WWE: Brand Extension Returns

[Sheppy]

"With the 1st overall pick, Raw selects... Roman Reigns."
"With the 2nd overall pick, Smackdown selects... Roman Reigns."
"Yeah well... with the 3rd overall pick, Raw selects ... ROMAN REIGNS!"

 

[Kimi]

Raw was switched to three hours because USA Network wanted the revenue. Even WWE didn't really want to do it.



And on PPV weekends it'll be 9 hours in 3 days, 10 in 4 if you count NXT.


Raw is going to struggle and be even more of a chore to watch with a split. I'm intrigued, but yeah... Raw is gonna be a chore.

If you quit watching live, then Raw is actually about 2h10 of show, and Smackdown is about 1h20.

That's before you start skipping entrances, recaps, and other filler that's unimportant. Or Even skipping bad or uninteresting segments. It's far far more watchable like that.

 

[vdB]

For the 1st brand extension, my biggest complaint were the long, drawn out 2 month build for storylines (due to separate ppv's).

Lots of potential here, but also lots of holes to figure out.

 

[Balance]

This is awesome, this will cause a lot of guys to breakout and get main event access and also make SmackDown not only watchable but create the good old days of Smackdown vs Raw competing to see who is the better brand.

This is a great move by the WWE that will create more stars throughout the company.

 

[NYGBleedBlueNYR]

if you're gonna do this, imo, go all the way & change the Smackdown name to freshen it up as much as possible.

 

[Kimi]

For the 1st brand extension, my biggest complaint were the long, drawn out 2 month build for storylines (due to separate ppv's).

Lots of potential here, but also lots of holes to figure out.

That's actually something they can do differently now.

Asking people to buy more than one PPV show a month was too expensive, but the Network changes things. They can just add more shows without asking for more money, like we saw with Elimination Chamber, the Japan show, and Roadblock in the past.

So instead of two months between shows, they could do six weeks. So you'll have a PPV weekend every 3 weeks.

 

[Cor]

Thank God.

Inb4 SmackDown! becomes the A show again.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

If it gets Byron Saxton off of one of the shows then I'm all for it. I also hope that they kayfabe decide to have Stephanie run the show that Byron is on so I can avoid them altogether. haha

 

[Le Barron de HF]

That's actually something they can do differently now.

Asking people to buy more than one PPV show a month was too expensive, but the Network changes things. They can just add more shows without asking for more money, like we saw with Elimination Chamber, the Japan show, and Roadblock in the past.

So instead of two months between shows, they could do six weeks. So you'll have a PPV weekend every 3 weeks.

That's a solid point.

 

[BonMorrison]

We should have an HFBoards Draft contest!

-looks in Megahabs direction-

 

[joshyhockey26]

Idk if it's sad or not but I'm incredibly excited for this hahah

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I wouldn't hate a Smackdown brand led by Cena, Styles, Wyatt, Jericho & Ambrose and a Raw brand led by Reigns, Rollins, Orton, Owens & Cesaro.

In typical WWE fashion, I'd expect them to bring back big gold or a new World title for the Smackdown brand even though I'm against it. I'd have the champs do all television.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I wouldn't hate a Smackdown brand led by Cena, Styles, Wyatt, Jericho & Ambrose and a Raw brand led by Reigns, Rollins, Orton, Owens & Cesaro.

In typical WWE fashion, I'd expect them to bring back big gold or a new World title for the Smackdown brand even though I'm against it. I'd have the champs do all television.

I would be disappointed if you didn't have a brand with the Shield bros all involved. That's too good of a story to pass up and this would be too much in its infancy to do trades or push off that story for a year or so down the line.

Shield triple threat for the title at Summerslam should be the main event.

 

[Blitzkrug]

For the 1st brand extension, my biggest complaint were the long, drawn out 2 month build for storylines (due to separate ppv's).

Lots of potential here, but also lots of holes to figure out.

Easy fix. PPV's remain as is.

I'd be willing to bet Smackdown becomes NXT-lite. All the call-ups go there while NXT becomes more developmental oriented. Kind of like in the early 2000's when Smackdown had all the great technical wrestlers while Raw was the more flashy brand. Raw will hold on to all the bigger names (Cena, Orton, Lesnar probably, etc) still.

 

[Kimi]

I wouldn't hate a Smackdown brand led by Cena, Styles, Wyatt, Jericho & Ambrose and a Raw brand led by Reigns, Rollins, Orton, Owens & Cesaro.

In typical WWE fashion, I'd expect them to bring back big gold or a new World title for the Smackdown brand even though I'm against it. I'd have the champs do all television.

I'd rather they used the IC title to headline Smackdown, but I can understand wanting a bigger belt right off the bat as the IC title is seen as mid-card.

 

[GarbageGoal]

NXT isn't going anywhere, but like ECW when it became a good one hour show built around Sheamus, the Hart Dynasty, Christian and Finlay it will be raided and suddenly a lot of lesser developmental talents are going to be the faces of NXT.

 

[GKJ]

I'd rather they used the IC title to headline Smackdown, but I can understand wanting a bigger belt right off the bat as the IC title is seen as mid-card.

I'm thinking the exact same thing. I'd rather the Intercontinental Title get elevated than bring back another 'world champion.' It wasn't that long ago that we unified those belts

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I would be disappointed if you didn't have a brand with the Shield bros all involved. That's too good of a story to pass up and this would be too much in its infancy to do trades or push off that story for a year or so down the line.

Shield triple threat for the title at Summerslam should be the main event.

There are plenty of ways to build it to it in the future even if they're on separate brands and doing it on a stage like Wrestlemania.

Brock Lesnar will surely be in the title picture at Summerslam - it won't be a Shield triple-threat. It's easy to do it for Wrestlemania, though, especially if there's only one Undisputed WWE World Heavyweight championship. Ambrose can win Money in the Bank, Rollins can win the Royal Rumble, Reigns can be champion heading into Wrestlemania and you have Ambrose announce he's cashing in at Wrestlemania to set up The Shield triple-threat and build it up across both shows (since the championship is involved and appears on both brands).

Just like I wouldn't mind Owens and Zayn being separated and having a cross-brand feud, only really having the chance to have a match during a brand supremacy match, inter-brand match at Wrestlemania like they used to do, or over the IC or U.S. title. Keep 'em apart so WWE can't spam the match to kill time on Monday nights.

 

[Blitzkrug]

NXT isn't going anywhere, but like ECW when it became a good one hour show built around Sheamus, the Hart Dynasty, Christian and Finlay it will be raided and suddenly a lot of lesser developmental talents are going to be the faces of NXT.

Which is fine since that's the whole point of NXT to begin with.

NXT has done fine despite losing a pretty good amount of their stars over the last couple years. Just gotta keep building them/picking them up off the indies.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

I hate that idea for one primary reason: the main title.

Either the Champ is on both shows and it means overexposing Reigns EVEN MORE or they bring back another World Title which dilutes the value of BOTH belts.

The brand split was a **** gimmick that went on too long and I am not glad they are brining it back. It is so artificial and boring. What's the next step, they are going to bring back the Bragging Rights PPV?

 

[Natey]

They needed this.

There's plenty of main roster talent & NXT has too much talent for a 1- hour timeslot.

My keys to success;

*The winner of the Royal Rumble gets the WM Main Event. The losing brand holds a King of the Ring tournament to determine the Main Event of Summerslam.

*Only the big-4 would be combined events. Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, and Summerslam.

*Interpromtional stuff .. Keep it minimal. The Survivor Series winning brand gets the #1 Overall pick in the rookie/unprotected draft.

*Put John Cena on Smackdown. Show people you're serious right away.

*Each show should have 4 titles. Main, secondary, women's, tag.

*Make the draft realistic. Trades should happen. But not during the Road to Wrestlemania.

*Besides light promotion, dont talk about the the brands.

*Treat it like two separate companies.

*NXT wrestlers would enter the draft yearly. Drafted wrestlers are immediately promoted.

*Each main roster leaves 10 wrestlers unprotected yearly. They can be selected in the draft. Maybe 5 or 6 rounds.

*Free agent signings need to literally be Free Agent signings. No one from NXT. They need to be Free Agents.

 

[GarbageGoal]

Which is fine since that's the whole point of NXT to begin with.

NXT has done fine despite losing a pretty good amount of their stars over the last couple years. Just gotta keep building them/picking them up off the indies.

I think it's going to be more accelerated and noticeable now however. I'm curious as to when the "farm system" nature of NXT starts causing the fans who focus on NXT and seem to dislike WWE to lose interest.

 

[Blitzkrug]

A fair point.

I guess we'll see how good Triple H really is at running things if the raids pick up in frequency.

 

[GKJ]

They needed this.

There's plenty of main roster talent & NXT has too much talent for a 1- hour timeslot.

My keys to success;

*The winner of the Royal Rumble gets the WM Main Event. The losing brand holds a King of the Ring tournament to determine the Main Event of Summerslam.

*Only the big-4 would be combined events. Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, and Summerslam.

*Interpromtional stuff .. Keep it minimal. The Survivor Series winning brand gets the #1 Overall pick in the rookie/unprotected draft.

*Put John Cena on Smackdown. Show people you're serious right away.

*Each show should have 4 titles. Main, secondary, women's, tag.

*Make the draft realistic. Trades should happen. But not during the Road to Wrestlemania.

If the concern is that NXT has too much talent, it's way more feasible to just extend NXT to an hour and a half or something. Unless you want to get everyone who has guaranteed contracts out of there.

 

[Blitzkrug]

I also like the idea of Cena moving to Smackdown.

It establishes WWE as serious about the split, and it would be Vince actually throwing his weight behind Reigns. He's delusional enough for it. And then we would see the RAW ratings tank as Roman is not a draw, brother.

But because this is WWE, Roman will appear on both brands as the undisputed mega champion of the universe and go over everyone on both anyway because why bother with creating good ideas.