WWE's New Era: How New is it, Really?

I'm going to forego analyzing how WWE likes to pretend that this "brand extension" is the first of its kind.  I'm also going to forget the fact that we've all fallen for this before and it bore out less than stellar results.

I'm going to pretend that the concept of WWE breaking up its rosters into two unique "brands" is completely new, and we'll go from there.