Battleground, The Draft, Shinsuke Nakamura, The Cruiserweight Classic, NXT, Smackdown going live and so on. There's plenty of excitement surrounding today's WWE product, that's a given.
So, with this in mind, the upcoming brand-split is destined to be a huge success, right?
But with every positive, there's bound to be a risk, something to fight against things going off without a hitch, if you will. Well, what are the risks? What's the likelihood of an ultimate failure?
This column isn't written with the intention of being a buzz-kill. This is just to simply evaluate the ways in which the upcoming draft and brand-split could potentially fail. Today, we look at 5 reasons the brand-split just might not work.
#5 UNEQUAL PLAYING FIELD
As of right now, there's been no mention of either reverting Raw back to a two-hour format, or having Smackdown run three hours when the split takes place. Why would that be an issue? Well, aren't we supposed to be watching a battle between Stephanie and Shane, to see which brand takes company supremacy?
If that's the case, shouldn't Shane's Smackdown Live get an extra hour to stay competitive? Or, maybe Steph should have Raw cut back one hour in order to even things out?
Personally, I've always felt three hours is entirely too much TV time to cover for Raw, even with a full roster. Now, we split that same roster in half, how can we continue to fill a program which was already struggling to come up with enough creative content to fill a full three hours time block?
The best course of action in this situation would be to have both brands running a two hour live, weekly show.
#4 CHAMPIONSHIP ROADBLOCK
With no confirmation as of yet, regarding whether or not there will be an additional title added, that leaves one world title to split between brands. Not to mention we have to deal with which brand will carry the Intercontinental Championship, the United States Title, the Women's Champ and the Tag Team Champions.
While this may be worked out sooner than later, it's easy to see where one program would appear inferior to the other, if that particular brand doesn't have the world champion on their show, or if that brand has a lower number of titles being showcased and defended on a regular basis.
But it is entirely possible that we could soon see an added championship, so both Smackdown and Raw each have a primary champion, similar to past brand-splits when we had both a World title and a WWE title.
#3 PPV OVERLOAD
As we discussed in a previous article, there is a very real possibility that we will see an extra pay-per-view added each month. As it is right now, the PPV landscape has already diluted with a new event every 3 to 4 weeks.
So, with a brand split, we could potentially see a PPV every other week or so, unless both brands run their PPV'S on the same weekend, having one on Saturday, while the other runs Sunday.
No matter how you look at it and regardless of how WWE tries to book it, adding another pay-per-view will seriously diminish the prestige a PPV is supposed to have. Fans will become increasingly uninterested in not only the PPV, but also the weekly show.
#2 SUPERSTAR OVEREXPOSURE
With things being the way they are now, any superstar can take a week or even more off, without really being missed. Even a John Cena, or Dean Ambrose or someone along those lines can take a week or two off, come back and still be top level stars.
Now imagine a roster cut in half. Even if you draft a couple of NXT stars, the talent pool is going to get depleted in major way.
With that in mind, it leaves a smaller amount to of talent to cover if someone takes off, so instead of seeing someone like Sheamus being showcased in a mid-card match or rivalry every other week or so, now you have to use these guys, as well as throw them into a bigger spotlight on a weekly basis.
The lack of talent, while could result in a worthy star getting a better push, it could also lead to unworthy talent getting a push he or she doesn't deserve.
#1 HISTORY TYPICALLY REPEATS ITSELF
Let's be honest, if the brand-split was a genuine idea, it would've worked in the past. In fact, we would probably still have separate brands. However, if you take a nostalgic look back at each time this plan has been executed, it has failed miserably.
I know, I'm being too salty, huh?
Well, like I said in the beginning, it's important to look at the potential reasons why the brand-split may indeed not be this huge success that we all want to see. Yes, I want to see it work just like everyone else.
But, it's also important to be prepared if and when the idea gets scrapped and we go back to being one big, happy family.
