[TripleG]

It is absolutely amazing to me that at this point creatively for the WWE, I still hear fans talking about a Raw/Smackdown draft and debating over which talents should go where.


People, The Brand Extension is dead. It doesn't exist anymore. The PPVs are all mixed branded. The GMs of both shows tell all wrestlers what to do. The "Smackdown" Money in the Bank featured "Raw Superstars". "Smackdown Talents" show up on Raw every single week and even compete for "Raw Championships" while Raw midcarders sometimes trickle on over to Smackdown. To illustrate my point, isn't Daniel Bryan technically a Smackdown wrestler? Last I checked, he was still "officially" part of the Smackdown roster? Alberto Del Rio is technically a Smackdown guy, but he appears on Raw pretty much every week.

Here's the set up: You have Raw, and then you have its B Show which is Smackdown, which only serves to be what Sunday Night Heat was back in the day. It is a show to showcase the midcard guys & lower, and that's it (and yes, I count WHC contenders as midcarders because that belt is a midcard title. I don't care what anybody tells me).

The idea that they want us to believe there is any kind of divide between Raw & SD talents is a joke, and the fact that I still see fans talking about a Brand Draft is ludicrous. If WWE actually tried it, I would laugh at them. They are making absolutely no effort to create the illusion that there are two separate rosters besides just telling us that is the case when all visual evidence points to the obvious opposite.

They have to completely change the way they do things to get me to buy into a "brand extension" but right now, it just doesn't exist.

 

[Jupiter Jack Daniels]

I figured once every RAW became a Supershow, that pretty much verified the brand extension was dead.

I mean, there are at most 4 guys who are solely on 1 brand. For everybody else, you see them on both shows and have for quite some time now. IMO, WWE makes RAW out to be the superior brand, solely because of 2 feuds involving 4 guys who rarely appear on Smackdown.

Roster just isn't strong enough for a brand extension, not enough starpower and not enough logic from Vince and creative to take the time and involve more people in storylines other than the same handful of guys.

 

[TempestH]

They have the talent, they just need to start pushing them.

There are guys who are over with the fans yet, arent appearing on TVm, like Alex Riley, and Zack Ryder. Guys like Johnny Curtis & Derrick Bateman who have interesting characters are floundering on NXT even though they should've been called up once NXT5 ended. Heath Slater is getting regular TV time, he just needs to be put on one brand and stick with it.

Rey Mysterio is back, but wasn't used on RAW. Randy Orton is back, and Triple H/Lesnar should in theory be able to carry the load until Summer Slam



They don't even need a huge draft event, they just need to quietly move the rosters around. Maybe move a few key players around like

Rey Mysterio: Rey is SmackDown, whenever he's on RAW, he's just there, so he's better off on S.D.

Santino Marella to SmackDown: He's the U.S. Champ, and since a RAW guy just won the IC Title, it makes sense

Daniel Bryan to RAW : Since he's on RAW more often than SD anyway

Dolph Ziggler to SmackDown: It's gonna happen anyway when he cashes in the briefcase.

 

[Chrome]

Couldn't agree more. Earlier today, I saw a "Cena should go to Smackdown" thread and I just shook my head. Hell, Cena's one of the few guys who still kinda follows the brand extension, as he only appears on Raw. It's been over 10 years, it's time to pull the plug on the brand extension. Sadly, it won't happen because they like having more house shows. And you know Vince can't say no to DAT MONEY. :vince

 

[Vyed]

WWE is not going to "Stop lying", they need the world title and champion for touring. It affects house show business.

 

[TempestH]

WWE is not going to "Stop lying", they need the world title and champion for touring. It affects house show business.

I like the brand split, but I really think there should be only one World Champion. They have Cena to main event shows that the champion isn't on.

 

[2 Ton 21]

What's funny is WWE doesn't even know who's on what brand. AJ, Daniel Bryan, Brodus Clay, and Heath Slater have been all over Raw. Meanwhile they're still listed on Smackdown's page. Hell AJ is the Raw GM and she's listed under Smackdown.

 

[TempestH]

What's funny is WWE doesn't even know who's on what brand. AJ, Daniel Bryan, Brodus Clay, and Heath Slater have been all over Raw. Meanwhile they're still listed on Smackdown's page. Hell AJ is the Raw GM and she's listed under Smackdown.

Brodus Clay was moved to SmackDown during Big Show's rampage due to being banned from RAW by Big Johnny. After Johnny was fired, Naomi and Cameron shook their asses to Vince to get him to lift the ban so now Brodus has been allowed back on RAW.

AJ is RAW General Manager, but I assume she's still a SmackDown wrestler. They should really include little details like this.

 

[Oliver-94]

I actually liked the brand extention at first. It was always cool to see wrestlers interact with each other on rare occasions (such as the 4 big PPVs) and sometimes there were Smackdown vs Raw matches. Also I liked the fact each show had it's own PPV event as it allowed storylines to progress without any rush and also allowed titles to be held for long. But now it just sucks. The draft has become way too predictable and useless.

 

[2 Ton 21]

Brodus Clay was moved to SmackDown during Big Show's rampage due to being banned from RAW by Big Johnny. After Johnny was fired, Naomi and Cameron shook their asses to Vince to get him to lift the ban so now Brodus has been allowed back on RAW.

AJ is RAW General Manager, but I assume she's still a SmackDown wrestler. They should really include little details like this.

I'm just going by which show they appear more on. I mean AJ, Daniel Bryan, and CM Punk were treated as the second biggest story on Raw for months and two of them were listed on Smackdown. Heath Slater in the buildup to Raw 1000 was on every week. Seems like Brodus is on Raw more too.

 

[Ziggler Mark]

WWE is not going to "Stop lying", they need the world title and champion for touring. It affects house show business.

you say this like the WWE would fucking die if there was only one champion. Long before alot of posters here could even WALK, the WWE was at the height of it's success, touring with ONE MAIN EVENT BELT.

Brand Extension is dead, the next thing to follow should be the death of TWO main even straps.

 

[2 Ton 21]

you say this like the WWE would fucking die if there was only one champion. Long before alot of posters here could even WALK, the WWE was at the height of it's success, touring with ONE MAIN EVENT BELT.

Brand Extension is dead, the next thing to follow should be the death of TWO main even straps.

Back in the 80s WWF ran three different touring crews. A show was headlined by Hogan. B show by the IC champ. C show was more low level guys and jobbers. Only had three belts total. WWF, IC, and Tag.

 

[TempestH]

I'm just going by which show they appear more on. I mean AJ, Daniel Bryan, and CM Punk were treated as the second biggest story on Raw for months and two of them were listed on Smackdown. Heath Slater in the buildup to Raw 1000 was on every week. Seems like Brodus is on Raw more too.

I propose that they just Keep the crossovers, but move everyone who appears more on one show to that brand officially. Make Bryan and Slater into RAW guys, make Ryder a SmackDown guy, etc.

 

[2 Ton 21]

I propose that they just Keep the crossovers, but move everyone who appears more on one show to that brand officially. Make Bryan and Slater into RAW guys, make Ryder a SmackDown guy, etc.

Yeah that'd make sense, but I don't think WWE really cares anymore.

 

[distany]

hell if the WWE knows how to use their talen correctly they can go back to the days when RAW and SD were strong at competing with one another. I recall back in the mid 2000 SD was actually the dominate brand but since SD was label as the B-show and RAW was the A-show that scared the WWE staff so they are pull all the talents to raw, but with some many talents on one brand and only so many screen time/titles there were just so many ways to use them.

Anyway if the creative team knows how to handle their current talents and use them to their fullest potential they can surely get RAW and SD to be just as strong as they were back in the days instead of stacking one brand with everyone and not knowing what to do with them.

 

[Alim]

If the Brand Extension is truly dead then the WHC and US belts need to be unified with the WWE and IC titles respectively. No need to have all these extra props.

 

[Vyed]

you say this like the WWE would fucking die if there was only one champion. Long before alot of posters here could even WALK, the WWE was at the height of it's success, touring with ONE MAIN EVENT BELT.

WWE wont die but without Smackdown title, they have to over work John cena and other talents often which is basically calling for injuries with the busy schedule these guys go through. Its fucking 2012, its not possible to run business WORLDWIDE without two champions.

 

[TempestH]

WWE wont die but without Smackdown title, they have to over work John cena and other talents often which is basically calling for injuries with the busy schedule these guys go through. Its fucking 2012, its not possible to run business WORLDWIDE without two champions.

They could have the IC Champ headline house shows, especially since they only put the IC Title on main eventers now.

 

[Vyed]

They could have the IC Champ headline house shows, especially since they only put the IC Title on main eventers now.

The Miz? lol. No, that wont work because WWE through the years has made sure that the fans know World title is the top title, much superior to IC title. Two brands = two top titles.

 

[Rustee]

It is absolutely amazing to me that at this point creatively for the WWE, I still hear fans talking about a Raw/Smackdown draft and debating over which talents should go where.


People, The Brand Extension is dead. It doesn't exist anymore. The PPVs are all mixed branded. The GMs of both shows tell all wrestlers what to do. The "Smackdown" Money in the Bank featured "Raw Superstars". "Smackdown Talents" show up on Raw every single week and even compete for "Raw Championships" while Raw midcarders sometimes trickle on over to Smackdown. To illustrate my point, isn't Daniel Bryan technically a Smackdown wrestler? Last I checked, he was still "officially" part of the Smackdown roster? Alberto Del Rio is technically a Smackdown guy, but he appears on Raw pretty much every week.

Here's the set up: You have Raw, and then you have its B Show which is Smackdown, which only serves to be what Sunday Night Heat was back in the day. It is a show to showcase the midcard guys & lower, and that's it (and yes, I count WHC contenders as midcarders because that belt is a midcard title. I don't care what anybody tells me).

The idea that they want us to believe there is any kind of divide between Raw & SD talents is a joke, and the fact that I still see fans talking about a Brand Draft is ludicrous. If WWE actually tried it, I would laugh at them. They are making absolutely no effort to create the illusion that there are two separate rosters besides just telling us that is the case when all visual evidence points to the obvious opposite.

They have to completely change the way they do things to get me to buy into a "brand extension" but right now, it just doesn't exist.

What makes you think that they are pushing the idea that there is a brand extension? They haven't had a draft this year, which I think is an indicator that they realise that there isn't enough depth for two separate brands. They aren't trying to fool anybody, just because they have two different shows with two different names doesn't mean they are trying to push the divide that separates the rosters. They're not going to change RAW and SMACKDOWN because there is no need to. I'm not usually one to stick up for WWE but I'm tired of people coming out and saying that they are trying to fool us and "oh woe is me, let's stop kidding ourselves because there's something about wrestling that I don't like". I see threads like this every day and it's just the same old shit about the same old problems.