What happened to the brand extension?

[strafro]

I know there are a lot of people out there that absolutely hate the brand extension, I am one of them at the current time, but I did not always feel this way. I feel there was one defining moment when the brand extension went down the tubes. BRAND EXCLUSIVE PAY PER VIEWS!! The first full year of pay per views featured both brands splitting the time of the shows and they were awesome IMO. Check out like Judgement Day, KOTR, and anything from Summerslam through Wrestlemania and they are some great pay per views with some very quality matches. But as soon as they went with brand exclusive pay per views and had to have filler matches like Scott Steiner vs Test for the services of Stacy Kiebler on every single RAW pay per view that's when it became boring and old.

Let me know about your opinions, interested to see if others feel the same way as I do.

 

[theiceman]

Well naturally when you take half of your stars off a show, it's gonna be hard to still put on a show as good as it was before...at first. The brand extension exists simply to really give more wrestlers an opportunity to make a good living for themselves and work for the WWE. The WWE created more jobs so to speak through the brand extension, gave them more room to create new stars. The show's not going to be as good because you're no longer seeing all of the best that the WWE has to offer so to speak...you're only seeing the best of what Raw, Smackdown, or ECW has to offer by themselves. Had it not been for the brand extension and even "brand exclusive pay per views", do you really think that a guy like JBL would have ever had the push that he had? Do you think he ever would have been Champion? After he was fired as Jamal in 3 Minute Warning, Umaga would have never been brought back in and given the opportunity that he's had. Arguably, guys like Randy Orton, John Cena, and Batista wouldn't have gotten the exposure that they've gotten over the past several years. You could argue whether or not Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, or Charlie Haas would have been given a second chance....or if guys like King Booker, Rey Mysterio, and even Eddie Guerrero would have had the title reigns that they had. Would Ken Kennedy be as high up the card as he is?

I'm personally all for the brand extension and brand exclusive pay per views....and if I were a wrestler trying to make a living in the business, i'd be all for it also. It creates more opportunities.......it gives more guys that deserve a shot their shot. It gives more guys that deserve to headline a Pay Per View a spot as a headliner. The shows aren't going to be AS GOOD as they could potentially be if it were a cross-promotional show...and there's no doubt in my mind that EVERYBODY in the WWE knows that. The reason why WWE's ratings aren't close to where they were in the "attitude era" is just simply because of the brand extension. The fact that Raw is STILL drawing ratings like 3.7 and 3.8 with half the talent is remarkable. So...I really have to disagree with you when you say that "the brand extension went down the tubes".

 

[strafro]

I guess what I mean is that I still enjoy seeing the new up and comers on TV and the brand extension is good for that. But as far as selling pay per views, instead of having filler matches that people could careless about have like 4 matches from each brand (RAW and SD) on each pay per view highlighting the key rivalries and make pay per views worth ordering instead of trying to sell a whole show based on 1 or 2 matches that are worth paying for. Some of the pay per views in late 2002 are some of the best shows I have seen from top to bottom I was entertained and enjoyed the whole show (Summerslam, No Mercy, Survivor Series) and even into 2003 (No Way Out). They do hit with some great brand exclusive pay per views every now and then (Vengeance 03, No Way Out 04, Backlah 04) but for the most part recently they have all been pretty shitty. But I guess that's just my opinion, and by the way, I agree with the fact that it's great for the wrestlers to get second chances and to have pay per view matches.

I'm just saying that within 2-3 years, when TNA is going to be a legitimate competitor to the WWE, they will either have to combine all the brands, or just do the all brand pay per views to spark buys and viewers.

 

[ctighe]

its because of th brand extension that smakown sucks so much. all of th good superstars are on raw. i think the reason they sent kane to smackdown (other than possibly a bod reunion) is to replace rey whos gon for 6 months. also the tag team division is basically a joke. the only good tag teams within the past year imo were cryme time, mnm, possibly more, i just cant think of them

 

[ctighe]

and btw stafro the only way tna is gonna b a major competitor to wwe is if they have a 2 hour show, possibly another show, and no just do their shows in one place