How a New Brand Extension Could Save Smackdown From Itself

Introduction: In the comments for last week’s column, Hectus mentioned that he/she “would be happy if NXT replaced Smackdown on TV”, citing Smackdown’s current irrelevance. I’d actually prefer if NXT stays exclusively on the WWE Network and Hulu until Vince McMahon cedes control of the company to Triple H and Stephanie, but I can certainly see where Hectus is coming from.

So how can we fix Smackdown and make it feel important again?

Two words:

Brand.

Extension.

Put down the torches and pitchforks and hear me out! I know the original Brand Extension was much-maligned for allowing the rich (RAW) to get richer while the poor (Smackdown) almost continually got poorer and, in its later years, for being mostly ignored; however, if executed properly, a new Brand Extension could revitalize both RAW and Smackdown (and keep NXT its own happy kingdom).

Last week, I compared NXT to the original ECW, and by once again separating RAW and Smackdown into separate brands, WWE could effectively create their own WWF and WCW, but the execution has be done properly this time. So, you may be asking (you’re probably not), what do I propose?

Specialization and the Division of Labor.

At one point, all the way back in 2002, a man named Paul Heyman (there’s that name again from last week) was put in charge of WWE’s then-Brand Extended Smackdown program. He made wrestling a focus of the show while still managing to tell stories with some of the lesser used members of the roster, and there was much rejoicing. For a period of almost a year, much of the Internet Wrestling Community actually considered Smackdown to be a better show than the WWE’s flagship, and even the casual fans were buying into Smackdown’s more action-heavy telecast. Depending on what you believe, either because Vince McMahon apparently hates the “wrestling” part of “professional wrestling” (hence pushing the term “sports entertainment”), or because he hates Paul Heyman and couldn’t stand his show being more successful, McMahon began disassembling the kingdom that Heyman built, which leads us to where we are today, with Smackdown acting as little more than a RAW recap/rehash show. And before you well-intentioned WWE fans attempt to argue that point, look at the average Smackdown and tell me what you find on there that you can’t see on AM RAW or couldn’t have seen on Velocity. At this point, Main Event and Superstars are almost always better than Smackdown, because they feature fresh match-ups that aren’t just move-for-move replays/previews of what happened/is going to happen on RAW.

Ahhh, the good old days.

So how would splitting the brands again help that? Well, first off, by keeping the two rosters separate (except for at PPVs), it would almost immediately eliminate the seemingly endless RAW Recap video packages that plague Smackdown and also ensure that the matches that did take place would feel fresher. Plus, instead of the same people wrestling each other as many as eight times between PPVs, the maximum amount of times they could face off would be four. And here’s a revelation – Paul Heyman is still on the WWE payroll, so put him in charge of Smackdown again and see what he can do. (That part will never happen, but one can dream.) But one of the original ideas behind the brand extension was to make RAW the “sports entertainment” brand and Smackdown the “professional wrestling” brand, and, as mentioned, that actually worked for a solid two years while Heyman was in charge. With the proper commitment, I believe that it can work again, and with a focus on putting on the best possible wrestling show they’re capable of, Smackdown could effectively become the “new WCW”.

Obviously, you can’t completely load up each roster with performers who only cater to that specific show’s strong point, or you risk alienating at least a portion of your audience. My suggestion is to take the guys who initially made their name outside of the WWE (Bryan, Cesaro, Rollins, Ambrose, etc) and put them on Smackdown, while keeping the guys who can actually have good matches but work primarily “WWE Main Event Style” like Cena, Sheamus, Orton, and even Brock on RAW. This way you’re not totally handicapping either brand, but you can still ensure that each brand is able to provide their own unique identity in the ring. The biggest exception to this divide would be Dolph Ziggler, who came up through the WWE developmental system and is primarily a “WWE guy”, but I think he’s perfectly capable of flourishing with the guys who started in the Indies. You could also take someone like Bray Wyatt, who is primarily known for his out-of-ring escapades, and allow him to continue to grow as an in-ring performer by working with some of the best talents on the roster.

As for how the titles would break down, originally I thought it would make the most sense for the WWE World Heavyweight title to be defended on both shows, give each show a secondary title, keep the tag titles on one brand and the Divas division on the other. Instead, I came up with a way to increase the prestige of the secondary titles, give the WWE some legitimate “dream matches” every year, and restore the prestige of the “Big Four” pay-per-views. As Lesnar is the current champion, let’s assume that this new brand split takes place the night after Hell in a Cell, and he remains on RAW. At Survivor Series, he would then take on the Intercontinental Champion (since we assigned Ziggler to Smackdown and Sheamus to RAW, let’s keep each of them with their respective titles for simplicity’s sake) at Survivor Series. Lesnar successfully defends his title and moves into a program with someone in the RAW upper card, while Ziggler goes back to the top of the Smackdown card. They each wrestle someone from their own brand at TLC, and then the reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion would take on the reigning Intercontinental Champion at Royal Rumble.

This was for the United States Title. You can’t tell me it wasn’t more important then.

By alternating like this, you don’t hurt the main event feuds on each brand, it’s the easiest story in the world to make the Intercontinental and United States championships feel important, as they effectively make you the number one contender to the main title, and the WWE either has the freedom to build up to big matches on Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and Survivor Series. Rather than challenging for the the WWE World Heavyweight championship, allow the Money in the Bank winner to pick which secondary champion he’s going to cash in on, so if Seth Rollins shows up on RAW and cashes in on Sheamus after a hard-fought match with Randy Orton, it actually feels like a huge surprise.

As for the rest of the titles? As mentioned, the US Title goes to RAW while the Intercontinental Championship goes to Smackdown (a bit of a role reversal obviously if we’re making Smackdown the new WCW), and I’d keep the Divas Championship on RAW and the Tag Team Championships on Smackdown, mainly because tag team wrestling has the most potential for consistently great matches (if you’ve only watched the last decade of the WWE, you’d never know that, of course) and also because there is very little chance that the Divas division is ever going to be fully able to transition away from the Total Divas type of non-wrestling models. With Sara Del Ray responsible for grooming the next generation of Divas and the greatly-improved match quality we’ve seen in NXT, there is always the potential that the Divas division will end up being the better wrestling division of the two, but for now at least, I prefer my breakdown like it is.

Rather than appointing a General Manager for each show (an outdated concept that we’ve finally gotten rid of), just continue to keep the Authority as the highest power. Rather than forcing Triple H and Stephanie to travel with both crews, let Kane be 99% retired and have him handle business for the Authority on Smackdown, which not only minimizes the fact that he has slowed down in the ring tremendously even from earlier this year but also eliminates the problem of too many extraneous Authority members just kinda hanging around aimlessly backstage. Of course, that would eliminate the “brands in competition” storyline that was originally played up during the first Brand Extension, but then that was more or less forgotten around the time Vince realized that Smackdown was actually winning anyway, so I would consider this a zero-loss situation. Plus, the Authority members working together ties into my final major point.

So, if executed properly, we’ve given a wider variety of fans the type of wrestling show that they want to see, brought the prestige back to the secondary titles and the tag team division, given some superfluous-seeming Authority members an actual purpose, refreshed the Money in the Bank concept, and reestablished the Big Four PPVs. So what’s left? Oh yeah, getting talent from one brand to another as necessary.

Let’s say Bray Wyatt hones his in-ring craft on Smackdown to the point where he’s capable of having good matches with everyone on that particular roster, to the point where he can even carry some of the less-talented tag team guys. The WWE wants to see if he can hang with some of the less wrestling-oriented Superstars, so they want to get him to RAW. During the previous Brand Extension (even when it was barely being acknowledged), the WWE would’ve done that through a draft, but they quickly played out all of the intriguing storylines associated with the event and turned it into “Where will John Cena end up?” Rather than trudging back through that particular quagmire, book each wrestlers transition with a storyline that makes sense. Triple H and Stephanie are having issues with Sheamus on RAW, so they request that Kane transfer the contract of The Eater of Worlds to RAW to deal with him (keeping Rowan and Harper with the rest of the tag teams, which would give them a unique storyline of their own as well, as they make their way without their leader). Or perhaps the Miz has gone back to being stale and the decision is made to send him to Smackdown to re-team with Damien Sandow and try to rekindle his in-ring abilities in the tag division. The on-screen storyline could have Miz asking the Authority to be transferred to Smackdown because having Sandow around allows him more time for press junkets and his other Hollywood responsibilities. There are hundreds of different, character-specific reasons that talent could be shifted from one roster to the other, and it would only take minimal effort from the writing team to come up with them.

These guys as a full-time tag team would be…..AWWWWWEEEEEEESOME.

I would like to think that I am not the only wrestling fan who would like to see a drastic change brought about in Smackdown’s format to make those two additional hours of WWE programming each week feel more unique and purposeful, but I am also equally sure that there are as many different ideas for how to do so as there are fans who would like to see the changes made. So please, take to the comments and let me know how you would fix Smackdown!

Wyatt Beougher is a lifelong fan of professional wrestling who has been writing for 411 for over three years and currently hosts MMA Fact or Fiction and reviews Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.