OT: WWE to bring back the brand split (Smackdown to air LIVE on Tuesdays)

[jonny31623]

thinking about it, the only single possible way that roman reigns can go over with the fans, other than turning heel and then turning face like all other stars,

by having cena turn heel against him in some way. the fans will either do 1 of these two things. boo every promo both of these guys do together, or get behind reigns to boo the hell out of cena.

its the only possible way i see people getting behind reigns. he just cant pull his character off. its so forced.

[AndriPerdhian93]

only watching paige

[Polk377]

wish I could relive the days of Heymans Smackdown...

You can it is on the WWE Network

Interesting stuff for sure.
Seemed like they just merged the crappy Cena gold spinner belt with the big gold belt when Randy was champion & combined both rosters forcing Raw to go 3 hours.

My guess is that Shane will control Smackdown with all this talk of this "new era" coming from him & Stephanie already being a former Smackdown GM.

Shame guys like Cody Rhodes & Barrett just left. Ryback too to an extent. Could've benefitted a bit. Bray will finally get his push that he deserves on the bright side.

Will be interesting to see who goes where.
Going to be a lot of NXT call-ups & a lot of talent raiding on other companies. Hopefully NXT can stay afloat.

I think Shane will be in charge or Smackdown as well and have it be the "New Era" show. Guys like Joe, Balor, Nakamura, American Alpha, The Revival, Bayley, Asuka and Aries will be called up to fill some of these spots. I'm not so worried about NXT. They have a ton of guys that have not made TV debuts yet waiting in the wings. The system has to go through cycles so they can keep building. They might not go on as many national tours now but they have to make way for the new crop to develop. I look forward to seeing guys like Manny Andrade, The Authors of Pain, TM 61, Rich Swann, Patrick Clark, Tino Sabatelli take the next steps.

[Trav_NYK]

thinking about it, the only single possible way that roman reigns can go over with the fans, other than turning heel and then turning face like all other stars,

by having cena turn heel against him in some way. the fans will either do 1 of these two things. boo every promo both of these guys do together, or get behind reigns to boo the hell out of cena.

its the only possible way i see people getting behind reigns. he just cant pull his character off. its so forced.

If that happens then the fans will Cheer for Cena because this is what we wanted for a looong time. Reigns will only get booed even more lol

[jonny31623]

thinking about it, the only single possible way that roman reigns can go over with the fans, other than turning heel and then turning face like all other stars,

by having cena turn heel against him in some way. the fans will either do 1 of these two things. boo every promo both of these guys do together, or get behind reigns to boo the hell out of cena.

its the only possible way i see people getting behind reigns. he just cant pull his character off. its so forced.

If that happens then the fans will Cheer for Cena because this is what we wanted for a looong time. Reigns will only get booed even more lol

lmao i actually couldnt agree more, you're right.

[david_james]

The biggest thing here is Smackdown going live. I can't tell you the last time I felt compelled to watch a Smackdown or DVR and catch up with it later. You just read the spoilers and realize nothing noteworthy happens. Going live and moving to USA is huge and it should get a lot of attention from Vince and the writers. As far as the brand split goes, Raw is going to get viewers no matter what so I think Steph stays there and you put Shane in charge of Smackdown to get fans excited and get the eyeballs over there and when the draft happens, he makes John Cena the face of Smackdown and then fills that roster with young, up and comer types and guys who deserve shots right now who aren't getting them. And for the love of god, please only one world heavyweight champion.

[Adelheid]

WWE lacks some of the championship belts that used to exist back then in the WWF. Less belts just means that each tier is ridiculously crowded and some guys will have to be jobbers and/or have screwy storylines and gimmicks. Hardly any stables nowadays as well.

[Big Chan]

There is no reason to add another world heavyweight title, leave that for the top guy and let him go on whatever show he wants. All other current titles stay with whoever has them and are show specific. Only titles that should be added are a "Raw championship" and "smackdown championship" these can be considered like the new TV titles. Possibly the tag titles could straddle the shows but I don't think they have to.

They should also add a women's tag title (great way to have more meaningful women's matches and more women in the spotlight" and a cruiser weight title. This new cruiser weight classic is going to be awesome.

Overall the brand split is a great idea, I don't really want the shows to be equal though. I would love an A, AA, AAA set up like baseball but I don't think they will do that. If they did you could have a clear progression to guys careers and if guys got injured or their storylines got stale they could be "sent down" to one of the lower ones to get their **** together. Really could be an exciting way of doing things to legitimize the business.

I just recently started watching again within the past couple years, the writing is still terrible, the Reigns push has been garbage, the introduction of the Club was totally botched, but the talent on a real uptick. Rollins, AJ, KO, In that order are amazing and can carry matches for the next 10 years. If they bring Bray back correctly he is great as well. They have another sure thing in NXT with Nakamura, and are signing guys from New Japan all the time. They know they are stale and have to inject some new life.

Checkout these clips from a new Japan match, imagine this in a WWE ring? http://teamstre.am/1U0G3SB

[Polk377]

WWE lacks some of the championship belts that used to exist back then in the WWF. Less belts just means that each tier is ridiculously crowded and some guys will have to be jobbers and/or have screwy storylines and gimmicks. Hardly any stables nowadays as well.

Smackdown needs its own belts i agree but the problem isn't a lack of bets. The WWE has seriously lacked in depth storylines not including the title since the Ruthless Aggression era. Going back to the split will allow the writers to focus on the individuals and their stories since they don't have to worry about the other show. I like the idea of more stables but that has to be a organic build just like any other heel/face story. You can't just throw guys together like the League of Nations and expect them to get over.

[Bill Pidto]

I'm intrigued. I just wish it wasn't going to be another "Raw" vs. "Smackdown". They should just turn Smackdown live on Tuesday nights into NXT's first official cable offering. Make it a real brand split, and give us 2 actual brands. Not just 2 shows with 2 different names and a sorry attempt to make them feel different. NXT is already over with a lot of fans. The popularity is crazy, and this is where all this fresh new talent is coming from. It makes too much sense.

I was hoping for a storyline where HHH comes back and creates another rift between Shane and Stephanie. He wants control back and is angry that Shane has had such a long run, and that Stephanie is involved. They have some sort of battle for control of the company that HHH eventually loses.... and then he surprises everyone by saying "screw Raw and screw WWE. You can have your show. I have NXT". Then appears on Tuesday night to introduce it to the masses. And then you have 2 shows that's are already distinctly different, and can have a friendly competition with each other that feels real and organic and actually gives the WWE audience different flavors to choose from.

This is what I always envisioned when Vince said many years ago that he was aiming to have a "WWF channel". This was around the time he purchased WCW. I assumed his goal was to create a wrestling league of sorts, where he can own and operate multiple promotions, broadcast them separately the way WCW Nitro was pitted against Raw, and ultimately profit off of the entire thing. A true wrestling monopoly. He has a chance to do that now with all of this talent, the success of NXT, and now in this moment where Smackdown goes live the night after Raw. If they do it correctly, they have a chance to recreate the drama that was WWF vs WCW. Where it was shocking to see guys go from one company to another. That element of surprise that doesn't really exist in wrestling anymore. Unfortunately, I get the feeling they will just stick with plain old Raw vs Smackdown, and constantly have wrestlers going back and forth, wearing red or blue shirts to signify which "show" they wrestle for. Same crap we've seen already, and really not entertaining at all. Fingers crossed...

[Polk377]

I'm intrigued. I just wish it wasn't going to be another "Raw" vs. "Smackdown". They should just turn Smackdown live on Tuesday nights into NXT's first official cable offering. Make it a real brand split, and give us 2 actual brands. Not just 2 shows with 2 different names and a sorry attempt to make them feel different. NXT is already over with a lot of fans. The popularity is crazy, and this is where all this fresh new talent is coming from. It makes too much sense.

I was hoping for a storyline where HHH comes back and creates another rift between Shane and Stephanie. He wants control back and is angry that Shane has had such a long run, and that Stephanie is involved. They have some sort of battle for control of the company that HHH eventually loses.... and then he surprises everyone by saying "screw Raw and screw WWE. You can have your show. I have NXT". Then appears on Tuesday night to introduce it to the masses. And then you have 2 shows that's are already distinctly different, and can have a friendly competition with each other that feels real and organic and actually gives the WWE audience different flavors to choose from.

This is what I always envisioned when Vince said many years ago that he was aiming to have a "WWF channel". This was around the time he purchased WCW. I assumed his goal was to create a wrestling league of sorts, where he can own and operate multiple promotions, broadcast them separately the way WCW Nitro was pitted against Raw, and ultimately profit off of the entire thing. A true wrestling monopoly. He has a chance to do that now with all of this talent, the success of NXT, and now in this moment where Smackdown goes live the night after Raw. If they do it correctly, they have a chance to recreate the drama that was WWF vs WCW. Where it was shocking to see guys go from one company to another. That element of surprise that doesn't really exist in wrestling anymore. Unfortunately, I get the feeling they will just stick with plain old Raw vs Smackdown, and constantly have wrestlers going back and forth, wearing red or blue shirts to signify which "show" they wrestle for. Same crap we've seen already, and really not entertaining at all. Fingers crossed...

NXT is not leaving the WWE Network. NXT is arguably the biggest draw to the network right now. If they just put it on USA a lot of subscribers would cancel membership. They need a network exclusive brand. As far as Raw and Smackdown, I think this time around there will be more of a separation between the shows. Raw will probably be more story driven and Smackdown will be more wrestling driven.