BRAND EXTENSION/DRAFT Thread: Keep It All Here

[TheNickster]

Big Show has also faced Mark Henry multiple times even though he was drafted to RAW in '11.

Anyway, I would sort of like to see a draft this year. I love watching the Battle Royals, and Tag-Team matches etc. Sometimes they can bring excitement and surprise that crowds (usually) would enjoy. So yeah, I think they should have a draft this year.

 

[healyz84]

A draft is a huge waste of time this year. You do realize there is only 1 GM now right? Why would Johnny Ace need to do a draft to switch the rosters up, when he can just do it on his own anyway. Your not going to trade to yourself!

Look what he just did with Del Rio. He comes back from injury, and suddenly he is brought over to SD!. That says it all right there.

Only way a draft would be done is if the WWE really thinks its fans are idiots, and don't see that having a 1 GM system, and a show that integrates both of the brands already, would need a draft. The only way I can see a true draft emerge is a) someone new emerges to take over one of the shows (i.e. HHH overrides the board's decision and names someone else or himself GM of a show) or b) Johnny Ace, in the spirit of shuffling things up, decides to have a whole roster draft again, randomly shuffling the 2 roster's up, instead of it just being 5-6 guys.

 

[HamSwissman]

Now would be as good a time as any to end the roster split. It has no purpose other than splitting up the house shows. I'm starting to think when WWE called the Taker/Trips match the "End of an Era", they were hinting at something more than that particular contest. I'm hoping, anyway.

 

[TheChosenOne10]

Hype the draft the weeks leading up to the show. JL starts the three hour special and announces that there will be no draft. He makes everyone eligible for each show. No more SD guys working both shows and occasionally Punk/Cena going over to SD. Then the months leading to Summerslam id have Laurenitis announce that theres gonna be a unified championship match and make a tournament like the last time. Both titles defended at Summerslam then the winners face off in the main event. This leaves 1 Undisputed Champion (also bring back the Undisputed Championship that Brock held please) and then Id have the IC title be the title guys like Ziggler, Rhodes, Miz, Del Rio, Kofi, Ryder go after until they are ready to make the jump to the world title. IC title is now the second most important therefor you assume it will reestablish some credibility. US title can be a title rookies go after or comedy guys like Santino. But back to the topic at hand, no draft, just have everyone eligible. The draft would only make sense for SD, Raw already gets all the guys. And I think the rosters are to thin at the moment to have two separate rosters...

 

[akathelaw]

The roster situation is set up so two house shows can occur on the same day in different cities. If WWE live attendance goes down expect the shows to unify the brands. I think we will see a draft this year but it will be different from what we've seen in the past. WWE has stalled the draft until after Extreme Rules before. This is an interesting time with so many new faces getting pushed in the company, and a lot of guys who are really over who we have yet to see used to their full potential (Daniel Bryan, Zack Ryder, Dolph Ziggler). Will we finally see a Miz face turn on Smackdown like so many have predicted?

 

[DeathClutch]

1. One 'Main Event' Championship is needed, the problem in WWE is there is to many belts and the feuds surrounding the belts are pathetic so unify them and focus on making the belts look meaningful.

2. Ceasing the brand split is the right thing to do, the only time the split felt meaningful was WWE DRAFT night.

3. Main event feuds shouldn't be simply about x title or z title, Cena/Kane or Kane/Orton being key here, or HHH/Undertaker no trinket was or is needed, we've moved on from multiple titles.

4. Enjoy the show, what happens isn't in our control.

 

[MattRhys20]

I like the idea of a tournament for an Undisputed Championship. However, a little twist I would bring in.

Have an 8 man Raw tournament and an 8 man Smackdown tournament and have the winner from each go into a FATAL - 4 - WAY for the title with the two title holders at the next PPV which I believe after Extreme Rules is Over The Limit.

Will probably get ridiculed for the idea, but oh well

 

[Matt_Mertes]

The only thing I can say about making titles look meaningful, is if they were actually defended every week. Give or take the World Championship or the WWE Championship. But we should see the U.S. Title, and the I.C. Title as well as the Tag Team Titles on the line every week. Non title matches every week make the <Insert Title Here> look like a prop. Im not sure about title unification though. I guess it wold make the championships worth more if there are less opportunities. But at the same time it seems like there are too many stars that deserve a heavyweight title that having just one would give less opportunity for superstars that deserve one. As far as the draft, I guess I don't get it how it would be effective. We see most of the stars on both shows now anyways. Just my opinion. I agree with DeathClutch: "Enjoy The Show."

 

[Antichrist]

There's 6 championships, WWE, WH, U.S, IC, Diva & The Tag Team Championship, & only 4 T.V Shows, RAW, Smackdown, Superstars & NXT. That is discordant. There needs to be an equal number of shows to titles. In 2001 WWE bought WCW & ECW, with an Extreme T.V Title which could have been paired with the Hardcore championship, and there could have been an ECW/NXT Show, they could have made the European Championship mean something to Europe. I would drop the tag team titles until they mean something or make them the NXT Championship, put all the tag guys on NXT, and only use WWE title on RAW, W.H on Smackdown, U.S on Superstars, I.C on NXT, and Diva Championship only on Superstars/NXT

 

[Clifford]

The draft should be the Monday Night Raw or Friday Night Smackdown before Night of Champions. Since NOC consist of a match for every title having the matches already made and the possibility that the participants could end up on different shows I feel it would make it fresh. Kinda have you wonder if this is someones last chance for the title for awhile how will it end will it stay on the show it was on or move over to another?

 

[H33LTurn]

Another draft would be a complete waste of time. The last good draft was the one that brought Cena and the WWE title to RAW. Anything after that has been a sorry attempt to make people care whether they see their favorite superstar on Monday or Friday. Some things are just pure logic. RAw being over saturated with talent last year called for Orton to be drafted. This year Del Rio just moved over to SD no problem. The draft should be every 2 or 3 years depending on whether they bring back brands or not. Imo WWE drafts superstars as soon as the audience starts to get adjusted to a particular roster. Leave things the way they are for now and use a draft when its actually needed.

 

[Fugazi]

I fail to see the point of a draft when every raw is a supershow and there is only one GM.

BUT I do like the idea of a draft. Right now though I don't think it's a good time since theres too many feuds set up and the only real brand switches they could do is maybe returning superstars such as Christian(if he ever is returning) so he can set up a possible feud with CM Punk after Jericho leaves.

 

[thedarkhorse]

As we all know, the next PPV will see Bryan vs CM Punk for the WWE title. This will be a great match, but the only thing that bothers me is how can Byran (a smackdown wrestler) be a contender for the WWE championship (which is Raw's belt)? Bryan was just the number 1 contender for the world heavyweight belt on smackdown, he's on the smackdown roster, and now he's just all of a sudden in a feud for the belt on raw? I guess the brands dont matter anymore. I know they have the supershows lately with people from both brands on it, but they almost always keep the belts on their respective shows as well as the people feuding for them. If that's the case, then have Miz or Dolph randomly go over to smackdown to take Bryan's place and have them feud with Sheamus for the WHC, since neither of them are doing much of anything right now. So since Bryan is a smackdown superstar, if he wins does that mean Smackdown has both heavyweight belts and raw has none? Or what will be done about this? You never see raw people fight for the IC belt or smackdown people fight for the US belt. I just wish they kept the brands separate or got rid of them altogether, none of this halfway BS. We have almost never seen a feud or title match between people from two different shows in a long time. All the feuds and PPV matches for belts almost always are two people from the same brand. Let me know your thoughts people, thanks.

 

[GI Cake]

Dude, where have you been for pretty much the last eight months? Brand extensions have been done away when Triple H became the new COO. Smackdown Superstars will always make their way to RAW and vice versa. It doesn't matter if Daniel Bryan beats CM Punk for the WWE Title, because if he does win the title, he will just appear on Monday Night RAW more often then he would Smackdown. Nothing more or nothing less. And where on earth do you see these "rosters" you speak of? The WWE for all intents and purposes, got rid of the rosters and brand divisions. Hell, they even did away with Bragging Rights pay-per-view. Hell, they even got rid of the draft.

 

[Shotaro]

YES!

YES!

YES!

The brand extension ended months ago. I didn't see all of Raw last night but at least three guys who are officially "Smackdown" Wrestlers were involved in the BTC challenges. The brand extension is over in all but name and that's just a matter of time.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

What is this..."brand extension" you speak of?




What? Raw and SD superstars are exclusive to their brands?!



GET OUTTA HERE!



I think chico those days are all but dead. I mean, brand identity did something when Billy n' Chuck would fight for their show against 3 Minute Warning so their GM wouldn't be forced to les out with lesbians as per the rules of the opposing GM. But, sadly, those hot action days are gone. Poof.



Puts Billy's after parties in a brand new perspective huh?

 

[Dynamite101]

I first i was confused on why Daniel became the number one contender to the WWE title but then it hit me if there will be a wwe draft they could probably draft Him to Raw

 

[kenlow73]

Well, I don't totally think it's brand extensions are completely gone. You hardly seen anybody from Raw on Smackdown, unless it's a live supershow. Because of contracts running out, people getting let go and injuries the Raw Roster is depleted, so they need SD wrestlers to fill the vacant spots.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

It's Raw supershow. essentially WWE has made it so that Smackdown guys can do stuff on Raw so that the feuds on Smackdown get more exposure. The Smackdown UNDERCARD basically stays on Smackdown to test out their stuff.

We have a Raw Supershow, 1 GM over both, and the match is CM Punk vs Bryan Danielson for the WWE Title. How on earth anyone on an internet wrestling message baord is complaining is beyond me.

 

[DeathClutch]

Truthfully I see this is as WWE's first step towards unifying the belts. Allowing guys from both RAW and Smackdown to compete for each others 'big one' is about the only concept they've never done in the entire brand split and now that's pretty much officially ceased more-or-less WWE are now whittling down the matches we've yet to see on PPV before unifying the belts, for example Punk/Bryan.

I think it's a great idea though, Punk/Bryan for the WWE Championship sounds sweet, I'm not sure Bryan will get the win but the match itself deserves to be on PPV, plus they're a few others that WWE could do before unifying the belts.

Going off topic a little 'IF' unifying the belts is WWE's goal they'd give Lesnar one of the belts and pretty much having run through WWE with it and actually have him initiate the unification that he want's to legitimize WWE and having one 'World' Champion.

 

[#heel420]

1st the brand extension is basically over. 2nd Didn't Mark Henry challenge Punk for the WWE Championship like 3 weeks ago? He's a Smackdown wrestler. This match is gonna be a modern day classic why question it? Just sit back and enjoy.

 

[VinnieSunshine]

Im intrigued as to where WWE goes with this.

Though I would like to see Punk hold on to the title a little bit longer, his character has gotten a bit stale since his feud with Jericho started.

Bryan on the other hand could benefit greatly from winning the title, and could push Punk and Bryan into a great feud. We have already seen the matches they can produce and heard them go back and forth.

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

There is no Raw superstars and Smackdown superstars.. Now it's just WWE superstars.. Honestly, I think they should have given it to someone else.. I'm all for Punk/Bryan but that's a match for SummerSlam, not Over the Limit.. No doubt it will be a classic! I say give these guys 30+ mins and you've got match of the year candidate!

Honestly, which Raw superstar would you rather have Punk defend the WWE title against? Lesnar has gone AWOL, Cena is battling Ace Boy, Trips doesn't need to contend for the WWE title, Lord Tensai is helping Ace Boy.. You've got mid carders like Miz, Dolph and who esle?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Like others have already stated, the brand extension is practically dead at this point in time. There hasn't been any sort of official announcement that it's gone but you definitely have the sense that WWE has quietly just let it slip away, which is for the best I think. I like the fact that we can see guys like Daniel Bryan, Sheamus and Randy Orton show up on Raw and that names from Raw can show up on SD!. It's usually more SD! guys on Raw than the other way around, but you get my meaning.

As for Bryan, I was pleasantly surprised to see him become #1 contender for the WWE Championship. Truth is, I figured it'd be Orton. I'm also glad that they didn't have Lawler come in there and dominate Bryan or give him such a match that he wasn't able to BTC. Bryan won and he won decisively. We know what these two are capable of, they've given the two best matches I've seen on free television this year and those matches could've headlined any ppv.

 

[the_vipers_enigma]

First of all I remember a few matches in the past where SD superstars challenged Raw superstars and vise verse. So that's not something new. Plus we are having two of the best in ring performers in the WWE fighting for the WWE Championship which really happens and as we all know give Punk and Bryan 30+ on the clock and they will produce a 5 five star match with ease.