Opinion: The Wildcard Rule is ending because of the 'Wednesday Night Wars'

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and they do not necessarily represent the views of Sportskeeda.

Back in July, our very own Tom Colohue broke the news that the Wildcard Rule was slowly wrapping up ahead of Survivor Series.

This week, I sat down with Tom and host Korey Gunz on the recent episode of the Dropkick DiSKussions to chat about the draft, where Tom revealed that Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff want complete separation between the two brands going into Survivor Series to maximise the RAW vs SmackDown storyline.

While I agree with this, I think there may just be another reason - the Wednesday Night Wars. With all the attention on NXT vs AEW on Wednesday nights, I believe WWE may actually use the separation of RAW and SmackDown to overshadow the supposed Wednesday Night Wars.

NXT vs AEW, or RAW vs SmackDown?

With SmackDown Live making its move to Fox, starting on October 4th - with an entirely new logo and no longer named SmackDown Live - both RAW and SmackDown will be on different channels, and thus each broadcaster will, of course, want their show to be the flagship show in WWE.

Not only this, but with Paul Heyman taking over the creative of RAW and Eric Bischoff doing likewise on SmackDown, you can bet both men will have a competitive streak and want their brand to be the best product WWE has to offer.

Meanwhile...

I recently spoke to Matt Riddle about NXT's move to the USA Network, and whether competing with AEW for viewers adds any pressure.

What's the name of that company? No, no, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Honestly, I wish them all the best. I'm super stoked. It's the Wednesday Night Wars!

I hope they push the envelope, I hope they push it hard and I hope they get a lot of fans, and I hope they're very successful - because the more successful they are, the more successful we'll be and the more... You know, it just really helps people out like me if there's good competition. It helps the performers, the people that actually make the show go. It really helps them. I don't feel the pressure.

You can read the entire interview here or watch it below.