It was announced earlier this week that after almost five years of their company running as one main roster, they will now be switching back to the format that many fans will recognize from the early years of Smackdown from 2002 to 2011.
WWE first tested out the idea in 2001 and what followed were many Raw and Smackdown pay-per-views as well as the “big four” events where both the Raw and Smackdown rosters would come together. This made Survivor Series much more interesting to watch because it was one of the few times throughout the year that Raw and Smackdown superstars were given the chance to fight.
It’s been speculated that the brand split could be brought back ever since Shane McMahon returned to take control of Monday Night Raw heading into WrestleMania season, so it hasn’t come as a big surprise to many people that WWE have finally announced their plans.
This all becomes a reality on July 19th, a month after Money in the Bank and just five days prior to Battleground, which means WWE could have some interesting plans for the event.
One of the problems WWE will now face is that there are not enough titles in the company to be able to split them onto each show. Since the brand split originally ended in 2011, WWE have unified both the Tag Team Championships and the WWE World Championship which means that there are now just five titles in the company.
Current speculation suggests that WWE could be planning to separate the World Title once again, after it was only unified at TLC in 2013, but it is now thought that they once again want a main champion on each show.
It is also thought that the United States Championship will head back to Smackdown where it used to belong whilst the Intercontinental Championship will remain on Raw. The Tag Team Championships will be once again divided and each show will have their own set of champions, but the interesting thing is that WWE could be bringing an old title back
The Cruiserweight Championship was retired back in 2008 but following the current on-going global cruiserweight tournament, it seems that WWE could be set to being back the title and allow a cruiserweight division on Smackdown again.
The Women’s Championship looks like it will remain on Raw with the women coming together at pay-per-views to fight for the championship with many fans unsure if WWE would want to bring in another women’s title.
Whilst the fact that WWE are once again splitting the brands is a good thing, at the same time there will be draw backs from this, there will be many matches that fans will be unable to see. The three former Shield members will obviously be split up. If WWE decided to draft different stars to different brands then tag teams could be split up and people like Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins could end up on Smackdown.
Smackdown going live on a Tuesday night will be a big thing for WWE in regards to ratings because it means that all fans all over the world will finally see the show at the same time. Over the past few months America has been showing it on a Thursday night whilst many fans outside of the US have had to wait until Friday to watch the show.
The ratings for Smackdown have hit an all time low in recent years and it seems that it is the show that has suffered the most since the two brands have come together and it is mostly being used as a Raw highlight show.
The fact that WWE look set to integrate many NXT talents into the two shows over the next few weeks is also interesting because WWE needs to remember to leave enough talent to continue to allow NXT to grow.
The date of the brand split does seem to fall in a odd place, five days before Battleground means that WWE will hopefully have something big planned for the final pay-per-view before SummerSlam. Whether they decide to split the titles at Battleground or have two separate Money in the Bank matches to crown new champions at the pay-per-view next month still remains to be seen.
The good news is that WWE seems to be moving in the right direction, this was the perfect way to help raise ratings and having three consecutive shows each week is a fantastic idea. It will be interesting to see how WWE plan this out and if they revert back to the way Smackdown and Raw once were.
