The end of the brand split

[King Pitcos]

So the brand split's been dead for about a year or so now. Apart from Cena, Punk and the part-timers, everyone's on both shows. Raw/Smackdown house shows are just "WWE Live" from the summer. What do you make of it? For a few years, people were trotting out "end the brand split" as one of the insta-fixes for wrestling. But like the returns of Rock and Brock, the pushing of Punk and Bryan, and the allowance of blood on the shows, it hasn't fixed everything. The feeling was they didn't have the roster for two shows, but to me they don't have an interesting enough roster to use twice a week... Or they're overusing, and underutilising, the midcard guys at least.

 

They really can't be arsed with Smackdown, either, and it's full of either rematches from or dry runs for Raw (plus a good 10-25 minutes of Raw recaps a week). We've got four singles titles on Raw now as well, only one of which matters. Kofi Kingston's been winning one every six months for about five years and is still pretending it's a big deal, then going home and watching YouTube videos of the month in 2009 where he was almost somebody. Tired acts and storylines are getting 30 minutes a week instead of 15. I'd rather see Randy Orton murder his family than wrestle on both shows every week. Despite there being supposedly double the amount of opponents for each wrestler, matches seem no fresher.

 

Enough of my crying about the same old shit I'm always crying about. What do you think of the end of the divide? Any resulting positives over the last year, or on the horizon? And what do you think were the biggest benefits and missed opportunities from the brand split era and concept? I loved the idea of Smackdown vs Raw stuff and wish more had been done with it somehow (without overkilling it). Bragging Rights was always crap, but the Survivor Series 2005 feud was great fun. Especially when JBL went hunting for Raw guys and found Boogeyman.

[Dirty Eddie]

I can say that over the last six months I've pretty much stopped watching Smackdown on anything like a regular basis. This is from someone who had watched pretty much every single episode that aired prior to that. There's just no point at all now.

 

The people I used to tune in to see on Smackdown are now on RAW pretty much every week and with nothing of note ever happening on Smackdown it's completely miss-able. I watched the Ambrose/Taker match last week and that was it.

 

They've slowly made Smackdown more and more pointless and any time someone gets interesting they've been moved to doing RAW appearances. The World Title has been treated like shite for so long now that Smackdown's premier belt is around the level of the IC title as far as I am concerned. I forgot that for about a minute when Ziggler cashed in, but he's been jobbing all over since then - just hammering home what a chump he is.

 

Fuck Smackdown.

 

They were on to a good thing years and years ago and the Bischoff Vs Steph, Raw Vs Smackdown stuff gave some great moments, but they stopped caring about any of that years ago. Trying to make us care about Teddy long Vs Johnny Ace was painful.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I miss it. I liked the draft and liked the divide between the two rosters. And when I say I miss it, I dont mean the shite version of it. I mean when you'd have Batista heading Smackdown and Cena as Raw's headliner. And you'd watch Smackdown knowing the Undertaker was on it and the Straight Edge Society would be causing a bit of havoc, Edge would be up to no good and on Raw Cena, Triple H, Shawn Michaels and the likes would be doing their thing. Thing is, the talent depth is really bad that a brand extension is impossible at the minute. WWE had a massive roster for years and years with a load of established names. Now though, its really hard to do. Everyone seems to blend in, and hardly anyone watches Smackdown. I also think with two separate writing teams, you'd have more of a chance of getting people over long term without the other side tampering with it.

 

Every year, outside the WrestleMania fallout, the Daft was the most viewed episode of the year. That tells you all you need to know about the brand split. People were into it.

[Loki]

Is there any reason to have 2 separate World champions now, then? Sounds daft if there's not even any distinction between the roasters. Unification next year?

[NEWM]

I was always massively pro-split, and have been saddened at its gradual phasing out over the years. More than ever actually, the company needs it I feel. I've not properly and regularly watched Smackdown in a few years now, and I attribute that to to the end of the separate brands.

 

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't perfect, and there were times where both shows were hurting as a result of big trades or in Smackdown 05's case, a complete reshuffle that firmly positioned Raw strongly back at the top of the tree, never to return. But the positives always outweigh the negatives. The Draft Raw's were always noteworthy, the run of interbrand matches at Mania 20 and 21 (and the cool SNME mixy-matchys before WM22), and the multi-brand Rumbles were great.

 

I can see why the house show and PPV businesses would have taken batterings as Smackdown got progressively weaker and weaker, but...you know...don't make the show so fucking weak. And I don't mean to be an internet dweeb about it, but the more entertaining characters you've got, the better the shows will be, so often they should have just tried to come up with a good few more.

 

The apex of the Brand Extension has to be the Survivor Series 04-Wrestlemania 21 run. The stereo rises of Cena and Batista against the patriarchal heel champions, the intertwining of the Undertaker and Kane's feuds with weirdos, Shawn vs Kurt, it was great stuff. The May/June draft buried Smackdown and it never truly recovered beyond HHH's brief spell there. That spell highlights how great the split was able to be when treat well.

[The Cutting Edge]

To me there probably is enough guys to fill two rosters but these guys are never on tv thus no-one cares about them, guys like Hawkins, Mason Ryan etc are still employed but usually are'nt on any shows even Superstars.

 

I know these guys don't 'scream star' but they're just an example of guys that could be used to some degree but have never really been given a chance, Yoshi Tatsu hasnt done anything since ECW stopped ofcourse that can be said for most undercard guys.

 

If they did some vingettes for new characters not just new guys but actual gimmicks that might get over like Wyatt Family, Corey Graves etc plus bring in a few familiar faces like RVD, Carlito etc or give gives like Domino/Cliff Compton another crack you might have enough to fill to shows and keep guys separate.

 

I think there's still value in two 'brands' but they seem to have taken the easier route instead of making new stars (which has been an issue for years) but going with Orton, Sheamus on each show, and they seem to want to fill time with anything like recaps instead of trying new things.

[Southside crew]

I miss it. I liked the draft and liked the divide between the two rosters. And when I say I miss it, I dont mean the shite version of it. I mean when you'd have Batista heading Smackdown and Cena as Raw's headliner. And you'd watch Smackdown knowing the Undertaker was on it and the Straight Edge Society would be causing a bit of havoc, Edge would be up to no good and on Raw Cena, Triple H, Shawn Michaels and the likes would be doing their thing. Thing is, the talent depth is really bad that a brand extension is impossible at the minute. WWE had a massive roster for years and years with a load of established names. Now though, its really hard to do. Everyone seems to blend in, and hardly anyone watches Smackdown. I also think with two separate writing teams, you'd have more of a chance of getting people over long term without the other side tampering with it.

 

Every year, outside the WrestleMania fallout, the Daft was the most viewed episode of the year. That tells you all you need to know about the brand split. People were into it.

 

 

Exactly my thoughts , just not enough stars now !

[Sexy Dad]

Along with most I tuned out of Smackdown in 2011 when Raw became a 'supershow'. However, I did tune in to Smackdown last week to see Ambrose vs Undertaker because it was something fresh, it wasn't a rehash from Raw and I genuinely felt the need to see it.

 

I think from a house show point of view this is a good thing though, whilst at Smackdown shows I did always feel that the kids in Cena shirts were probably feeling a bit cheated. I suppose the more involvement the big stars have on Smackdown the better...never mind the separate show identities, just give people a reason to tune in. Another example for this is Ambrose vs Kane this week, a furthering of a feud...not just a random match.

[PowerButchi]

It's not ideal, but I can see why it died. If you look at smackdown, the star power has depended on it's TV. For example, when they first got on My Network they sent HHH over there to really establish it. But with every change of day and change of channel (other than the My Network one) there's less stars on it and I understand why. You want your biggest stars seen by as many as possible, and that's Monday Night Raw. Not tucked away on a Friday Night on Syfy. It's shit, but I can understand it.

[King Pitcos]

Is there any reason to have 2 separate World champions now, then? Sounds daft if there's not even any distinction between the roasters. Unification next year?

 

I think they're still going to be running two touring crews, so they'd want a champion to headline the B-show I think. But it wouldn't surprise me to see a unification match at or by next year's WrestleMania.

 

I think from a house show point of view this is a good thing though, whilst at Smackdown shows I did always feel that the kids in Cena shirts were probably feeling a bit cheated.

 

I'd think it would be worse without the brand split. Kids going to a Smackdown show when Cena's as Raw superstar probably wouldn't have been expecting him, but kids just going to a WWE show probably are.

[Your Fight Site]

I was massively pro-brand split too, especially when it came not long after WCW was killed off and it gave a faux sense of competition. Instead of being a WWF fan or a WCW fan, you were made to choose between RAW or SmackDown.

 

There was brand-specific rosters, championships and pay-per-views. I can imagine it didn

[ShortOrderCook]

I miss it too. For many of the reasons already mentioned, but mainly because the pros of it and the potential of what can be done with it far outweighs the cons. I'd like to see it reinforced, but i'd like to see it done in the way they seemingly first planned to run it and I've been pissed off ever since they never stuck to it, as I think it's a cracking system. That being, have the split and only the champions feature on both brands. That's not quite what they did, they just had the Undisputed champion feature on both but I'd like to see it applied to all champions, but with only 3 champions (4 if you include Divas) - WWE, IC, Tag. The reasons for this and why I think it could work great are several;

 

Firstly, it instantly raises the credibility of the titles and those holding them. Also, it basically solves the issue of the biggest star not featuring on the house shows. The champion should be the biggest, most over star and if it's not the champion should be feuding with him. If the champion is featuring on both shows then WWE might be less likely to just throw it on anyone and hope they get over and perhaps more likely to put it on talent that is over as hell and it's almost demanded that they be champion/heavily featured.

 

Also, it keeps things fresh and exciting and brand switches still occurring if they wish to move guys, without shifting them about with no logical reason. Going back to similar to their original formula, what would happen is once the champion was dethroned and the new champion became available to all brands, the previous champion would then take the place of the new champion on their brand. So for example - say CM Punk is the WWE Champion, Ryback is a Smackdown guy. Ryback beats Punk for the title so Punk becomes Smackdown exclusive. Then Mark Henry of Raw takes the strap from Ryback and Ryback becomes a Raw only superstar while Menry features on both shows. I think it could provide many great storyline devices, long term, developed organically and make the title scenes mean much, much more, make their champions a much bigger deal (I think it could be especially beneficial to re-establishing the IC and Tag title ranks) and I believe would go a great way to getting more talent over as a result. Anytime a new champion is crowned it has the potential to cause a shake up.

[Arch Stanton]

I do miss the days when the brand split actually meant something and both shows had individual identities and strong rosters, but I miss those pre-split days too, when the top stars would appear on both Raw and SmackDown every week. The problem is that they don't do that now. If they did, I'd be more than happy with the roster split officially ending.

[Jackpot]

To be honest, I thought it ended years ago. And I've never watched SmackDown on a regular basis anyway (mainly because Michael Cole and Tazz as a commentary team bored the fuck outta me and then I never got into it after that pairing).

 

Saying that though, I did enjoy the brand split, especially the Draft though one or two were always predictable because they'd never have the two world champs exclusive to one show. So when one got drafted, you knew the other would get "randomly" drafted over as well. But that could be excused as the whole concept was great in my opinion. And not being an avid viewer of SmackDown, I got even greater enjoyment when one of their superstars would be drafted to RAW as well as their pay-per-views, which I did always watch.

 

But it's got to the point now where there isn't any brand split and it's been like that for a while. I still think they could have a roster to do a brand split. Imagine Cena, Punk, Ryback, Jericho, Bryan, Christian, Lesnar all competing for the WWE Title on RAW and then the likes of Cesaro, Kingston, Fandango, Truth, Kane, Barrett, Santino, Miz, all three of the Shield, Mason Ryan, Brodus Clay, Tensai and one or two from NXT competing for the Intercontinental Title and undercard. Then on SmackDown for the World Heavyweight Title you've got Orton, Mark Henry, Big Show, Sheamus, Ziggler, Del Rio, Swagger, Mysterio as well as Big E, Sandow, Rhodes, Ryder, 3MB, Sin Cara, Gabriel, Kidd, Khali and one or two from NXT to compete for the US Title and undercard.

 

Couple of tag teams and divas and bob's your uncle. You've got a decent brand split roster. Might not be brimming with top star names, but it's alright. It's certainly a lot fucking better than seeing repeat after repeat of not only the same matches on RAW but also the same storylines and feuds that we're getting now because they're so despeate to get all the bigger names on the one show that the lads who could do a decent job at making a midcard title mean something are reduced to jobbing or a shit five minute match with no progression at all.

[HarmonicGenerator]

The main problem I found with the Champion being the only person on both shows - though, I have to say, I liked it, it made the Champion seem much more important - was that their challenger was only on one, and they couldn't quite figure out what to do with the Champion when they appeared on the other show. Ignore their challenger? Have a separate feud on each show? Have them reference their opponent from the first brand while appearing on the second? I suppose that might have contributed towards each brand having their own champ a few months down the line.