Vince McMahon Started Wild Card Rule Due to Pressure From FOX and NBCU Over Ratings, Doesn’t Want to Let Go of Brand Split

– During today’s edition of The Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported on the backstage rumors surrounding WWE and Vince McMahon enacting the new Wild Card rule, which we saw play out last night on Monday Night Raw. According to Meltzer, Vince McMahon added the new Wild Card rule due to outside pressure he’s facing from both the USA Network and FOX to boost up WWE’s declining ratings.

Meltzer stated that WWE’s backs “were against the wall” after the ratings drop last week for Raw and Smackdown, and Vince McMahon knew that he had to “make changes.”

Additionally, Meltzer stated that Vince McMahon “did not want to give up on the idea of brands,” or rather having separate brands for Raw and Smackdown, but he added, “The pressure was definitely there from both sides, both NBCUniversal and FOX, although FOX isn’t in the game yet.” He continued:

“They [NBCU and FOX] both will not be happy with bad ratings because of how much money they’re spending. It’s a lot different game than this XFL where things are fine because they’re not spending any money on it. These companies want ratings with that kind of money they’re spending, especially because it’s not an advertising friendly product. They want star power, and these brands individually don’t have enough star power.”

Meltzer also went on to say that after Smackdown Live moves to FOX later this fall, FOX wants storylines to be featured on both Raw and Smackdown. Additionally, he claimed that NBCUniversal was “real upset” about the ratings for Raw last weekend, especially the ratings in the third hour, questioning why the Raw brand gave away Roman Reigns, who returned to Raw this week.

It seems a simple solution here would be to end the second brand split, which is already eroding at the seams.