For Raw and SmackDown to be truly separate entities, there has to be a top prize for both brands. And now, they’re going to split them? Again? Done improperly, that could lower both championships in the eyes of fans.īut despite the drawbacks, having two world titles is the lesser of two evils. They made such a hullabahoo about unifying the two belts and having one grand champion. But even so, it’s unclear how the WWE could go back to that, even if they wanted to. Having two champions came with a unique set of problems no matter how the WWE spun it, the Big Gold Belt was always seen as slightly inferior to the namesake WWE Championship belt of the company. In past brand splits, there’s always been one champion per brand. Here’s the most contentious debate: Should the WWE have one world champion per brand or should a unified champion split his time between both brands? Image via WWE.com What They Did Right: Two World Titles The alternative-to evenly split the tag teams and the women across two shows - would be ill-advised. It’s better to have a single, competitive division-with multiple, must-see matches and multiple feuds-than two lesser parts. That way, both divisions aren’t fighting over scraps, and each division can have up to three segments per show as opposed to the current 1-2 segments. So what’s the best solution? Make Women’s wrestling exclusive to Raw and make Tag wrestling exclusive to SmackDown, or vice versa. In fact, the brand splits between 20 were major, contributing factors to tag wrestling’s decline in the WWE-the tag talent pool was simply too diluted to tell a meaningful story. Neither the Tag Team Division nor the Women’s division have enough depth (yet) to be split into two different rosters. Charlotte, Sasha, Becky, and Bayley are all young, skilled competitors, and are changing the perception of how women are received in the WWE.Ī brand split has the potential to halt progress. The second commendable change is that the Women’s Division is undergoing a renaissance. Today, the New Day, the Usos, the Vaudevillains, and Enzo & Cass are changing that perception. Many tag teams in the '00s were just two singles wrestlers thrown together, rather than a cohesive unit of collaborative moves and matching costumes. For years, it seemed like the art of tag team wrestling in the WWE was dying. One is the revival of the Tag Team division. Two things have happened over the past two years that are particularly commendable. What They Did Wrong: Diluted Tag and Women’s Divisions Hopefully, a brand split will do away with these sorts of messes, and allow each wrestler some individual time to shine. Fans want to focus on one storyline at a time. On last night’s Raw, again, the main event was overcrowded: Dean Ambrose, Sami Zayn, and Cesaro versus Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, and Alberto Del Rio. They should tell multiple, complex stories on every single show, every single week. The WWE just need to keep things moving, and not get bogged down in a single Superstar’s story. Something has to give, and a brand split is an elegant solution. At the same time, there’s also the homegrown talent that’s coming out of developmental brand NXT. The company is in the process of poaching the top talent from Ring of Honor, Lucha Underground, TNA, and New Japan. Today, the WWE is faced with a similar situation. It just turned every match into a confusing mess. Before the brand split, WWE creative tried to give everyone exposure by booking numerous, multi-man tag matches. The WWE was absorbing every major talent from both WCW and ECW, and there was a glut of talented people who deserved the spotlight. The first WWE brand split took place because there were too many names on the roster. What They Did Right: Highlight Young Talent If it isn’t broken, then don’t attempt to fix it. For this new brand split to succeed, the WWE should err on the side of caution. It reeked of pettiness and shock value neither man was ever as engaging or entertaining since that moment. Remember when they surprised drafted Jim Ross to SmackDown and Michael Cole to Raw in 2008? It deprived us of Ross/Lawler, the best WWE commentary team to ever do the job. Was it necessary or well-advised to break up the Dudley Boyz in 2002? No, and that’s why they were back together later that same year. Back in the day, there were several drafts that broke up established, popular acts. Being drafted away from tag team partner John Morrison was the best thing that could have happened to The Miz in 2009.īut shaking things up, just for the hell of it, is counterproductive. The WWE Draft is a great time to break up stale stables and tag teams, and allow their individual pieces to thrive on their own. What They Did Wrong: Split Up Successful Acts