The Z Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Disregarding the comment about Reigns being one of the best big match wrestlers, it'll be interesting to see who will get Raw and who will get Smackdown. Let's not kid ourselves, even if this raises Smackdown's stock immensely, Raw will still be the A-show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Reigns is carrying the belt with all the history/pedigree, though. And if I'm him, getting away from Vince a bit while the old man pets Big Cass to death while going to the show with better writing isn't necessarily a bad thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Apparently this topic is too serious for people to make jokes in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 RIPPA HAS OLD MAN COOTIES AND GINGIVITIS! (plz don't ban me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Is a brand split really going to fix WWE's problems now? Aren't the problems deeper than not enough time to showcase all the talents properly? Specifically, the creative team, Vince McMahon being out of touch. Let me also point to something else. The first brand extension started out well enough. But then they started doing two world champions, which was dumb. What else? It seemed whenever one brand was really good and booking good shows and events on a regular basis, the quality would swing around. Smackdown was where it was at in the Smackdown six days. But then the quality shifted to Raw and in 2004 Smackdown became almost unwatchable. Batista even openly trashed Smackdown in interviews before he was moved over there. Let's also not forget that WWE basically lost interest in the brand split after a while and completely forgot about it by 2006. They stopped running solo brand PPVs. And champions would appear on both shows. Triple H pointed out how stupid it was to have two world champions when there was basically no brand extension anymore. Why is this time going to be different and why will it not erode this time? What's the end game here? Is the end game here Stephanie or Shane taking over WWE? Are they really in that for the long haul? What is ultimately supposed to happen here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go2Sleep Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 It's probably more of a short-term/near-future plan to boost SD's value on USA. Once the pressure for joint-shows and "special appearances" by big names starts to mount, it'll fall apart just like the last one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sublime Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 I give USA until the end of the year to ask for Cena to be on both shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nature Boy Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 I don't get why people are so in favor of two World Titles. I don't care that "WRESTLER X" or "WRESTLER Y" gets a World Title reign if they wouldn't have gotten it. That kind of thinking got us Jack Swagger, World Champion. Two World Titles dilutes what it means to be THE World Champion. Use this as an excuse to build up the IC and US Titles as the main brand titles while the World Champion appears on both shows. Make the World Title also a ticket to just show up wherever you want. The World Champion could handle doing two TV tapings a week. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyLaw Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 In all seriousness, I think the biggest problem with the split-PPV era is that whichever show didn't have a PPV that month was basically in a booking holding pattern, rather than using the two month period to actively build up feuds. If they can fix that, which I think they can, then things will be fine. Also, let's be realistic. They already functionally have one brand split (NXT/Main Roster), and it works out fine. Also, Rusev. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 25 minutes ago, The Nature Boy said: I don't get why people are so in favor of two World Titles. I don't care that "WRESTLER X" or "WRESTLER Y" gets a World Title reign if they wouldn't have gotten it. That kind of thinking got us Jack Swagger, World Champion. Two World Titles dilutes what it means to be THE World Champion. Use this as an excuse to build up the IC and US Titles as the main brand titles while the World Champion appears on both shows. Make the World Title also a ticket to just show up wherever you want. The World Champion could handle doing two TV tapings a week. Alvarez's big complaint is that the other brand would have people treading water, waiting for the champion to swap back to their show. Fuck that, you build up challengers while the champ is on the other show. It's really not complicated. Plus, the secondary title would actually have importance like the US strap had when Cena was defending it. It seems like the large majority of us here want just the one champion rotating. Though Dave said it's the one thing everybody was certain about, hopefully Vince flip flops back before July. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turk128 Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Man, if Rusev ends up being the alpha heel on Smackdown.... that'll be the bestest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 27 minutes ago, The Nature Boy said: I don't get why people are so in favor of two World Titles. I don't care that "WRESTLER X" or "WRESTLER Y" gets a World Title reign if they wouldn't have gotten it. That kind of thinking got us Jack Swagger, World Champion. Two World Titles dilutes what it means to be THE World Champion. Use this as an excuse to build up the IC and US Titles as the main brand titles while the World Champion appears on both shows. Make the World Title also a ticket to just show up wherever you want. The World Champion could handle doing two TV tapings a week. The fact that they can't book titles well dilutes it. I got more enjoyment out of the Hall of Pain or Eddy with the belt than whatever they would have done with one champion. How is that hard to understand. It doubled the odds that they wouldn't screw things up, especially in a decade of dominant HHH. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Pretty much that. People expecting WWE to start booking and writing well to make one World title compelling are dreaming. Two world titles gave us so much more to root for. It worked before, it can work again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 The most over acts of the past 15 years all greatly benefitted from being on Smackdown when the brand split was in place. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 I'm so excited for the brand split. They've needed it for awhile now. The hope is that with a thinner roster for each show, guys won't get lost in the shuffle and will actually get used. They're practically backed into a corner to make the most out of what they have. The time is right. The IC title feels like it has meaning again and is positioned as an actual title, not a distinction of being a jobber. The importance of the US title has dipped somewhat since Cena dropped it, but I think putting it on Rusev begins to elevate it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Z Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 8 minutes ago, Craig H said: I'm so excited for the brand split. They've needed it for awhile now. The hope is that with a thinner roster for each show, guys won't get lost in the shuffle and will actually get used. They're practically backed into a corner to make the most out of what they have. On the other hand, we might get Kane and Big Show in more prominent roles again and Randy Orton's return isn't far behind. The mere thought makes me want to vomit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Library Dude Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 3 hours ago, JonnyLaw said: This opens up the door for Rusev to win a World Championship. Nothing else matters. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 As it stands right now we're getting MAYBE one women's division segment a night. It seemed like they were trying for more but maybe injuries had something to do with it. Either way I'm hoping this will open up the door for more women's feuds and also The cruiserweights if the rumors are true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstout Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 4 hours ago, Burgundy LaRue said: RIPPA HAS OLD MAN COOTIES AND GINGIVITIS! (plz don't ban me) (in Daffy Duck voice): BAN HIM! BAN HIM! I DEMAND THAT YOU BAN HIM! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 My biggest issue with having two world titles was they would go out of their way to tell you which title was the legit one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 2 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said: My biggest issue with having two world titles was they would go out of their way to tell you which title was the legit one. I agree, with two notable exceptions: 1) when HHH held the big gold belt on Raw in the early 2000s and it main evented every PPV 2) 12 years later, when they try to tout Orton and Cena as 12 and 15 time world champions. C'mon man. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 I don't think you can justify having women only appear on one show. If they are truly on equal ground with the men then you need women's wrestling on both shows and there are PLENTY of women they can sign up right now. Santana Garrett I've been saying for a couple months now as one example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 1 hour ago, jstout said: (in Daffy Duck voice): BAN HIM! BAN HIM! I DEMAND THAT YOU BAN HIM! You stay out of this. He doesn't have to ban you now. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 I posted this in the NXT thread. May as well post it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 The women's question is hard. They only just started taking the division seriously. They have about eight women who can work, and that's before injuries. There is more room to breathe for story lines but they don't have enough talent to have two separate divisions. Separating the women is going to result in the same matches constantly. NXT kinda suffered from that with the Horsewomen but the show is an hour and having good women's wrestling was a novelty. It's not a novelty anymore. I would put the women on one show and let them have two/three feuds at a time. Hell, I would give them the whole 8-9 time slot (but they won't do that obviously). Tag teams also face the same conundrum. What do you do with tags? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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