Why the New Brand Split Could Be the Answer to Many of WWE's Problems

[Big Red Machine]

Today’s announcement of a “brand split” and a “draft” all but confirms a return to using separate rosters for Raw and Smackdown. This a fantastic move on WWE’s part, and not just because it means that Smackdown won’t be a pointless repeat of Raw anymore that is almost never even mentioned on Raw. This move, if utilized correctly has the potential to fix a lot of problems that WWE currently has.

First and foremost, the roster is a bit bloated right now. I know that seems silly to say after we spent a good chunk of the build-up to WrestleMania talking about how thin the roster is (and we’ve lost Barrett, Ryback, Stardust, Brie Bella, and Sandow since then, we’ll be losing Titus soon, and we had Bray Wyatt and Tamina go down with injuries), but it’s true. There have been a lot of guys added to the main roster in the past few months. And I mean A LOT: Sami Zayn, Gallows & Anderson, Enzo & Cass, the Vaudevillains, Baron Corbin, Dana Brooke, Apollo Crews, and Maryse have all been appearing on the main roster with regularity since WrestleMania (Emma got called back up, too, but she got injured again). That’s a lot more people than they’ve lost.
Now consider the fact that Kane, Mark Henry, and Big Show have been pretty much absent from TV since Mania, Kalisto (& Sin Cara) have barely been on TV despite Kalisto being US Champion, some guys like Crews have still been doing nothing floating around and having random squash matches because WWE can’t find anywhere to fit him onto TV in an actual storyline.
The night after WrestleMania Cesaro returned from his injury. Seth Rollins returned from his injury a few days ago. John Cena will be back Monday night. Neville and Orton are farther away from returning, but should be back within a few months. When Bray Wyatt is back in action his guys (who have also been off TV since his injury) will return to TV with him. (Also, when it comes time for the big shows, we’ll need a spot on the card for Brock Lesnar, and probably one for Hunter, too). They have WAY too many guys to give everyone something productive to do using just one three-hour show.

With five hours of important weekly TV, though, things can be different. Especially if you split the brands. This is because splitting the brands forces you to book more people because you can’t just repeat the same thing on Smackdown that you did on Raw. If they were to split the PPVs between the brands (keeping the Big Four and Money in the Bank as co-branded), then you have the same number of spots on each PPV that you currently have, but you only have half of the roster to fill those spots out with. This necessitates booking people who otherwise wouldn’t get booked on a PPV, and booking those people on a PPV requires some sort of story for them, which makes them into useful characters instead of what we have now which is basically a bunch of guys who are given pointless, eight minute matches on the C shows that no one watches and only show up on Raw (or even Smackdown) to get jobbed out in three minutes.

I am going to call this general concept of the writers being forced to make Raw and Smackdown different shows (different rosters, different stories, etc.) the “dual focus effect” because Creative will be forced to focus on both shows simultaneously while keeping them very, very separate (with a few exceptions that I’ll get to in a moment, but to paraphrase DDP, having those few exceptions won’t be a bad thing. It will be a good thing).

The first and most obvious effect this will have is that it will make Smackdown important again. No longer will Smackdown be that thing that maybe you sometimes watch if a match looks really good but you know nothing important will ever happen there and you know pretty much everything on the show will either be a repeat of what happened on that Monday’s Raw or will be something that winds up being repeated on next Monday’s Raw. Instead, Smackdown will become an A show just like Raw. Instead of being that show that John Cena rarely every shows up on even though he loves performing for the fans so much and was so unimportant that the angle for control of the company at WrestleMania was always stated as being for “control of Monday Night Raw” because not even the people who make millions of dollars on its existence ever think about it, Smackdown will become the only place that you can see such great WWE Superstars as Dean Ambrose, Alberto Del Rio, Paige, and (if my prediction is correct) John Cena. Things that happen on Smackdown will be important because they will have to be followed up on on next week’s Smackdown because you won’t be able to rely on Raw to push Smackdown storylines. Mauro Ranallo will go from being that guy who calls the pre-shows to being “the voice of Smackdown,” just as important Michael Cole is on Raw. If you tell fans that they have to watch Smackdown to see their favorite stars and that they can’t get the recap of it by watching Raw, fans will actually start watching Smackdown again (just like they stopped watching when WWE told them how unimportant it was).
This will also help when WWE runs two crews for their house shows. It will not only eliminate the arbitrary (to the fans) A crew vs. B crew distinction and replace it with something that makes kayfabe sense and markets better, but the roster balance will also even out the starpower on the two shows while the dual focus effect will create a desire to see guys who are currently pretty much space-fillers on cards.

The brand split will almost certainly force WWE to make some changes to what they do with their titles. The most obvious way to handle this seems to be doing a small variation of what WWE did when they did the original brand split, which was divvy up the titles between the shows and have a world champion who would be on both shows (the Women’s Champion was originally allowed to show up on both shows, too, but this rarely happened and the idea was dropped when they created a second world title so there would be one for each show). What I would do is have the top champions in each division (men, women, and tag team) be allowed to show up on either show, while the remaining titles- the IC and the US- would be exclusive to Raw and Smackdown respectively. Having just one secondary singles title available to the wrestlers on those shows would make those titles more important because they would no longer be interchangeable with another title, and would allow more focus on each of them because they aren’t fighting with each other for air time. WWE has been wanting to elevate both of these titles for a while, and this would accomplish that goal perfectly (my guess is that Cena will win the US Title from Rusev to not only lend his prestige to that title but also to lend his star-power to Smackdown to drive home that it is now an A show. Having Cena as US Champion would also be a perfectly good way to put off a Cena vs. Reigns match for quite a while).

Having the top champions in each division get the special privilege of being allowed to appear on both shows would be a great way to get over the importance of these titles as it is a visible illustration of the (kayfabe) star power they provide. The WWE World Heavyweight Title is a big deal and the Women’s Title has never been stronger than it is right now. The WWE Tag Team Titles admittedly do have a ways to go before they are anywhere near that strong, but a good, strong reign by a fresh team could help fix that, and this privilege of getting to appear on either show would add to the perceptions that this new fresh team are bigger stars than what we have been given for the past decade. Or they could just put the belts on the Dudleys for a while, who would definitely help give those titles a shot in the arm.

If you are using brand-exclusive PPVs, too (which WWE absolutely should do), then having traveling champions combined with the dual focus effect will bring another benefit to the women’s and tag team divisions: an undercard. With the brands alternating PPVs, there will be a few weeks where the champion will be feuding with someone on one show, but fans tuning in to the other show will expect to see tag team and (especially) women’s action on both shows so you can’t just do nothing in those divisions on the other show for those few weeks. You’ve got to throw something out there, and in WWE’s mindset that always means it needs a story. By the time the champ is freed up you will have had this feud going for a few weeks and be only two or three weeks away from your own brand’s PPV, leaving you the option to blow the feud off in time to set up the winner as the champ’s next challenger, or you can go with a different challenger and keep this feud going for a few more weeks until the PPV. One thing that can quickly destroy fans’ interest in a division is the appearance the division is just the champions vs. whoever is challenger at the next PPV and no one else matters. That’s what killed the X-Division, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen fans as passionate about a division as people were about the X-Division up until about mid-2011. If it can kill the X-Division, it can kill any division. The dual focus effect would create a situation where it would be extremely difficult for that to happen.

Splitting the brands (and particularly the PPVs) will help not only by opening up more PPV spots on the non-Big Five shows as described above, but it would also allow them to simultaneously give angles more time to build while keeping a wave of momentum going by constantly being on the verge of a big show. From WrestleMania XXXI to WrestleMania XXXII, WWE had 16 non-NXT Network events (PPVs plus others). 17 if you want to count their hour-long KOTR special two days after Extreme Rules, but you really shouldn’t count that for these purposes because it was a three-match, one-hour show. Because of the way WWE now always schedules the Royal Rumble to be the week before the Superbowl, it would make sense to bring back a New Year’s Revolution show the first weekend of the new year, so let’s go with that as our 17th. That’s just over three weeks between big shows on average (it goes down to about two if you include NXT, but NXT will probably wind up being scaled back to five at the very most), although they probably should leave close to four weeks after Mania, Summer Slam, and possibly the Rumble, but you can adjust your schedule for that easily enough. The result of this will be not only giving matches an average of four to six weeks to build up for the PPV, but the overlapping schedule will create a constant wave of momentum as you will always feel like you are on the verge of a big show (with the only exception being the post-Mania afterglow).

The Big Five co-branded PPVs would still have the same number of spots on the card as we have now (although this would really only have a big effect on Mania and Summer Slam as MITB, Survivor Series, and especially the Rumble all have big matches that need a lot of people and thus open up more space on the card), but the result of that would be that those PPVs would feel extra-special due to the co-branding and potential for cross-brand interaction, so the matches on those shows would feel special, too.

In the long run, a brand split would also help create excitement as any time someone switches brands (however that would be done in kayfabe) it would increase the feeling of freshness and shaking up. Nowadays, we sometimes get feuds we haven’t seen before or haven’t seen in a while, but we know the reason we haven’t seen them is because that’s just not what was booked. With a brand split, each switch would feel fresher and more exciting because the illusion of a rule that prevents these match-ups changes the feeling from "this is new and fresh because they haven’t given it to us yet" to "this is new and fresh because it couldn’t have happened before."

Obviously a brand split is not going to automatically fix everything. It is entirely possible that even after a brand split, WWE Creative will still mess the bed and give us bad TV… but I think that, for all of these reasons, a brand split will, at the very least, make the product more enjoyable simply by forcing Creative to focus on writing two, distinct good shows instead of one (ideally) good show and one lazy waste of time.

[KILLdozer]

I'm not reading all of that. I stopped after splitting ppvs. Was going well though.

[cero2k]

in theory all that you wrote is correct and it should work, but we've already seen this fail once before, hopefully they have learned from the mistakes they did back then.

But as mentioned in WOR, this is asking waay to much from the fans. 3 hr RAW, 2 hr Smackdown, and 3 hr ppvs JUST to follow the storylines and see your favorite wrestlers. That's not counting NXT, Camp WWE, Takeovers, Network Specials, or any other show.

[Big Red Machine]

in theory all that you wrote is correct and it should work, but we've already seen this fail once before, hopefully they have learned from the mistakes they did back then.

But as mentioned in WOR, this is asking waay to much from the fans. 3 hr RAW, 2 hr Smackdown, and 3 hr ppvs JUST to follow the storylines and see your favorite wrestlers. That's not counting NXT, Camp WWE, Takeovers, Network Specials, or any other show.

The thing is... I don't think it really started to fail for a few years, and the reason for that was because they stopped making it important. If you do a strict separation, I think you can make it work very well.
And what's the alternative? What they're doing now, where Smackdown almost never matters? That's not working, either. I say take a shot at this. Give it until Mania to see if you can make it work, and if it's not helping, then book to a control of the company/reunification match at Summer Slam. I don't see how it can possibly hurt Smackdown, and I think reducing Raw's roster size and giving things time to breathe will allow for longer matches on Raw which will hopefully get some buzz going.

[cero2k]

i'm not against it at all, they haven't done much to really improve the quality of the shows other than raid indie promotions, so they may as well try. For all we know we have someone like Heyman take over Smackdown and we get our new Smackdown 6 era. Like I said, it all looks perfect on paper but let's see the execution, I'm all for one single champion that can only be challenged by either the IC or US champs, but if they're going to create brand titles again, it's gonna get tired again. we'll see.

[Big Red Machine]

i'm not against it at all, they haven't done much to really improve the quality of the shows other than raid indie promotions, so they may as well try. For all we know we have someone like Heyman take over Smackdown and we get our new Smackdown 6 era. Like I said, it all looks perfect on paper but let's see the execution, I'm all for one single champion that can only be challenged by either the IC or US champs, but if they're going to create brand titles again, it's gonna get tired again. we'll see.

Well... based on what we saw on NXT, I'd be fine with a team of Ryan Ward/Triple H getting to run SD and doing things their own way. Also, throw Jimmy Jacobs in there. He's a creative guy who understands wrestling, you know he'll fight through hell to help Cesaro, Owens, and Zayn, go through even more for Ambrose, and even more than that for Rollins.

[XIV]

It will work, but WWE needs to have two distinct sets of writers, one for each show, in order to make the shows feel quite different. Smackdown needs to be what it was when the brand split first came around really. A show filled with great talent who can really make matches happen. From Guerrero, Benoit & Angle to Zayn, Owens & Cesaro.

RAW is where you put your main star power (flagship show and all). Your Rollins, Cena & Reigns etc.

If you put the Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, John Cena, Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles & Chris Jericho on RAW, that's your top draws there. For Smackdown you use Owens, Zayn, Cesaro, Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton (when available). You've stacked your top end of both shows.

For those that know me, I'm a massive tag team wrestling fan (it's my favourite), and the brand split almost killed Tag Team wrestling in the WWE last time around. However, WWE has too many top tag teams now for that to happen again, they've built New Day in such a way that whoever gets the Tag Titles next will be a big deal (and hopefully will bring about a new set of belts. However I wouldn't confine the titles themselves to one show at all. I would ensure each show produces a new number one contender team and on a PPV have Raws best team vs Smackdown's best team.

This brand split also gives an opportunity for Survivor Series to mean something again especially this year if Stephanie & Triple H are in charge of one show & Shane is in charge of the other... Brother v Sister picking their best teams for the main event at Survivor Series. It gives purpose to what used to be one of my favourite PPVs growing up.

I am excited to see what the brand split brings us. Because I think we'll get some damn good television out of this.

[Big Red Machine]

It will work, but WWE needs to have two distinct sets of writers, one for each show, in order to make the shows feel quite different. Smackdown needs to be what it was when the brand split first came around really. A show filled with great talent who can really make matches happen. From Guerrero, Benoit & Angle to Zayn, Owens & Cesaro.

RAW is where you put your main star power (flagship show and all). Your Rollins, Cena & Reigns etc.

If you put the Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, John Cena, Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles & Chris Jericho on RAW, that's your top draws there. For Smackdown you use Owens, Zayn, Cesaro, Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton (when available). You've stacked your top end of both shows.

For those that know me, I'm a massive tag team wrestling fan (it's my favourite), and the brand split almost killed Tag Team wrestling in the WWE last time around. However, WWE has too many top tag teams now for that to happen again, they've built New Day in such a way that whoever gets the Tag Titles next will be a big deal (and hopefully will bring about a new set of belts. However I wouldn't confine the titles themselves to one show at all. I would ensure each show produces a new number one contender team and on a PPV have Raws best team vs Smackdown's best team.

This brand split also gives an opportunity for Survivor Series to mean something again especially this year if Stephanie & Triple H are in charge of one show & Shane is in charge of the other... Brother v Sister picking their best teams for the main event at Survivor Series. It gives purpose to what used to be one of my favourite PPVs growing up.

I am excited to see what the brand split brings us. Because I think we'll get some damn good television out of this.

I mostly agree with your sentiments, but the more I think about it, I think you got everything right except who is on which show. The type of awesome matches we want to be able to see all the time from Zayn, Owens, Cesaro, Rollins, AJ etc. are better suited to a longer show so that everyone will get more time. Therefore, those matches should be on Raw (I'd put Reigns on Raw both so that you can split him and Cena up and so that those guys can carry him). Meanwhile, Smackdown needs to be made to feel bigger, and the best way to do that is to front-load it with starpower... and that obviously starts with Cena, Orton, and Del Rio, but I think Ambrose and Wyatt would also help there.

[XIV]

It will work, but WWE needs to have two distinct sets of writers, one for each show, in order to make the shows feel quite different. Smackdown needs to be what it was when the brand split first came around really. A show filled with great talent who can really make matches happen. From Guerrero, Benoit & Angle to Zayn, Owens & Cesaro.

RAW is where you put your main star power (flagship show and all). Your Rollins, Cena & Reigns etc.

If you put the Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, John Cena, Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles & Chris Jericho on RAW, that's your top draws there. For Smackdown you use Owens, Zayn, Cesaro, Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton (when available). You've stacked your top end of both shows.

For those that know me, I'm a massive tag team wrestling fan (it's my favourite), and the brand split almost killed Tag Team wrestling in the WWE last time around. However, WWE has too many top tag teams now for that to happen again, they've built New Day in such a way that whoever gets the Tag Titles next will be a big deal (and hopefully will bring about a new set of belts. However I wouldn't confine the titles themselves to one show at all. I would ensure each show produces a new number one contender team and on a PPV have Raws best team vs Smackdown's best team.

This brand split also gives an opportunity for Survivor Series to mean something again especially this year if Stephanie & Triple H are in charge of one show & Shane is in charge of the other... Brother v Sister picking their best teams for the main event at Survivor Series. It gives purpose to what used to be one of my favourite PPVs growing up.

I am excited to see what the brand split brings us. Because I think we'll get some damn good television out of this.

I mostly agree with your sentiments, but the more I think about it, I think you got everything right except who is on which show. The type of awesome matches we want to be able to see all the time from Zayn, Owens, Cesaro, Rollins, AJ etc. are better suited to a longer show so that everyone will get more time. Therefore, those matches should be on Raw (I'd put Reigns on Raw both so that you can split him and Cena up and so that those guys can carry him). Meanwhile, Smackdown needs to be made to feel bigger, and the best way to do that is to front-load it with starpower... and that obviously starts with Cena, Orton, and Del Rio, but I think Ambrose and Wyatt would also help there.

I see your very valid points and completely accept them. You make a compelling argument for why superstars should be on what shows and I agree.

WWE have a complete do-over with the split and I hope they take a good advantage.

This should hopefully bring their injury numbers down too as it probably will give their talent a few more rest days a month.