WWE: 3 positive takeaways about the new wild card rule

3. Exciting Matches

I have to imagine even the most ardent opponents of the new wild card rule would be willing to admit that we’ve seen some exciting matches on Raw and SmackDown this week.

Now that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have seen exciting matches regardless of the new rule per se, but it certainly seems like the new wild cards played a fairly heavy role in making these shows as thrilling as they were.

Kofi Kingston’s appearance on Raw led to a major WrestleMania rematch against Daniel Bryan, who also appeared on the red brand due to the rule, for the WWE Championship

On top of that, Roman Reigns squared off with Drew McIntyre in a seemingly well-received rematch from WrestleMania on Raw as well.

Back on SmackDown, Sami Zayn and A.J. Styles received their own shot at Kofi Kingston too, while The Usos were able to provide a stiff challenge for Daniel Bryan and Rowan in a SmackDown Tag Team Championship match.

None of those matches would have been possible without the wild card rule.

A strict brand split is certainly nice in theory, but if WWE can use this new rule to consistently be able to present high quality matches on TV, as opposed to time filler bouts or more 6-man tag matches, then count me in.