When the news broke that WWE would be returning the brand split at around May or June of last year, I honestly didn’t know what to think. I understand why WWE decided to move forward with the plan to split the brands once again. When combining the talent of both the main roster and NXT, the pool of talent and bodies was as deep as it ever had been, and I can’t blame WWE for at least wanting to explore certain areas. While we are just a little over one week away from WrestleMania, being the end of one season and the dawning of a new one for WWE, let’s see how WWE has fared with the brand split, starting with the positives.
The Positive
1. Sense of Competition
When I first started to watch WWE, I only came across random videos from YouTube, but the match that really got me hooked on WWE television and video games was the 2005 Survivor Series. Randy Orton, JBL, Bobby Lashley, Rey Mysterio and the World Heavyweight Champion Batista took on Shawn Michaels, Carlito, Chris Masters and the World Tag Team Champions, Kane and The Big Show. RAW and Smackdown invaded their own shows, there was big brawls left and right, and while WWE television is “fake”, it seemed as if the stars from each brand really wanted to go out there and prove they were the better brand.
I felt like we got a little bit of that on the build to last year’s Survivor Series. This year, WWE Champion AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose and Shane McMahon represented Smackdown and took on Universal Champion Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, United States Champion Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins. The match was an all-out war featuring brutal spots, great storytelling and the facilitation of current and future feuds. The women and tag team division was also involved in this feud, and extra incentives such as the Intercontinental Championship and the entire Cruiserweight Division was up for grabs. I have loved this sense of competition and wanting to see which one is better. It was a staple (no pun intended) of the Smackdown vs. RAW games I grew up watching with, and seeing it come back was something that would have otherwise not been accomplished without the brand split.
2. Smackdown has become important
The brands united for good at around 2012, and stars from RAW and Smackdown would come to both brands. For a while, it seemed to work, but over time, it was clear that WWE made RAW their flagship show, and Smackdown had to take a backseat. Eventually, I’d say at around 2014, Smackdown no longer became essential to WWE programming. It was essentially Main Event 2.0. Sure, occasionally you would get a mid-card title match or a high profile tag team main event, but there really was no real storyline build towards it, and a lot of fans I knew would just read the spoilers and determine whether or not Smackdown was worth watching. Now, with the brand split, Smackdown not only has become an essential part of WWE programming, it has been, for the most part, a more consistent and easier watch than RAW. Led by AJ Styles, who carried the blue brand for the majority of the brand split as WWE Champion, followed by the likes of The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena, Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose has made Smackdown a show that gives you a lot in two hours.
RAW was obviously given more talent to fill more time for their three-hour shows (that they also often go over the 11:00-time frame while Smackdown has to end by 10), they have provided, for the most part, simple storytelling, quality matches and time to develop talent on the roster. With the exception of the tag teams, Smackdown has done little wrong since the brand split and has dominated RAW in many facets of the brand rivalry. Let’s not forget how great Smackdown’s exclusive PPV’s have been as well. They delivered a great opening impression at Backlash, had two stellar matches at No Mercy (AJ Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz), TLC was a solid outing, and Elimination Chamber, while lacking depth, delivered one of the better Elimination Chamber matches in its history.
3. More talent featured
Before the brand split, despite having two shows, there was really a limited set number of people that would have been featured. You would have the established main eventers, females and tag teams, and if time permits, you would have time for fluff and filler. Now, however, this brand split has made the majority of talents on the roster (or at least those involved in the draft) have a personality and have time to tell their story that wouldn’t be available without it. Heath Slater wasn’t even a part of the draft, and he became a prominent storyline for Smackdown until he eventually got his contract with SD. This also led to his tag team with Rhyno and him becoming the first Smackdown tag team champions. You also have females such as Nia Jax, Carmella and even Eva Marie before her suspension get featured. Before, the top of the female pecking order would simply be Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and any other associates. However, now, there are unique figures on each brand, no matter their character flaws, and this has allowed for the maximization of all the talent the roster has to offer.
The fact of the matter is RAW and Smackdown before the brand split was far too top heavy. We would see the same faces multiple times a week, and now at the very least, there’s a set crew for each brand and more talent has been exposed as a by-product. WWE is better off for it.
The Negative
1. No Variety
While WWE has two crews for two separate shows, this also means we will be seeing the same people on each show, and WWE has done a poor job (at least until recently) in providing us variety. On RAW, how many variations of Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho facing Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins have we seen? Or how many times have we seen Sasha Banks face Charlotte? Hell, as a matter of fact, the RAW Women’s Championship changed hands three times on RAW featuring the same women. On Smackdown, before hand, AJ Styles and James Ellsworth became a thing, as well as Dean Ambrose.
Now, admittedly, this was much more prevalent on RAW than Smackdown, which is kind of ironic considering that RAW has more bodies to fill in three hours of content, and Smackdown can only fill two and perhaps we’d get four matches at maximum. Now that there are new champions and new feud heading into WrestleMania, we’ve finally seen different matches, but who’s to say that this won’t be a recurring issue post-WrestleMania? There can only be so long where you have to revert to having similar versions of the same match after you introduce new guys. Maybe the next draft will alleviate some of that, but lazy booking has been a virus that has plagued WWE for so long, and it has shown itself to be profound in this regard.
2. Content Overload
Again, with the brand split, comes along with it, more programming we now HAVE to watch if we want to keep up with what’s going on in the main roster. Smackdown before was just a big recap of what happened on RAW and some extra things sprinkled on to it. Now, Smackdown is an independent brand with unique talents, booking teams, live events, but also, PPV’s. In the recent era where the brands were united, from 2012-2015, WWE only had 12 PPVs (1 for every month), with 13 in 2015. In 2016, we had 15 PPVs. For 2017, we already have 11 confirmed PPV’s, and the current PPV schedule doesn’t include likely PPV’s to be added such as TLC, Hell In A Cell, Clash of Champions and other potential brand-exclusive shows such as No Mercy.
In addition to that, if you actually enjoy watching the CW’s, then you’d also have to stick around for an hour after Smackdown LIVE on the WWE Network for a combined six hours of WWE programming from Monday to Tuesday. At the end of the day, this is a problem that was needlessly created with the brand split, because in spite of splitting the brands, if WWE were to just call up the NXT talent and have all of the roster featured across RAW and Smackdown, there’d be no need for separate brands. But now, with the creation of separate women’s titles, tag titles and the Universal Title, we are back into the same pattern as with the first brand split. How long before WWE decides to unify the titles once again?
3. The Tag Teams
I highly believe WWE would have been better off just having one set of titles.
When the brands were split once again, so were tag teams. RAW would get all of the big name tag teams such as Enzo and Cass, The New Day (who were the tag champs at the time) and The Club. Who did Smackdown get? Aside from American Alpha, which we all knew was coming, who else? The Vaudevillians? Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder? The Ascension? Breezango? I assure you there’s a minority group of people out there take any of those tag teams seriously, but that’s beside the point. For RAW’s side, while the tag team situation hasn’t been abysmal, it has shown why I didn’t want the tag teams to be brand specific. There is little variety on the tag team roster. Right now, the RAW Tag Team Title match at WrestleMania will feature Cesaro and Sheamus, The Club and Enzo and Cass with The New Day hosting WrestleMania. There has yet to be an official Smackdown Tag Title match for WrestleMania (though, recent rumors have suggested that The Hardy Boyz could make a return for WrestleMania to challenge the Usos for those titles.
I honestly believe that if the tag teams from Smackdown and RAW were combined competing for ONE pair of tag team titles (remember, the original RAW Tag Titles after the brand split were the same design used to describe them as the unified tag titles), the situation would be much better because we would have more variety, and that can be said to a greater extent for the Smackdown tag teams. I, for one, think American Alpha, taking on Cesaro and Sheamus would be a great matchup. The Usos and American Alpha had about the best match featuring the tag teams from Smackdown since the split this past Tuesday. However, it is lacking star power badly. Have unique combinations with the tag teams, have them all chase one tag title as opposed to two, and you can have more variety in that regard.
Now, some may say that would defeat the purpose of having a brand split, but I don’t really see an issue with making the tag teams the only division that isn’t brand specific. Let’s be honest here. Does anyone REALLY care about the Smackdown tag titles? Unless the Hardy Boyz return (and I’m actually beginning to doubt how long their star power would last without credible opponents), the SD tag titles are a complete waste and essentially a filler title to fill out more matches for Smackdown exclusive PPV’s. If there’s one aspect WWE has failed massively in with the brand split, it’s this. You can read more about this in my recent piece, called “The Sad State of the Smackdown Tag Team Division”.
What have you thought about the brand split? What have you liked and disliked about it? Are there any specific aspects that you have noticed that I haven’t? Let me know. Until next time.
