(With the announcement this week of the WWE splitting its brands once again, Last Word on Sports has opened up all our Pro Wrestling writers and editors to weigh in on their thoughts and opinions, the Pros and the Cons, of what this means to the WWE landscape. First up, Editor Jamie Greer shares his thoughts on what he’d like to see happen to avoid the past attempts pitfalls)
With this morning’s breaking news from the WWE that Smackdown was moving to Tuesday nights and going live on the USA Network, the WWE finally gave the WWE Universe what it’s been clamouring for for years. Another flagship show that equalled Raw with it’s ability to surprise and excite rather than become a spoiler laden pre-taped show that aired days later with the anticipation ruined for those who live on the internet. It was a massive monkey off the backs of everyone involved, from the WWE to the IWC alike. But it was the follow-up announcement – that each show would be split via draft lottery into two separate and distinct touring rosters – that caused the most chatter on Social Media.
The brand split is nothing new. WWE has traversed these waters before – with differing levels of success and failure – between 2002 and 2011. Rosters were split, a second World championship was instated, reviving WCW‘s Big Gold buckle, and each show took on a life of it’s own. But ultimately, the project was mishandled and the very titles themselves became lesser versions of each of their past histories, despite the elevation of more stars than any generation before. After all, the NHL doesn’t award a Stanley Cup for both the Eastern and Western Conference champions, there’s no Super Bowl trophy for both AFC and NFC champs, and there’s no World Series titles for both the AL or NL champions. If the WWE is a collective universe, it’s needs one unified champion, not two both claiming to be the best in the WWE.
The problem with two “primary titles” is that it dilutes the very prestige of both of them. How can they both be the top star in the company? It’s one thing to say they’re the best on their brands, but, unlike NXT – which is promoted as a separate brand from WWE, but one that works within the WWE Universe – Raw and Smackdown are both still extensions of the main WWE Universe itself, much like how the Denver Broncos (AFC) and Carolina Panthers (NFC) are both still members of the NFL, but compete in rival conferences. In essence, the brand splits should make each program the flagship of the WWE’s two distinct conferences, rather than treating like them both like two more distinct brands like NXT is.
The problem the first brand split had by its end is that it’s self inclusive branding lead to the downturn in ratings of both shows, and not because of a lack of stars or lesser creative writing (although the writing on both shows was tiresome by the end). It was because fans now had clear cut sides, with their own championship tiers, that they no longer had to watch both shows, because everything you need from one company could be found on either show. It was more akin to if Disney owned both Marvel and DC but kept them separate entities. While millions still watched both shows, a lot of the casuals and others would simply pick the roster they liked the best and only follow that particular show. Any crossover that happened at the “versus” Pay Per Views was easily recapped in the WWE’s production videos that night.
So what can the WWE do this time around to keep fan interest in both the brand split while maintaining that the audiences watch both programs? Here’s a few ideas that could potentially help solve this problem.
Keep the World Titles Fluid
The WWE currently has two secondary titles that are being bounced around without direction, the Intercontinental Championship and the US Championship. These two have swapped back and forth which is more prestigious over the past few years, but one thing most fans agree on is that they’ve lost the lustre of past championship eras for both titles. These two should become the brand exclusive titles for each respective brand. With Smackdown already being more wrestling centric of late since the arrival of Mauro Ranallo to the announce team, give Smackdown the IC strap. It’s long been considered the “workhorse” title with a lineage of great wrestling legends, so it could be elevated quickly back to its former glory on a show that puts more emphasis on the in-ring work rate of its roster. The US championship would become the property of Raw, becoming that brand’s Raw-centric title. But the world titles – the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the WWE Women’s Championship and the WWE World Tag Team titles – should all remain fluid. Fair game for either brand to claim. But how would that work? With the likelihood that both brands would tour independently, obviously the cost of flying champions from one city to another overnight would become a huge expense, not to mention the toll on the champions themselves.
Simple. They run opposite programs on each show as each other. For example, for a few months, WWE World champion Roman Reigns could be locked in a championship feud with Seth Rollins on Raw, while at the same time, Smackdown runs a program where it’s deciding who it’s #1 contender for Roman’s title will be. Reigns remains Raw exclusive during this program, but his World title is still having implications on other Superstars on Smackdown, without having to over expose the WWE champion on both shows. And while Roman is battling Seth for the men’s World title on Raw, the Women’s champion Charlotte enters a title feud with Sasha Banks on Smackdown for a few months. Charlotte remains Smackdown exclusive, while the women on Raw are determining their own #1 contender for Charlotte’s title. And so on for the Tag Team titles.
But wait, you may ask. If the three World titles are fluid, and the IC and US titles remain static, that would mean that at each time, one brand would have two titles being chased, while the other would have three. This leverage of titles could cause fans to simply flock to the show with the most titles being defended.
Bring Back Another Title
This would allow for each show to have three titles each in circulation. And while I’m sure many are saying “Yes, bring back the Cruiserweight title!”, that’s not the title I’m referring to. In all honesty, the Cruiserweight title should become the secondary singles title in NXT, following the completion of the first WWE Cruiserweight Classic. The bulk of NXT’s roster is better suited for it, and it would help it maintain its legitimacy and legacy as created by it’s early days in WCW. The title I’m referring to is the TV title.
A World Television title has far more opportunity for other stars to gain exposure. For one, it would be a fluid title like the other three World titles, so it would be rotated between the two brands. It has a very distinct lineage that could be tied to not only the former WCW/NWA title but also ECW. Both companies had great storylines with great TV champions, such as Rob Van Dam‘s legendary run with ECW or the amazing series in WCW between Booker T and Chris Benoit. And this title should be non-gender specific. With indie organizations like Lucha Underground, Chikara and PWG showing that integration of women wrestling against men is not only plausible in this day and age, but quite spectacular, they’ve also shown that they can interact as equals in the ring, away from simply being implied “man vs. woman violence”. Natalya could quite believably pull an upset win over Tyler Breeze for the TV title, and perhaps even then turn the TV title into a secondary women’s title for a feud or two, before dropped to another male star. Wrestling fans love underdog stories more than most. Imagine the buzz if Bayley was defending her WWE World Television title to someone like Sheamus? Imagine that eruption if she pulled off a win out of pure tenacity and guts? While there will be detractors that would say that such an incident would bury Sheamus, purists know that it would actually do more to elevate Bayley than anything. After all, it didn’t hurt Pentagon Jr. from becoming Lucha Underground’s biggest star by losing to Sexy Star, nor did Hallowicked become a jilted jobber losing Chikara’s Grand Championship to Princess KimberLee.
Elevate the D-Shows
Main Event and Superstars are a strange situation. To a lot of the internet community, these two programs were throwaways. But these shows prominently feature the lower card and low mid-card wrestlers that people often claim never appear on WWE television. And they get ratings equal to or greater than many of the indie shows, like Impact or Lucha Underground. While Superstars is currently only found on the WWE Network and Hulu, and Main Event recently moved exclusively to Hulu, they should both be repackaged to both platforms (Hulu and Network) and become the B-shows for Raw and Smackdown. The reality is that, despite WWE now having the biggest roster in it’s history, two shows is still not big enough for either of them. In fact, we may not really see that many more on TV. Someone like John Cena or Seth Rollins needs exposure to maintain their marketability. For the past few years, that was achieved by getting them on 40 minutes of WWE television a week, usually about 20 minutes or so on both Raw and Smackdown. If they now become centric to one show, their TV time is going to increase. Instead of 20 minutes of Cena on Raw, he may now get bumped to 30. Keep in mind that during the past brand split, the WWE was at it’s lowest integration into mainstream pop culture. Edge and Randy Orton may have emerged as huge names in the industry, but they hardly became household names.
But by making Main Event and Superstars mean more to the collective narratives of each show than just a showcase for the Jack Swaggers and Tyler Breeze’s of the roster, it will make these shows more attractive as well. And they can still be pre-taped like usual. But they could tape different segments and matches throughout the rest of the week’s Live Events, as well as prior to their respective assigned main program.
These are just a few thoughts that came to mind when hearing the announcement this morning. The WWE has a golden opportunity to maximize on their own wealth of talent, but if it flounders the way the last one ended, brand split will soon become the WWE’s version of “jumping the shark”. And that’s not a good thing.
But if they choose to take an idea that at it’s core had the best intentions and push it a little further out of the box of it’s past failures, there’s a chance that this New Era could indeed become WWE’s most exciting one.
Stay tuned for more analysis and opinions from Last Word on Sports Pro Wrestling writing and editorial team as we continue to monitor this huge news out of the WWE Universe.
Main Photo: WWE.com
