411’s WWE Ruthless Aggression (Episode 5): ‘Civil War’ Report – Heyman, Bischoff, Others Talk RAW vs. Smackdown Brand Split

-Air Date: 03/09/20
-Run Time: 40:53

-We are up to the final episode of this run and this time they will be focusing on the war between RAW and SmackDown post brand split. Let’s get to it.

-Vince McMahon addresses a crowd at a conference and admits that at times you have to take a ½ step back and that’s what they are doing with the brand extension. It was important to do it so they could take a bunch more steps forward. It takes a while to build stars and to build back up and says you also need some lady luck on your side.

-Show opening! Again, a remind this series has been narrated by Michael Rapaport.

-WrestleMania X-8: It was a year after buying WCW and fans were finally getting dreams matches like Rock/Hogan. The WWE was now the top dog with no rivals. WrestleMania continued to break attendance records, but the fire from the Monday Night Wars had been extinguished. Prichard talks about how they had to keep retelling what happened on RAW on SmackDown and vice versa. He admits things were on auto-pilot. Heyman compares it to chess and you have to look at the entire board. You are screwed if you are just looking at what can get you through today and even tomorrow. You need to look months ahead.

-The WWE had a large assembly of talent including a lot of young and hungry guys. Gewirtz (sorry, for butchering his name all series) talks about the young guys bubbling underneath and how you needed to find time for them to get better. The decision was made to split the roster into two with one going to RAW and the other SmackDown.

-The Rock is the first pick of Vince on RAW and Flair takes Taker first for SmackDown. Heyman puts over the idea that the rosters did want to compete against each other. Adam Cole says as a fan he was curious how this was going to work. Becky Lynch didn’t have cable, so could only watch SmackDown. She wasn’t happy about the brand split because there were people on RAW she wanted to see and couldn’t. The opportunity for the talent to get more of a chance outweighed the negatives.

-They show Rey diving off the cage shortly after his debut and Cole’s call of Rey, Cena, and Edge being the future on SmackDown. Over on RAW, Jeff Hardy has a career making ladder match with Taker that pegged him as the future.

-Things took a crazy turn when Vince McMahon introduced Eric Bischoff as the new GM of RAW. Still awesome and surreal! Drake says that when Bischoff was brought in it was different. The current stars talk about how surreal it was seeing this as fans. We get parts of Bischoff’s promo and Prichard calls him a great heel. Bischoff defeated WWE for 83 weeks and we see footage of him on Nitro being the cocky douche we all know and love. Eric says he thought his career was over and then he got a call from Vince (Hey Pal) and he found the idea intriguing. He talks about some of the guys being annoyed and some were indifferent. He mentions Booker T being shocked. He wanted to go back to the business and he wanted to work with Vince McMahon. Hogan calls Eric his boy and he loved seeing him in the WWE. He talks about the back story he had and he knew it would help him do business with the WWE. Steph was named GM on SmackDown.

-Gewirtz thinks they made a mistake splitting the roster at first as he thinks they were unbalanced. Heyman was in charge of SmackDown and Gewirtz was in charge of RAW. Gewirtz thinks they could have made RAW more entertaining, but were hurt by the split at first. Prichard talks about the two of them negotiating trades while in the writing room. Heyman made a pitch for The UnAmericans and Jericho to be sent to RAW. He initially just wanted to send the UA as he hyped them to Gewirtz as the hottest heels in the business. He countered back that he also wanted Jericho because he wanted someone who could host a talk show segment. Heyman says he had his eye on Eddie Guerrero and that is what he got in exchange. Heyman was laughed out of the building because everyone thought he was robbed. They admit they had to sell the idea to Vince and he agreed.

-Vince at a WWE Town Hall Employee meeting explaining the brand split and how it was competition like they had from WCW. The announcement was made that WWE Champion Brock Lesnar would be exclusive to SmackDown, so they looked to the past and brought back the World Title and handed it to HHH.

-Internally the shows were viewed as unequal. Prichard doesn’t agree with the sentiment, but people felt SmackDown was the B show. Bischoff compares it to the first man on the moon versus the second and how you will always remember the first man. Heyman: “SmackDown was RAW’s bitch and it was my goal to make RAW SmackDown’s bitch.”

-Angle says SmackDown was special because they were the wrestling show with guys like him, Eddie, Edge, and Rey. Rollins says he was a SmackDown guy because he was all about the wrestling. Gewirtz says the job on SD was easy as they could just tell Eddie and Angle to go 3 segments and a third of the show was written.

-RAW was seen as the entertainment show with great promos and larger than life talent. Foley says he was a RAW guy because it came off better since it was a live show. RAW was more character driven and Ricochet says he was into that style more. We see part of the BookDust Star Wars segment and it’s still amazing.

-Both shows had established their own identity and it kicked the brand rivalry in gear. Heyman told Cole and Tazz to go to war with Lawler and JR. They talk about how that was Paul’s personality and he loved the competition. Shelton says there was no question there was competition and each roster wanted to be part of the best show. They competed in ratings, ticket sells, merchandise sells, etc. Big Show says the RAW group used to laugh at them and openly call them the B show. He says that SmackDown was kicking the crap out of RAW in the ratings from the end of 2002 into 2003.

-Bubba says SmackDown was easily the better show. They show an episode of Byte This where they ask Vince why SmackDown is consistently better. He admits that it has been and that at times RAW has been absolutely great and just horrific. We see a fan tell Bischoff they need to do some Nitro stuff as RAW has sucked the last 2 weeks. Eric laughs it off and asks the fans what he wants to see. He promises the fan they will do their best and to keep watching. Austin returns to the WWE at No Way Out and the reaction is something Vince would kill to have anyone on the main roster get. They credit Austin’s return as the boost that RAW needed.

-RAW then had the WWE debut of Goldberg and on SmackDown, Big Show and Brock implode the ring. It seems everything was now great in the WWE as ratings were up and so was attendance. They could now do exclusive RAW and SmackDown PPVs and 2 different tours to grow the WWE fan base. Prichard says what they were doing was working and the talent was reaping the rewards. Each brand had an identity and established stars.

-For sustained success they needed new stars in the Main Event and Eddie Guerrero took advantage of the brand split. Eddie was the same guy he was 2 years earlier, but was now given the chance. Eddie was the most beloved guy by the boys and they all wanted to see him given the chance. Batista talks about the way Eddie could control a crowd. He could be the most amazing, loveable babyface one minute and then despised the next. Angle calls Eddie one of the top 3 greatest of all time.

-Eddie beats Lesnar for the WWE Title and it was an amazing moment that the crowd was dying to see. He got the big celebration on SmackDown and everyone knew he was the man. Prichard says part of it was to hit a new demographic, but Eddie was more than just a new demo. Eddie made SmackDown more than just the wrestling show as he could be a world class entertainer outside the ring.

-Next up is JBL and how he was reinvented from his APA days. JBL admits people didn’t buy the character change because they were used to seeing him as the beer drinking guy from APA. Gewirtz talks about all the doubters, but JBL made it work. Apparently it was “some good shit” according to Gewirtz and everyone hated JBL. JBL says that he doesn’t get that chance without the brand split.

-Over on RAW they were creating stars as well with Batista and Randy Orton. HHH admits they set the table up well for them and they seized the chance. RAW continued to also push the entertainment aspect and show the musical chairs segment with Flair stealing the show by cheating to get Stacy Keibler eliminated. Classic!

-RAW also made history as they let Lita and Trish Main Event. Great match that the crowd was invested in, and man, I still don’t know how Lita didn’t break her neck on that dive to the floor.

-Back to SmackDown where they had a star on their hands with John Cena. He ended JBL’s monster reign as champion at Mania 21 and soon was poached to RAW as the top pick in the Draft Lottery. To counter, Batista was sent to SmackDown with the World Title.

-Edge cashes in the first Money in the Bank contract on Cena in one of those great moments that should have meant more, but was pushed aside to keep us on course for HHH/Cena at Mania. SmackDown sees the rise of King Booker and Rey Mysterio wins the World Title.

-Ultimately we are told the fans were the winners as the competition helped create new stars. Show calls that era the most fun he’s had and also calls it the hardest working era. Batista calls the era perfect and Heyman says he doesn’t know what WWE would be like today without the brand split. He knows they did it and the WWE is still benefitting.

-Previews for the next batch of episodes that will release in the fall. It seems it will touch on The Diva Search, Tough Enough (Nice!), Money in The Bank, Elimination Chamber, Taker, and OVW. Fantastic! Give me all of that.

-Well that finishes this part of the series and I am glad that it will be continuing later in the year. This era did have a lot to offer and there are still plenty of stories to discuss. It’s nice to see something covered besides the Attitude Era and The Monday Night War. This episode was solid, but I’ll still call the Evolution one the best of the bunch. Heyman and Gewirtz discussing trading talents was interesting and I am sure the rosters did compete with each other, but personally I never picked a side as it was just WWE to me and I enjoyed aspects of both. They kind of breezed through this episode as it was just a general overview of the split without getting into too much detail, but it was fine and an easy watch. Thanks for reading!