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Do you guys think the brand split is doomed to fail again?

3K views 56 replies 54 participants last post by  Turbo120 
#1 ·
Do you guys think the brand split is doomed to fail again? Thoughts
 
#7 ·
I hate brand split.


But I am willing to give them a chance, I'll take anything to see improvement in product at the moment. That being said, I can't help I think it won't last long, and payoff in Shane/Steph storyline will be fucking brutal to watch.
 
#12 ·
How many times does WWE have to fuck up for you guys to finally realize you should never expect anything other than failure from them? 1 million? 100 million times?

With WWEs track record this will be yet another mess in which they do the opposite of what they should.
 
#4 ·
Ultimately? Yes. The question is, how many good years can we get out of it before it does? The brand split wasn't an immediate failure the first time around.
 
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#6 ·
How did it fail the first time?

Of course they put an end to it, but that doesn't mean it failed, nothing lasts forever. Stone Cold and The Rock retired (or semi retired) but that doesn't mean they are failures just because their careers ended.

There was plenty of main event talent developed after the brand split that can be directly attributed to a thinner roster on each show.
 
#37 ·
Yeah, but the brand split was about the time that many viewers quit watching. It's difficult to take a solid roster and literally split it in half and have people continue to be interested. Very few people wanted to watch 4 hours of wrestling each week, let alone 5 hours with the new format.

Even with the outstanding roster that they had during that period, it still wasn't enough to keep viewers interested in both shows.

Raw is hard enough to watch for 3 hours with the full roster, imagine how awful it's going to be with half the talent.

I may be wrong, but I predict an even further drop in ratings after the "honeymoon" period of people being interested in the split. I mean, the roster was just getting strong enough to fill a 3.25 hour time-slot, then they decide to split the roster. Raw was still pulling mid-high 4.0's range before the original split, then dipped to mid-high 3.0's range later that year
 
#21 ·
"again"? The original brand split helped launch the main event careers of Brock Lesnar, Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Batista, Randy Orton and others, and also revitalized The Undertaker's career and helped establish many midcard to upper-midcard talent that were never given a chance once it ceased, as well as giving us the "Smackdown Six", Batista VS HHH and many other great, entertaining storylines and feuds. Toward the end of it's run it was dire, but it wasn't a failure; it's like saying WCW was a failure because of the last 2 years.
 
#34 ·
Gone are the days I'm willing to give WWE the benefit of the doubt.
This brand split is gonna fail, and its gonna fail hard.
It wont even be a spectacular fail, like watching an explosion. No, this will be a slow agonizing failure and by the time we even realized it fail, all that will be left is a whimper and a sigh of relief.

No new stars will be made by this (like in smackdown back in the day)
Ratings will not improve
The quality of the product overall will stay the same if not worsen.
NXT will continue to be the sole beacon of light in the darkness that is WWE.

Go ahead WWE and prove me wrong, ill gladly eat my shoes if this works.
 
#35 ·
Perhaps the writers will now have a clearer idea of who is available to use for each show and less of a clusterfuck or pressure on that end, and hopefully they do split into two teams with new writers and try to encourage internal competition between each writing team. Writing quality is bad but something like this could spark something new from these drooling baby fucktards. Inspire them even. Not to mention the main problem with Smackdown for me during that initial brand split was SD still being taped so the live thing is already a good start. I am super excited for this concept I also love how once again the IWC went from asking for it to saying OH NO ITS GONNA SUCK/FAIL before it even starts.. wow.
 
#13 ·
Well, compared to 2012 and now, the roster has definitely improved greatly, and with some great booking it can work, but..

The 2012 Elimination Chamber consisted of two main event matches for each brand's respective championship, involving:

Raw: CM Punk, The Miz, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler and R Truth

Smackdown: Daniel Bryan, Santino Marella, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Big Show, The Great Khali

Hopefully something like that doesn't happen again, ever. Never should there be a World Heavyweight Championship match involving Santino Marella.
 
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#20 ·
The Brand Split is most beneficial to guys like Owens, Cesaro, Ambrose, and Zayn. Those guys are so talented but under the current format none of those will ever breakthrough. Part of the reason is booking, but another reason is that while they are popular with the hardcore fans they will never get enough support from those fans to have their booking altered. These guys can get booked the wrong way but the fans will never complain enough to force WWE's hand. With the Brand Split they can take matters into their hands — they will have more time to perform each week, more storylines, and overall more air time.
 
#26 ·
It depends what you call a failure. The last brand split lasted for around a decade with the beginning half being very good on both ends. Then WWE decided it was time for a reset and merge everyone back together, does that make it a failure considering it worked for years? I don't think so.
 
#41 · (Edited)
They have hit the panic button. It was a knee jerk reaction and unless they completely overhaul their entire product, they'll lose more fans in the long run than they would if they wouldn't have reintroduced the split. Roster is cut in half and the shows will air back to back, which means we're looking at over 8 hours of live WWE programming during the week of PPVs. If it's not great television, only the most hardcore or hardcore fans are sticking around for it and tuning in weekly. They lost fans during the original brand split and that was with bona-fide draws such as Rock and Undertaker working nearly full time. It was also the turning point for me as a fan. I left shortly afterwards and was never a fan of "brand splits." Completely ruined the feel of the show for me and there are thousands upon thousands who will feel the same about this one.


A brand split alone doesn't warrant the title of a "new era." It's going to need to be a total reboot from the production and themes -- to the ring, stage sets and 50/50 booking. They struggle mightily with the full roster at their disposal. Simply "shaking things up" by splitting talent but continuing to slug away with the same sort of booking that got you in this hole isn't going to rectify things in the long haul.



You're looking at maybe 3 months before this begins falling apart if they go for the band aid fix.


Spoiler alert:










They will.
 
#10 ·
It will if they only push 2 guys. It won't if they push several guys and make a concentrated effort.
 
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