WWE confirms Live Smackdown and Brand Split ****Keep it in here!****

[Jack-Hammer]

According to a report at wrestlinginc.com, there is a list going around WWE backstage regarding RUMORED rosters for both Raw and SD!. The report states that there will only be one World Champion and that the World & Women's Champions will work both shows and the rosters are set up in the following:

SmackDown
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Jerry Lawler & Corey Graves

Other Announcers: JoJo & Funaki

Roster:
WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day
Apollo Crews
WWE United States Champion Rusev with Lana
AJ Styles
Kevin Owens
Becky Lynch
Baron Corbin
Emma
Luke Gallows
Karl Anderson
The Wyatt Family
Randy Orton
Dana Brooke
Big Show
Tyler Breeze
Fandango
Titus O'Neil
Tyson Kidd
Natalya
The Vaudevillains
Darren Young w/ Bob Backlund
Goldust
R-Truth
Kane
Mark Henry
Jack Swagger
Finn Balor
Eva Marie
Nia Jax
Peyton Royce
Tye Dillinger
Johnny Gargano
Tommaso Ciampa
Austin Aries
Mojo Rawley
Billie Kay
No Way Jose

If accurate, then NXT looks like its about to be emptied out. The only reason I see Dillinger, Rawley and No Way Jose being brought up is so they can be jobbed out.

Raw
Commentators: Michael Cole JBL & Byron Saxton

Other Announcers: Lilian Garcia & Renee Young

Roster:
John Cena
WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz w/ Maryse
Seth Rollins
Sasha Banks
Sami Zayn
Cesaro
Enzo Amore
Big Cass
The Dudley Boyz
Dean Ambrose
Alberto Del Rio
Paige
Chris Jericho
Neville
Summer Rae
Kalisto
Zack Ryder
Sin Cara
Sheamus
The Shining Stars
The Usos
Dolph Ziggler
The Ascension
Nikki Bella
The Social Outcasts
Bayley
The Revival
Carmella
Shinsuke Nakamura
Alexa Bliss
Hideo Itami
Bobby Roode
Blake
Murphy
Elias Samson

Again, if this is accurate, then NXT looks like it's going to be decimated by the time it's all said & done and will leave each roster, not including the managers/valets, with 42 members. Some of the members for each roster, like Tyson Kidd and Hideo Itami, are on the injured list but they're still included on this RUMORED roster set up. As with SmackDown, Raw is going to have its share of jobbers in Elias Samson, the Social Outcasts and Zack Ryder. All told, this looks to be a fairly even split with each roster getting a lot of star power and fresh faces from NXT.

 

[Navi]

Wow just wow, if this is true then Zayn and Owens aren't on the same roster. The easiest to write storyline they have is being split up. Besides all the reports so far say Cena is going to SD, but of course everything is subject to change.

Don't understand Reigns moving between shows unless there will be two number one contenders at the same time and he'll feud with both of them. This also might affect the MITB match, or will the winner if it's a SD roster member be able to cash in on RAW as well.

I think it's too early to tell, but holy shit NXT has no one left. No wonder they pulled Takeover Brooklyn from their website. And where is Samoa Joe in all this?

Liking the looks of the SD roster to be honest if this is what they'll go with.

 

[Trill Co$by]

That's a fantasy list if I ever saw one. There's no way they're going to put Jose on Smackdown yet. Also, Mojo Rawley would've debuted last night if he was being called up already. Also, it should be worth noting that on Raw last night, the WWE wasn't referring to this as a Brand Split but rather a Brand Extension. I'm just throwing that out there because it's sounding like it might be something completely different.

 

[BringThePain834]

You can't put Zayn and Owens, and Ambrose and Rollins on the same show.

I also hope as far as ring announcing goes, it's different for the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series.

 

[Trill Co$by]

So with the brand split, I have been thinking about how it all went down last time. And one of the best things that made the two brands unique were their unique brand exclusive titles the "Women's Championship" for Raw and the "Cruiserweight Championship" for Smackdown. This worked really well because it meant that you had to watch both brands so that you could see the divisions at their best. And with the Cruiserweight Classic, this could be a way for the WWE to bring back the championship and give it a division for whichever brand they want to showcase it on.

Also, it would make GM Mode more necessary in the 2k Series.

 

[justinept]

So with the brand split, I have been thinking about how it all went down last time. And one of the best things that made the two brands unique were their unique brand exclusive titles the "Women's Championship" for Raw and the "Cruiserweight Championship" for Smackdown. This worked really well because it meant that you had to watch both brands so that you could see the divisions at their best. And with the Cruiserweight Classic, this could be a way for the WWE to bring back the championship and give it a division for whichever brand they want to showcase it on.

Agree completely with this - albeit with the women's division being on one show and the tag-team division being on the other. If you want a cruiser-weight division, I'll go one better... put that on NXT.

The NXT roster is likely to be raided in the coming months as the main rosters will need increased talent to make the brand split more viable, and the addition of a cruiserweight division would help the show once its top talent leaves. Additionally, my biggest complaint about cruiserweight divisions is that guys in those divisions get labeled and that makes it tough to take them seriously if/when they get pushed to the main event. This problem is slightly alleviated if the division is exclusive to NXT because that show doesn't always follow the same creative timeline as the main roster shows - which makes it easier to reset a cruiserweight wrestler into something more when he reaches Raw or Smackdown.

As for making different divisions exclusive to one brand, that helps keep both divisions strong. Right now, they're both stronger than they've been in at least a decade, but if you cut each of them in half - then we're really kind of back to where we were a few years ago with the WWE needing to push females that can't work or thrown-together tag-teams who are really just singles wrestler that got lost in the shuffle.

 

[King Patrick Star]

Hahaaaa, me and King Patrick called this months ago. Sucks to be you guys who hated the idea. I'm sure they'll do right by the roster split, but I really just wanted to pop back in to gloat (and rightfully so).

Can't wait to see what happens with this. Should be good.

Just take this Championship Title Belt…

…change everything red on it to blue, and call it the WWE Smackdown World Heavyweight Championship Title Belt. The original one can be called the WWE Raw World Heavyweight Championship Title Belt.

 

[King Patrick Star]

Courtesy of Raidon from BeltTalk.

Behold, my Paint Skills are about to unfold:

I would buy a Commemorative version and a kids sized toy version of this!!

 

[King Patrick Star]

Courtesy of EagleStryker from BeltTalk.

Here's a bit cleaner look at what it could be. All the stones should have a blueish hue to them. like the mainplate does.

I would buy a Commemorative version and a kids sized toy version of this!!

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

IF the reported rosters are accurate, then I'm starting to worry Smackdown is going to still be the B-Show and not as important as Raw.

Raw has Reigns, Cena, Rollins, Ambrose, Zayn, Cesaro, Enzo/Cass, and Jericho.

It seems a way too one-sided IMO.

 

[OYDK]

IF the reported rosters are accurate, then I'm starting to worry Smackdown is going to still be the B-Show and not as important as Raw.

Raw has Reigns, Cena, Rollins, Ambrose, Zayn, Cesaro, Enzo/Cass, and Jericho.

It seems a way too one-sided IMO.

Don't put any stock into that crap. I doubt the WWE even has the rosters set at this point, and this is about the 5th lineup projection I've seen over the past 2 weeks. Cena going to Smackdown? Reigns going to Smackdown? Styles staying on Raw? Enzo and Cass to break up? NEW DAY TO BREAK UP?

Let's just wait and see what happens on July 16th... Getting anxious or upset about something that has yet to happen based on a report that has about a 2% chance of being true is... well, it's something only wrestling fans do.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Hahaaaa, me and King Patrick called this months ago. Sucks to be you guys who hated the idea. I'm sure they'll do right by the roster split, but I really just wanted to pop back in to gloat (and rightfully so).

Can't wait to see what happens with this. Should be good.

It's only a good idea if WWE genuinely puts effort into the brand split by actually making it a brand split in function rather than name only and if they genuinely put effort into making SmackDown as equal to Raw as they can. The format of Raw being the A show while SmackDown is the B show has to be avoided, which means a different sort of mind set is going to be needed from Vince especially and that's something that's causing a lot of the doubt regarding the whole concept. SmackDown going live is a strong step in the direction of altering the perception that SmackDown doesn't matter as much as Raw. If WWE doesn't load itself up with each brand having its own titles, that has the potential to eliminate the temptation to book the Raw titles as stronger than those exclusive to the SmackDown brand; that's what they ultimately wound up doing during the first brand split and having 5 titles to for the entire roster rather than 10 means they'll have to be more focused on who they put into those spots than they would if there were two sets of championships.

With that being said, I'm more optimistic about this than I was 6 months ago because, as of right now, it SEEMS like WWE is heading in the right direction. IF the reported brand rosters were to stay as they are, then it looks to be an even split in my opinion. Of course, who knows what will change between now and then but IF this ever truly was how each roster was going to look, you can be certain that changes have probably been made and will continue to be made right up to the last possible moment because that's simply how Vince McMahon operates as the man's mind has been known to change with on a daily basis.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

What they really MUST DO is keep the tag team division in one brand and then women's division in another.

Seperating the women and having only the RAW girls compete foe the title while the SD girls do nothing, or, seperating the tag teams and having the SD teams compete for the titles while the RAW teams do nothing, is stupid.

Give each show a division, a midcard title and a world title. That way you have 3 equal titles to each show.

PS: Please don't break any of the tag teams, especially Enzo & Cass and the New Day.

 

[kadroan]

What they really MUST DO is keep the tag team division in one brand and then women's division in another.

Seperating the women and having only the RAW girls compete foe the title while the SD girls do nothing, or, seperating the tag teams and having the SD teams compete for the titles while the RAW teams do nothing, is stupid.

Give each show a division, a midcard title and a world title. That way you have 3 equal titles to each show.

PS: Please don't break any of the tag teams, especially Enzo & Cass and the New Day.

I think they could manage to tag divisions, especially when you got teams like R Truth/Goldust, Fandango/Breeze, Social Outcasts, Primo/Epico, Dudleyz, Usos not doing anything significant at the moment.

I think they need another women's title. The current Women's title picture is Brooke, Charlotte, Becky and Natayla. Meanwhile, you got talented women like Naomi, Paige and Sasha not doing anything. Nikki is coming back soon too, it's not like you need a huge roster of women.

 

[Dave]

While I'm enthusiastic about the brand split and the excitement that comes with it, I haven't been overly impressed with the way that the WWE seems to have gone into cruise control with Raw as of late. Raw on fire coming out of WrestleMania and things seemed to be clicking in the right way. But since the WWE announced the brand split, it just hasn't been hitting the spot in the way it was previously. Perhaps that is to do with the uncertainty behind the scenes rubbing off on the product. All I know is that something isn't right.

So with that in mind, I can't wait for the split and the draft that comes along with it. I'm really hoping that it energises people again and can drive the WWE onto bigger and better things.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

One thing that I feel needs to happen among fans is to top worrying about the potential of WWE raiding the NXT roster during the draft and how NXT will be ruined. People are forgetting that NXT is WWE's developmental brand and while it may have grown into something beyond that, it's primary purpose is still to get train wrestlers to prepare them for heading up to the main roster. While it's true that, if the reports are true, that NXT's roster will be decimated, it's not as though there aren't others waiting to be brought onto the NXT roster rather than training in the WWE Performance Center.

As Dave pointed out, I to get the feeling that Raw is sort of coasting right now, though I can't say it's something I'm not surprised by. The product in the short term might not be as interesting as it has been, overall, for the next month, but here's to hoping that things truly get sorted out with the brand split and something of a definitive "new era" kicks off.

 

[BringThePain834]

I highly doubt that SmackDown will ALWAYS be live. I'm sure there will be exceptions, such as six days before WrestleMania, Christmas or New Year's Eve (if they fall on a Tuesday). Which begs the question... when will SmackDown be taped in such a case? I would think they would tape SmackDown after they get done taping and broadcasting Raw.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The latest going around, at least via a user from Reddit, is that WWE is bringing back Clash of the Champions as a Raw branded ppv event and posted the remainder of the ppv schedule for 2016. These changes haven't been confirmed, according to the report, so the entire thing may be just a pile of crap:

SummerSlam - August 21, 2016, Brooklyn, NY, 7 pm EST start time, both brands

Backlash - September 11, 2016, Richmond, VA, 8 pm EST start time, SmackDown

Clash of the Champions - September 25, 2016, Indianapolis, IN, 8 pm EST start time, Raw

No Mercy, October 9th in Sacramento, 8pm EST start time, SmackDown

Hell In a Cell, October 30th in Boston, 8pm EST start time, RAW

Survivor Series, November 20th in Toronto, 7pm EST start time, both brands

TLC, December 4th in Dallas, 8pm EST start time, SmackDown

Roadblock, December 18th in Pittsburgh, 8pm EST start time, RAW

So, if accurate, than there will indeed be two brand exclusive ppv events per month while the original big four events of the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series will include both brands.

How WWE handles the draft will determine how well this goes over because many are going to see it as flat out overkill. IF each show genuinely has its own feel, has a certain degree of creative freedom and enough creative freedom to ultimately not feel like it's just dividing one show into two, then maybe this could be pulled off well.