characters getting over. Daddy V is one for sure. Also, Mark Henry getting Wrestlemania matches against Undertaker? That's what the brandsplit does. Without a brandsplit, they could've done that gimmick with HHH. Or like I said, one Elimination Chambler match with Taker, Batista, HHH, Jeff Hardy, HBK, and MVP, or Y2J, or JBL would've been better. This is exactly what the WWE needs. They wouldn't have had to cut Y2J and JBL short to fill in the EC. Instead, their feud lingers one more month, the EC has six contenders in it, and you have a title match. Then you put Miz and Morrison against Rhodes and Holly, add a women's title match, put the IC belt on Shelton and have him beat Punk. You add one or two more matches involving someone like Finlay or Edge and No Way Out is a great PPV. You can always count on seven good matches involving HHH, Taker, Batista, Edge, Orton, Cena, Jeff, Y2J, JBL, Big Show, MVP, Finlay, etc. That is a good start to a PPV. You add two matches with younger guys,m give them a chance to steal the show, and move up, and PPV's are set. Not everyone needs to be in every PPV. If you put that carrot in front of these guys,m everyone's matches are better.

Edited to add:

Look at tonigt's show. That is exactly what I am talking about. 8 or the top 12 are in one match. They will get max, including promos 35-40 minutes of a THREE HOUR SHOW. Someone is going to get a push tonight, and everyone will have plenty of time.

RKO Orton

04-21-2008, 06:44 PM

I know fans are going to hate this, but the WWE shouldn't listen to us and should keep the brand split. It provides them with tons of money (Yes even ECW) and seems more special when interbrand matches happen. If you want an interbrand feud like HBK-Batista, that's fine, but don't merge the three as it'll hurt the WWE in the long run. What'd they do with the ECW and World Heavyweight Championship? Throw them in the garbage? Keep the brands, it's the right thing.

Besides, if the WWE always listened to us Cena would be fired, Triple H would be jobbing to younger stars, and Kennedy would be the ECW, WHC, and WWE Champion.

62jakethesnake

04-22-2008, 12:33 AM

i think ending the brand split is unneccesary simply at vengeance sorry i mean night of champions have a title unification match between whc and wwe title and let taker win it as the undisputed wwe championship have some legitamite fueds like they were gunna do when they had the brand split (one top title who competes against all commers from all brands to prove therew the best in the business but doing this would drop some talent that to me are unneeded (jim duggan,nunzio,HORNSWOGGLE,even Khali he sucks but hes big) and have good fueds about stuff that could happenlike the whole girl becomes manager has an affair grudge m,atch grudge fued, TURN PUNK HEEL have him fued with jericho and hardy over intercontenental, mvp go to a non title fued vs HBK anyone?, and have a solid top eight who are in the titlepicture who alternate after a 2-3 month fued also have M.Hardy fued w/ guys like morrison, burke, benjamin over US title and use the ECW title as a midcard title like they already do, BUILD KENNEDY he is money put him in a fued with HHH or top face that wont be in the title picture , that TOP EIGHT i talked about would be Taker, Cena they wont get rid of this guy ,orton,batista could be in here,HHH, HBK, and eventually MVP , Pink and Kennedy

Mighty NorCal

04-22-2008, 12:54 AM

Meh, I dont see why, its all but over anyway. Eevryone goes on all the other shows.

Im a fan of ending it without really ending it so to speak. IE combine the belts, Make ONE world champ, and just keep the mid carders to pretty much the shows they are on, but let the ME guys show up both places. So people still get their time, and we get more prestige in the belts, and the shows will be of higher quality.

Y 2 Jake

04-22-2008, 01:05 PM

Why end the brand split? So HHH can appear on every episode of WWE programing. No thanks. The way it is now works great. You pretrty much know who'll be on each show. Give or take. So if you like a certain Smackdown superstar you can always tune in. The brand split is pretty much unofficially over anyway. If WWE wants to have a feud they have it anyway. They don't even make them Smackdown vs. Raw for the most part. The KOTR was a prime example. Most were inter-brand matches. But it was the tournament that was special, not the matches.

The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh

04-25-2008, 08:31 AM

If the brand split ended, one of 2 things would happen IMO. You'd either have the current main eventers like HHH, Hbk, Cena, Orton, Edge, Taker, Batista on EVERY show and highest drawing mid carders like Y2J, Jeff Hardy, MVP, Umaga, Kennedy, Punk rotated so that they are each on every other week (because there's more talk for the big fueds than wrestling for the mid card) meaning the less popular mid carders and jobbers like Carlito, Santino, Morrison, Kofi, Benjamin, Jesse and Festus, London, Kendrick would all be released.
A lot of people think that the brands unifying would actually improve the midcard when instead it would hurt it because wwe creative don't do anything with the mid card (which is what most of us have spent the majority of 2007 complaining about)
The other result would be everyone on every other show so that they were each on tv every week and had time to develop fueds for ppvs, which is what its like with brand split anyway.

Danmen001

04-25-2008, 11:36 PM

The brand split ending should definately not happen. The three different brands, most importantly, provide different stagings for thee big stars in the WWE. If they only had one brand, all the big stars would remain at the top of the company. No one would go anywhere and the superstars would be too crowded. Also for money purposes, they make much more money with the slit, plus more air time fot shows and more rating, plus all the extra merchandise.

While there are positives for only having 1 brand. Such as more storylines and more options for titles and contenders. They would be too pushed together on one brand.

The brand split is definately a good thing.

King Paul The Awesome

04-28-2008, 10:36 AM

People say that if the brand split ended there would not be enough TV time for people, I thik that could and would be solved by using Heat and Velocity for a pure hour of wrestling, no re-cap from Raw and Smackdown, that is what Afterburn is for.

The titles would have the prestige restored to them, the belts would be:

WWE Title
Intercontinental Title
Tag Team Titles
U.S. Title/T.V. Title *
Hardcore/ECW Title **
Womens

* Not sure whether it would be best to keep the U.S. Title and have it act as the European Title used to, or simply unify it with the Intercontinental Title and then down the line bring in the T.V. Title.

** Either simply rebrand the ECW title as Extreme rules only, or bring back the hardcore title.

I have always said that if the split ended to add an extra half an hour to both Raw and Smackdown which would allow for more T.V. time.

The only problem I can see is for commentary, I would like J.R. and King on Raw, Michael Cole and King on SmackDown and all 3 at PPV's.

JaJaBings

04-29-2008, 05:43 AM

Nope, the brand split shouldn't end. As some peeps have mentioned, we'll have to end up watching Triple H more than we would like to, esp. now that he's WWE Champion again. What I feel would be necessary is, as the above poster has mentioned, unify the titles to restore the prestige in them.

For a long time, I feel that the old WCW championship being renamed as World Heavyweight Championship just didn't work out well. Since it's a 'World' championship, I guess it should be more important than the WWE title? But in reality, it's not. When one seriously takes time to evaluate the title scene right now, it's truly mind-boggling and ironic.

To avoid the problem of huge ME players clogging up all the shows, the WWE can reinstate the Undisputed Championship clause some years back which made the champions appear on all shows. Then, have some credible #1 contender matches on each respective show, resulting in 2 winning dudes from RAW and Smackdown, and grant them 'show hopping' privileges too, and cumulate into an interbrand ultimate #1 contender match on one of the shows.

The winner gets a title shot and retains his 'show hopping' privileges to feud with the champion consistently on both shows, and the loser stripped of his 'show hopping' status and probably do illegal run-ins on the show he isn't supposed to be at and screw the person who beat him. That draws up instant roster-wide potential feuds and needn't sacrifice the time allocated to the midcard scene, since huge ME players but aren't title contenders at the moment such as HBK, Batista, Jericho are forced to stay on one show, if they adopt this approach.

Here's my suggestions in unifying the titles:

WWE Title & WHC unified --> WWE Heavyweight Championship

IC Title & US Title unified --> Intercontinental Championship (and revamping the title to give it a modern look would be great)

ECW Title revamped --> Rename into ECW Hardcore Championship and should be SERIOUSLY based on the hardcore gimmick with high spots and bloodbaths. Shouldn't be treated like a Heavyweight Championship anymore, but somewhere along the lines of TNA's X-Division championship, emphasizing on exciting, high risk wrestling with the occasional gimmick matches, hardcore rules.

WWE Tag Titles & World Tag Titles unified -> WWE Tag Team Championship

Bring back the Cruiserweight championship too.

FTS

04-29-2008, 09:21 PM

The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh

04-30-2008, 06:49 AM

All I want is originality. Everyone's biggest complaint is that HHH will be on all three shows. Umm, so? Do you not want a talented performer on TV more? Would you prefer that that time go to yet another Palumbo/Noble feud?

And you think you'll get that with HHH? LMFAO. I don't want the SAME talented performer doing the SAME things he's been doing since '99. Palumbo is a bad example bcoz he's JPT (Just Plain Terrible) but yes i would rather see Shelton Benjamin in ANY kind of fued, or watch a Kennedy promo than HHH bury talent.

JaJaBings

04-30-2008, 09:54 AM

Unify the titles? Allow certain guys to do both shows? Sounds like an end to the brandsplit to me. If these guys don't have a specific title to go after, then the show becomes pointless. The AWA guys weren't trying to be NWA or WCCW champ. They wanted to be AWA champ.

So now that we've determind you want to end the brandsplit, why would you leave the shows divided. Allwoing 60 guys freedom, leades to almost 3600 possible feuds, restriciting it to three seperate shows cuts it down to a quarter of that.

All I want is originality. Everyone's biggest complaint is that HHH will be on all three shows. Umm, so? Do you not want a talented performer on TV more? Would you prefer that that time go to yet another Palumbo/Noble feud?

Well, u dun seriously buy into this brand split and treat them as two different companies like WWE and TNA, do u? They have been trying hard to establish RAW and Smackdown as separate entities as far as possible, which makes sense from a business point of view, but these 2 shows are still essentially WWE.

It worked fine during the unification right after Invasion, and I dun see why it won't work now. I dun get ur 2nd paragraph cos' it's a rather incoherent mess, but my stance is to keep the brand split. Perhaps u got the wrong vibe when I suggested that the champions should be granted show hopping privileges.

This move, however, would bring back the old prestige and honor of winning the title, and makes guys want to work harder than before. It also settles smarks' complaints of seeing the same few feuds over and over again, which will not be restricted with this clause. I dun see why u would still treat it as a brand split, since 99% of the roster still stays on their own brand, and probably performing harder to work their way up to ME lvl and get the spotlight for 3 times a week, instead of getting a midcard match once a week.

Triple H bores me. I would mark out solely for his spinebuster cos' I think it's one of the best executed in the business, but even his Pedigree looks sloppy nowadays. Other than that, he uses knee jabs, clothesline, right fists and sleeper holds for the rest of the match. Talented, yea, but as the above poster has mentioned, it's getting cliched and u can't just see the same thing twice and feel the same vibe as the first. His 'King of Kings' gimmick doesn't work for me. At least his stint in DX made me laugh a good few times, but smarks hated that, so I guess a heel turn would be in order for him to freshen up his gimmick.

PsxMeUP

04-30-2008, 05:48 PM

No brand unification. When the brand was one I hated seeing the same story built up 6-7 times until PPV. It got redundant. Stone Cold and the Rock were entertaining but seeing them pushing a story back and forth on RAW, then on Smackdown, then on RAW, then on Smackdown, then RAW, then Smackdown, then Raw, then freakin' SMACKDOWN AGAIN! I was BEGGING FOR THE DAMN PPV TO END THE MISERY ALREADY!!! The stories got over-saturated. No merging of the brands. :dark2:

FTS

04-30-2008, 09:54 PM

JaJa, my second paragraph, that you call an incoherent mess, is nothing but math. I realize that that might not make sense to you, but just try. No brand split means more combinations for feuds.

As far as show hopping goes, that is the end to the brandsplit. Do you think it would be at all exciting to see a pointless run-in by Edge because he's the number one contender? You would know it was going to happen. And with show hopping privalages, you would still see HHH in the way you are railing against, so your argument is the incoherent mess. I don't want to see HHH unless it falls into my guidelines of only the champ and number one contender. Guess what....HHH will always be one of those two, so your argument holds less water than levee in New Orleans...(too soon?).

The brandsplit is stupid. They barely stay with it as it is. Can someone tell me what brand Finlay belongs to? Batista's last two PPV matches were against Raw guys. Big Show and Khali fought on both shows for weeks. All it is doing is keeping us from an epic Shelton, Y2J, Jeff Hardy 3-way match, or an Edge/HBK feud, or the ultimate Taker/HHH match. End it and give us something new, or at least something that hasn't been done 23 times in the past year. They run around talking about Takewr/Batista 7 like that's a good thing. the matches are new, but there are only so many ways Batista can end up getting tombstoned.

TheDevilsReject

04-30-2008, 10:27 PM

Yeah I think it is time to end this. They have enough talent and with the three brands they can spread it out nicely. WWF was around for years and worked well without no brand split up until 2002 when they first did this. At the start it was a good idea but now like much WWE does these days has been so watered down it sad. Wrestlers show up on different shows anyway so why even bother? Like is Bigshow on Raw or Smackdown who the hell knows. They should merge, cut the dead weight and use ECW as a farm leauge for up and comers. If do not end it at least stick to the formula have a decent draft and shake things up a bit.

JaJaBings

04-30-2008, 10:37 PM

I dun see how quoting a few random numbers equals to maths. PS: I'm trying my best.

I know Triple H will somehow buy his way into title scene almost all the time, I guess that's inevitable if we do a title unification. Triple H hate aside, the main argument is that the same few ME/upper midcard wrestlers will dominate showtime.

People like the Undertaker, Batista, HBK, John Cena, Jericho, Jeff Hardy, MVP will be overutilized because these are the proven dudes that people are entertained by. Other potential stars like Cryme Tyme, Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin would be relegated to Heat or Velocity due to the vast amount of time allocated to these stars.

So, pls kindly assess the argument thoroughly before attacking it blindly.

I agree that the brand split is kinda weak nowadays since they take that aside to build hype for a wrestler more credibly, such as the Big Show when he was up against Mayweather. They need to return HBK and Batista back to their shows properly and everything should get back on track.

FTS

05-01-2008, 12:41 AM

So, pls kindly assess the argument thoroughly before attacking it blindly.

I broke down time-wise how, in FIVE HOURS, of weekly television, several people beyond, what I call the big 14 will get TV time. So it was addressed thoroughly, so read the thread before posting blindly.

And a few random numbers equates to idea that the WWE, at any given time, gives credible face time to about 60 guys. Taking those 60, and multiplying by the remaining 59 (after you take one out for guy #1) gives you 3540 possible feuds. Whereas, keeping the brandsplit to 25 guys on raw, 25 guys on SD! and about 12 guys in ECW, gives you 1394 possible feuds for the company, or roughly, a third of the possibilites without the brandsplit. Not random numbers. Simple math.

Furthermore, I said ECW should be a nationally televised developmental. Keep Kofi on ECW. Keep Tommy Dreamer there to give guys the rub. Make Colin Delaney a sypathetic face, OR a smarmy heel. Let guys develop. Move them up in time. Taker, HBK, and HHH don't have too much longer. Cena, Orton, Kennedy, or Jeff Hardy will get hurt.

If some of the better guys are relegated to Heat, it will get back on TV. If the WWE can show 3 million people logging into internet Heat, USA will find TV time. Superstars was syndicated and did awfully well in the 80's. You can look up my ideas about improving the meaning of matches equaling an improvement in the quality of matches.

JaJaBings

05-01-2008, 02:21 AM

Well, using ur example of a 60-man roster, simple math would actually be 60 choose 2, to equate to 1770. In ur calculation, MVP vs Matt Hardy, and Matt Hardy vs MVP are 2 separate feuds, and Matt Hardy would be fighting himself since he's in both the rosters of 60 & 59 in ur example. If u consider triple threat matches, the number would escalate astronomically, but that's not the main point anyhow...

On the surface, a brand unification would do wonders to the company. Fresh feuds, endless possibilities of potential feuds, main drawing power such as Cena,the Undertaker showing their faces 3 times a week = $$$. Ur point about Heat is also intriguing, since good wrestlers lacking the charisma to carry the ME scene would be jam-packed in Heat to cater to actual wrestling fans, and could possibly measure up to at least ECW's viewership depending on the true wrestling fanbase.

But herein lies the problem, man will never cease to have ambitions. They wouldn't want to be stuck in Heat, knowing that the championship is on the main shows, and wrestling for the minority of true fans and not being appreciated by the majority of marks. We would have more cases of wrestlers leaving WWE due to resentment ala Kurt Angle and Christian. Even with the brand split, WWE almost had Carlito slip off their fingers. What's more to say when the brands unify? It's rare to have company men like Val Venis that willing jobs to any shit wrestler in the world and still stays happy in the company.

In the end, WWE will end up as a wrestling organization that milks their proven stars to the very last drop till they retire like Flair, while the rest of the new stars shrug and pack up their bags.

FTS

05-01-2008, 02:33 AM

Ok, as far as the math goes, you include Matt Hardy in the 60, then multiply by 59, which is everyone in the WWE except Matt Hardy, therefore, 60 times 59 equals 3540. But enough about that.

True, man will never cease to have ambition. The only problem is that time will never cease to be limitless. Three people desire the presidency, and the window of opportunity will close on two of them by Nov. 5. (Obama can run again, McCain is in his last shot, and Hilary has done herself irrepairable damage, but back to wrestling, this is just an analogy). Just the same as every guy desires that main event spot, they all have only a few years to push themselves into that spot. So they need to make the most out of every opportunity. Therefore, we get better matches. Who cares if you're handcuffed. Do a shooting star press. Piledrive someone. If you get over with the crowd, Vince will have to showcase you. He's not going to pay people to do nothing. Go for broke every time. I just think too many guys are complacent because the brand split guarantees TV time for SO many people. If they can't hack it, go to TNA and get paid like Kendrick to get showcased and abuse you body like Angle.

PsxMeUP

05-01-2008, 11:35 AM

ABS

05-01-2008, 12:20 PM

Look theres no many details , but these details can be ignored and end the brandspil and wont effect much but the thing that is holding this back from happening is simply too many Talents. With 3 diffrent shows a week some people still complain about this guy not getting enough air-time. Imagine how it will be with one show.

JaJaBings

05-01-2008, 12:25 PM

5) Once you got the spot you can put your free agent status on the line... Let's say Cena is a free agent. Batista challenges him to a free agent status match, and wins, now Batista can hop around!

That's an interesting thought, but I can instantly think of the pros and cons off the top of my head. Pros would be that these free agents can contest for any of the world titles. Imagine if they want a real MEGA push for some wrestlers and give them BOTH the freaking world titles. That'll be huge, and I think WWE should take certain risks like these to freshen up the product. I seldom see champions with dual belts anymore, or lose their secondary belt soon after they won it. Kinda safe marketing strategy to diversify the fans' interest by having distinctive individual champions. If they want to build a new star credibly, a dual belt win would do him wonders.

Cons would be that everyone would be gunning for these dudes. Imagine going for the 3 title belts, then incurring the wrath of 1-2 #1 contender of each belt, plus guys that want the free agent status too, they'll have up to 10 peeps hounding them down individually. This would be true for most of the times, because I can't see anybody wanting free agent status merely to have grudge matches, they'll definitely be gunning for the titles, so it's quite a sticky situation.

And also from a real-life perspective, it'd taxing on these free agents to wrestle so many times a week, and handle potential multiple feuds at a time. Great thinking there though, have to polish up the idea a little. :icon_smile:

PsxMeUP

05-01-2008, 03:44 PM

I was thinking of having the first free agent spots up for grabs in a tournament, so ya, the higher tier guys would eventually get them and go for gold. I was thinking of having 4 free agents on RAW and Smackdown respectively, and 2 for ECW. That's only 10 wrestlers having extra work. You had the entire WWE roster working 2 brands at one point and the guys handled it somehow. They could give the spots to the young popular guys like Cena. For some reason I don't see the Undertaker as a free agent.

JaJaBings, you're right though, there are problems with having too many guys gunning for you. But look at it this way, if you get too much heat on all three brands, cower on one brand. Regular wrestlers can't get to you from other brands unless you go to their show. And you could have a stipulation that says once you get a title, you're stuck on that brand until you lose it (though that would be wasted potential). In the end, it would be one of those "good" problems. Having too much potential for stories is something the writers wouldn't complain too much about. I think what would most likely happen is writers would have free agents feud with other free agents across the brands. It would maximize the potential in ratings.

soulfire31

05-08-2008, 04:46 PM

I'm up in the air on this one. i think the brandsplit should be ended between raw and smackdown. however i believe the heavyweight champion should stay respected to each brand to not take T.V time away from others the same goes for the U.S. and Intercontinental titles. However the rest of the roster can jump between shows each week but there should be some type of clause where if you appear on raw one week you can't be on smackdown the same week. The Tag titles between the 2 shows should be unified it would make for a great tag division with deuce/domino, cryme tyme, highlanders, cade/murdoch, the edgeheads. it brings in the endless feud possibilities to help keep things from getting stale. also bring back the cruserweight championship which can be defended on all shows like the tag titles a division of london, kendrik, super crazy, moore, yang and noble to start would b great

ECW should stay as a separate entity though a place to build new faces such as it has done with c.m punk and kofi kingston. the TV title should be brought in to actually build a midcard. you can have guys like knox and dreamer fighting over it maybe a returning gregory helms along with kevin thorn, richards, stryker, burke could help out the ratings to adding meaning to the rest of the show besides kane and chavo. I'd like to see Jeff Hardy, Hardcore Holly, and maybe umaga come in for a brief period to feud with Kane due to his connections with estrada. i think umaga winning the title from kane would be better than seeing chavo get it again and then Umaga can feud with Hardy over it eventually dropping it and moving to smackdown. then you can have potential match ups of hardy/punk.hardy/benjamin which would probably be the greatest matches of the year the athletic ability of shelton and the fearless Hardy could possible bring Ecw some serious credit. also all matches should be extreme rules. that doesn't mean every match needs to be fought with weapons but no d/q if they get involved

i don't know just my thoughts let me know what you think

buddy_z34

05-08-2008, 07:52 PM

You guys are arguing over math and numbers, but this is about entertainment. Just because you can have more match possibilities doesn't make it more entertaining. So along that line, I think there is a way to keep the brands split, merge them and make it entertaining as hell in the process! Here's is how we can have our cake and eat it...

1) Keep the brands split up but scrap the roster lottery. Even though the lottery is fun to watch, it's BS, and it only lasts one or two nights. And it happens too infrequently, making things stales by the end of the cycle.

Instead, allow the General Managers to trade wrestlers at any time during the year. This will create suspense from time to time when you see Regal, for instance, talking to Teddy Long/Vicky Guerrero. When people see the two GMs in the same place at the same time they'll know a trade is in the air. This atmosphere can last a couple of shows until the actual trade. Even the prelude to trades can make interesting plot twists.

2) Have a trade deadline like in professional sports. The deadline could be before Wrestlemania, let's say No Way Out. :icon_smile:

3) Make champions exempt from trades. You win a belt, any belt, your job is secure on that show, until you lose the title.

4) Have a set number of "free agent" spots on all shows. Free agents can wrestle anywhere: RAW, Smackdown and ECW. Now here's the kicker...

5) Once you got the spot you can put your free agent status on the line... Let's say Cena is a free agent. Batista challenges him to a free agent status match, and wins, now Batista can hop around!

Now the possibilities are ENDLESS! You can have the big draws on all brands, you have a distinct difference between RAW and Smackdown, things can't go stale AND it's cool as hell to watch!

P.S. If WWE picks this idea up, I WANT CREDIT!!! (And Michael Hayes' job) :icon_smile:

wow i really like this idea alot.

i've been wanting this tri-brand crap to end since like last year. even when it was first implemented i didnt like it at all. and that was a the time of the WWE's biggest ratings. it worked back then because Vince had wrestlers like the Rock and Austin who themselves along can create high ratings. then there were people like DX, NWO, Jericho, and the WCW guys along with ECW guys. now you have HHH, Cena, Edge, Orton and Batista. i'm sorry but those guys dont compare to Austin and the Rock.

for the WWE to remotely get back to where it was they need to put on 1 great show instead of 1 good show, 1 average show and 1 show in the gutter.

get rid of one show, more than likely ECW. keep RAW and SD. move SD to the Sci-Fi network that way it can be live and no spoliers to keep the ratings from being so low.

Davi323

05-08-2008, 10:14 PM

One roster. Make RAW 3 hours, starting at 8 EST. Get rid of ECW. Turn the WWE Tag Titles into Intercontinental level titles, perhaps rebrand them the US Tag Team titles, ala the NWA/WCW, or even just the Intercontinental Tag titles. There are too many wrestlers on the roster to only have one Tag team title in circulation. Eliminate the US Heavyweight title or Intercontinental title. Eliminate the ECW title. Re-unify the WWE and World Heavyweight belts. Call it the WWE World Heavyweight title. Keep the big gold belt, get rid of the spinner belt. Bring back the either the Cruiserweight or Lt Heavyweight titles, a unified roster means more matchups possible between lighter wrestlers. So, we have the following titles, with 5 hours of original programming each week:

Singles:
WWE World Heavyweight Title
Intercontinental Title (or US title, keep one, but not both)
Cruiserweight/Light Heavyweight Title
Womens Title

Tag Team:
World Heavyweight Tag Team Title
US/Intercontinental Tag Team Title

We would still have 8 wrestlers at a time wearing some kind of gold. I think not eliminating any would just be too many belts saturating the TV, so some would have to go away.

Afro-Ameri-Spawn

05-10-2008, 12:25 AM

I have thought for a while that the "E" is getting stale, and a draft wouldn't help.

Let's take a look:

You are right on the money about it being stale. But not for the reason that you think.

1. Storylines have to be rushed with only 2 hours of time for each show. During the height of popularity, Stone Cold and the Rock could feud on multiple shows and draw so many more people into their feuds. People are underutilized. Burchill has nothing to do, but with 5 hours a week for everyone, they could find five minutes to get his sister's fine ass on my TV.

Bad storylines are bad storylines, no matter how long they get on tv. and right now, there are too many bad storylines going around. Having people on both shows would shorten the need for a big roster rather than actually utilizing it. People like Burchill would be lost in the shuffle. I actually liked he brand split, because it lead to new characters getting the call up. Believe it or not, I got tired of seeing The Rock on every damned show each week. lol

2. With shows being split, we get stuck with Finlay on Elimination Chamber matches. That match would have been so much better if it was HHH, HBK, Jeff Hardy, Taker, Batista, and Y2J. The bran split will only serve to make new feuds stale after a few months. Taker and Batista feuded for a year. Let it go four months, then move on the Edge and Taker, and Batista would have someone to feud with. Umaga last month, HBK this month, and then what? MVP has Matt Hardy already.

Well actually Finlay is underrated. the guy can carry a damned good match. But I doubt Batista would have had the exposure that he has had if the brand split would have never occurred. It gave the WWE a chance to develop another big man rather than rehashing old ones as new opponents. I agree that Umaga has run his course on RAW, but who hasn't. The point of the brand split was to make it so that guys like Umaga would get a look. Not to fill every show with ever character every week.

3. The tag division would be outstanding with everyone together. Cantino vs. Moor/Wang, Miz/Nitro vs. Londrick (I hate them, but matches with shaman and the magnet could be entertaining) Jessie and Festus vs Cade and Murdoch might not even suck.

Um no, the tag division is shitty because they book it shitty, It has nothing to do with a lack of talent. It has more to do with the way that they book the talent they have. They don't even build up tag feuds anymore. They should steal a page from TNA's handbook on this one.

4. Title changes would be signifigant. If Jeff Hardy goes to SD! and beats Edge, cool, I'd be happy. With one belt, a Jeff hardy win would make me shit myself. I know we complain about no one being elevated, but that's because the title scene is stale with the same matches over and over. With a top tier of Taker, Orton, Cena, HHH, Batista, Edge, JBL, and Y2J the possibilities are great. Throw Hardy, MVP, and Kennedy in there and you have quite a top and uppermid card. Plus the IC and US belts at this point are props. Ending the brand shift would make that something. When Warrior beat Rick Rude for the IC title at Summer Slam 89, I nearly shit myself, and it propelled him almost immediately to the top.

Didn't we go through this during the whole Rock, Hogan, Trips era? Top tier guys hogged the spotlight. No need for that. Just write better with what you got. You gotta have good writing to have good stories. It's not all about the talent.

5. I understand that some guys would get lost in the shuffle. This is why I propose ECW sticking around, as the top developmental. Keep the "E" guys off of ECW, and keep ECW guys off of "E" programming, unless you plan to keep them there. Seeing the Bros. of Destruction was cool, one time, but I have no idea who Kane, Morrison, Miz, etc. work for now as they are on two shows. The top developmental could be televised for one hour a week. Imagine seeing the Batista/Lesnar matches from OVW on TV. That would get you excited for new guys. It's like watching college basketball and wondering what that guys could do for your team.

If you push down guys then favorites who just aren't quite there will occupy ECW while newer guys will get lost in the shuffle. Thusly, ECW will look like a minor league show and the guys who get elevated will look weaker when they do get elevated. It's a never ending cycle. People would also get confused and ECW would become and unwatchable clusterfuck.

6. Taking the best writers and putting them together gets rid of who's the midget's daddy and is he going to fuck his sister storylines. Maybe getting the best bookers and writers together gets us Invasion, Corporation, Ministry, Austin 3:16, and the Rock says again.

Nope. Too many cooks spoil the pot. Which is why you have specialized cooks to do specific things. There were separate writers before. Now you have single cells. And that is much less straining on the whole. History won't repeat itself.

7. Ratings will rise on both shows because you have to watch to follow your favorites. If you love Taker and hate Cena, then you might not watch Raw as much. If they were in the same "league" you would be forced to watch. Ratngs up, exposure up, both good.

No, ratings will sag. Competition is what kept the ratings up. If people have to watch the same people all over the place, then it gets boring. Which is why ratings never spike when guys do cross over angles. WWE needs to build up TNA or someone else to compete with. That way people have more of a choice. People are not fooled into thinking that Coke Zero really tries to compete with Coke Classic. So they aren't buying he brand split. Getting rid of it will only cause mass confussion. Ratings would drop. I'd put cash on it.

8. Everyone would have to step up to get TV time. This would lead to better wrestling, better acting, and less stupid shit like Shelton Benjamin saying, "I'm the man, so there ain't no...." and that being his only promo. Shelton, get better on the mic, and you get a push, keep sucking and you get sent down to ECW. Sounds like he would try harder.

Better wrestling is not totally the problem. Bad writing has alot to do with it. You also have locker politics, and bad attitudes. WWE might be in danger of becoming another WCW if they don't watch out. WWE is too scared that if they let certain guys go that they will be goldmines for the competition. hence why Shelton and Carlito are still around. They need ot make cuts and stop playing games if they want to get back into this. Plain and simple.

Well there's my two cents on your two cents. I hope it helps to broaden the look of this topic a bit.

FTS

05-11-2008, 12:13 AM

Well, Spawn, I can't say I disagree entirely with you. I do agree that the writing is shitty, but my opinion is that it is because average writers aren't given much to work with. The company chooses who to push, so the writers have to make it work, and it gets old. I'm not going to paste the whole message, but I will rebut a bit.

First of all, I think the bad story lines have more to do with the brand split than anything else. The writers have to write 75% of the time about the titles. Too many titles ruin the soup, more than too many cooks. If you took your top writers and told them to write 40% of the show about the champions, you could work a staff for midcard, for cruisers, for women, etc. I agree that specialists are needed, the only problem being, in the current state, those shitty writers are writing the top storylines. I believe that one championship storyline would improve the card all the way down. Feel free to disagree, my logic could be wrong.

I like Finaly too, no argument here. As I said above, if written correctly, everyone would be given a shot. There are only certain guys that deserve time EVERY show. The way the WWE works, you can use 4-6 of them in one tag match, that including promos takes up 20 minutes of a show. All the feuds and histories can be tied up neatly into a package. I look at WWE like a TV show. I was a fan of the West Wing. That show had 8 major characters, all with two story lines about them. But so many of the storylines overlapped, that resolution, or at least continuance could happen for multiple angles at the same time. The WWE needs to be creative, but I think a well rounded show featuring several characters weekly seems attainable, especially with 4 to 5 hours of time to do it in.

Tag feuds take seconds to start. TNA does this effectively time and again jsut by having one team interrupt an interview and taking it from there. If Cody Rhodes and Holly are telling Diva Search Winner Todd Grisham about how dominant they are, and Cantino come up and tell them about their singles losses, you can start a match. If London and Kendrick talk about loving the fans and Cade and Murdoch walk up and tell them that they better love the fans because they don't have the size to compete, we can find out after this break. A tag match doesn't take a lot of build-up. A singles feud does. A singles feud needs motivation for two "loners" (all wrestlers seem to be loner tweeners now) to have a conflict. With tag teams, the psychology goes that one is braver with his backup next to him. Shit is talked, bonds are forged, hostilities heated, and so on.

ECW already looks like a minor league show. I jsut want Kane off of it. Why does Kane have to be champion of the shit characters while Snitsky gets to fight HHH?

I grant you that competition kept ratings up, but there is no competition now. TNA would get crushed by WWE head to head, based merely on brand recognition. The WWE needs a way to get ratings up. You have to figure that some of the roughly 10 million viewers go in and out of shows based on a weekly basis. If you have compelling storylines, there is a likelihood that all the people who watched last week, will watch again, and the guys who missed last week, but are tuned in this week would be added. Now instead of 5 million hardcore week to week fans can be added to the 10 million on and off guys, Make WWE must see tv again. You don't need TNA or WCW to do that, you need good stories. With more combinations of feuds, I think it is more easily attainable with a brandsplit.

PsxMeUP

05-11-2008, 04:27 AM

fromthesouth, you talk about things getting stale because of too many belts and because plots always revolve around the same guys. How will that change if you remove some of the belts and merge the brands? I bet things will get even more stale.

Ok, so you got 1 brand. Now wrestlers want air time. Here are the current top cards - guys that can be champion at any given time:

Bastista
Cena
HHH
HBK
Jericho
Orton
JBL
Big Show
Kane
Edge
Undertaker

Thanks to the three brands we have more top guys than previously (Cena, Orton, Batista, JBL and Edge are a product of the brand split). Now those guys want air time, so we need 5 or 6 matches to book them. And there's your show: that list of wrestlers. There's your RAW and your Smackdown until one of them gets hurt, retires or leaves the company unhappy about not being utilized properly, i.e. a mid-carder taking his spot. You talk about things being stale. You want those same 5-6 matches day in day out, on all the brands??? A show only has 2 hours. You can't seriously believe Batista or JBL or any of them will go back to the Tag Team division? All those guys will want to be in the hunt for the World Championship. With a brand merger, the WWE will lose even more talent to TNA.

The WWE is too big for one show. The pond has gotten bigger but the amount of fish has increased too slowly. The problem is the WWE needs more big names, not drive some of them away by shrinking the pond again. And it will shrink if you have the same guys appearing on all the brands. Smackdown might as well be called "Raw 2" in the brand merger.

FTS

05-11-2008, 11:56 PM

You guys keep saying the same thing, and not answering my response. It's a contest of who can use the same argument the most almost. Watch a WWE show. I don't think a lot of you are. If you name 10 guys, how are those ten guys going to need five matches? If you ever watched the product, you would see that on the week to week show, they sell the PPV by taking two to three of the feuds and making a tag match main event out of it. Now we're talking about two or three matches. You make one of those matches the main event on Raw, the other on SD!

Do you remember pre-brandsplit? On one show the Rock would promo, and Austin would wrestle. On the other it would be reversed. Some weeks they would wrestle on the same show. These guys had one show of action, one of talking.

You guys have this myopic view that the WWE is going to blow their loads and if Batista and Taker are feuding, then Batista and Taker are going to fight every show. That would be stupid. The WWE makes matches to sell PPV's. That's why there are DX reunions. HBK is feuding with Orton, HHH with JBL. So HBK and HHH fight Orton and JBL in a 15 minute match. That's four of your 10 or 11 guys. Now they're used, and the rest will be used similarly. Even if they do that on EVERY show, that is only 45 minutes of usage. Taking out time for commercials, that leaves HALF THE FUCKING SHOW for the undercard. The top card is more important, so it deserves more time. Plus, we are going to watch anyway, so the WWE's concern is to keep the interest of the casual fan. A top-card focus does that. So what if they leave 10 minutes for a Shelton Benjamin vs CM Punk technical clinic? We like that, but you know what, who fucking cares?

Anyway, back to my point. One match a week on TV for most of your list, maybe two matches for one of the feuds. A promo for all ten of those guys. We have used less than two hours of the five the the WWE gets on TV. After you take out commercial time, there is 2 hours plus, or 40% of the time to develop every wrestler. Carlito is cool and all, and Santino is funny, but is there a reason they need to be on TV every week? Part of the reason that the Machine Guns and LAX are so over is that they are not overexposed. With this stupid brandsplit, after you get past the top of the card, we are stuck with Chuck Palumbo on TV. Let's do a fictional run through of a week of TV, and you will see where I am coming from.

Monday 8-815
HHH, Vince, Orton, and Regal argue about belts.
ads
819-826
John Morrison and the Miz kill London and Kendrick (Don''t worry, Kendrick does one cool thing, leaving the IWC to write about how underrated he is, Paul London still fails to Ricky Morton correctly, leaving me to remind you that these guys suck balls)

827-832
Cena insults Orton, they fight, Taker gets involved
ads

835-838
In Regal's office, Orton begs for a match, and it is granted. Since Taker has to fight MVP at the next PPV, the match is Cena and Taker Vs. Orton and MVP.

839-848
In the ring, Y2J's highlight reel features Batista and Kane as a preview to their PPV match this Sunday, shit is talked, punches are thrown, security gets TV time.

849 Regal says if they want to fight, they can do it on SD!, as partners against DX!!!!!!!

ads

852-859
First main event - Umaga vs HBK
ads
902-912 conclusion, main event 1 HBK wins

915-927
Rhodes and Holly lose the tag belts to Shelton and Burke
ads from 920-922

928-932 Carlito says he doesn't care who has the belts, he and Santino are #1 contenders.

933-946 Jeff Hardy defeats Kennedy and Big Show in a three way first blood match, ads in the middle
ads
947-1007
Edge beats Matt Hardy in a Lita blowup doll on a poll ladder match, lot's of classic action, after a hole is ripped in the doll's chest Lawler utters the classic, "Her dogs just turned into pupppies!!!"

Tuesday ECW
900-908
CM Punk and Kelly beat Burchill and Katie

ads

911-924
Morrison beats Miz in a team captain match.
ads

927-929
As Morrison and the Miz are arguing backstage, Burke and Shelton, flashing gold, tell them it doesn't matter who the captain of the (insert home crowds worst local team) is because they still suck. Punches thrown
ads

932-934
Regal makes a match for the PPV, TLC Rhodes Holly, Santino Carlito, Burke Shelton, Morrison Miz

937-942
Kane squashes Tommy Dreamer
ads

944-1003
Y2J vs Jeff Hardy in a classic. Jeff regains the IC belt, fade to black

SD!
700-707, we recap the Orton HHH belt drama. Preview Orton MVP vs. Cena Taker
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710-718
Vladamir Kozloff loses to Chris Harris
719-721
In the locker room Cena and tells Taker he doesn't like him but they have to get along. Taker punches him.
722-727
Crowd cheers
ads
730-747

DX vs Kane and Batista
ads
749
Y2J does something to get involved in a triple threat falls count anywhere elimination match in the PPV for the IC strap with Hardy and Kennedy

ads

800-813
MooreWang beat Chuck Palumbo and Burchill. Moore then grabs the mic and says this was for you Ricky Morton and tells London to suck it.

ads
815-824
Kennedy and Umage lose to Hardy and Y2J

825-834 with ads in the middle, post match brawl, Orton walks to the ring and reminds us that his dad being on the road imparied his communication skills.

ads

837-900

main event.

By my count, 35 guys got used. A championship feud, Orton and HHH developed. A midlevel top card feud between Taker and MVP was moved along. Same with Kane and Batista. An IC level feud between Jericho, who promos with the top guys, and wrestles in the midcard, Hardy, and Kennedy. Cena and JBL's feud got moved along. The tag picture was more developed than it is on real TV. Beth Phoenix was nowhere near the TV. All positives.

Note: This is not my saying that they can use 35 wrestlers a week. That was a fictional runthru of a week to illustrate that the card can be filled top to bottom. With the brand split, every feud is for a championship. Anything that isn't gets settled on Raw or SD!, which kills it's heat. Don't critique my booking here, as it wasn't the best effort in story writing, I just wanted to show how to use the card without a brand split. I used over half the roster in ONE week. Like I said, not the whole roster has to be used every show, but certain guys do. I even used some heat killers which could be replaced with other guys, so I don't want to hear who I left out, except for the top guys, any name can be substituted in any situation. That caveat is for you Kenny Dykstra fans.

Garvanko

05-13-2008, 08:49 AM

Obviously three brands is one too many. I'd get rid of Smackdown, not because its crap, but because Raw is the A brand, and ECW is a training camp. Therefore SD is of no consequence, except nostalgia for WCW fans in a way.

I'd also get rid of the IC belt - Its a famous piece of history, but its been raped in recent years, and hardly ever gets on a PPV. Judgement Day, its not even on the line. I'd set up a unification belt with the US title (belt v belt), and obviously book the US title holder to win and thereby 'retire' the IC belt.

On Raw, i'd have the WWE Championship, the WHC, the US Title and the World Tag Team Gold. The WWE Championship would be the brand promotional title and the WHC would be main 'wrestling' championship.

The Womens title i'd move to ECW together with the WWE Tag Titles (renamed to ECW Tag Titles). ECW Championship of course is the premier title.

Three-fifths of the roster would be on Raw, while the rest would be on ECW. Best way for ECW to get ratings is to keep women's wrestling there and make it more extreme.

Oh, and get rid of all the Duggans and the like.

Basically, there are too few wrestlers for three brands, but more than enough for two.

FTS

05-21-2008, 01:42 AM

If there are enough wrestlers for two brands, why is Batista fighting a Raw guy for the THIRD time in FOUR PPV's? There are plenty of guys on Raw who Flair influenced that could be Batista in this story. But, they have to use SD!'s second face. Give me a fucking break.

Neither company has enough guys to properly fill out a card with heel/face matches. HHH and Cena fight each other, Batista has to fight face HBK and face Y2J time and time and time again. A couple of turns at the top of the card don't help either because the balance will still be off, just the other way. You can't just elevate someone because the undercard cupboard is bare.

Combining the brands allows for turns, elevations, and balance. MVP can move up in combined brands because he won't have to be the ENTIRE heel portion of the midcard on SD!. Heel Batista and heel Edge would destroy Taker, and no one could be elevated to help him because the only guy worthy of being moved up is a heel, MVP, but like I said he is anchoring the midcard. This brandsplit has led to limited stories and feuds. Ending it opens up such an opportunity to everyone. HHH is far less likely to hold anyone down at this point too. His best friend is the ultimate guy at putting someone over (HBK), so he sees that it won't hurt his legacy. Plus, during his first few title runs he was fucking the bosses daughter. Now the WWE is his inheritance. I'm sure he wants to maintain its relevance well beyond his career.

mcflyboy

05-21-2008, 01:50 PM

i agree with el matador. I think brand separation is a good thing, and want them to stay separated. Some cross promotions are fine, but in general i think it's better to have separate shows. My main reasons (some of which have been mentioned previously) are as follows:

1. Combining would have too much clustering around the titles. With only 1 main title, 1 mid title, 1 tag team just doesn't seem enough for the number of wrestlers.

2. Stories/feuds. With the way it is now, stories and feuds build on a weekly basis. If the shows were combined, then they would have to continue to build every show for them to make sense. If they weren't, then they might as well have 2 separate shows.

3. In order to give the number of wrestlers something to do, we'd see a lot more thrown together impromptu teams. some may see this as a positive, but it seems like on both raw and smackdown, we already don't see a whole lot of 1 on 1 matches, most are teams thrown together based on something that happened at the beginning of the show. If the brand split ended, pure 1 on 1 matches would become even more of an endangered species.

4. From an administrative standpoint, a brand split gives the wrestlers on the opposite show a night off. Considering how busy their schedules are, they probably appreciate only having to be on TV once a week.

5. Seeing the same wrestler/wrestlers on every show would wear out their welcome quickly. For example, I like the undertaker as much as anyone, but would i really want to see him every show? No. Spacing things out prevents specific wrestlers from becoming stale.

I'm sure there are other reasons if I thought about it more. I'm not saying that the brand split is a perfect solution, but I think ending it would raise more problems than it would solve.

FTS

05-22-2008, 11:35 PM

The number one reason the WWE refuses to end this dumbass split is that they have two touring companies, and the house show division of the company is the most profitable it has ever been.

If the current state of the WWE reminds you of the 90's you are too kind, or too stoned to remember correctly. First of all ratings are less than half of what they were at the peak of the wars. Secondly, the only reason they remind you of the 90's is that the same guys are at the top of the cards. If you discontinue the split, the younger guys get to work with the vets. The vets will get pushed harder, and the youngins will get seasoning. The talent pool is dilluted. There are a lot of top guys, and alot of bottom guys. The only true midcardsers are Matt Hardy and MVP. Everyone else is either in the world title match rotation or Jamie Noble. If you combine the brands, there can be a midcard. People can get moved down. Others, up. An MVP/Cena feud would be good, a Matt Hardy HBK feud would be entertaining. Kane and CM Punk fighting Batista and Carlito would be great fun. Saying JBL and Cena will never accept demotions is stupid. Let em go make a quarter of the money in TNA and elevate MVP. Remember, the best Rock and HHH matches were IC level, not WHC level.

Smackdown is nothing like WCW. First of all, teh top heel faction doesn't control the show. Vickie has yet to just PUT the belt on Edge. Chavo won't beat Taker and then job out in the "finger poke of doom II." TNA is more like WCW in the 90's. Mainly because the guys at the top of the card, Booker, Steiner, Sting, are the same. The X division is like the cruisers. SD!, beyond Taker and Edge and Matt Hardy and MVP and Kane is shit. MooreWang is a fun team. Jesse and Festus don't suck, but if that's the best I can say, then.......

The state of the business is shit. Raw has so much potential at the top of the card, but there is only so many times Hardcore Holly should be on TV. (That number is 0, by the way.) Putting MVP and Matt Hardy on the Raw roster is what WWE needs to at least appease the hardcore fans. That opens up exciting feuds. If you add Taker, Edge, Batista, Kane, and Rey, you have an awesome show, top to bottom. You could even have, gasp, non title feuds. The belts seem like props instead of cherished goals. If two guys are feuding over something other than the belts, you get that reality back to the show. I think that Batista and HBK's feud is an example of that. The promos are intense and all bets are off. Orton and HHH just seems contrived. Hey guys, we can't think of anything, so have the same match for the 12th time, this time in a pool of gators, and next time, on Jupiter.

TheGreatSPAMbino

07-07-2008, 11:38 AM

The system should work that this. There should be 2 brands Raw and Smackdown, ECW should fold. The rosters should be divided evenly and once divided the superstars stay on their respective shows. Exclusive talent remain exclusive. No more random people jumping around. There should be one world title and one tag title and these are the ONLY superstars who go to both brands. This will especially help the tag division to have more depth and will add prestige to the titles and make them seem more important. In terms of the world title we will no longer be getting the same world title matches at every pay per view. Now that the ONE world champion is going between both shows world title matches at pay per views with alternate between both shows and it will help to keep things fresh and it will help to build up matches more. Its pretty simple to figure out really.

Also, there should be a greater distinction between the two brands themselves. They should each have a completely different look with completely different production teams. Instead of having one website(wwe.com) there should be two seperate web sites one for raw and one for smackdown. These are just a few ideas i had. Thoughts?

Sunsetrocket

07-07-2008, 01:27 PM

The damn brand split should have ended half a decade ago. It's a 2002 angle gone wrong and a philosophy that confuses the casual fan, leads to repetitive angles and booking, and too many championships of the same value, which devalues each title and eventually waters down the product of each brand. (3 world championships, 2 mid card championships, 2 womens championships, two tag team championships, no low card championship). What is what and who is who and does this mean anything? It was an intriguing idea at the beginning, but it shouldn't have become the central component of the company's long-term business model. What began as a power struggle storyline between Ric Flair and Vince McMahon in early 2002 has grown into a 3 brand cluster with confusion from every direction and no identity to speak of that defines each brand. ECW is hardly relevant and it's pretty much a slap in the face to what ECW truly stood for during the years it operated as a company under Heyman. ECW is simply a watered down version of both Smackdown and RAW; nothing more and nothing less. Smackdown is the B Show that some fans simply skip due to pre-tape early in the week. Although I believe that it's more intriguing than RAW and its characters are more defined, it's difficult to convince another fan that especially when most don't care enough to watch the show consistently. RAW, has improved with the addition of Punk as Champion, Kofi Kingston as the Intercontinental Champion, and a proven Michael Cole as the play-by-play announcer, but it's only a matter of time before Cena or Batista take the title and we're back on the same track where the same guys that we've seen at the top for years are on top again. I hope I'm wrong. Plus, when was the last time RAW had a General Manager and why was Vince in charge of the brand to begin with? Questions that still haven't been answered yet.

It was an illusion of competition that never panned out, which should have been obvious from the start. Earlier in this thread, I've read that ending the split would put several low carders in a position of being cut, well that's true, but most of those guys aren't being pushed anyway and are just floundering in each brand with really nothing to do on tv. Those guys are only slightly useful to the E in dark matches and house shows. If most mid-carders aren't being pushed as we know they could, then the status of the lower card performers are even worse. No Cruiserweight Championship, European Championship, or Hardcore Championship anymore to place some value for your low card position and give something for those low card performers to strive for in the company. Overall, the low card position in either brand is undefined.

My thoughts haven't changed since day one when this began. The company survived 40 years under one brand, one roster. Their biggest financial periods in terms of gross income increments occurred when there was one brand, one roster. There's no reason why they can't succeed at it again. Keep it simple stupid.

smackdown27

07-07-2008, 09:11 PM

It's so easy to say that WWE should get rid of SMACKDOWN and concentrate on the A show which is RAW but the hard thing is to find a solution to get both shows going.

ECW definitely has to dissolve.

Anyone who wants to get rid of SMACKDOWN must not have been watching SD since the brand split. It was the A show then and RAW was the B show.

SMACKDOWN at the time had Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Edge, Kurt Angle and many more. And even when Triple H moved to RAW later in the year, he was replaced by Undertaker who is an even bigger star. SMACKDOWN later on also got Brock Lesnar, Big Show and Rey Mysterio to further boost their roster.

RAW only became the A show when the f***ing USA/WWE deal was reached and soon after, they moved Cena and Kurt Angle to RAW.

Now, the solution to get both brands going is to keep seperate Tag Titles, Mid Card Titles and Low Card Titles but unify the WWE and WHC and go with a single champion on both shows like they did in 2002/2003. They also should be having a single Womens Title to be used on both shows.

I know it won't be easy for the Undisputed Champion to work both shows so the solution to that would be to give the Champion (and whoever else is working two shows) the rest of the week off which means no house shows for them.

The company must choose their priority. Is it going to be the house shows or the main shows?

rookie

07-08-2008, 08:26 AM

to get rid of smackdown is like saying that hbk should of beaten brett clean at survivor series. it just shouldn't of happened. ecw is the shit show so get rid of that move the good people e.g matt hardy mark henry and all that to raw and smackdown. i ebt u any money that smackdown will be the a show in 8 months . i mean look at their roster. hhh, edge, mvp, jeff hardy, kennedy, finlay and i bet undertaker comes back if he doesn't do that biker gimmick again. their is a A show right their. i would only get rid of ecw

twistoffate_113

07-08-2008, 12:20 PM

that can never happen there are too many wrestlers in the wwe and a lot of wrestlers wouldnt be on tv for a long time, and that doesnt help other wrestlers that barely get on tv these days anyway

Saiquan

07-08-2008, 02:47 PM

Golden Standard

07-09-2008, 07:40 PM

Thats what i'm saying why end the brand split when they are making more money off of it and also it gives alot of stars a chance. If they end it most of the stars will be buried by HHH and them and will not be giving a chance and the shows will be even shittier. Not to mention stars will ge hurt after wrestling alot.

King Paul The Awesome

07-14-2008, 05:34 AM

People say end the brandsplit but i don't see why should they end it

1. There are just to many wrestlers to have one brand like the old days. All though it was easy on the wrestlers the company has expanded since then with alot more mid-carders, so more people get a shot.

2. They make alot more money with the brand split. Smackdown can do a show in Texas and get a $100,000 gate while Raw can do a show in California and get maybe a $200,000 gate being that they're the A-Show. I wouldn't be surprised if ECW started going solo.

3. More people get a chance to be on the main roster. It also gives them a chance to some what push new stars regardless if they do they always have a chance if they want to. i.e. CM Punk

I see what your saying, however with a combined roster, they could do a combined show at a bigger arena and sell it out and make that kind of money.

How many times at Raw and Smackdown do you see half of the upper deck tarped off? That never happened in the good ol' days.

Smackdown for example, just looks awful to watch on telly, with the crappy blue light over the audience, just further trying to hide the fact that at an arena that holds prob 7,000 people, 4,000 have turned up.

I would like to see it going back to the days when Raw and Smackdown would sell out 15,000 seater arenas every week. With all the star power turning up at every show, that could definitely happen.