BWOTW Special: The Brand Split

Hello one and all and welcome to another 'BWOTW Special', this time we'll be turning out attention towards the imminent Brand Split coming to the WWE.

Hopefully it means we get more of these

It has been confirmed that SmackDown! will start to be shown live on Tuesday night and will have it's own seperate roster from Monday Night RAW. The split will happen in July, with the roster draft occuring on July 11th. Obviously this will become part of the Shane/Stephanie control battle, with one getting a show apiece. 

Now, there are several things that could be potentially affected by the upcoming change, and I intend to cover them all here.

Titles/Divisions

At the minute, we have 5 active championships on the roster: World Heavyweight, Intercontinental, United States, Women's and Tag Team. Let's assess how each of these could be affected individually.

World Heavyweight Championship

Back in dreary old 2013, we witnessed the unification of the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship in a Ladder Match between John Cena and Randy Orton. So, we've had this current title for just under 3 years now and I've enjoyed having only one world title immensely. It's added so much prestige to the lone top tier championship and with the added focus, PPV title defences have been able to have more time on the show as well as other match-ups. Plus, the World Heavyweight Championship was always considered lesser than the WWE Championship, with it being the world title of SmackDown!, the 'B-Show' and having guys win it who weren't top superstars at the time; Jack Swagger, Punk's reigns with it weren't great, Ziggler won it later which was an awesome moment but not long lasting. 
So, I hope that they keep the WWE World Heavyweight Championship as the one and only world title. They could keep it focused on RAW, but have people from SmackDown! compete for it too, appearing on whichever show the feud would call for. Let's assume the champion, regardless as to what roster he is on upon obtaining it, just appears on RAW anyway, sorted. Royal Rumble winner's would just start appearing on RAW in the chase for the belt. You could do it so that SD! wrestlers for the belt appear on RAW for any No.1 Contender's matches that may occur. Then, if a SD! superstar is in title contention, the feud bridges across both shows.
What I also would love from having one, RAW-focused world title would the implications it has for the...

Intercontinental Championship

The Intercontinental Championship has become much more prominent and important in the past year or so. I'd bet good money that the Intercontinental Championship will be a SmackDown! title, and I think having this be SmackDown!'s main title would make it much more prestigious. It has been the main event focus of several episodes in the past few months and it has benefited from it in my eyes. I imagine this is what Daniel Bryan wanted the title to be, SmackDown! exclusive and, if it continues at its current rate, the site of stellar wrestling. Given the crop of talent associated with the Intercontinental Championship, who wouldn't love to see Cesaro as the face of a brand? Plus, in my opinion, its the prettiest title in the current product, THAT'S RIGHT I SAID IT

Just look at that beautiful fucker

United States Championship

The United States Championship also has the potential to be greatly elevated by the brand split. With more time being allowed on the card from the highly probable movement of the Intercontinental Championship to SD!, the US Title could receive more developed storylines and more matches based around it on the show. Plus, it having a more lengthy and developed spot on WWE programming allows for growth of characters and featuring of more wrestlers who might otherwise be looked over. I would love for Cena or anyone in fact to revert back to the wonderful days of the US Open Challenge, however with rumours that Cena will be the main guy on SmackDown!, it either wont happen or someone else will have to take the role of doing it. Sadly, it doesn't appear we'll see this again any time soon, but a boy can dream.

Women's Championship

I feel that the women's division is at risk in this brand split. At the rate they're going, I dont think that the WWE have made a roster able to sustain being separated as such. The championship, like I said with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, should be contested between the two shows, for the love of God don't you dare bring back the Divas Championship, WWE, fucking don't. The WWE will need to start implementing the women more on programming, which with alleviated numbers, is certainly doable. We've seen some non-title storylines appear, recently with Becky and Emma. The women have also been victim to the Injury Plague of 2016, with Emma being out with a spinal injury, Nikki Bella out with a neck injury, plus Brie retired, I'm think I'm missing one or two. WWE need to build stars quick following the split, or else this revolution might flounder. They could call up some NXT women to bolster numbers, which would be great for them.

Tag Team Championships

If we look at it, here are the tag teams we have currently on the main roster are:

1. New Day
2. VaudeVillains
3. Dudleys
4. Enzo & Cass
5. Usos
6. Gallows & Anderson
7. Ascension
8. Social Outcasts
9. Golden Truth
10. FaBreeze/Breezango
11. Lucha Dragons (sorta)
12. Wyatts
13. Shining Stars

Now, that's quite sizeable, splitting them between the two shows shouldn't be too bad, a good handful each. Adding a new set of tag titles would give more teams something to do. If there's like 6 teams on a show, then title opportunities and programmes might come round easier and more often. I would imagine that in making new championships, the current titles would be called the 'WWE' tag titles, and the others as the 'World' ones. Sadly this means that the New Day might have to change their hip swivelling. I guess everything has a price. 

Schedules: House Shows, Pay-Per-Views and the WWE Network

With the dawn of a split roster, this could possibly mean a lighter work schedule for superstars. I should think they'll run house shows opposite a live broadcast of RAW or SmackDown!, so right there's another day off for an entire brand. For the rest of the week, there are two ways about it. Sometimes when touring the roster splits, so whilst one show is headlined by Reigns, another would be by Ambrose or whatever. The roster could either alternate live shows throughout the week, giving more days off, or they could operate side-by-side, which could boost revenue. Given all the recent injuries and the general workload of the rosters, some breaks would be nice, a healthy roster makes a healthy business.

In regards to PPVs, again, there are a few ways WWE could handle this.
They could have brand exclusive PPVs, with each roster having their own shows. If this is done, bloody hell this blog's gonna have more to cover. They could have a show every two weeks switching brands each time, or they could stick to the roughly one a month system they have at the minute, each brand having a PPV roughly once every 6-8 weeks. With the added shows, this could mean the return of No Mercy, No Way Out, Backlash, Vengeance, Unforgiven and all the others with the badass names.
With the useful tool that is the WWE Network, they could try to boost subscriber numbers by having one brand's PPVs be Network exclusive, not how they currently claim it is but still purchasable on whatever cable things they have in America (quick shout out to my American readers!) and the Box Office here in the UK. Mind you, Sky were right pricks about allowing the Network to come over here so they wouldn't be best pleased. Having only one brand be Network-exclusive might appease these people a bit, but hey-ho, whatever's easiest.

NXT Call-Ups

With more space on the rosters, we should expect call-ups from NXT to be more often. We might even see some be called up to build numbers as soon as the brands split (see Finn Balor). I feel like Trips will control and limit call ups not to harm NXT and to ensure that people aren't lost in the shuffle, well, Crews hasn't been doing to good, huh? Call-ups always have benefits. These wrestlers get to be exposed to a wider audience, they get to live their dream and they get main roster money. Also, call-ups reinvigorate programming depending on their position on the card and they give writers more to work with. Hopefully we get an even distribution of top guys between the brands, not to depict either as lesser.

Competition

Here's something I am very interested in seeing. Back in the days of the original brand split, we had different parties in charge of each show. If I remember correctly, it was Stephanie in charge of RAW whilst Paul Heyman was wrecking shop on SmackDown! Paul made SmackDown! awesome in his time in charge their; he built Brock Lesnar, he made Eddie Guerrero a star and Kurt Angle was a fucking machine. This allowed for more contrast and more unique differences between the two shows, which made them more compelling. More importantly, to me, it allowed for competition.
Competition, especially in the wrestling business, causes those in charge to really ramp things up and put on the best shows possible. Since WCW went out of business, WWE haven't had really any major competition in their core market - North America, sorry TNA. This meant they no longer had to worry about anyone overtaking them in ratings or taking away their customers, so effort and quality took declined. Competition between the brands, albeit on a much smaller scale, emulated that once prominent rivalry. Although Vince will almost definitely be overwatching of everything on both shows, there's hope that writers will be separated too and both sides stride to be the best. Another thing I miss is the arguments you'd have on the playground about whether RAW or SmackDown! was better. Good times.



But if there's one thing I want most......it's General Manager Mode in WWE games because that was the fucking bomb.

Let me know any queeries, worries or hopes you have about the brand split, either plop them in the comment section down below this somewhere, or find me in person and shout it in my face. Either or. Thanks guys, I get that these specials are quite lengthy and wordy, so I appreciate if you've stuck around this far, you beautiful people.