Hello, SLTD readers! It’s Haydn back here with another “The Fox Files” after an unfortunate absence last week, we are back to chat about the brand split! The good things, the bad things and everything in between, so let’s not waste anymore time and get straight into this.
For those that don’t know the history, Smackdown first got introduced in 1999, so the brand split wasn’t introduced straight away. When I started watching WWE at the time back in 2003 though, the brand split has come into effect, so older WWE Fans know what it’s like to have a brand split. If your a new fan through, then this will be your first time as it started to fade out around 2008. A brand split, also known as a brand extension, is where you have separate rosters for the different brands, so for example AJ Styles and Seth Rollins could be on RAW, while Roman Reigns and John Cena could be on Smackdown, and that would be their respective brands.
The brand split is best for business in my opinion, because for many years now the RAW & Smackdown shows have had the same roster and it has lost WWE viewers on both ends, I don’t watch Smackdown nowadays! The brand split though will make me watch Smackdown because the superstars that are on their will not be on RAW, so it will not be just a show of rematches from RAW, it’ll be completely different shows with different story lines and that is what WWE Fans around the world have been pleading for.
The brand split will reintroduce fans that used to watch it as well, as they may be interested in watching one show rather then the other. Also, it means that Smackdown will now go live on Tuesdays and that’s one thing many WWE Fans are happy about and most of all, the social media interaction that will be involved in this will be absolutely amazing to see. I think that Twitter definitely will be debating about which show was the best that week, which show has the best roster etc. And it definitely will be interesting.
In the same means, there’s one big things within WWE Fans that we are struggling to come to terms with… it’s very hard to watch RAW for 3 hours with the roster they have now, let alone with half of the roster and watching it for the same length of time. Also, NXT is the “superior brand” and they will need to bring up many of the stars from NXT into the WWE main roster, which could hurt NXT in both viewers and thoughts about the whole brand.
Are you looking forward to the brand split? Let us know and until next time, we’ll catch you next week!
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