They’re Really Doing Another Brand Split
And Smackdown is going live starting July 19.
http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/article/smackdown-live-usa-network-july-19
This is uh…….well it’s certainly something. For one thing it’s going to prove that just having Smackdown live isn’t going to change things, though with the announcement that a McMahon is going to be in charge of the show, maybe things get a little more interesting. Anything that makes WWE care about Smackdown and pay more attention to it is a good thing, but I’m going to need a lot more details before I consider this the saving grace for the blue show.
What I do consider my own saving grace though: Impact is screwed to the wall.
I say let the wwe champion tag champions and women’s champion b on both shows kinda like how the nwa champion traveled thru territories n the old days and make the ic and us champion stay on 1 show. This IMO is a great way 2 Build those titles back n2 a big deal
I say is unnecessary.
WWE should be capitalized.
Put a comma after WWE champion.
Be not b.
Kind of not kinda.
….There’s too many. I quit.
I don’t get the point of one WWE title. What would the champion do on the show where he isn’t feuding with anyone. Say Reigns is feuding with a Smackdown guy. What is he going to do on Raw?
i got you fam:
Let the WWE Champion, the Tag Team Champions, and the Women’s Champion be on both shows, kind of like how the NWA Champion traveled through the territories in the old days.
Also, make the Intercontinental and U.S. Champions stay in one show. This, in my opinion, is a great way to build those two belts as a big deal again.
and clearly the guy feuding with the champ would just follow him from Raw to SD, thus making the brand split meaningless.
Thank you. My brain simply refused to solider on.
And now apparently refuses to spell correctly.
I’m on board with this and if it helps put more emphasis back into Smackdown then it’s all good. I’m not crazy about having 2 World Titles again but it is what it is. I will agree that Raw being 3 hours is going to be tricky though I have read more NXT callups are coming which should help. I do wonder how the non Big 4 PPVS will be handled and if they will be Brand only.
Wow……so much negativity. With everyone complaining about depleted rosters who in the blue hell thinks they just won’t hire more talent? Just like any other business that expands, they hire more employees. It may also cure laziness if competition ignites between the two. Give it a chance and if you still don’t like it, then don’t watch it….I for one am excited about it.
The only way any of this will work is if they just sneakily call NXT Smackdown and put that out instead, while chucking the Smackdown crap on RAW and actually packing that show for once. I know it’s never going to happen, but a man can dream, right?
I think that’s closer to the truth of what will happen. I think you will get a lot of the workhorses on Smackdown and get a lot more of that simpler streamlined storytelling that has simpler long form stories and caters to fans who prefer ring work while Raw will cater to the more casual “entertainment” crowd with an emphasis on pulpy storylines, big antics, huge theatrics, and larger than life characters with larger than life biceps.
If they approach it like this than yeah it will work as long as they don’t treat Smackdown likes it’s the little brother.
A lot of Raw’s problem with the three hour format is pacing. If they gear Raw content to let’s say the Reigns/Cena casual fans and give it time to let feuds breathe and build characters than its fine. Often times the best Raws of the last few years( barring a solid string of them here recently) has been when half the roster is on the European tour or not able to be at Raw. It forces creative to actually be creative. The massive freedom of this objectively deep roster can be crippling because there are so many options of feuds and characters to push and the majority of them need the opportunity to see if it will work or not. Often the writers are forced to tunnel vision around 3-4 stars but this will help weed through those younger or Midcard guys needing to be experimented with. There is a lot about the brand spilt that can work the biggest problem is sorting out your title situation.
Big problem with that though is long term small rosters don’t work.
Tag teams and women need to be on both shows (titles and talent). They don’t have enough to make 2 divisions for those.
It would be tight but if they devour the entirety of NXT than they could manage. If Vince was ambitious he would create a trios title and you could get creative with those teams( how hard is it to find another Lucha Dragon? You could put together quite a few teams with simple signings that make boring tag teams much more interesting).
Now THIS is an idea worth following. When I got into wrestling, circa 2005, the breand was split and I for one enjoyed Smackdown far more than Raw. And there was one reason, it was the exclusive holder of the Cruiserweight Title. At that time each show had: A Major tile (WWE and World Heavyweight) a mid-card title (USA and IC) a Tag Title (WWE and World) and a Specific title, Woman’s for RAW and Cruiserweight for Smackdown. This meant that the WWE could keep most of the major wrestling women (Trish, Lita, Victoria, etc.) on Raw and leave other women (Torri, Jillian Hall, Stacy Keibler) on Smackdown. While these woman did have matches on occasion, it was like a special treat, and furthermore, none of them were credible title threats, so they didn’t need a title to chase.
You would really free up some sections of the roster if you took this approach, for example, give the newly split Smackdown a Trios and Cruiserweight Divisions. Move the New Day over and make them the inaugural Trios champs and build a division form there. You still have the social outcasts, and the wyatt family and could easily make 1 or two others. This still leaves the dudley’s, enzo and cass, the Uso’s, and Anderson and Gallows on Raw, Thats a healthy tag division if i ever saw one.
And a cruiserweight division, well that takes no effort at all. you only need like 4-6 major players and others just rotate. Then you get to keep your Charlottes Beckys Sashas and Paiges on one side and drop Cameron and Summer Rae off on the other. For my money this has worked in the past an can work again if played right.
Cameron got fired.
A tag division with four teams is not healthy. Not a fan of a trios title. 6 man tags are hard to book (unless the match is given a lot of time, it’s hard to make everyone look good). They can’t just create interesting trios overnight. This would take a long and intensive effort. One that really would not be worth it.
Crusierweights were boring due to no story. Sure they could do good matches but it rarely mattered. Look at the X division in TNA. They default to multi-man matches because they don’t feel like making a story. Same thing happened in WWE.
Yeah i don’t see how anyone can be excited about this. We already know they can’t handle the brand split. Its not like anything has changed in the past decade, in fact in allot of cases its gotten worse as Vince has aged.
The WWE can’t handle 3 hours of Raw, you think they can handle another 2 hours of Smackdown each week. Smackdown going ‘live’ isn’t going to magically solve the current problems they are having.
I truly cannot comprehend why anyone would want this.
Are they keeping Raw at three hours with a depleted roster? Is the tag division about to be divied up now that it’s gotten decent? Is there going to be a women’s champion on each show now that they’re pretending to care about equality and women’s wrestling? Does this mark the return of the best looking title in wrestling history?
Atleast it gives Smackdown a purpose, they had to do something.
No. Please no. Raw isn’t good without a brand split. I shudder to think what it’s going to be like after it.
This is bad.
The key is to keep both sides separated….that is what became a problem. I am excited for the brand split as well. I know KB had problems with lower card feuds during the brand split but I for one did not. Let each show have its own lower, mid, and top divisions and run it almost like 2 different companies and it will be interesting. Stick to only a ppv every second month and share the Big 4 if need be….will allow for storyline progression and fresh matchups. Will also expand NXT as well because they will need new talent for 2 rosters.
I actually think the brand split is a huge positive step in the right direction. The roster has grown far to large to manage at an effective rate if they are solely trying to fit all new content in a 3 hour chunk of Raw. The brand split and more importantly it being live makes Smackdown more important. Vince has bias for live TV so this means that at least for awhile they are gonna care about a live Smackdown.
I think this will help talent grow as it’s spreading out each half of the talent across a 2 or 3 hour span. The only negative I see is the quagmire the wwe/women’s/tag titles are in as the just unified the big belts and I’m not sure the other two divisions have the depth for a spilt just yet. But it’s gonna be a fun experiment again as the brand split became real fun in the middle once they realized they needed Midcard belts and a big title to chase. They have the roster depth to make this work now more than they ever have in the past and brand splits have proven to me at least as a certified way to make stories between wrestlers progress more naturally and create HUGE shows if both sides are kept separated.