An Unofficial Brand Split

[The Gribbler]

Okay, now I will start off by saying that at this point in time, I do not think the WWE has the depth in its roster to return to the old school brand split. I think it needs certain people to cross from RAW to Smackdown! in order to keep both shows deep enough on star power.

However, I am finding the more and more I watch the WWE product, that talent is being overexposed. I literally stopped watching Smackdown! two months ago to numb the effects of it. I see the same superstars twice (sometimes in multiple segments per show) week in and week out and I got sick of seeing them (even people I like).

So, what I would suggest, is that the WWE simply have an unofficial brand split. No set people on rosters, but each week simply say that if a superstar appeared on RAW, then they won't appear on Smackdown!, and vice versa. The solution would stop the overexposure of the talent pool, without the limitations of a traditional brand split. Not to mention the superstars would only have to travel for one show each week.

However, I have considered that this will allow less time for the development of key feuds, but I can't help but think that four RAWs or four Smackdowns should be more than enough to tell your story. But the length of time between PPV's is an argument for another day.

Just My Opinion.

Do you agree? Disagree? Why?

 

[MCMG]

I'm think there should be a proper brand-split. Two distinct rosters; two distinct world champions; two mid-card champions and then the tag-team and divas champions who appear on both. This makes each show far more exciting and worth watching. There is definitely enough talent on the roster, as you suggested, we just don't get to see them.

As for the idea of someone only appearing on one show a week; I'm not convinced. Generally, all the big stars are on Raw. We have to see all the champions + all the main contenders + plus the best of the rest. That would leave nothing for Smackdown. For example, this weeks Raw was stacked with all the top talent on the roster, there would be no talent left for Smackdown without hurting the quality of Raw. That is why a proper brand split is better. We get proper feuds on both shows and there is an allocation of top-stars with Raw getting the edge.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I agree with the Brand split, but I disagree with making it an unofficial Brand split.

I agree with the Brand split, because I also haven’t been watching SmackDown as much as I did since the first SuperSmackDown Live. I never really watched SmackDown prior to the Brand Extension in 2002. Before the inaugural WWE Draft took place, I just viewed the Blue show as the B-Show. After seeing the Rock become the number one pick for SmackDown and the Undertaker become the number one pick for Raw, I was excited to have 2 separate brands / rosters / shows. As soon as it was announced that the Raw Super Shows and the Super SmackDowns were just going to be two weekly episodes of Raw SuperSmackDown Shows with just different color lighting, I knew I’d lose interest fast.

I disagree with making it an unofficial Brand split, because this is something that could take advantage of to garner ratings. They could even stretch it out for a month and have it culminate at a Pay Per View with the last pick for each brand. Can you imagine if the WWE were to recreate the Brand Extension today, but instead of Ric Flair’s Raw vs. Vince McMahon’s SmackDown, it would naturally be Vince McMahon’s Raw vs. Triple H’s SmackDown??

My question is, would having the WWE Championship and World Championship exclusively on Raw and having the Intercontinental Championship and United States Championship exclusively on SmackDown be a good idea??

 

[Dirk]

I think it needs certain people to
cross from RAW to Smackdown! in order to keep
both shows deep enough on star power.

You raise a good point, but the way I see it, they tried this with Orton when Edge had to retire and it didn't work.

What I found strange were the people who they DID overexpose. Del Rio, Ziggler, Bryan - good developing guys, but not your top draws. At the end of his reign, Punk would spew some twenty minute promo on Smackdown and I wasn't a fan of that either, but at least was a draw at that time.

 

[The Butcher]

First, I'd just like to say that the word "SmackDown" looks ridiculous the more I read it. Just had to get that off my chest.

Now that Raw is 3 hours and SmackDown is an afterthought, the brand split isn't likely to soon be reinstated in any way, shape, or form. I'm surprised they've kept separate GMs for as long as they have. I wouldn't necessarily mind a harder division between shows, but I also don't mind having the top stars on both shows. Take Daniel Bryan for example. When he wasn't on SmackDown this past week, I missed him.

The bigger issue for me is the booking. Recently there have too often been matches on Raw that are carbon copies of ones on SmackDown and vice versa. Also, rarely does anything significant happen on SmackDown. Taking the booking, rosters, and even the homogeneous sets and stages into account, watching SmackDown often seems superfluous. Something should be done in order to give it back some feeling of being unique, and a brand split is a potential solution.

 

[Dirk]

The bigger issue for me is the booking. Recently
there have too often been matches on Raw that
are carbon copies of ones on SmackDown and
vice versa. Also, rarely does anything significant
happen on SmackDown.

This is true. I can understand having a Raw recap on NXT, especially when a main-roster guy gets sent down there for a quick match, but Smackdown already has a whole hour less, but they STILL cram in as much Raw as they can.

Maybe (and this is a crazy thought) Smackdown wouldn't be that much of a B-Show (or even a D-Show), if they'd pay some attention to it and have unique and interesting storylines here that wasn't necessarily just some fallout from Raw. IIRC, Edge kidnapping Paul Bearer didn't feature on Raw.

Smackdown will have lower ratings because of the timeslot, but we know Uncle Vince is all about the money, so why not more of an effort to promote the blue brand?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Eh, well the thing about a brand split is that after 6 months, then we'll be right back to hearing dirtsheet writers, smarks and just general internet fans complaining that they want the brand split over. Up until WWE sort of unofficially ended the brand split, hardly a week went by in which someone didn't start a thread asking if the brand split needed to end or, at the very least, a lot of people made ending the brand split and their support of it key points in several of their posts. The grass always seems to be greener on the other side until you get to the other side.

I might be in the minority but, for the most part, the brand split being over doesn't bother me. IF WWE wanted to do a genuinely genuine brand split; then one way to do it would be to ultimately kill off SmackDown! altogether and, if they're successful in securing a television deal, replace it with NXT. As for the heavy roster, well, then you have the unpleasantness of WWE having to trim it. Or, I should say, it's unpleasant whenever a wrestler you might like winds up getting cut. For instance, let's say WWE decided to really do this and end SmackDown! in order to replace it with NXT, there's just not enough room on the roster for 20+ guys with nothing to do. They're not signed to a paid per appearance deal like most TNA wrestlers are and there'll be the endless gripes and moans if someone, say like Antonio Cesaro, is cut loose.

If WWE replaced SD! with NXT and there was little to no crossover between the two rosters and brands, then WWE would need to merge the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships. It could be a good move to retire one of the mid-card titles, assign & rename one of the mid-card titles to NXT or give NXT it's own mid-card title; maybe a TV championship.

Another thing that doesn't bother me about the brand split being gone is the WWE Draft. It was fun for a while but it just got derivative after a few years. In my opinion, and I might be completely wrong, I think WWE could overcome some of the blue brand's shortcomings if they made a genuine effort to not treat it like the B Show. If SD! was live on Friday nights rather than taped on Tuesdays; I do think it could give some people more incentive to watch. WWE could also move SD! to another night and film it live but, when it comes to sheer money, things seem to be working out for WWE just fine with the deals they currently have in place.

 

[H33LTurn]

I think thats sort of what we have right now, an unofficial brand split, only it affects top superstars like Cena and CM Punk. Although what you're suggesting sounds great on paper, the truth is very few people watch Smackdown, and WWE is aware of it. If they didnt take at least some of the top SD stars and add them to the RAW card we'd never see them.

 

[TempestH]

I think an unofficial brand split is the way to go. More stars will get screen time.

I feel that what they should do is clean up the title hierarchy a bit. Unify the World Titles, preferably by a hot prospect like Daniel Bryan. Also unify the Intercontinental and United States Titles. The best person to do this would be The Miz, a guy that WWE seems to have given up on as a top contender, but is still hugely popular with fans, and who WWE still treats as a "name talent". Also create a new TV Title (without the lineage of the NWA/WCW one) and put it on a popular low to mid card star, anyone ranging as low as Alex Riley, to as high as Kofi Kingston, Cody Rhodes, etc.

I think that RAW and SmackDown should be restructured so that they offer different things.

All the "name talents" like Cena, Punk, Bryan, Miz, Ziggler, Del Rio, Orton, Big Show, Kane, Sheamus, Jericho, Christian, would appear primarily on RAW. A few select midcard talents like Fandango, Axel, Barrett, The Wyatt Family, The Shield, Kofi, Swagger, Cesaro, R-Truth & Rhodes Scholars would mostly on RAW, but occasionally do SmackDown as well

SmackDown should be a platform for the midcard wrestlers to have their own storylines, feuds, promo time and lengthier matches where they can get over with the fans. SmackDown would be centered around the Intercontinental Champion (which should always be on an upper midcard/lower main event guy), and select lower midcard talents such as Curtis Axel, Zack Ryder, Santino Marella, Alex Riley, Tons of Funk, Kofi Kingston, 3MB, and the Prime Time Players: guys who are still over with the fans despite being low in the pecking order.

In terms of crossover between brands, it should go like this.

So that SmackDown can still have star power, 1-3 main event talents would be ADVERTISED to appear on SmackDown every week. While the show would feature a lot of low card talents, the main event would be a John Cena match or a Daniel Bryan match.

Some of the low level SmackDown guys might show up on RAW as Jobber-to-the-stars guys to keep the big names from fighting each other too much and giving away the PPV money matches.

 

[I_Am_Electro_Boy]

I like the brands being split. I think it gives the younger guys tv time and means the top guys don't get too much tv time. Raw should be the top brand obviously, and SD should be the show where the younger guys develop then when they're ready they get moved to Raw. Obviously you need a few bigger names on SD so that it still gets the ratings and viewers that WWE want.

The PPVs shouldn't be brand exclusive though. There's not enough big names that can get buys that the WWE want, but this can be changed by allowing younger guys to develop with more tv time. The world titles also shouldn't be unified if there was a brand split, there should be a world title for both brand rosters to aim for.

 

[Mustang Sally]

To my thinking, the organization simply doesn't have enough top-line stars to make a brand split feasible; in fact, that's why they abandoned it in the first place. When Smackdown first came into being, we saw more of the same headliners we had been seeing on Raw: The Rock, Triple H, etc. The split allowed them to elevate guys like Edge to the top, and that was great.

Problem is, there's a dearth of real stars today. As far as I'm concerned, that's the only reason WWE is bringing back Rob Van Dam; in the old days, a guy like him wouldn't be able to dictate a reduced work schedule....and I would think Vince McMahon would've loved to have left him by the wayside, what with his shunning WWE for TNA and his "relaxed" substance abuse habits. But now, the company needs recognizable names, so he's in. Oy.

At the same time, WWE realizes they have to build the stars of tomorrow. The problem is that the talent pool is pretty scarce; they've been trying to make Dolph Ziggler into a household name for several years now.....and then compound the problem by deciding Curtis Axel is the guy whose name will be on our lips until the end of the decade. I agree that the next generation has to be established now, but if these people are the best WWE can do, I can't imagine how the company can negotiate an effective brand split.

I prefer the "unofficial" brand split they practice today. I think C.M. Punk should be the champ on Smackdown and Cena the main guy on Raw. This keeps them out of each other's way for awhile and gives the illusion there are two separate brands, even as we continue to see Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan on every show, every week.

 

[MidnightToker]

I'm think there should be a proper brand-split. Two distinct rosters; two distinct world champions; two mid-card champions and then the tag-team and divas champions who appear on both. This makes each show far more exciting and worth watching. There is definitely enough talent on the roster, as you suggested, we just don't get to see them.

THIS! I think once a week is good to see each superstar. Also, they might as well make the secondary brand (Smackdown) WCW. The World Heavyweight Title was the WCW Title so just turn it back into that and have WWE on Monday nights and WCW on Friday nights.

Really, the main problem here that requires a brand split is the two titles -- the WWE and the World Heavyweight. It's confusing and it diminishes the WHC. It can be a top title again, just make sure it's on a different show than the WWE title

 

[Why Always Me]

On TV there should not be a brand split, unofficial or not. All talent should be on both Raw and Smackdown. I do also think the WWE and World titles should be unified, however the IC and US should stay separate, the US title is the modern day European title.

HOWEVER, if the WWE still want to run 2 house shows on the same night, then they should have a de-facto brand split for house shows. Irrespective of who the champions are split them so say the WWE champion, US champion and Divas champion are at one show, and the IC champion and Tag champions are at the other. This will also help the IC title become the number 2 belt in the company as it will headline shows. The talent for house shows would be split something like Cena, Sheamus, Del Rio, Ziggler and Daniel Bryan at one show, then Orton, Punk, Christian, RVD and Kane at the other (just an example).

 

[samhunt391]

I was always a big fan of the split, even though it was just a way to build a tv rivalry between the two brands of WWE. Without it guys like CM Punk may have had to wait to be elevated to the level that he was, without it he may still be in ROH.