Hot Take: WWE Should Keep the Brand Split Amid Rumors of Breaking It Up
Apparently WWE is wandering dangerously close to serious trouble of a thought that is finishing the brand split.
That split limits Superstars to one or the other Raw or SmackDown, assisting each brand's week after week show with feeling unmistakable.
However as per Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live (h/t Randall Ortman of Cageside Seats), the brand split is "basically done" in WWE.
Which is a significant disgrace.
A split ought to permit significant TV time to be stood to building stories and Superstars around optional titles and the label divisions.
There hasn't even been a very remarkable clue that the split will end. Indeed, Roman Reigns holds the two men's top titles and The Usos currently have both label tiles. Yet, assuming that this were the genuine arrangement, why wasn't Reigns' coordinate with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania a unification match after the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and all the other things went toward moving toward that point?
Is Reigns the essential justification behind a split? Could WWE not concoct a method for getting one of the titles off him such that seems OK? Are colleagues in the background that don't get Reigns and Ronda Rousey on week by week programing tossing weight around?
Since fans have seen a non-split WWE a lot of times. Regardless of whether Reigns drops one of the titles, one immediately turns into an optional title. The midcard titles get brief period to sparkle. What's more, Superstars who occupied out TV time on one of the brands during the split will probably for the most part vanish while the top demonstrations overwhelm the two shows each week once more.
It's particularly disappointing on the grounds that, had WWE dealt with the parted well from the leap, there could never should be a solitary contemplated finishing it.
WWE hasn't even attempted to cause the brand split to feel significant in a manner that would check out. There's a whole compensation for every view — Survivor Series — worked around brand unwaveringness. But, WWE is inclined to tossing a draft only half a month prior to it, so there are Superstars who just jumped marks unexpectedly contending in this themed occasion teaching their unwaveringness to a brand they recently joined.
This is where WWE's powerlessness to form long haul stories or consistency pounds it. A split, gotten along nicely, could circle in significant parts of different games. It'd be amusing to see Reigns discussing how his agreement with SmackDown is practically up and contemplating heading toward Raw. Expansion show, labels, exchanges — it very well may be an impact.
WWE could cause the two brands to feel altogether different and even stage contests between the two. As a general rule, the out-of-ring subtleties are more fascinating than the genuine wrestling itself, so why not stage challenges between brands while circling in discuss evaluations, virtual entertainment numbers and so on.?
All things being equal, WWE disregards any opportunity at that and afterward now and again tosses out something strange like the "special case rule" where Superstars could jump between brands.
It's not difficult to see where this goes from here in view of past ways of behaving. WWE will deny the split is finished, yet certain Superstars will move smoothly between brands consistently. There will ultimately be a draft, watered somewhere near stars hopping between shows at any rate, and a brand dedication occasion similarly hosed down.
One could contend the droves of program cuts WWE made throughout the past little while, in addition to wounds to folks like Big E and the Sasha Banks and Naomi walkout, have diminished the profundity, maybe requiring the finish of a split. Yet, that is an extreme sell — WWE actually has the most skilled ace wrestling program in history and has individuals dying in the midcard like Finn Balor.
From this zoomed-out view, it's not difficult to see the reason why WWE could think the split a disappointment — yet it's similarly simple to see how things veered off-track and how much better they could be. Finishing the split hasn't mysteriously fixed everything before, and it definitely won't this time.
