After the Monday Night Wars ended, WWE bought WCW and ECW along with their respective rosters. Because of the massive roster WWE had at the time, they could fit all of the talent and stories they needed to tell into one episode of Raw or Smackdown. Because of this, they ended up giving Smackdown and Raw their own individual rosters, championships, writing teams, and Pay-Per-Views. After combining Raw and Smackdown into the “Raw Supershow,” WWE would eventually drop the “Supershow” and bring their company back to one universal roster. Now that they have such a huge roster between big name signings going straight to the main roster (AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows) as well as NXT Superstars ready for the call up to Raw or Smackdown, it is only fitting that the brand split returns in full force.
Earlier today, WWE announced that starting July 19, Thursday Night Smackdown will change to Tuesday Night Smackdown, and will air live with its own unique roster.
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon said the following regarding the brand split:
WWE’s flagship programs will both leverage the incredible depth of our talent roster, distinct storylines and the unpredictable nature of live TV. This move will undoubtedly build more excitement and deepen engagement with our fans around the world.
The introduction of the brand split will freshen up the product, and give WWE more opportunities for creativity as well as in-house competition. What made the previous brand split successful (and Smackdown better than Raw according to some) was the fact that WWE had to constantly outdo itself, and competition is not something WWE has right now.
When the original brand split occurred, each show had their own championship titles along with their own rosters. Raw had the World Heavyweight Championship and Smackdown had the WWE Championship (This flipped when John Cena and Batista switched shows through the Draft Lottery. It should also be noted that WWE only has one World Heavyweight Championship currently.). For mid-card titles, Raw had the Intercontinental Championship while Smackdown had the United States Championship, which would help a young John Cena cement himself in the Ruthless Aggression Era. Each division had their own tag team titles, and for lower card belts, Raw had the Women’s Championship, while Smackdown had the Cruiserweight Championship.
With how WWE’s roster is currently set up, it raises questions about the details of the brand split. WWE does not have as many championships as it once did, with five titles (World Heavyweight Championship, Tag Team Championships, Women’s Championship, Intercontinental Championship, and the United States Championship) instead of the eight during the original brand split. This could mean either WWE adds new titles to the rosters (Television Championship, or even Cruiserweight Championship to align with the Cruiserweight Classic) or they have the World Heavyweight and Women’s Champions float between both shows, which would make sense considering that they should be faces of the company.
New championships along with more time allows for the buildup of Superstars that may have not gotten the chance in the single roster format. Raw in its current state only has time to build on the big feuds going into the Pay-Per-Views, and most of them revolve around titles. With the split, we could see Superstars like Sin Cara, Titus O’Neil, Darren Young, Naomi, Alicia Fox, and plenty more get the television time that they only had on Superstars or Main Event. This mainstream time for “lower card” men and women will help build credibility for them and improve the quality of the roster as a whole.
Perhaps the best parts of the original brand split were the inter-promotional matches. The pinnacle of this was at WrestleMania 21, when Raw’s Shawn Michaels faced Smackdown’s Kurt Angle. It had been months since these two were even on the same weekly show, and the fact that they were on different rosters made it a guaranteed fresh matchup. It will definitely be a change of pace from now, where the Usos faced Gallows and Anderson four times before they met at Extreme Rules.
So far there is only speculation that can be done, but the announcement of a brand split is a sign of positive things going forward for WWE, and a much needed freshening up of the product.
