Should WWE bring back Bragging Rights?

[Terry Gyimah]

If anything should WWE bring back Bragging Rights as a pay per view especially now that the Brand Split is now effective again? Personally speaking I would love to see Bragging Rights back and why? Because it puts up RAW superstars against Smackdown superstars you get to see RAW vs Smackdown and not to mention the Bragging Rights matches have always been good too

 

[enviousdominous]

It's one of those things where we'll all hope like Hell that they won't do it, and they'll probably do it.

I believe that their yearly PPV schedule is already locked down for both shows, but that doesn't rule out the WWE making Bragging Rights a "Network Special" or some shit.

I'm cynical toward the idea because we're already being swamped with so many PPV style specials that the redundancy is almost nauseating. Bragging Rights has its own concept -- which is neat --, but it seems to require that so many participants on either side drop kayfabe and suddenly start getting along for the sake of winning a stupid trophy at one PPV.

If they did it, I'd tune into it. I'm probably going to be doing three different things while it's playing in the background though.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I’m all for this!! Like I said in the Survivor Series thread on another forum…

I'm not going to Survivor Series 2016, but I would love to see the Bragging Rights theme return.

Option 1

Team Raw: the Universal Champion, the United States Champion, and the Raw Tag Team Champions
vs.
Team Smackdown: the World Champion, the Intercontinental Champion, and the Smackdown Tag Team Champions

Option 2

Team Universal: the Universal Champion and 3 of Raw's main eventers
vs.
Team World: the World Champion and 3 of Smackdown's main as eventers

Team Intercontinental: the Intercontinental Champion and 3 of Smackdown's mid-carders
vs.
Team United States: the United States Champion and 3 of Raw's mid-carders

Team Raw Tag Teams: the Raw Tag Team Champions and 3 of Raw's tag teams
vs.
Team Smackdown Tag Teams: the Smackdown Tag Team Champions and 3 of Smackdown's tag teams.

Team Raw: the Raw Women's Champion and 3 of Raw's women
vs.
Team Smackdown: the Smackdown Women's Champion and 3 of Smackdown's women

With Bragging Rights as it's own PPV, I wouldn’t mind seeing 4 Champions vs. Champions matches and a few Raw vs. Smackdown undercard matches, like:

Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena
Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose
Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev
The Club vs. The Usos
Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss and Carmella
Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin

 

[ShinChan]

but it seems to require that so many participants on either side drop kayfabe and suddenly start getting along for the sake of winning a stupid trophy at one PPV.

This entirely sums up my opinion on Bragging Rights.

It looks illogical that the enemies suddenly become friends/partners just for a trophy for their brand. Plus, we're already getting two PPVs per month that we don't need Bragging Rights as a PPV for both brands. The Big Four are good, You might add in Money In The Bank as fifth though.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

I like Bragging Rights PPV. Not everything needs to be around titles, something can just be around which brand is better. Gives somewhat special note to brands. So I would be up for it.

 

[Dave]

It's going to happen. If you don't like it, then I would start coming to peace with it now so that you don't shit yourself when it is eventually announced.

Y'all heard Vince when he announced the Brand Extension, right? He wanted each of the brands to stand on their own two feet and really be competitive with the other. What better way to reinforce that point than with a PPV dedicated to seeing which show has the better talent?

The other thing is, Raw and Smackdown are, eventually, going to run out of PPV quality feuds with the talent that they have on both shows. That's why it is essential that they hold a draft every year to refresh some of the talent on the shows and make it interesting again. Do I want to get to a point where Jack Swagger is taking on AJ Styles because he has already feuded with Cena, Ambrose, Wyatt and Orton? Absolutely not! But moving a few people from Raw to Smackdown and vice versa will refresh things for a while.

That's why it's a given that this will happen. I don't like the idea of their being any team matches on the card, when it does happen. Rather, I just want to see a fight for superiority more than anything. Would I like to see some of the matches that could be created between the two brands? Absolutely. But you're never going to get that without something like the Bragging Rights PPV.

 

[@smarkmouth]

Terrible, forced concept. When the stakes are literally just bragging rights, it reads as entirely juvenile, and leads nowhere. I can't imagine anything positive for the victor, other than 20 minutes of Stephanie going "Na na na, na na, naaaa".

The idea of bragging rights already fit nicely into other PPVs. With the Rumble, there are higher stakes than bragging rights, but it works as a peripheral prize. Survivor Series would be a little forced, but the sense of tradition that accompanies the PPV is a nice place to play with brand superiority. Top it off with ano interpromotional match at WrestleMania or Summerslam (hopefully not both), and you have plenty of opportunity for McMahon characters to publicly auto ******e themselves without building a new PPV around it.

That being said, it's going to happen, and I am going to watch it, for I am mortal and weak.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

No they shouldn't. Smackdown vs RAW exclusive PPVs kills the stories. You can't have champ vs champ matches, because for starters, you throw away the heel-face dynamic. Then, you can't have the world champion lose to the other world champion, because the loser and the loser's championship will look weak in comparison.

The best they can do for me, is just turn the traditional 5 vs 5 Survivor Series match into a Smackdown vs RAW match. They haven't give these matches any kind of build for years and they usually throw them on the card at the last minute, so why not have a purpose behind it?

 

[The Samoan Heritage]

I am a huge fan of the Survivor Series PPV(before they just threw random 5v5 matches together).
One match that I will always remember for having a great build/match is 2005's Team Raw vs Team Smackdown.
That match alone blows every single Bragging Rights PPV away.


I really don't see a need for an entire ppv based on brand bragging rights, when they can do something similar to 2005's brand battle at Survivor Series.

(As others have pointed out, the Bragging Rights ppv coming back will more than likely happen, as there are now 19 ppvs a year. Maybe they involve NXT do differentiate it from Survivor Series.)

 

[Vanilla Midget]

Maybe, but only as part of one of the four dual brand events, with the aforementioned Survivor Series needing the most help.

It's hard to get fans to care about these sort of intangibles. There's no real way to make people care about what essentially just boils down to bragging rights that people stop caring about.

Maybe if the Bragging Rights winners earned something that mattered, like spot 30 in the Royal Rumble and the bragging rights team competes against each other for the spot. Even that concept is convoluted and not easily explained.

Bragging Rights kind of made sense in a brand extension WWE that only had dual brand events. The current WWE only has four, therefore the winners and loser would not interact for months following. It's almost pointless.

Survivor Series five man matches are difficult enough to make matter, now we're considering one where the opponents can't have interaction after?

Someone would have to come up with a way for lasting repercussions or some kind of reward, otherwise this will just become another boring match to put over one of the McMahons for the evening.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I can see it happening somewhere down the line, with WWE hyping the return of Bragging Rights to see which brand is top dog. But I just don't see the point of it, and honestly, Raw and Smackdown vying for brand superiority is a dated concept at this point.

If Bragging Rights returns, it'll be an afterthought. Chances are it'll be another disposable pay per view, with the winning brand receiving a lame and forgettable trophy as the grand prize. Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, and MITB? That's more than enough for crossover pay per views and bragging rights for each brand.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Sure, if winning means something. Which it won't, so no.

 

[mral82]

Ok Yes! Bragging Rights Should return but that would be the USA Network Yealry Special besides Tributei 2 the Troops and the HOF Ceremony as I'd make Bragging Rights The New WWE Draft PPV where The Winning Brand gets to Steal any Talent and Champs are included. And the Month I'd put in in would be either June/July as their yearly Draft Month.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I always used to think Bragging Rights came around a few years too late and that it would have done much better during the beginning of the original brand split. Now we are in a time when it might make sense to do it again. Would it though? Part of the problem last time was doing it within very close proximity of Survivor Series. There is nothing that Bragging Rights could accomplish today that Survivor Series cannot also do. Survivor Series is one of the Big 4 and while it is the weakest brand of those 4 originals, it's much stronger of a brand than Bragging Rights could ever hope to be. Seeing the United States Champion face the Intercontinental Champion could be an interesting inter-promotional match. As for the rest of Bragging Rights you could have a number of Team Raw VS Team Smackdown matches under traditional Survivor Series rules. Do one for the main event tier talent led by the Universal Champion and World Heavyweight Champion respectively. Then one for the girls, with the two WWE Women's Champions leading a team each. This makes Survivor Series matter again and it spares us from a show that would be rather pointless. Anyone remember that stupid trophy from the previous Bragging Rights? Yeah, useless. It's not needed. If they are adding ANY dual-branded shows alongside the Big 4 they should start with Money In The Bank, not with something like Bragging Rights.