Report: WWE Moving A Step Closer To Ultimately Ending The Brand Extension

[Teddy Irving]

Originally Posted by The Average Guy

Not trying to bash here but theres a couple things wrongs with this.

1)You're obviously assuming that Dolph wins the Rumble which in its self is a long shot.

2)You're saying at Wrestlemania that Dolph could stand tall either CM Punk, the Rock or John Cena with the belt? Not a chance.

3)If the WWE was going to unify the titles, it would probably be at a big event but would be the main program and would be heavily advertised and pushed

1. Not assuming Dolph will win the rumble was just giving the scenario in which this could happen by Wrestlmania, because the person I quoted said he couldn't see it happening by then.

2. Did you believe Jericho would be standing tall over, Rock, Austin and Angle when he first unified the belts? I don't think anyone would believe that before it happened.

3. This I agree with but like I said I was just trying to show an scenario in which it could happen.

[Toroc102]

The other problem with that is that being the guy that unified the titles really isn't that big of a deal. IMO unifying the titles didn't do anything for Jericho, he had a 3 month run and basically went back to the same spot he was in before. making the guy would be up to the WWE not just unifying the titles.

[Wrestling101]

It was previously reported WWE had been polling fans regarding changes to their live events. WWE seems to want to do away with the branding of two tours labeled RAW and Smackdown.

F4Wonline.com is reporting the top reason WWE wants to makes changes is they are frustrated with the difficulty they've been having trying to draw anything for any of their live event shows branded as Smackdown.

I've mentioned this from time to time, but I think the solution to this is to make Smackdown the show with the big time talent like Cena, and have the top storyline play out there and generally give them booking as if they were the number 1 show for about a year, and let Raw be the show to build stars in that time. Raw will be watched no matter what, so building the stars there will have a greater impact than putting them on SD, and SD benefits from what would be better ratings by having top stars and top storylines.

[Rayne]

Here's what can be drawn out of this- the market has shrunk to the point where there's no longer room for a WWE 'B' promotion. It's been coming for a while, as performers crossed brands regularly over the past year, but this is the continuation of this process.

The WWE is going to face an awkward situation with Smackdown. The reason professional wrestling ended up on SyFy was to get people to stick around at watch other programs on the network as they rebooted from their staid "SciFi" days. SyFy is done rebooting, and while Smackdown is their most popular show by far, it's also by far their most expensive. Over the next two years, if Smackdown keeps sinking, they're going to be in real danger of moving to another network- or cancelling the show entirely.

[Wrestling101]

Originally Posted by Rayne

Here's what can be drawn out of this- the market has shrunk to the point where there's no longer room for a WWE 'B' promotion. It's been coming for a while, as performers crossed brands regularly over the past year, but this is the continuation of this process.

The WWE is going to face an awkward situation with Smackdown. The reason professional wrestling ended up on SyFy was to get people to stick around at watch other programs on the network as they rebooted from their staid "SciFi" days. SyFy is done rebooting, and while Smackdown is their most popular show by far, it's also by far their most expensive. Over the next two years, if Smackdown keeps sinking, they're going to be in real danger of moving to another network- or cancelling the show entirely.

I definitely agree that the market has shrunk for wrestling in general....I don't think it'll ever get back to regular 5.0 ratings, and it might not get to 4.0 ever again.

But the market for SD should be the same as the market for RAW.....Book SD better, make them the strong show in terms of top level talent, make that the show that the big storyline progressions happen for about a year, and the same people that watch RAW should want to watch SD, right? I don't see why SD can't consistently get 2.5 ratings if it's booked properly.

[Rayne]

Originally Posted by Wrestling101

I definitely agree that the market has shrunk for wrestling in general....I don't think it'll ever get back to regular 5.0 ratings, and it might not get to 4.0 ever again.

But the market for SD should be the same as the market for RAW.....Book SD better, make them the strong show in terms of top level talent, make that the show that the big storyline progressions happen for about a year, and the same people that watch RAW should want to watch SD, right? I don't see why SD can't consistently get 2.5 ratings if it's booked properly.

Two words: Friday Night.

Friday and Saturday nights are hard nights to be on television, especially when you have a product which draws a lot of its crowd from people under 30. People that age are out doing stuff on those nights. (I'm not saying 'everyone is', before someone tries to pigeonhole me; I'm saying more people than normal.) This is why I don't think Smackdown is on SyFy to pull in huge ratings in and of itself; its goal is to get the crap they're running regularly to go from 0.2 to 0.3.

In addition, USA is a network with a much higher profile. While you'll usually find SyFy and USA packaged together in any cable/satellite deal, USA is located somewhere in the 20's-30's, while SyFy is crammed somewhere in the low hundreds.

[dman1373]

Originally Posted by GameOver

Yeah awesome except for some time now whomever wins faces the champion of there brand. and what if the Rock v Punk match is on last? not to mention Punk would be spent by that point and world champions are not eligible to enter anyway since they are defending there titles or the world champ could win and there would be no main event at Mania

It's always been easy top unify the titles they just wont do it. Easy Peasy. have a Title vs Title match with both guys trying to prove they are the best of the best, there ya go, no need for any fancy storylines or conveluted plots.

Just book punk vs rock first and have vickie set up punk somehow with him getting in the rumble. Also whoever wins the royal rumble chooses which world title he wants to wrestle for, thats why benoit went to raw.

[3drinks]

So, yeah, we've seen this news story pop up over the last couple of days, and the reason WWE cited is "They're tired of Smackdown! events not drawing". In the news article for that, I posted a [somewhat lengthy] reply to someone, and I just figured I'd bring it over here so we can do more discussion on it:


"This is great. I've felt for years ending the brand-exclusives was a bad idea. WWE doesn't have real competition ever since WCW's death, and the best way to get competition, was give the illusion of RAW vs Smackdown! competing like separate entities. Personally, I was also a huge fan of brand-exclusive Pay-Per-Views too, which gave two months between each brand's large events to build feuds proper. The only joint-events would be Royal Rumble, Survivor Series(which takes on a similar model to Bragging Rights), SummerSlam, Wrestlemania, and Night of Champions (to keep with the "every championship is on the line" theme that the event is based on).

You could even make the One Champion appear on both brands, as before, as well as the Tag Team Champions, and make that the only way superstars could get more exposure. Really helps the company as a whole as it makes the belts look so much stronger, and like something to fight for. This also naturally elevates the IC and US titles, which tbh, is something that has been needing to be done for awhile."


I understand WWE is only doing this with Live Events, but what are the odds they do this with the actual shows too? Maybe I'm being too much of an idealist, in wanting them to go back to the days of the exclusive brand-splits. Anyway, thoughts anyone?

Discuss!

[Strong Style X]

WWE SmackDown! isn't doing that amazing in terms of attendance anyways, is it? I think the brand extension (and in return, the World Heavyweight Championship) are unnecessary at this point. The WWE doesn't have as much star power as it did during the first few years of the brand extension. WWE is in a rebuilding phase right now and it's a good move business-wise to increase attendance for live events.

If only they made SmackDown! live eventually too, eh?