WWE shot themselves in the foot when they killed the Brand Extension

[faltemer]

Well that just proves you're an asshole. Del Rio is a phenomenal talent and deserves a top spot. If you think he isn't, then fine, you have a right to your opinion, but I have a right to think that opinion is full of shit. And trust me, it is.

His opinion makes him an asshole, but he is entitled to it, oh wait, no he isn't. And then your opinion turns out to be facts and not opinion. How riveting.

On topic, there are certainly merits to the brand split, but you said it yourself. It would be a B or C level show, so why is being the best on the B level show better then being second tier on the A level show? They certainly don' have enough constant talent to do 3 shows with any sort of star power. Overall I like the idea of two shows and wouldn't mind seeing it back again.

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

Whether you'd like to see the brand extension come back or not, it is irrelevant. It's not going to happen. The WWE no longer wants 2 separate rosters, w/ 2 separate sets of storylines. They want things to play out seamlessly through all of their shows. At this point, its not an option. They are locked in. They gave it a decent run and their final analysis was that the negatives outweighed the positives.

I don't see why you would spend so much time and effort breaking down why something would be "good", when you have no chance whatsoever of seeing it happen.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Well that just proves you're an asshole. Del Rio is a phenomenal talent and deserves a top spot. If you think he isn't, then fine, you have a right to your opinion, but I have a right to think that opinion is full of shit. And trust me, it is.

Name calling. That's not nice. For one, I didn't say anything about my opinion on Del Rio. I just made a general statement about typical opinions on this forum. Del Rio is typically not seen as a top talent. A lot of people hate him.

But if you care I would say Del Rio is one of those guys that can go in and out of the main event but he's proven most of the time to not be much of a draw. Certainly not in the US. He can be excellent in the ring but that doesn't really matter.

Now, as for the rest of your post. All of the guys I mentioned have been able to get some time in the limelight. Ziggler, Miz, Punk and Del Rio have all had turns in main event programs. But that's not what I'm talking about here.

The brand extension ended a long time ago, but we still had main event programs focused on different shows. It wasn't until December when Cena and Orton merged the titles that it's become clear that Smackdown won't be getting it's own main event program anymore. No more Del Rio vs. Big Show on Smackdown while Punk and Rock fight it out on Raw. Now, it's the guys on the Raw storylines who will be wrestling on SD too.

There's no point in having Shield work all Raws and Smackdowns. Let 3MB stop being jobbers and let them get over on Smackdown while Shield takes care of Raw. But nope, we instead get to see everyone moved down the card in favor of the A-show guys working the B-show. WWE slowly phased out the "second roster" ever since 2011, but it wasn't really official until 2013.

WWE is working on a new TV contract and selling WWE Network, now is not the time for working in and up other talent like Miz, Ziggler, and Del Rio that historically have failed to draw. They didn't drop the ball, they made a strategic decision.

 

[lil steroid meat]

Agree completely.

I would welcome the Brand Extension back just to see some different people in top programs.

Ryback and Ziggler should be main eventers on the B-Show. Make the IC Title the main title over there and let them make that their show.

When the brand extension first started, that's what it was. Young talent like Cena and Lesnar were on Smackdown and older guys like HHH, Benoit, Michaels were on RAW.

I would even propose to let it truly be independent. Let Paul Heyman lead creative for Smackdown.

Right now, I have no reason to watch Smackdown . . . same stuff we see on RAW, Shield/Wyatts vs. Faces + Real Americans vs. Faces.

 

[lil steroid meat]

WWE is working on a new TV contract and selling WWE Network, now is not the time for working in and up other talent like Miz, Ziggler, and Del Rio that historically have failed to draw. They didn't drop the ball, they made a strategic decision.

Orton facing Big E or Christian or whatever midcarder every week and the Wyatts and Shield facing whoever's left only draws a < 2.0.

Outside of seeing the bottom line of ratings and making sure they are doing any extremely inappropriate stuff, networks don't care about the creative direction of a pro wrestling show.

While it's very possible a show that has newer talent in it's top programs could be less of a draw, you also have to remember that Smackdown when it first started for the first few years was a show that revolved around newer talent. I'm too lazy to pull up the ratings from 2004-06, but there was a time when Smackdown made the Cenas and Lesnars.

 

[L@RISANO]

I enjoyed the Brand Extension when it was at its heights quite a bit.
However, I feel it would be difficult to do at this point, mainly because the WWE Creative seem to struggle to put together a good 3-hour show full of meaningful storylines.
Rather we get 2 good stories, and 2 filler stories and a bunch of uninteresting filler which constitutes the entire Show on a weekly basis.

I remember another poster put forward his predicted WM30 card, and then listed 40+ wrestlers on the Full-Time roster who would have nothing to do at WM. Why is that? Because those same guys have random,no purpose appearances on RAW on a shift basis, or in some meaningless rematch after rematch feud, or some dumb gimmick/themed match.

Right now, bar the Main Eventers(Orton, Cena, Batista), with CM Punk gone, there is Daniel Bryan, the Shield and the Wyatt family who are part of meaningful interesting storyline feuds. Alberto Del Rio is the lucky mid-carder who will most likely be fed to Batista. Other than that we have possibly 3 tag teams breaking up as the other storylines....

I don't see how doing a Brand Extension that many wanted to be abolished before, is the answer. The answer,lMO, is to give some purpose to Superstars other than the Main Stars more often, it can only help the product in the long term.

Personally, I would rather see an interesting character in an interesting storyline who might give 3/4 star matches but keep me in anticipation, than see a bland character who would give 4/5 star matches. Just how I like the Entertainment factor of WWE,tbh.