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

[TheHorndogSays]

The reports I've read indicate that the brand extension will not only end on TV but also on live events as well. In other words instead of having 2 crews doing shows it will be just one crew now. If this is in fact true, this may be the DUMBEST thing Vince and company have ever done. Having multiple road shows isn't a new concept, it is something WWF was doing back in the 80s with Hogan on one show and Savage (and later Warrior) on the other show. In fact if my memory serves me right there was even a third crew that went to the smaller localities. I have a faint recollection of Hacksaw Jim Duggan main eventing a WWF event at a local amusement park here in Richmond in the early 90s although I'm not sure if that was the actual third crew or just a scaled down show due to the amusement park.

Back to the topic at hand, I agree that PPVs should be for both brands. I think there should be some smaller stars that are exclusive to one brand. I've said it before and I'll say it again that John Cena owes his career to the brand extension. But that is beating a dead horse so I will focus on the house shows scaling down from 2 to 1. Yes a show with both Punk and Cena will likely draw more than a show with just Punk OR Cena. However the thing that I feel WWE forgets is that the COMBINED revenue gate for 2 separate house shows (one headlined by Punk, the other by Cena or some other variation of this) will draw more COLLECTIVELY than a single gate featuring those 2 because you are attracting fans from different markets.

Even if WWF decides to put their main stars on one road show (which I disagree with but will go with for the sake of argument), there is still enough talent to do a second show at SMALLER venues. I'm from the Richmond, Virginia area and while WWE runs the Coliseum when in town, they could just as easily run a smaller show at the Verizon Wireless Center a few miles away which is where TNA runs its shows when it comes through town.

 

[GameOver]

i say farewell to bad rubbish. If the brand extension was purely to give seperate roster of stars air time well it's worked for that but the problem was as i see it, after half a decade and WCW was a distant memory Smackdown stoylines and PPV matches were just mirrors of RAW with very little differences other then who the superstars involved were. and there was too many champions with not enough challengers other then the world titles.

Smackdown "was" like WCW, it "was" more wrestling orientated and RAW was the entertainment show, but that was only for the first 5 yrs or so, since then they are both a mix of everything, tho RAW is still more heavily storyline orientated and big time matches at the PPV's.

and ofcourse the whole having 2 world champions in one company, how can someone be the world champ if there are 2 world champs. even if you went by the WWE title is just the title of the WWE then isn't everyone WWE roster and and the World Title is for everyone aswell, then by that logic Smackdown has the number 1 champ which clearly they don't.

IMO in summary they should've never had the brand extension in the first place. just add more Heat style shows for others to ply there craft in front of a live audience.

 

[dman1373]

This is how you unify the titles.

what needs to happen is you have punk talking to vickie at royal rumble before an interview saying "you got me set up right" or something along those lines. Everyone will obviously think it has something to do with the rock match. Well then have punk beat rock somehow (doesn't matter how). Then you get to the rumble match. 29 just came out and eliminated the other 3 in the match and during the third elimination "accidentally'' slips out. Have it be one of those guys that you would think would win like cena or something be that 29, so you would think that it really was a slip up. Then the clock counts down to 0. And don't have the music hit right away. Wait 5 more seconds. Then punks music hits. He comes just walks to the ring like when he returned after mitb 2011. This sets up punk vs world champion at wrestlemania. And just have him and heyman push there luck and ask for too much from Vickie or something for her to make it for the wwe championship and world championship. I could show you my lead up to chamber and mania but its late. Maybe Tomorrow.

 

[GameOver]

This is how you unify the titles.

what needs to happen is you have punk talking to vickie at royal rumble before an interview saying "you got me set up right" or something along those lines. Everyone will obviously think it has something to do with the rock match. Well then have punk beat rock somehow (doesn't matter how). Then you get to the rumble match. 29 just came out and eliminated the other 3 in the match and during the third elimination "accidentally'' slips out. Have it be one of those guys that you would think would win like cena or something be that 29, so you would think that it really was a slip up. Then the clock counts down to 0. And don't have the music hit right away. Wait 5 more seconds. Then punks music hits. He comes just walks to the ring like when he returned after mitb 2011. This sets up punk vs world champion at wrestlemania. And just have him and heyman push there luck and ask for too much from Vickie or something for her to make it for the wwe championship and world championship. I could show you my lead up to chamber and mania but its late. Maybe Tomorrow.

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.

 

[#hamler]

Fuck yes!

As I received front row tickets to a Smackdown house show coming in February for Christmas (thanks Mommy<3), I worried about who exactly I was going to see. It&#8217;s fate that this happened; now it&#8217;s possible I&#8217;ll get the pleasure of seeing CM Punk performing and maybe even John Cena. What does this mean for the brand extension? For years I&#8217;ve been against it, the brands were still interesting and it helped the younger stars get face time. But with the total lack of developed characters in the WWE, I definitely wouldn&#8217;t mind seeing the brand split end. With shows like Saturday Morning Slam, WWE Main Event, and Raw going three hours, there&#8217;s still time to develop young character. Ending the brand extension gives us a chance to see all of the top guy vying for one championship. With that, I&#8217;d expect a lot more Superstars to step up to reign supreme over the WWE locker room. This is an opportunity for workhorses like John Cena, CM Punk and Randy Orton to take time off and not necessarily be involved in chasing the titles all the time. While John Cena is Champion, Orton is number one contender; we could see Punk off in a feud with Kofi Kingston or some other upper/midcarder.

This also gives the WWE a fucking reason to give a shit about their mid card titles being defended on a fucking preshow. A reason to care about the midcard divisions and their mid card titles; whether it&#8217;s the United States or Intercontinental Championships. Taking out one of the World Titles would leave a door open to kickstart the midcard division once again. Instead of fucking preshow matches for the midcard titles, we&#8217;ll hopefully see more time and storylines invested into these feuds over the once prestigious titles. Too much good can come from unifying the World Championships and ending the brand split. Whether ending single branded house shows will end the brand extension or not, I&#8217;m all for it.

 

[Teddy Irving]

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]

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]

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]

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?