WWE Brand Extension: Why It Needs to go Away

In the Spring of 2002, Vince McMahon was enjoying his newly consolidated wrestling empire. He had already purchased WCW, weeded out much of the unwanted talent thanks to 2001's "Invasion" by the ECW/WCW Alliance, and even welcomed back his biggest star: Hulk Hogan.

Riding high on its success, WWE had begun to deal with the issue of the overabundance of talent swarming in their locker rooms. What resulted was the now ubiquitous WWE Brand Extension, which made select superstars exclusive to any of the now three brands under the banner of World Wrestling Entertainment.

While this Brand Extension was a very practical decision for WWE at the time, giving its talent as much TV time as possible, the time has come and gone. I have been arguing for years that this mode of operation needs to go away as soon as possible if WWE wants to reap any success in the foreseeable future.

I will make an argument here specifically regarding the Smackdown and Raw brands. I firmly believe that ECW is an excellent platform for bringing up young talent, and should remain its own entity apart from the other two.

In its initial draft on the March 25, 2002 edition of "Monday Night Raw", WWE drafted 57 Superstars and Divas between Smackdown and Raw. At the time, WWE had one world championship (the Undisputed Championship), as well as the Intercontinental, European, Hardcore, World Tag Team, and Women's titles. That's six titles.

That meant that each brand had about 30 Superstars to its roster. Today, Raw features 33 Superstars (including Divas and announcers), while Smackdown features a 40-person roster. The numbers alone might be enough to justify continuing the brand extension, as it would be impossible to showcase 73 stars in one show every week. However, let's think about this realistically in respect to what we are seeing every week on television.

Even with its then 60-person roster pool, WWE considered consolidating its championships. Following the Brand Extension, the European Championship was consolidated into the Intercontinental Championship. Shortly after, in what I consider to be one of the worst decisions in WWE history, the Intercontinental Championship was consolidated into the World Heavyweight title. The title was later reactivated by then Co-General Manager "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, but the idea of keeping championships to a minimum was smart, if a bit misguided. Meanwhile, the Hardcore Championship disappeared, most likely due to the new direction the company wanted to take.

Then there was the title boom that began in 2002. The Undisputed Championship received an overhaul. Instead of carrying around the two World titles (WWF and WCW), the new champion received one belt that signified their reign as the WWE Undisputed Champion. Now simply known as the WWE Championship (a direct successor to the WWF World Championship), the title became exclusive to Smackdown, prompting then Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff to resurrect his half of the title by re-christening the WCW Championship as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. As Raw made its titles exclusive to their brand (the Intercontinental, World Tag Team, and Women's titles), Smackdown created the WWE Tag Team Championship, WWE Cruiserweight Championship, and WWE United States Championship to compete.

The Cruiserweight title is now defunct, and the tag team titles are unified. In its place, Smackdown created a WWE Divas Championship in 2008 to rival the Women's Championship on Raw.

This is supposedly to accommodate WWE's enormous talent pool, making sure that everyone had something to fight for. But really, how much talent are they using?

USA Network's mini website for "WWE Raw" features just 10 Superstar profiles. These are, presumably, the ten most-watched stars on the brand that viewers can expect to see every week. So what about the other 23 stars on the roster?

Take away announcers and side-acts like "Big Dick Johnson", and Raw is left with just 29 stars. These are active wrestlers, people who are expected to compete every week. But many don't. How often does Gail Kim wrestle? Not enough to be considered a weekly talent. That's not a knock to Gail, that is a criticism of WWE's use (or lack of use) of talent. Of these 29 remaining stars, about 24 appear on the average 2-hour episode of "Raw". And there are exceptions. If USA Network's website is any indication, WWE backs about 1/3 of its roster with guaranteed TV time every week.

On Smackdown, the situation is even worse. Only 33 members of their 40-person roster are active competitors. Of those 33, about 10 of them sit on the sidelines or are simply used to put over bigger talent.

That leaves Smackdown with about 23 stars.

So let's see, 23 stars for each brand. That's 46 combined. Much of Smackdown's roster consists of up-and-coming talent that has not been fully developed yet. So, let's, for the sake of easy calculation, assume that 40 top-level WWE Superstars and Divas appear on every episode of their weekly show. That's just 10 more stars than Raw's roster at the time of the brand extension.

In contrast to the state of WWE circa 2002, the company has eight championships, including two world titles that, to casual viewers, is simply confusing. As of this writing, Sheamus is the WWE Champion. The Undertaker is the World Heavyweight Champion. So, of course, the first question any casual or would-be fan would ask is:

"Who is the real Champion?"

Well, Sheamus is the champion of Raw, and The Undertaker is the champion of Smackdown.

"Well, won't they fight to see who the real champion is?"

No, they don't fight each other.

At this point this would be fan gives me a thoroughly confused look that almost resembles disgust before shaking their head.

"That's stupid!"

Yes, it is.

Sure, we could explain the concept of the brand extension, but why should new fans need a lesson in WWE history to understand the show and enjoy the product?

With platforms like "ECW" and "WWE Superstars", which could easily serve as an upper-class "Sunday Night Heat" to help get young stars over, why are we forced to watch fresh-off-the-press and often under-developed talent like Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler try to legitimize themselves next to talent like Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels?

Half the problem is the atrocious writing in WWE. More time on "Raw" is spent pandering to the guest hosts (which have never gone over well) than showcasing the exciting talent that could set the audience on fire both in-house and at home. I will not be addressing the WWE creative process at this point, as that would take a whole separate entry to explore.

WWE buyrates are down. No one wants to see two World Champions fight for their respective titles against separate opponents under the same stipulations. No one. Because it won't matter who the champion of Raw or the champion of Smackdown is at the end of the night. The fans want one champion to reign both shows. As Eric Bischoff once said (ironically in reference to his creation of the World Heavyweight Championship for Raw): "One show, one champion."

The WWE tag team division has long suffered a lack of exposure, much to the dismay of the fans. Why not consolidate the four or five tag teams in WWE by taking them off their brand-exclusive rosters and making them one, company-wide division? Give D-Generation X some real competition for those newly won WWE Unified Tag Team Championships. Cryme Tyme, the Hart Dynasty, Jer-Show are all great teams that deserve to be featured prominently in the company. Better yet, get rid of the other set of belts. Keep the World Tag Team titles (the original WWF World Tag Team Championship) and stop confusing people.

Give the WWE United States Championship to ECW so that up-and-coming talent have something to fight for while they're working towards the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Defend it regularly on "ECW" and "WWE Superstars" so that fans can see a championship match every time they attend a televised event, and viewers at home have a reason to tune in.

Finally, for the love of God, get rid of the Diva's Championship and consolidate it into the WWE Women's title. The belt looks like something Paris Hilton would buy her dog for Christmas. At least the Women's Championship has...y'know...GOLD on it. Like a championship. It has the prestige of past champions from "The Fabulous Moolah", to Sable, Chyna, Trish Stratus, Lita, Mickie James, and Melina. The Divas title has changed hands four times since its creation last year. That's once every three months. Again, consolidate your talent pool before we end up with Jillian Hall as WWE Divas Champion.

I can absolutely see the value of the Brand Extension as of 2002, but in 2009, the talent just isn't there. Sure, when we could put Steve Austin on Raw and The Rock on Smackdown, it didn't seem so bad. But we don't have Steve Austin or The Rock anymore. We don't have the big stars we used to have. Sure, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and the Undertaker are tremendous wrestlers with huge followings, but they have nowhere near the star power or the "household name" quality that Austin, Rock, or even Cena have.

Titles are meaningless when there are a dozen of them floating around the company. Fans don't care because if they don't like the champion on one show, they will watch the other. Don't like Sheamus? Watch "Smackdown". Don't like The Undertaker? Watch "Raw" to see when Cena gets his title back.

Champions work because they are the only choice we have. When WWE puts a heel champion on top, the whole idea is that we are stuck with him because, well, he's the champion, and until someone dethrones him, there is no avoiding him. He is the axis on which the company turns. That's why we root for guys like Cena: because he clearly will be a much better champion than Sheamus.

By having two champions, you give viewers the option of watching something else instead. Granted, it is still your product, but when ratings are down for "Raw" and ratings are up for "Smackdown", it is merely the fans choosing which show or champion they like better. They are telling WWE that they don't like the direction one show is taking. You want better ratings? You want better buyrates? You want stronger live attendance? Consolidate your rosters and your titles, and the rest will follow.

Baseball has ONE World Series, the NFL has ONE SuperBowl, hockey has ONE Stanley Cup, and WWE needs ONE World Champion.

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"I'm the Intercontinental Champion!"

"Oh yeah? Well I'm the United States Champion!"

"Oh...oh wow..."

"Yeah, so eat that!"

"Well...well my title's better than yours!"

"How?"

...
...
...

"I don't know."

"We should see who the real champion is!"

"NO! We can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because, Vince says we're no supposed to!"

"Oh. Well, okay then. See ya."

"See ya."
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Now that's compelling television!