JohnnyJ Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I like idea of the brand split but could not even fathom what a 3-hour Raw would look like with an even smaller roster. Maybe they should wait til Rollins comes back and up his promo time from 20 minutes each week to 60 minutes. Then in a few years when he's washed up and doing shoots he can brag about doing 60-minute broadways every monday night. My theory on the social outcasts is their is a corner of the writers room devoted to coming up with new opponents dolph can lose to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 The brand split would suck now. The peak of it was when Smackdown was a nice alternative to Raw with logical booking, different looking set and graphics, etc. That role is more or less filled by NXT. It would be cool for like a year and then we would be right back to guys like Jack Swagger and The Great Khali having title runs. I do like the idea of keeping one world champ with the IC and US being the top title in each show, but do it as a "soft" brand split like was planned in early 2015 when Bryan and Cena held them, this way there aren't so many limitations. Maybe the IC champ can appear on Raw but maybe he's just in a tag match or cuts a promo Have you watched SmackDown! lately? It's been the better show. Plus, with Maura on SD, I feel like it's the more sports oriented show. I look forward to watching it more than Raw. Leave all the soap opera bullshit for Raw and leave SD as the sports themed brand. Actually, I'll admit, I haven't seen SD in a long time but I'm really glad to hear this. I'll make it a point to check it out this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Oh dude! Yeah, for sure check it out. It hasn't been the Raw retread show for a little bit and putting Mauro on the show was great. I'll admit to shitting on the spoiler for AJ losing to Jericho, but in the context of the show, it totally made sense and part of that had to do with the announcing crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Yeah, Smackdown has improved immensely. I am very much pro-brand split, though I think one World Title is preferable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I like idea of the brand split but could not even fathom what a 3-hour Raw would look like with an even smaller roster. Maybe they should wait til Rollins comes back and up his promo time from 20 minutes each week to 60 minutes. Then in a few years when he's washed up and doing shoots he can brag about doing 60-minute broadways every monday night. My theory on the social outcasts is their is a corner of the writers room devoted to coming up with new opponents dolph can lose to. I don't think it would be that tough to fill out the 3-hour Raw with a smaller roster because there's a massive influx of talent coming (Balor Club, Nakamura) and a big group of NXT guys/gals seemingly ready to move up (Zayn, Balor, Enzo/Cass, Corbin, American Alpha?, Bayley) and you could always turns Rhyno, Joe and Aries into full-time WWE guys, send 1/3 to SD, 2/3 to Raw and you've got a more than large enough roster to absorb the added minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I like idea of the brand split but could not even fathom what a 3-hour Raw would look like with an even smaller roster. Maybe they should wait til Rollins comes back and up his promo time from 20 minutes each week to 60 minutes. Then in a few years when he's washed up and doing shoots he can brag about doing 60-minute broadways every monday night. My theory on the social outcasts is their is a corner of the writers room devoted to coming up with new opponents dolph can lose to. Simple solution- run NXT as the first hour of RAW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sublime Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Keep NXT and all the things that make it good as far from Vince as possible. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Keep NXT and all the things that make it good as far from Vince as possible. 100% this. NXT as the lead in to Raw would be the end of NXT. Filling out 3 hours of Raw with even a smaller roster would be ridiculously easy. The problem is that you would need a lot of turnover with the current writing staff. But honestly, Raw should just be two hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyJ Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 From a business perspective, the draw for the network is nxt and the major ppvs. If you take away nxt, the weekly draw to the network is a show about car rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I missed my show about car rides this week. NXT and Ride Along is worth the $10 a month to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fresh Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Just saw a commercial for a dumb local news show here in St. Louis with Road Warrior Animal cutting a promo on the Rams for cutting his son, but they didn't call him Animal, just "a cut Rams' player father", but since he still has a Mohawk, it must look pretty funny if you don't know who he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fallacy! Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 So the new RVD YouShoot is a must-watch simply for RVD's Shawn Michaels impression. Holy shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN! Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 They can't even do Roman Reigns right. What chance did people really think Tyler Breeze was going to have? It's also adorable that people don't think Triple H runs Raw now. Like all the bad in WWE is because of Vince McMahon so when the old man finally dies, Triple H will make the pro wrestling good again like he does in NXT. The fact is if NXT had 3 million domestic viewers and actually made money, Triple H would be NXT Champion. It's like people think 75% of Raw the last fifteen years being devoted to sucking Triple H's proverbial dick in some way is designed by someone other than Triple H. Reigns having a most likely mediocre garbage brawl match and beating Triple H at WrestleMania does nothing for him or the company. Beating Triple H means nothing. Not to mention the weeks ahead where Triple H and his wife are going to cut Reigns' balls off in the lead-up. Talk about the roster being thin but there's several better options in the main event spot against Reigns other than Triple H right now. Reigns vs. Lesnar II. Undertaker. Ambrose. Sheik Tugboat. Also, people thinking Triple H can actually outlive Vince McMahon is the dumbest thing of all. Vince is going to outlast him by at least 7 years. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fallacy! Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 While I think Triple H's "genius" is overrated (give anyone with a decent mind for the business the resources to poach every great non-WWE wrestling talent from around the world and they could probably put together a great roster at NXT too), the Reigns push so obviously has Vince's fingerprints all over it that it's hard for me to blame Triple H for any of it. His guy was pretty clearly Seth Rollins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 If Rollins is his guy, HHH didn't do right by him. Rollins looked HHH and Steph's child during most of his title reign, childish and in need of his nannies to clean his spit-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Wasn't Reigns HHH's choice as his guy while Vince's was Big E? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 That's what is hot on the IWC streets. And I believe Punk noted that it was HHH who had Vince to install Reigns as the third member of the Shield instead of Chris Hero. Who really knows with HHH, though. I would figure all three Shield guys are pretty high on his list, but their individual booking has been suspect at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterien Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Pretty good AJ interview and New Day making fun of League of Nations videos uploaded to WWE YouTube channel today*. *I have no idea how to upload from mobile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Shane McMahon just tweeted a photo of a post Muay Thai workout stretch with his trainer whom I really thought from the still from the vine was Virgil and was unusually excited. Then I watched the video and it was not Virgil and am now, thus, disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 It's cool that some are still hanging on to this idea that Hunter wants to be the focal point of RAW. He tried to walk away after Survivor Series and USA told Vince to put them back on TV. Triple H probably did like Roman but remember he's signed a ton of dudes now since opening up the performance center and I would assume he probably likes some of them more than Roman etc... Feelings change on a guy too. I disagree with the Rollins criticism. The plan was for them to undermine Rollins and then eventually Rollins would get sick of it and lash out leading to Rollins beating Triple H at WM. Then Rollins got hurt so they had to run with Reigns and Hunter instead. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 God Bless New Day at least trying to advance this angle 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spritenaut 32 Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Has a brand split been rumored somewhere or is it just speculation on the part of some? I would be in favor of it, but keep the one world champion floating between both shows and have the IC title be the top title on one show and the US title be the top title on the other. Google comes up with a few stories on Bleacher Report and other sites that say a brand split after WM is "almost' confirmed. Dunno about this idea. Brand-specific PPV's were generally terrible back in the 00's, but the TV shows were ok. Smackdown was generally very entertaining during the brand split. On the other hand, they ended the brand split for a reason, and the roster isn't any deeper now than it was then. It is nice that they are finally getting in touch with the fan reactions and giving us what we really want - another McMahon power struggle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muhammedboehm Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 What if they did a brand split but didn't do it in the same way...what if Raw became like IC + Diva's and Smackdown US + Tag Team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 That's what I had in mind. The World champ floats between both shows, IC title (and Divas) are the top titles on the drama heavy Raw while the US and Tag titles are the top titles on the sports heavy SD. For the people saying the roster isn't any deeper, I mean, really? You don't think there's a whole gang of guys to divide between both shows that would stand to benefit from more screen time? Tyler Breeze going to SD is an instant upgrade to his career because at least he would have something to do. Social Outcasts could be on SD while New Day stays on Raw. I just don't buy that there aren't enough guys on the roster to fill out 3 hours on Raw and 2 hours on SD. The writers for Raw need to figure out that matches can go longer than a few minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 The brand split PPV era was terrible when Smackdown! was pushing Mordecai, Luther Reigns, Heidenreich and Kenzo while RAW ran endlessly with Shawn v. Hunter. That said, I loved it when Heyman was booking SD! as the wrestling show and RAW was for big story line stuff. If they went back to that I'd be all for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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