Brand Split
Look, I want to be an optimist about the Brand Split. It’s been rumored for a long time now and overall I’m excited about it because I think it will help freshen things up for a while. When I look at what the rest of 2016 could’ve been without a brand split, I see the main event being Roman Reigns defending his title against Rollins, then Cena or maybe Lesnar, none of which interests me! Now with Smackdown having its own roster, I can have another option within WWE. Also since the brands merged I’ve been tending to have Smackdown on only out of obligation, knowing that if anything big happened it would’ve been spoiled before hand and most of it tends to be recaps from Raw anyway.
Back during the last brand split I always loved Smackdown more because it featured more wrestling. Raw could have all the DX penile euphemisms, “celebrity” guest hosts, and Trump vs. Rosie O’Donnell matches it wanted, because I got to see established stars like Angle, Mysterio, Undertaker, and Edge as well as newer guys like MVP, Bryan, and CM Punk (during his S.E.S. days) wrestle and have actual feuds without crazy ratings gimmicks getting in the way. The problem back then always was that as soon as anyone started getting over, they were shipped off to Raw and given nothing to do. Well now that Smackdown is live and on USA instead of UCPWBN or whatever made up channel Smackdown was shoved off on, I think there’s a real chance that it won’t be treated as another developmental territory for Raw. But again, that’s just me wanting to be an optimist.