Could it be that the brand split isn't working?

[AegonTargaryen]

By isn't working, I mean, the quality of shows has dwindled. At least SD live.

I'd like to begin with a few disclaimers though:-

I am someone who was and has been very optimistic about the WWE and its future in the last many months, so this thread isn't a typical "WWE sucks. I hate it. " sort of thread.

I remember reading this huge thread on the brand split back in June where about half of the posters were detractors, and half were supporters of the brand split. I belonged to the latter . I remember that the main thing the detractors emphasized was "lack of stars" .

Fast forward to today.

SD live was enjoyable but in the last many weeks, I haven't enjoyed it. Look at what happened this week:-

1)Naomi wrestled Alexa Bliss for the 5th time in 2 months.
2)Tag division has failed to make an impact.

When they had the tournament it was interesting but look at it now:- Slater&Rhyno as champs generates indifference mostly, Usos have been cool but their feud with AA has been disappointing, Hype bros havent done much. Ascension and Breezango are forgettable non entities.

Instead of getting amazing 20-30 min triangle tag matches between Usos/AA/Hype bros, these are the types of matches we get:-

3)Trash matches week in and out. SD live sucks when it comes to quality matches. Don't believe me?

Apollo crews vs Curt Hawkins.
James Ellsworth as your mainevent.
Bray Wyatt wrestling Kane.
The Spirit effin Squad in 2016.

Need I say more?

Raw is doing far better overall, at least. IMO
Tag division has gotten better. New Day are fun. Cesaro & Sheamus are intriguing. Their singles matches with New Day were fun.
Braun Strowman is emerging as a huge star. I enjoyed the squash matches and I'm looking forward to him vs Zayn.
KO/Rollins/Jericho is far better than Styles/Ambrose/Ellsworth.
The cruiserweights are growing on me. Esp Gulak, Neese, that masked guy, and The Brian Kendrick.
I'm a huge Titus O'Neil fan.
Corey graves is far pleasant to listen to than JBL, Otunga and Mauro.
Reigns/Rusev segments are hilarious. Rusev is growing on me. The segment from this Raw was hilarious!

The point is that there aren't enough stars.

How many more months do Miz and Ziggler feud? Then what happens?

AJ Styles was phenomenal ..until No Mercy. Now he's made to look like a chump by James Ellsworth and Dean Ambrose.

Bray Wyatt is a channel-changer to me.

How does one watch a show like SD live? I wonder TNA must be far better in quality(yes, even in 2016) with Cody Rhodes, Mike Bennet, That X division guy with Shane Helms, and Hardy's.

Were the detractors right? The brand split isn't working, when you have episodes of SD where AJ Styles wrestles James Ellsworth three weeks in a row. And the rest of the trash.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Most things you talked about are your opinion, so I won't discuss them. However one thing you said is just ridiculous.

This is what A.J. Styles has done in WWE...

-- Spends over 30 minutes in the Royal Rumble in his debut.
-- Defeats Chris Jericho in his debut match on Raw.
-- Has arguably the best match at WM32 in a rematch with Chris Jericho.
-- Has two show-stealing matches with Roman Reigns for the World Title.
-- Defeats the biggest star in the company, John Cena.
-- Defeats the biggest star in the company, John Cena. Again. Clean. At SummerSlam, the second biggest PPV of the year.
-- Defeats Dean Ambrose to win the WWE Championship.
-- Defeats Dean Ambrose again to retain the WWE Championship.
-- Defeats both Dean Ambrose and John Cena in the same match to retain the WWE Championship.

So you're trying to tell me that A.J. Styles, the wrestler who has done all of that in less than one year, now looks like a chump?

All because he lost one match? After he had Ellsworth beat plenty of times and Ambrose refused to count the pin? After he took two finishing moves from Ambrose? After the ref Ambrose had to do a fast count? If anything Styles looked really good coming out of that match.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Okay fine since no one else has posted, I'll respond to the rest of your post.

Nikki and Carmella are having a great feud. Alexa is a great heel. Naomi has a new character and is interesting. Becky is the new champion.

Slater and Rhyno are ridiculously over. The Usos have turned heel and are actually interesting for once. American Alpha looks very impressive. They could call up The Revival and have them steal show with American Alpha again. The Wyatts could easily join the division.

Apollo Crews is an up-and-coming star. James Ellsworth is a 'fad' who is leading merchandise sales. Bray Wyatt picks up a quality win over a veteran talent in Kane. The Spirit Squad provides another layer to Ziggler and Miz's feud and won't be around long.

New Day has become stale. Cesaro and Sheamus are annoying. Braun Strowman is just squashing jobbers. He's not becoming a 'star'.

Rollins has fought Jericho 3 times in the last 3 weeks, and the whole feud is filler to get us to Rollins vs HHH.

The cruiserweight division is a disaster. Bringing up 15 wrestlers at one time, with neither of them having a character, was never a good idea.

"That masked guy" How good can he really be if you can't even remember his name?

Titus O'Neil is awful. The Reigns/Rusev segments have been mostly boring.

Smackdown has plenty of stars. Miz can feud with Kalisto, Kane, Swagger, Ryder, Ambrose, Cena, or Orton after he gets his rematch with Ziggler. Ziggler can feud with Corbin or any of the Wyatts. You could go face vs face with any of the names mentioned above. Why not have a 20-minute champion vs champion show-stealer against Styles? Or you could call-up Nakamura, Roode, Aries, or Joe.

Bray Wyatt has the most interesting character in WWE. Now that I mentioned him, he could also feud with Ziggler.

TNA can't even pay their own wrestlers. Shoot a lot of them are in NXT. The mention of Shane Helms among the biggest stars in the X-Division is enough for me not to watch. (After I spend 30 minutes looking for it since they change Networks every 6 months).

 

[swallop]

I agree smackdown was awesome but these last 2 shows have been lackluster and i blame that on a couple of things,

james ellsworth and the fact that for some reason they stop feuds after the pay off. What i mean by that is for example after slater & rhyno won the belts they stopped everything now there just another tag team. When dolph ziggler won the belt they have done nothing and just bunched miz ziggler and the spirit squad all together. What made smackdown unique was they were telling stories, Now they think that just because the faces won the titles they can just do random crap. Nope because now the show sucks again. Why couldn't they have had miz cut another epic rant on daniel bryan originally giving ziggler the shot? The night after no mercy when miz was saying he had the belt the girl and everything i thought he was going to put maryse's manger duties on the line. Now that would have been interesting. Smackdown just seems like a 2 hour raw now. No direction.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

If one's personal opinion of quality of shows are your criteria for the brand split working then the brand split is definitely working.

SD Live is leaps and bounds better than pre-brand split SD. It's not even close. I rarely watched SD before the brand split, I watch SD Live more frequently. Almost as much as I watch Raw.

Didn't you do this thread like a month ago?

 

[legendkiller1979]

The brand split is absolutely working. The quality of SD is irrelevant. Before the split, there was no reason to watch SD. Let's say for the sake of discussion that the show isn't great. It really doesn't matter becaus it's leaps and bounds better than before and that was the whole reason for the split to begin with.

 

[The Samoan Heritage]

TNA can't even pay their own wrestlers. Shoot a lot of them are in NXT. The mention of Shane Helms among the biggest stars in the X-Division is enough for me not to watch.

Well from someone who watches WWE and TNA every week, I will say this, TNA does have the better show than Raw and Smackdown a lot of times. This week being a good example, aside from the return of Goldberg, TNA was much more enjoyable.

As for the OP I have to disagree with you as well. Well at least in the fact that what you are saying about Smackdown, it doesn't mean that the brand split isn't working. If you need any examples of why the brand split is working look at Slater, Usos, every women on Smackdown, and Swagger, and among others. Look at Smackdown's ratings, they may haven't beaten Raw's, but I believe, two(or 3) weeks ago they were less than half a million viewers from Raw. That is pretty great, considering not too long ago Smackdown was barely getting half of Raw's viewership.

I think some people are still stuck on "Ruthless aggression's" Smackdown, as people call Smackdown the "wrestling show" between the two, when it clearly isn't. Which i'm not criticizing Smackdown, as I would take great storytelling over wrestling. Looking at Smackdown's roster the only guys that are known for having great matches are AJ, Cena, Orton, and Ziggler, as opposed to Raw who has Owens, Rollins, Jericho, Reigns(yes, Reigns), Sasha, Charlotte, Bayley, Cesaro, the CWC competitors, and a few others.

-You say Miz and Ziggler feud for a few more months and then what? Well the same thing can and is said about Reigns vs Rusev.
-You say Smackdown has trash matches, but what about that Henry/Golden Truth tag match, or that 2 minutes Cass vs Anderson match, or Bo/Axel vs Neville/Zayn? There are plenty more.
-I didn't understand why they had Kane wrestle and beat Wyatt, but instead of pretending as if it didn't happen, they added Kane into Wyatt and Orton's feud. Let me ask, why exactly did the shinning stars beat Enzo and Cass in back to back weeks, and nothing ever come of it?

I mean Smackdown is FAR from perfect, but at least everything has a reason.
-Bliss and Naomi fought back to back because Naomi replaced an injured Becky and beat Bliss in a match. So Bryan put Bliss in another match against Naomi to prove she deserves the #1 contendership.
-AJ lost to Ellsworth, due to Ambrose's shenanigans and interference, while AJ was useless to do anything about it because he was told he couldn't put his hands on Ambrose/ref. Also as a result of Ellsworth technically getting a clean win over the champ. he received a championship match.

I mean Smackdown is FAR from perfect, but at least everything has a reason.

That's also another reason why the brand split has succeeded for Smackdown. Before the brand split, Smackdown consisted of AJ having meaningless/random match, Ambrose and the Usos being Reign's lackies, and the usual rushed women's match.

 

[Navi]

I couldn't disagree more with the OP here. Before the brand split the only reason to watch SD was if you missed RAW. It was basically a replay and not a very good one at that. Plus given the fact that they kept changing nights didn't help it either.

Since the split and the fact that they have their own roster now, with some of the bigger names I might add, it is refreshing. RAW is the show that is stagnating. I find it hard to sit through a 3 hour RAW each week. I mean shit how many times over the past few weeks have we seen Jericho/Rollins/Owens in various combinations. And we will see it again next Monday and the following Sunday at the PPV.

Half the roster isn't even used. Where is Darren Young and people like that? Everyone goes on about what a great midcard they have, but they can't seem to find a feud for good wrestlers like Neville, Zayn just to mention two, there are a lot more. The highlight of the show is Jericho, he's having one of the best runs of his life. Cesaro and Sheamus, both good wrestlers are thrown into a tag team, again because it seems they have no one to feud with. Although they are doing pretty okay right now.

I enjoyed the Ellsworth matches. I was something different, ans we don't see that much. He got wins over Styles, but let's face it, it was a handicap match both time as Styles was facing him and Ambrose. Ambrose is coming into his own, I have no idea where the Orton/Wyatt feud will go, so it keeps you guessing. It just seems that each week the show flies by, unlike watching RAW where I'm watching the clock at the same time.

The best part is Shane and Daniel Bryant aren't out there cutting 20 minute promo's each week. We rarely see Shane and Bryan only shows up when he needs too. Totally different on RAW where Stephanie makes it all about her. So I would say it's working. What will be interesting is seeing what the house show numbers are. Will the RAW troupe do better number than SD? I haven't seen anything yet to tell which one is drawing the most fans in.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As has been mentioned, if for absolutely nothing else, the brand split has done something that fans have been hoping to see happen for years: SmackDown has relevance. That in and of itself has made the brand split worthwhile in my opinion.

I won't say that I didn't watch and enjoy SmackDown before the brand split and before it went live. One thing that helped me was because I didn't read any spoilers, so it was easier for me to enjoy it. At the same time, however, you knew that the show didn't really matter in the same vein as Raw because if anything major took place during the tapings for SmackDown, you couldn't help but read about it as it'd be all over the internet. For instance, possibly the last truly significant happening for SmackDown before the brand split was on the May 3, 2011 SmackDown tapings when Christian dropped the World Heavyweight Championship to Randy Orton just 2 days after winning the title from Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match at the Extreme Rules ppv. Even if you didn't read any spoilers for the show, you couldn't help but read something about the title change as it was a story being talked about on every decent wrestling website.

Some weeks, in my opinion, Raw is better than SmackDown Live and vice versa. I think SmackDown Live sort of gets graded on a bit of a curve in some instances because they generally have less to work with; the blue brand has a lot of talent but, let's be honest, much of that talent has spent several years, or at least much of their time on the main roster, being jobbed out. The Vaudevillains, Curt Hawkins, Zack Ryder, Fandango, Tyler Breeze, Heath Slater, the Ascension, Jack Swagger and Apollo Crews are some of the guys who've been featured prominently on the blue brand as have guys who're well past their prime like Kane or Rhyno. John Cena is basically a part timer now, Randy Orton has been inactive for much of 2016 due to one injury or another, Nikki Bella has only been back from injury for a handful of months, as has Naomi, Carmella and Alexa Bliss are both still brand new to the main roster. Fans are responding to them but, in many cases, they still have to get over the hump of being brand new faces and/or jobbers.

 

[Eyebrows]

I was against the idea of a brand split when it was first announced but I've been enjoying the shows more now.

I think it's just because they don't have to drag storylines out over two shows per week. Allows them to be much more focused. I've honestly been enjoying both Raw and Smackdown.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I was against the brand split, and I still am. The only good that has come from it is the creative writing on SD Live. That's it. Raw is still one hour too long (show feels like four hours if you actually sit through it all)

WWE needed less PPVs to actually have a proper build towards one. Split result: A PPV every 2 weeks-ish. Talk about over exposure. The only thing that I've looked forward to in the longest time was seeing Goldberg come down to the ring and cut a great promo. That's really sad. Now they're already mixing both brands at Survivor Series. Lame. Raw really is the program suffering from shitty creative even though they supposedly -won- at the draft, they can't do anything with the advantage. Seth Rollins vs Y2J vs K.O has happened about 10-15 times since the draft. Anyone excited for their 18th encounter at Hell in the Cell? They probably won't even main event the PPV.

 

[Phenomenal]

The brand split sucks because most of the wrestlers are jobbers or mid-carders at best. Compare the current roster to just even 10 years ago and you will understand what I'm saying.

 

[Eyebrows]

The brand split sucks because most of the wrestlers are jobbers or mid-carders at best. Compare the current roster to just even 10 years ago and you will understand what I'm saying.

You say that but I remember when I stopped watching in about 2004/05 having to sit through The Basham Brothers, Heidenreich, Mordecai, The Diva Search, Simon Dean. There was a whole lot of crap back then too.

 

[Aeon Mathix]

They really should never have split up the Women's and Tag Team divisions. There simply isn't enough depth on either roster for a division. On Raw you have Charlotte vs Sasha Banks, Bayley fighting random people every week and that's about it...There was Nia Jax at one point but she seems to have been forgotten about. On Smackdown there are what...six women? It would have been much better to have the Women's division exclusive to Raw and the Tag Team division exclusive to Smackdown.

 

[Dave]

The brand split sucks because most of the wrestlers are jobbers or mid-carders at best. Compare the current roster to just even 10 years ago and you will understand what I'm saying.

A lot of people will disagree with you but I don't. Actually, I think that you're spot on. But really, that's for a number of reasons.

First, like me, you're probably a fan of the wrestling that went on in the WWE during the attitude era. During this time, the WWE built stars that probably won't be matched again. People like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan were doing their thing back then. There's guys we're bigger than the wrestling business and transcended what they did in the ring with what they did out of it. Unfortunately, wrestling doesn't have the same mainstream appeal and, as such, doesn't seem to have the same star sudden billing that you so crave.

Secondly, we have the gift of hindsight with regards to who people would become 10 years ago. People like Ray Mysterio became big stars in the WWE at certain points in their careers, when they were actually midcarders for most of their careers. Looking back now, it seems as though the deck was stacked with quality but most of the people we fondly remember were no bigger or better than the "jobbers" you speak of today.

The reason the brand split is working is because it is giving people who would be stuck in the mid card scene a chance to do something more. You complain that the roster is shit these days but you don't want to give anyone a chance to fix that. The only way it gets better is to give the midcarders a chance to shine and the WWE are giving them that chance with the brand split. Come back in 10 years and we can talk.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I have to say that I really enjoy wwe since the brand split especially smackdown since it feel fresh every week and the way they booked smackdown, it truly feel like the land of opportunity compare to raw who feel like the same old boring show every week. My only problem that I might have is that how they did split the roster, looking at both rosters, smackdown go the better women and tag division but lack guys that can truly be in the main event. While raw got a great mid card division, it's such a great division that they have talent like sami zayn and neville threading water and doing nothing on raw while smackdown would really need those guys on their rostr.

but at the same time, raw is really lacking in the tag division and women's division. The fact that they have to put sheamus and cesaro together as a tag team just to find somebody to challenge the new day is sad. Same thing goes for the women's. When this everlasting feud between charlotte and sasha is over, who do you have to replace charlotte in the title picture? Bailey, alicia fox, nia jax and dana brooke. That's your womens division right now on raw with summer rae who's injured and paige who not even sure if she will come back when she will be ready to return from injury. That's not really a strong division. Yes, it seem like emma will wind up on raw which is surprising considering her boyfriend is on smackdown but this until I see what this new gimmick is, I can't really say anything about her.

 

[Headman]

The biggest thing that isn't working for me is that both shows have run almost the exact same cards three times in a row. I thought to myself the other day, I'm sick of Dean Ambrose in the main event but then again who else is there? What baby face does Smackdown have that can be booked in a ppv against AJ Styles if they were to announce the match tomorrow? Same goes for RAW. Seth Rollins has been in the title match since he returned but the only other guy in position is Roman Reigns and that's not gonna fly. If the brand split was supposed to create more stars and fresh match ups then yes... it is a failure.

 

[ShinChan]

I respectfully disagree with the OP.

Smackdown before Brand Split was just a highlights show about Raw. Now it's been even more interesting than Raw itself.

Smackdown made me care about a jobber Heath Slater. I never cared about him in the past but now I do. Dolph Ziggler who was jobbing on Pre-shows is now renovated by a highly entertaining yet classic feud with The Miz. I now care for him. Last I did was when he was the lone survivor at Survivor Series a couple of years ago.

That are just two examples of how Smackdown is rejuvenated with sheer entertainment + wrestling while Raw makes me watch the likes of Darren Young and Titus O'Neil. In a way, Brand Split is working.

​

 

[King Patrick Star]

The Brand Extension is working!!

We have new Championship Title Belts for me to buy. Honestly, I felt like my collecting days were over. It felt like a part of my fandom was fading away. I didn’t want to get any Commemorative Championship Title Belt with the Network / current logo, because it was just a rehash of the Scratch versions of each Belt, but with a cleaner looking W. I would buy kids sized and action figure sized Championship Title Belts, just to buy something, because the money in my wallet was weighing me down. Now I have quite a bit to look forward too!! The Universal Championship Title Belt is growing on my fast, and it would look great on my right shoulder with the World Championship Title Belt on my left shoulder. The Raw and Smackdown Women’s Championship Title Belts are a great compliment to the Universal and World Championship Title Belts, and really pushes the idea of equality across the board. The Smackdown Tag Team Championship Title Belts are an improvement to the Raw Tag Team Championship Title Belts and makes me appreciate the detail on them a lot more. I still rather see either the Oval Intercontinental Championship Title Belt or the WCW United States Championship Title Belt make a return to “match” either mid-card Championship Title Belt. Last and definitely not least, actually could be most, the Cruiserweight Championship Title Belt is a thing of beauty!! It’s simple yet intricate design, with the addition of the customizable side plates (still waiting on TJ Perkins side plates) makes it unique yet uniform to the rest of the current collection.

I watch Smackdown again. For a while, Smackdown became what Heat was / SuperStars is to Raw and what Velocity was / Main Event is to Smackdown. It was, in all sense of the term, the B-Show. Now, B stands for Blue again. To some, B stands for Better. To a select few, B stands for Best. Because of the Brand Extension, I took my 8 year old to his first show in Philadelphia. The timing was so good, that his favorite made his return on that very show. Yes, it was John Cena, and yes, my Son’s face looked exactly like mine when I saw Chris Jericho, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan for the first time. This would have never happened had it not been for the split.

We have Championship who wouldn’t be Champions, had it not been for the Brand Extension. Who would be WWE World Heavyweight Champion right now, AJ Styles or Kevin Owens?? Who would be Women’s Champion right now, Charlotte or Becky Lynch?? Who would be WWE World Tag Team Champions, the New Day or Rhyno and Heath Slater?? Well, I think I know the answers to those 3 questions, but my point is, the ones who wouldn’t actually are because of the split. You know what, I’m enjoying the ones who are Champions because of the split more that the ones who would be if the split didn’t take place.

My whole point is this. Before the Brand Extension, we had WWE on top with TNA in a far second place. After the Brand Extension, we have Smackdown on top with Raw being a very close second, and they switch places every other week, with TNA almost out of business, hanging by the tip of their logo on an Ultimate X match crossed cables thing.

 

[ShinChan]

The Brand Extension is working!!

We have new Championship Title Belts for me to buy. Honestly, I felt like my collecting days were over. It felt like a part of my fandom was fading away. I didn’t want to get any Commemorative Championship Title Belt with the Network / current logo, because it was just a rehash of the Scratch versions of each Belt, but with a cleaner looking W. I would buy kids sized and action figure sized Championship Title Belts, just to buy something, because the money in my wallet was weighing me down. Now I have quite a bit to look forward too!! The Universal Championship Title Belt is growing on my fast, and it would look great on my right shoulder with the World Championship Title Belt on my left shoulder. The Raw and Smackdown Women’s Championship Title Belts are a great compliment to the Universal and World Championship Title Belts, and really pushes the idea of equality across the board. The Smackdown Tag Team Championship Title Belts are an improvement to the Raw Tag Team Championship Title Belts and makes me appreciate the detail on them a lot more. I still rather see either the Oval Intercontinental Championship Title Belt or the WCW United States Championship Title Belt make a return to “match” either mid-card Championship Title Belt. Last and definitely not least, actually could be most, the Cruiserweight Championship Title Belt is a thing of beauty!! It’s simple yet intricate design, with the addition of the customizable side plates (still waiting on TJ Perkins side plates) makes it unique yet uniform to the rest of the current collection.

I watch Smackdown again. For a while, Smackdown became what Heat was / SuperStars is to Raw and what Velocity was / Main Event is to Smackdown. It was, in all sense of the term, the B-Show. Now, B stands for Blue again. To some, B stands for Better. To a select few, B stands for Best. Because of the Brand Extension, I took my 8 year old to his first show in Philadelphia. The timing was so good, that his favorite made his return on that very show. Yes, it was John Cena, and yes, my Son’s face looked exactly like mine when I saw Chris Jericho, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan for the first time. This would have never happened had it not been for the split.

We have Championship who wouldn’t be Champions, had it not been for the Brand Extension. Who would be WWE World Heavyweight Champion right now, AJ Styles or Kevin Owens?? Who would be Women’s Champion right now, Charlotte or Becky Lynch?? Who would be WWE World Tag Team Champions, the New Day or Rhyno and Heath Slater?? Well, I think I know the answers to those 3 questions, but my point is, the ones who wouldn’t actually are because of the split. You know what, I’m enjoying the ones who are Champions because of the split more that the ones who would be if the split didn’t take place.

My whole point is this. Before the Brand Extension, we had WWE on top with TNA in a far second place. After the Brand Extension, we have Smackdown on top with Raw being a very close second, and they switch places every other week, with TNA almost out of business, hanging by the tip of their logo on an Ultimate X match crossed cables thing.

I definitely agree with the bolded part.

It is surely a thing of beauty. For me, It's the best looking Championship ever. I just love it. Pity that the Division isn't booked as it should be. The violet colour is just unique enough to make me love this title's design. Plus, the globe just enhances it's design and makes it even more lovable.

​

 

[King Patrick Star]

I definitely agree with the bolded part.

It is surely a thing of beauty. For me, It's the best looking Championship ever. I just love it. Pity that the Division isn't booked as it should be. The violet colour is just unique enough to make me love this title's design. Plus, the globe just enhances it's design and makes it even more lovable.

​

Well, it’s not the best looking Championship Title Belt ever, but it’s up there. I still prefer the Cruiserweight Championship Title Belt used from 2002 to 2007.

My favorite Championship Title Belt of all time is the Undisputed WWE Championship Title Belt.

Coincidence aside, it is in the center of the top shelf on my Wall Of Jakks Championship Title Belts.

 

[ShinChan]

Well, it’s not the best looking Championship Title Belt ever, but it’s up there. I still prefer the Cruiserweight Championship Title Belt used from 2002 to 2007.

My favorite Championship Title Belt of all time is the Undisputed WWE Championship Title Belt.

Coincidence aside, it is in the center of the top shelf on my Wall Of Jakks Championship Title Belts.

I would still prefer the current Cruiserweight Championship.

Reason being, as suggested by your signature, most Championship belts comprise majorly of gold. But the current Cruiserweight Championship doesn't. It's a sort of an unorthodox and unique Championship. I don't think that I have ever seen a Championship belt consisting of violet color in majority. That's a refreshing change and I appreciate it. It's a lovable belt. Most lovable, at least for me.

​

 

[THTRobtaylor]

You have to remember there is also a false weakness on RAW for the moment... if they are going to break the B show perception on Smackdown permanently, then they have to make it better for a significant length of time... it's what they learned from the Monday Night Wars applied to their own shows.

Smackdown will likely win the "big match" at Survivor Series, possibly thanks to a defection, not to say Miz hasn't won't also jump... but Braun Strowman for example could easily defect and rejoin his Wyatt buddies or Cesaro...

Balor will win the Rumble, that's pretty much a given at this point, so RAW has another 2 months to wait before they get their "big win"... if anything where the Split has not worked is keeping NXT a viable 3rd brand, they are starting to struggle thanks to the injuries and constant raiding of talent.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Not sure what show the thread starter has been watching, but Smackdown has consistently been the better show every single week since the brand split returned. Look at all of the opportunities that came as a result of the brand split's return. AJ Styles got a World Championship push. Without it, he would be stuck in the Intercontinental Championship scene or jobbing to Roman Reigns again. Slater & Rhyno got a Tag Team Championship push. Neither of them would be anywhere close to a push, let alone a title, without the brand split. Becky Lynch deservedly made history as the first Smackdown Women's Champion, but without the brand split she sadly would be lucky to even hold the title once while waiting for the Charlotte VS Sasha feud to play out. She'd be stuck jobbing to Nikki without the brand split. If you want a reason beyond the new titles, all you have to do is look at Smackdown from one year ago. The show was a waste of time, nothing but Raw recaps and meaningless rematches. Now it's the best show in terms of quality. Even Raw is enjoyable, despite various confusing booking decisions and their inability to do the Cruiserweight division in a way that doesn't suck. To say that the brand split isn't working would be completely incorrect. Both shows are enjoyable and the quality has gone up for both brands.