WWE: Five reasons why it’s time to end the brand split
On Saturday afternoon, the WWE announced that Roman Reigns had tested positive for Covid-19. This news would be significant because it would hugely affect WWE Day 1 pay-per-view later that evening. Brock Lesnar would be added to the WWE championship match and eventually win by pinning the current champion Big E.
The WWE has made a huge decision to put the belt on Brock as the road to Wrestlemania begins to start. The question that many people are asking now is should WWE unify the titles. In 2016, WWE announced the brand’s return split with Raw and Smackdown, both receiving exclusive wrestlers to their brands. The current WWE product still has two brands with its own set of wrestlers that appear on the brands, but the hype has completely gone away. In this article, I will discuss five reasons why WWE should unify the titles and the two brands back into one.
5. The lack of star power
When WWE re-introduced the two rosters, Raw and Smackdown, it felt like something new because of the huge names on the rosters at that time. The shows’ quality was boosted with exclusive brand PPV’s different sets and pushed for wrestlers like AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, and Seth Rollins. With two separate creative teams, each show managed to have its style, and it separated the rosters apart.
As we enter another year in professional wrestling, it’s important to note how stale the WWE has become. The WWE has released many wrestlers over the last two years, which has made their women’s division suffer the most. The lack of purpose beyond the title scenes on Raw and Smackdown has caused some average wrestling matches by wrestlers who don’t seem interested in the storylines they’re in, which is why the best option for WWE would be to end the brand split.
4. One roster could fix creative problems
When fans watch the current WWE product, they will notice that the only difference between both brands is the color scheme. The creative teams and on-screen authority figures are all the same now. The WWE has created an uninspired product that lacks the company’s excitement. Some downfalls come with ending the brand split and unifying some WWE titles, such as fewer wrestlers getting chances at the main-event positions. Still, it could make the title feel more critical because each wrestler would have a bigger purpose.
3. Reduces the number of titles in WWE
WWE currently has nine championships across RAW and Smackdown, not counting the comedy 24/7 Championship that hasn’t done anything for the WWE. The WWE should look at all the current championships because winning them doesn’t feel significant anymore. When fans go back and watch the WWE in the company’s golden era, they will see that each championship meant something, and every wrestler had a purpose. The WWE has some of the best wrestlers on the planet regardless of how many wrestlers they have released. Having two world and women’s champions was a good idea a couple of years ago when WWE took the brand split seriously.
2. One stacked roster for WWE to book
One stacked WWE roster would benefit the company because they could have serious contenders for each championship division. The WWE tag team division is one of the weakest divisions that the company currently has. The WWE could change that by ending the brand split and creating teams that could be considered as real threats to the tag-team division. The WWE main roster brand hasn’t given tag team wrestling the attention it deserves in over a decade. The WWE ending the brand split would help divisions between the men’s and women’s tag teams.
1. The Wrestlemania main event would feel special again.
One of WWE’s problems on the road to Wrestlemania is deciding which Women’s and Men’s world championships should main-event WrestleMania. The WWE has created a problem where one championship title might have a more exciting storyline or more serious contender for a top championship. If the WWE were to unify the championships and end the brand split, writers would focus on one top championship to build the Wrestlemania story.
The WWE, over the last couple of years, has diminished the importance of championship titles. With only so much space available on television and PPVs, titles often get left off shows, pushed to the pre-show, or shortened to make time for matches with such a true purpose. The WWE should look at what happened when Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair had that terrible segment where they were supposed to exchange championships as an example of why unifying the men’s, and women’s top titles should be done to avoid horrible storylines like that.