Smackdown going Live in July, Brand Split announced

[Str8Shooter]

Huge shake up for WWE. The article says distinct rosters for each brand and a Draft being imminent. What's everyone think?

I'm not sure they have the depth for two rosters, but with some NXT call ups who knows. It's certainly exciting though, let's face it, a shake up like this could be exactly what they need.

[Circled Square]

I know some people here will shit on it but tbh I'm glad this is happening. Maybe we will have a show not dedicated to making Roman look strong.

[DBSoT]

I am generally in favor of a brand split, but I will hold my judgement until I see how they are going to handle the world title and PPVs. Brand split only works if it is a complete split. Very rare interaction between shows, completely different major titles, completely different production style, etc. I don't want to see Raw A and Raw B. I want to see a Monday night show and a completely seperate Tuesday night show. Here is how I would split up the titles:

Raw:
WWEWHC - Reigns
IC/US unified - Rusev
Raw Tag Titles - New Day
Raw Women's Title - Charlotte

Smackdown:
Major title (Name not given) - Seth Rollins
Mid-card title #1 (15 Championship, TV title, etc) - Sami Zayn (if 15 Champion), Owens (if TV title)
Mid-card title #2 (Cruiserweight, Hardcore, etc) - Kalisto (If Cruiserweight), Ambrose/Bray Wyatt (if Hardcore)
Smackdown Tag Titles - American Alpha (personal preference)
Smackdown Woman's Title - Sasha Banks

These are just placeholder champions, but the big change is obviously the mid card titles. Smackdown's mid card should include a 1 standard competition title (15 or TV) and 1 gimmick title (Cruiserweight or Hardcore).

[Everlong]

A live show is a huge step forward in making Smackdown relevant again. A brand split, however, really negates a lot of that.

There aren't enough main event players right now for a single brand, let alone two, and there's absolutely no reason given everything we've seen WWE do over the last decade to think that they have any interest in creating any more legitimate stars.

Make Smackdown live, but don't dilute the already weak roster by splitting them into two separate brands. It only worked initially because there was that huge influx of talent after WCW and ECW shut down. It just can't work in 2016.

[Everlong]

Or, here's a different idea, cut Smackdown altogether, have the main roster work one night a week, and put NXT live on TV on Tuesdays instead. It's a completely different feel and roster and then you don't have to worry about a) diluting the main roster and b) trying to convince people that Smackdown is actually relevant any more.

[Circled Square]

Or, here's a different idea, cut Smackdown altogether, have the main roster work one night a week, and put NXT live on TV on Tuesdays instead. It's a completely different feel and roster and then you don't have to worry about a) diluting the main roster and b) trying to convince people that Smackdown is actually relevant any more.

NXT is a niche product (within a niche product, wrestling) and it's one of the best reasons to get the dubya dubya E network. Plus it's supposed to prepare young guys for TV. If you put NXT on USA you might over expose your young talent.

I'd say splitting up the rosters is kinda doable.

Smackdown can have Cena, Jericho, Cesaro, Miz, Orton, Sheamus, ADR, The Vaudevillians, Breezedango, Neville...

Raw can have Reigns, Dean, Rollins, Lesnar, Wyatt familia, Kevin Owens, Zayn, Apollo Crews, Rusev, Enzo and Cass, Dudleys, New Day, AJ Styles...

You've got talent you can bring up like Balor and Samoa Joe. Ryder, Swagger, Kalisto can be brought in when guys are hurt or if they just want someone new to insert into the midcard.

I won't disagree with you entierly though the talent is stretched a bit thin. I'd still like to see it happen though, for the sake of changing it up a little bit.

[CMPUNKFAN]

From what I have been reading and its been all rumors but The WWEWHC will be on both Raw and Smackdown. The US and IC title will split and all the tag teams will be on Raw while all the woman will be on Smackdown.

[Str8Shooter]

Or, here's a different idea, cut Smackdown altogether, have the main roster work one night a week, and put NXT live on TV on Tuesdays instead. It's a completely different feel and roster and then you don't have to worry about a) diluting the main roster and b) trying to convince people that Smackdown is actually relevant any more.

USA isn't paying for NXT, they're paying for Smackdown. They don't want a bunch of people no one has heard of. The Network has what, maybe 800,000 subscribers in the US? If even 3/4's of them watch NXT every week, that's still less than half of what Smackdown gets now on USA.

I think WWE's roster is long on talent, but short on star power. Ideally that's what a brand split has the ability to do. To put some of the talented guys in more of a showcase that hopefully turns them into those stars they need. Their roster is huge right now and they have a hard time, even in three hours, focusing on all the people they want to. Guys like Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin just came up and barely do anything, Breeze came up and did nothing.

I expect the top level NXT guys, Nakamura, Finn Balor, maybe even Samoa Joe to get bumped up probably to Smackdown when this happens.

[Messiah]

The success of this will ultimately depend on the WWE.

I think it can work. Quite frankly, I have been thinking for a couple of weeks now how they will manage to fit everyone in on one show. The roster is too stacked. Too many guys worthy of television time. The only thing they can NOT do is have two world titles. Keep it at one and have it where whoever holds the title isn't tied down to one brand. Same with the Women's championship and tag team titles.

This can work. Will it, I don't know.

[Hanley!]

A brand split right now would be incredibly stupid.

I'm all for shaking things up, guys. But a brand split doesn't do that. For starters, the last one only really ended a couple of years ago. If we go back to it, it won't take long for it to feel like it never left. More importantly, all a brand split does is impose more limitations and restrictions on the product. How much are we going to want to shake things up when we're watching the same IC title match 20 times in one year, because there's just not a big enough range of potential opponents?

From a practical standpoint, how easy do you think it's going to be to create a compelling 3 hour Raw show with maybe 60% of its current roster? Those shows are going to get repetitive in a hurry, and they'll be dragging segments out even longer than they already do.

And if we get a bunch of injuries at one time, like we did recently, they'll be fucked.

People have mentioned it already, but star power is going to be a huge issue. We're already suffering from a lack of stars on just one brand. Trying to create two main event scenes out of the current roster would be a disaster. The reason the brand split started to falter in the first place - with wrestlers appearing on both shows - is because they needed to paper over the cracks when they started to lose big names like Shawn Michaels, Edge, Undertaker, Triple H, etc.

They're currently building a new era of stars. That's been the tagline of the show for the last couple of months. They don't need the extra work of trying to build two new rosters.

What happens to the women's division and tag team divisions? We're just finally getting to a spot where these might become decent again. Do we really have to split the divisions in two? Because then we're left with two shit tag divisions, two shit women's divisions. And six meaningless title belts. The alternative is that one of these divisions goes to Raw and the other goes to Smackdown. Which is fine in theory but that still means that your 3 hour Raw show has even less variety. Making it more painful.

Do they go with single brand pay per views? Cos it's going to take a long time to get people invested in the idea of seeing people who were jobbers last month getting pay per view matches this month. It's not going to help them sell Network subscriptions. But maybe they'll stick with mixed pay per views. They dropped single brand pay per views a few years into the original brand split, so I reckon this is the much more likely option. Particularly as they'll want to protect their Network subscriptions. Great. But now that means that the 3 hour Raw show only gets to have 3 or 4 feuds that pay off on pay per view. Which is going to lead to a lot of fluff on the company's flagship show. And so it becomes even more painful.

Do they keep one world champion for both shows? That's going to make the shows really unbalanced - when the champion is feuding with someone from one brand, the other brand is going to feel empty. The instinct would be to protect the 3 hour flagship show, but that would really hurt the new live Smackdown which the Network will want to be pushing heavily early on.

The alternative is go back to two world champions. Everything automatically means less if they do that. We go back to Royal Rumble winners jobbing in the opening match of Wrestlemania. We've been through all that. A company with two 'top guys' just dilutes things.

As for this idea that NXT talent will help to fill some of the gaps on Raw and Smackdown, that's just not the solution people think it would be. NXT is the second biggest reason to subscribe to the Network, so they won't want to get rid of it. If they rob it of its biggest stars they're left with a bunch of green rookies, and the show will go to pieces. Suddenly NXT isn't a draw anymore. Besides, once you divide these stars between Raw and Smackdown, you're barely bolstering these shows anyway. Their numbers aren't all that great. It seems like NXT has a great roster because their television show is only an hour long. And a lot of their featured performers aren't nearly ready for the main stage yet.

A brand split would seriously dilute the company's star power, the prestige of its titles. It would make the shows repetitive. Using NXT to bolster the new rosters would drastically reduce its draw power and entertainment value, and a 3 hour Raw with less people, less stars and less variety could be damn near unwatchable. They'd be crippling Raw and NXT to improve Smackdown maybe. I'm not even sure that would be true.


WWE have been doing well since ending the brand split. Both financially and creatively, they've been on an upswing. It is hard to measure how much they have benefitted financially from dropping the brand split, given it coincided with the launch of the Network which was the more notable change at the time. But I still don't see why they'd be in a hurry to go back to what had previously been failing.

The best option for the new live Smackdown would be to keep the brands joined and just have actual angles take place on Smackdown now. Make sure it's not just the filler show before the next Raw. But it doesn't need its own roster to be relevant.

[DBSoT]

From what I have been reading and its been all rumors but The WWEWHC will be on both Raw and Smackdown. The US and IC title will split and all the tag teams will be on Raw while all the woman will be on Smackdown.

If this ends up being the case then the WWE is already ready to screw this up. There is no point in having a brand split if the WWE WHC is on both shows.

[DBSoT]

I don't think you can have a live Smackdown and keep the system the way it is currently. Imagine watching 3 hours of a PPV on Sunday, 3 hours of Raw on Monday, and 2 hours of Smackdown on Tues, all with the same angles and wrestlers. Fans would be completely worn out. At least with a Brand Split, you can have split the angles from the PPVs into 2 shows and spread out who is the focal point, so it isn't as repetitive. Personally, I would have brand specific PPVs. Not at first, but after the roster is established more. That way a PPV on Sunday can have it's fall out on Monday or Tuesday, but not both. I also want a 100% split because I want to see the creative teams split without having to deal with each other's angles. I know I am hoping for too much, because WWE half-asses everything, but if they really want 2 top notch shows, then they have to completely different shows. They can't be Raw A and Raw B.

[Hanley!]

I actually think Tuesday seems like a mistake either way. Asking people to watch that much wrestling three days in a row just seems unrealistic. I think the ratings they could have gained from Smackdown going live will likely be lost due to wrestling fatigue by Tuesday.

A separate roster would make it seem like more necessary viewing, but it's still a lot to ask of people. My main impression on the brand split is that it could help Smackdown, but it would probably really hurt Raw.

Lets just all hope that all of our favourites go to Smackdown and we can concentrate on that.

[Str8Shooter]

I don't think you can have a live Smackdown and keep the system the way it is currently. Imagine watching 3 hours of a PPV on Sunday, 3 hours of Raw on Monday, and 2 hours of Smackdown on Tues, all with the same angles and wrestlers. Fans would be completely worn out.

The alternative of this is that you watch your wrestling on Mondays and Tuesdays and then you have 4 or 5 days where you don't have to watch any. You're just binging on it instead of spreading it out. Then by the following Monday you're hungry for some again.

I think there are potential pitfalls to this, but ultimately they'll try it out and if it doesn't work they can just cancel it and have everyone on both shows again.

[The Legend]

A brand split right now would be incredibly stupid.

I'm all for shaking things up, guys. But a brand split doesn't do that. For starters, the last one only really ended a couple of years ago. If we go back to it, it won't take long for it to feel like it never left.

For what it's worth, the brand split effectively ended for all intents and purposes in 2008. That's pushing 10 years ago. Time flies I know and it's hard to believe, but the brand split has been gone forever.

As for how I would do the brand split, I think it can work with one world champion (at least until they build up a few more stars). The biggest benefit to a brand split is that there's two months between each brand's PPV's at that point. That will give more opportunity for story development and really force them to be more creative in their storytelling to keep people engaged.

Here'd be my divisions:

WWEHC - Both brands
US - RAW
IC - SD
Women's - SD
Tag - RAW
CW - SD
Technical - RAW

I'd put a midcard title on each show because they will be beneficial in helping guys rise up the midcard and eventually break into the main event scene on either show (even with one belt). Without a standard midcard belt on either show they'd have to put whoever they were getting ready to push on one show.

Split up the Women's and Tag divisions between the two shows. I gave RAW and SD opposite belts than they had the first time.

I also think a third title for each brand is important, give them something special for that show. With the CW tournament coming up it's not a stretch that the winner of that could actually bring the CW title back and put it one one brand. I'm not sure what the other brand championship would be or be called (a hardcore title doesn't work anymore), but a title that is decided only in pure wrestling matches could be an interesting twist to me. A belt that doesn't get gimmick matches, doesn't have DQ's and other ideas, just pure wrestling and clean finishes (kinda like an ROH type of belt.

[Westcoastvibes]

I feel like a brand split would only work with a total shake up of wwe ways.

The WWEWHC and Tag Titlss would ONLY be defended at a PPV.
The Contender for the title will be determined at the PPV by having the opening matches be the top guy\team from each show facing off for the #1 Contender spot.

Each show will have a mid card title either US or IC that will be the focus of weekly shows.

A lower title for each show should be Introduced, hard core/cruiserweight preferred

Completely different set, commentators, authority, refs, backstage personal (on camera) for each show to truly make them as different as possible

And absolutely no bouncing between shows by any talent.

[JPG619]

I don't like the idea of having it on Tuesday why put it 3 days in a row well 4 for the people that watch NXT on Wednesday.

We will see how this plays out I bet I will be missing a lot of SmackDown since Tuesday where I live have cheap movie Tuesday so it ether going to be movie night or wrestling but might be hard for both. Well at least here in Canada they replay both RAW and SmackDown back to back Saturday just in case i forget to record it or just bored and want to re-watch it

[KaiserGlider]

To be honest, I'm dreading this for all the reasons Hanley mentioned. Though it would be cool if they brought up all the top TNA guys like Aries, Joe, Roode, Young etc to strengthen for star power. I wouldn't mind NXT becoming a pure developmental show if Smackdown becomes more like NXT.

[Messiah]

I think people are underrating the depth of the roster. I think it is better than the depth of the WWE's roster during the initial brand split (2002). Not including The Rock, Hulk Hogan, or Steve Austin, seeing as two of them went away fairly quick and the other went off to Hollywood after a couple of months, the current roster stacks up extremely well.

You had Undertaker, Angle, Benoit, Triple H, Kane, RVD, Booker T, Edge, Lesnar, Show, Jericho (no idea why he was selected so late), and really that was about it. I mean, I guess throw in names like Mysterio and Guerrero who weren't drafted but showed up later, but it still doesn't stack up to the current roster. And the current roster isn't even including the inevitable (especially with this brand split) arrivals of Aries, Joe, Balor, Roode, American Alpha, etc.

SmackDown was elite and Raw was pretty good. The issue with Raw later on had more to do with suck ass booking than anything. Admittedly SmackDown started to get really bad in 2004 due to the talent, but development was trash at the time as they were looking for guys like Luther Reigns rather than individuals with talent. As of late, they have churned out far more hits than misses. And I thought SmackDown was enjoyable between 2005-2007 up until injuries led to the Khali era. The only thing that the brand split led to was a lot of mediocre/bad PPVs, hopefully they don't go back to the brand exclusive PPVs.

I'm not saying the brand split is perfect or anything, really I think one singular roster with more organization from creative is better but I can also see why that would be tough on creative. But I think the concern everyone has is more to do with creative than anything. Creative will be bad with or without the brand split. At least with the brand split, they can manage everyone better. With the right booking, brand split can be really good and allow for more guys to grow.

My biggest concern right now is Raw being 3 hours. It's too long with the entire roster at their disposal, much less half.