Brand Split - v2.0 ???

I know Smackdown has a long history and everything, but does anyone think a completely new show in Smackdown's place would be better for the Authority to control? Just would be refreshing and new.

Don't think they'll do it myself. Smackdown is like the forgotten brand, I'm not sure that WWE has cared for it for a long time. If Shane had said that he wanted control of Smackdown instead of Raw, Vince would have laughed and handed him the contract to sign there and then. Would be nice if they made it a better show, but they'd probably ruin it by turning it into Raw v2, where you could fit the amount of wrestling into a 3rd of the whole show. It's been so poorly treated that I don't think another brand split would work - I can remember some wrestlers looking visibly upset at having to move to Smackdown during the last one, which didn't sell the brand at all, but that's down to how WWE treat the show.

Back in the day, Smackdown was almost as big as Raw. Especially here in the states because you didn't need cable to watch it for the longest time! It was the only TV show alot of wrestling fans could watch especially if their parents didnt get cable or satelite. All went down hill when they went to My Network TV. I was shocked when they announced to go to that , Ive never heard of it before that too. So it got kind of lost in the shuffle. After the brand split ended it really took a dump too.

I think they should do it.

I know the brand split became a joke in the mid-late noughties but their talent pool is as big as it's ever been and the dedicated half the roster to each show will only make more stars.

The only thing I DON'T want them to do is split the World Title again. Have the WWE Champ go to both shows, like in the Undisputed Title days.

Last edited by rhys (Mon-29-Feb-2016 23:10:28)

It'll damage Smackdown even more I think. Can you imagine Smackdown where they don't have Reigns, Cena, Kevin Owens, New Day, the Wyatts, Ambrose, Orton, Rollins & Sheamus? Who's going to watch that? It's not like they put on a show like NXT does. And if you take half of them out, Raw and Smackdown are much weaker and feuds will become so repetitive with half the top talent available to each. Only worked last time as they took on a load of WCW talent, but the roster has thinned out an awful lot since then.

Well, obviously, if they did that, it'd be stupid.

The point of the brand split is to share the main eventers too so you could have Cena, Wyatts, Rollins & Sheamus on SmackDown for example.

They've been trying to make SD! more relevant for a while. Bryan's last run was supposed to be him bringing SmackDown up in the ratings by being full-time on SD! but obviously his injury stopped that.

Also, yeah there'll be half the main event talent on each show - leaving the other half of the main event on each show to be filled with new main eventers.

Last edited by rhys (Mon-29-Feb-2016 23:10:07)

There aren't that many that could be good main eventers though, that's the problem. Not enough to make the brand split work properly. A few injuries and a show could be ruined.

The worst part though... we'd see some stupid shit like Bragging Rights back. God I hated that PPV, and any match outside of it where the prize was "bragging rights".

There aren't that many that could be good main eventers though, that's the problem. Not enough to make the brand split work properly. A few injuries and a show could be ruined.

The worst part though... we'd see some stupid shit like Bragging Rights back. God I hated that PPV, and any match outside of it where the prize was "bragging rights".

Didn't Michael Cole even say "vintage bragging rights " lmao

There aren't that many that could be good main eventers though, that's the problem. Not enough to make the brand split work properly. A few injuries and a show could be ruined.

That's a joke, right?

Here's a list of guys who are currently not real main eventers who could pull it off if WWE pushed them in that direction and properly:

-Ambrose
-Owens
-Ziggler
-Samoa Joe
-Cesaro
-AJ Styles
-Rusev
-Bray Wyatt
-Sheamus
-Del Rio

Add that to the list of established main eventers:

-Reigns
-Rollins
-Cena
-Orton
-Jericho
-Kane

I realise some of these guys are injured, some haven't been regular main eventers and some would need a complete fresh push to get over in the main event - my point is the options aren't limited. There's a total of 16 guys who could all, with the correct booking, be part of the main event either on RAW or SmackDown, so to say they don't have enough guys is ridiculous. I'm not even including guys from NXT (well, except for Joe) who could be main eventers  in a couple of years: People like Aries, Balor, Zayn and Jordan (he's a future World Champ, mark my words) just to name a few.

Although I do agree we should never see Bragging Rights again.

Last edited by rhys (Tue-1-Mar-2016 05:43:33)

Nope, not kidding at all. Just look at the WWE TItle tournament that they did recently? That was embarrassing as they could barely fill half of that with main event talent.

Kane is not main event level. Just no. Back in the day, loved him, but now? No.
Jericho is not either, and is out of WWE more than he is in.
No timetable on Orton returning from injury, but he is main event level.

Ziggler, despite being one of the best they have, just won't get pushed by WWE. Plenty of chances for that, but he's said he's retiring in the next 2 years and they clearly don't trust him.
Rusev has become a joke.
Bray's stock has fallen so far, but somehow is clinging to main event... in fact, I'd put him at closer to mid card these days which is sad.
Sheamus is a joke as they don't know how to book him. His recent title run showed that and the whole thing did absolutely nothing for him. That being the WWE Champ did nothing for him is a worrying sign.
Del Rio won't be in the title picture any time soon.

Moving people up from NXT would help, but you can't just shove them all into the main event scene and it'd be a huge blow to NXT.

The main event scene at the moment is weak and they've had the chance to build it up with the injuries they've had to Rollins, Cena & Orton, but they've failed. Owens could be their top heel right now, Sheamus could be a top heel right now, Del Rio could be a top heel by now... but none are, and instead the top heel is the part-time champ and after him it's who? Bray who can't win PPV matches?

The title picture recently has been Reigns (a year in the main event spot), Ambrose (relatively new in the main event scene) and two part-timers. They tried adding Sheamus in and he held the title for less than a month and could be classed as a token champion at best. They could have booked him strong and helped build the main event scene up a bit more, but they couldn't. The writers can't even handle one main event scene, how will they be able to handle one for each brand? How's a 3 hour Raw going to go with half the "top tier" roster?

Nope, not kidding at all. Just look at the WWE TItle tournament that they did recently? That was embarrassing as they could barely fill half of that with main event talent.

Kane is not main event level. Just no. Back in the day, loved him, but now? No.
Jericho is not either, and is out of WWE more than he is in.
No timetable on Orton returning from injury, but he is main event level.

That's ridiculous. A main event level guy is a guy you could put in the main event and he could sell the match. They don't have to be winning main events to be considered a main eventer. Kane main evented Hell in a Cell 2015, just five months ago. Obviously, they aren't booked as main eventers - my point is, they COULD be, especially if there was a roster split.

Ziggler, despite being one of the best they have, just won't get pushed by WWE. Plenty of chances for that, but he's said he's retiring in the next 2 years and they clearly don't trust him.
Rusev has become a joke.

Wrestlers bounce back from bad booking all the time. If they focused on Rusev and Ziggler on SD!, for instance, over time, they would gain credibility again. And even if Ziggler was retiring in two years, doesn't mean they can't put him in a top spot to put someone else over.

Bray's stock has fallen so far, but somehow is clinging to main event... in fact, I'd put him at closer to mid card these days which is sad.
Sheamus is a joke as they don't know how to book him. His recent title run showed that and the whole thing did absolutely nothing for him. That being the WWE Champ did nothing for him is a worrying sign.
Del Rio won't be in the title picture any time soon.

Again, I'm not saying these guys are main eventers right now in the current scene. I'm saying they could be with correct booking and a platform to perform on without being overlooked. A brand split would achieve that.

Moving people up from NXT would help, but you can't just shove them all into the main event scene and it'd be a huge blow to NXT.

The whole point of NXT is to develop talent. Bringing the talent to the main roster is literally the point of the show. So to say it would suffer is ridiculous. It didn't suffer when Rollins, Dallas, Neville, Owens, Kalisto, Sasha, Becky and Charlotte left.

The main event scene at the moment is weak and they've had the chance to build it up with the injuries they've had to Rollins, Cena & Orton, but they've failed. Owens could be their top heel right now, Sheamus could be a top heel right now, Del Rio could be a top heel by now... but none are, and instead the top heel is the part-time champ and after him it's who? Bray who can't win PPV matches?

I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but this all boils down to booking. If they booked Bray to win more matches, booked Sheamus to look like a brutal threat rather than a comedic heel. They haven't really had the chance to build these guys properly because they have a potential of about 8 or 9 guys and are trying to get them all on the same show. This is exactly why the brand split would probably improve their chances at main event success. With the brand split, more of these guys MUST be pushed or the main event scene would be too empty. It's a win-win for the wrestlers involved.

The title picture recently has been Reigns (a year in the main event spot), Ambrose (relatively new in the main event scene) and two part-timers. They tried adding Sheamus in and he held the title for less than a month and could be classed as a token champion at best. They could have booked him strong and helped build the main event scene up a bit more, but they couldn't. The writers can't even handle one main event scene, how will they be able to handle one for each brand? How's a 3 hour Raw going to go with half the "top tier" roster?

3-hour RAW's only go with half the top tier roster as it stands anyway, because the other half are pushed to the side like The League of Nations etc. because there is too much talent for one show. You split them over two and these guys who can't get the top spot on RAW can try for it on SmackDown!

From what I can gather, your complaints are merely bad booking and how the guys are perceived on the card - I'm with you on that, which is exactly why they need the brand split. Booking will improve if they aren't trying to cram everyone on one show, they can flesh out a smaller amount of stars on one show, leaving the rest of them to shine on the other show.

Do I expect everyone I named above to be World Champion? Of course not. Being a main eventer doesn't mean being World Champion. It means you get to fight at the top of the card. So even the guys like Kane and Jericho would have a role to play in pushing the newer guys to that level. If you think Jericho or Kane can't cut it in a main event match, then I don't know what you are watching. They are both veterans of the business who could have a decent match with most people, especially Jericho. True, they aren't what they used to be - but they still have value in their legacy and what they can give to a younger opponent by putting them over.

Last edited by rhys (Tue-1-Mar-2016 14:35:23)

But it's not just bad booking. Some guys just aren't cut out for it. Kane being in the main event these days isn't going to sell a PPV. Does anyone relly enjoy watching him wrestle these days? He's there right now on loyalty and legacy. And if you take too many from NXT it would suffer as they're the guys keeping the NXT brand hot. You can do it over time like they currently do which works, but that doesn't do anything for the main roster now where the level of talent that could be considered main event level is weak.

Yes some talent are great. Love Ziggler, Neville is entertaining, etc. The only positive really is that mid card wrestlers would get more opportunities. Will they be able to sell a brand? There's not enough top talent to sustain it. If they built up what they have now and then did a brand spit, it could work, but they'd need to build up the talent that they have to become proper top level talent. No point doing after the split as both brands would look shit.

I had a look at the talent that was available and in and around the title picture the last time they did the brand split.
Booker T
Chris Benoit
Chris Jericho
Eddie Guerrero
Kurt Angle
Mick Foley
Steve Austin
The Big Show
The Rock
Triple H
Undertaker

Compared to now:
Brock Lesnar (part-time)
Dean Ambrose
John Cena
Randy Orton (injured until god knows when)
Roman Reigns
Seth Rollins

Half what it was. You could maybe add AJ Styles and Owens as they at least get reactions from crowds and are big names in the business.

To be main event you need to at least be a title threat. What's the point in giving them the spot light else? They could push Big Show into the main event. No one wants to see him possibly being champion again, so what's the point? No one wants to see him there either as he can't put on a good match any more. There's no point forcing some people into it as it just won't sell.

On SEScoops, Jason Solomon wrote, "At a time when the company lacks depth at the top of its roster, a roster that has been absolutely ravaged by injuries, it makes absolutely no sense to take an already depleted roster, split it in half, and then attempt to fill those same three hours every Monday night."

Note that if the brands were split today, it wouldn't have Cesaro, Rollins, Orton and Cena to plug in on either show. WWE would be scrambling as a result.

If Daniel Bryan hadn't retired and if CM Punk hadn't left the company, there would be a stronger argument for a brand split. As it stands, filling out both Raw's and SmackDown's top rungs will be a struggle. Variety would be as issue, too. 

On Forbes, Alfred Konuwa pointed out, "While keeping certain stars apart can keep several matchups novel, WWE is also stuck with smaller rosters for each show, which means fewer possibilities for feuds. Over time, Raw and SmackDown pay-per-views could seem like reruns, and WWE can only shake things up so many times."

It's not just bad booking I have an issue with, it's the above. They're just not strong enough for it and have done nothing to try and strengthen by pushing others that could step up. If they split, they have to sort that out first and establish guys as strong enough to help with a brand split.

I agree with the fact that Kane is one of those guys that you can throw into a Main Event feud at any time and it will work. Jericho is the same way right now since he is basically part time. Big Show was that guy for a long time too, but that got really really boring.