What I am proposing here is an idea, to give Raw and Smackdown their own identities. This is something slightly drastic and could be an unpopular one, but anyway here it goes.
No matter how we want both the brands to be equal, Vince will always have RAW as his flagship show and SD the "land of opportunities" AKA the land of wrestlers who are broken toys, used and thrown away by the flagship show.
So, maybe it's fine to embrace it and make things more distinct.
Now, this is what I would like to see.
1. Make RAW, the show of all the established superstars. All the established world champions, women's champions and tag team champions will be on this show.
2. Make Smackdown, the show of all the upcoming superstars, like NXT lite and include all those superstars, who have been there for a while, but not been able to get a break in the main event.
Now, the title structure of both the shows will be like this:
RAW
------
1.WWE World Heavyweight Title
2.WWE World Tag Team Titles
3.WWE World Women's Title
4.WWE World Cruiserweight Title (The title should be treated on par with the other World titles, so that any big star under 205lbs (eg.Balor) should kayfabe wise be motivated to go for it as it is not considered as a secondary title)
Smackdown
---------------
1.WWE Intercontinental Title
2.WWE Intercontinental Tag Team Titles
3.WWE Intercontinental Women's Title
Benefits of this structure
------------------------------
1. Currently, there are no single undisputed champions who can claim as the best in WWE, as there are two sets of titles for ALL the divisions. By changing to this structure, it is clear that three undisputed World champions are there in Singles, Tag and Women's division.
2.By rebranding the titles with the prefix "Intercontinental". I am not sure whether it's acceptable for everyone, but I believe it could garner a lot of interest as it indeed creates that feeling of climbing up the career, by first winning the Intercontinental title of each division before reaching the pinnacle of the division. Also, when the secondary women's and tag titles are getting the prefix of "Intercontinental", the original "Intercontinental" title is also getting a huge facelift as it legit gives a feel that it is the big thing to be won before going to the World title divisions.
3.There could be an argument that SD will be losing on starpower, but that can be corrected by the next thing that I would like to mention.
After every Wrestlemania, there should be a difference in the structure of debuts and call ups to Raw and Smackdown.
On RAW after Mania, RAW will be getting call ups ONLY from Smackdown and NOT from NXT.
On SD after Mania, SD will be getting all the exclusive callups from NXT!
This gives viewers an interest to tune in to see, who all get called to the World leagues from the Intercontinental leagues AND for SD, which all of their favourite NXT stars get calls to the Land Of Opportunity.
And one more think I would like to see is the concept of Relegation. The evaluation period for callups and relegations will be from the night after the Wrestlemania an year ago to the Wrestlemania, the night before. Eg: For 2017 Callups and Relegations, the period of evaluation will be from RAW after Mania 32 to Mania 33.
So, RAW superstars and tag teams, who failed to capture any of the World titles from RAW in this period, will be relegated to SD, where they can reinvent themselves, go for any of the IC titles, win them and get called back to RAW, in the next year. This will avoid wrestlers who are simply floating on the A-Show just because of the accolades they had, years back. (Eg: Natalya, Mickie James, Big Show, Mark Henry and so on.)
What do you guys think?
No matter how we want both the brands to be equal, Vince will always have RAW as his flagship show and SD the "land of opportunities" AKA the land of wrestlers who are broken toys, used and thrown away by the flagship show.
So, maybe it's fine to embrace it and make things more distinct.
Now, this is what I would like to see.
1. Make RAW, the show of all the established superstars. All the established world champions, women's champions and tag team champions will be on this show.
2. Make Smackdown, the show of all the upcoming superstars, like NXT lite and include all those superstars, who have been there for a while, but not been able to get a break in the main event.
Now, the title structure of both the shows will be like this:
RAW
------
1.WWE World Heavyweight Title
2.WWE World Tag Team Titles
3.WWE World Women's Title
4.WWE World Cruiserweight Title (The title should be treated on par with the other World titles, so that any big star under 205lbs (eg.Balor) should kayfabe wise be motivated to go for it as it is not considered as a secondary title)
Smackdown
---------------
1.WWE Intercontinental Title
2.WWE Intercontinental Tag Team Titles
3.WWE Intercontinental Women's Title
Benefits of this structure
------------------------------
1. Currently, there are no single undisputed champions who can claim as the best in WWE, as there are two sets of titles for ALL the divisions. By changing to this structure, it is clear that three undisputed World champions are there in Singles, Tag and Women's division.
2.By rebranding the titles with the prefix "Intercontinental". I am not sure whether it's acceptable for everyone, but I believe it could garner a lot of interest as it indeed creates that feeling of climbing up the career, by first winning the Intercontinental title of each division before reaching the pinnacle of the division. Also, when the secondary women's and tag titles are getting the prefix of "Intercontinental", the original "Intercontinental" title is also getting a huge facelift as it legit gives a feel that it is the big thing to be won before going to the World title divisions.
3.There could be an argument that SD will be losing on starpower, but that can be corrected by the next thing that I would like to mention.
After every Wrestlemania, there should be a difference in the structure of debuts and call ups to Raw and Smackdown.
On RAW after Mania, RAW will be getting call ups ONLY from Smackdown and NOT from NXT.
On SD after Mania, SD will be getting all the exclusive callups from NXT!
This gives viewers an interest to tune in to see, who all get called to the World leagues from the Intercontinental leagues AND for SD, which all of their favourite NXT stars get calls to the Land Of Opportunity.
And one more think I would like to see is the concept of Relegation. The evaluation period for callups and relegations will be from the night after the Wrestlemania an year ago to the Wrestlemania, the night before. Eg: For 2017 Callups and Relegations, the period of evaluation will be from RAW after Mania 32 to Mania 33.
So, RAW superstars and tag teams, who failed to capture any of the World titles from RAW in this period, will be relegated to SD, where they can reinvent themselves, go for any of the IC titles, win them and get called back to RAW, in the next year. This will avoid wrestlers who are simply floating on the A-Show just because of the accolades they had, years back. (Eg: Natalya, Mickie James, Big Show, Mark Henry and so on.)
What do you guys think?