The trigger has been pulled. WWE have split their already thinning roster in two, and we once again have separate touring groups. But with SmackDown already been tagged as a B-show yet again, it’d be fair to be a little cynical about the blue brand’s future.
Browsing: Raw
Last week’s Raw saw WWE enter scarily unfamiliar territory – pulling their lowest rating in almost twenty years. The 2.03 rating was narrowly higher than the 1.9 that WWE drew in February 1997, for a taped episode of Raw from Berlin, Germany – and whilst the excuse of “it was against the NBA finals” holds some water, at some point you have to look at the bigger picture – one that’s showing a longer-term decline.
Monday saw WWE pull the trigger on the brand split, with the announcement of a draft between Raw and SmackDown that’ll take place on the first live episode of SmackDown in four weeks’ time.
Television can be a very useful tool for a professional wrestling promotion. Back in the day, it was one of the main vehicles that companies had to sell tickets to live events. As wrestling evolved, television shows became a tool to increase awareness and sell pay-per-views as well. With success comes ratings, and the inevitable addition of extra coverage, which leads us to the conundrum that we face today.
The fabled Monday Night Wars changed a lot of things in wrestling. It led to the increased use of “hot-shots” – where a storyline that would have played out over the course of months is told in a matter of weeks. It led to the increase in pay-per-views across the board… and it also led to the assertion that “live matters”.
WrestleMania weekend was big for NXT in more ways than one. Friday night’s Takeover: Dallas show ended up blowing WrestleMania out of the water as far as critical acclaim, whilst Baron Corbin finally made his main roster debut courtesy of the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. Maybe Baron will stop being a moody so-and-so now he’s finally up there? Of course, there was more on Raw…
So, the Internet rumour of the day is suggesting that WWE are on the verge of bringing back the brand split. That is, if you believe a rogue Ticketmaster listing that advertised “WWE Monday Night Raw vs WWE”.
Since debuting in NXT in May 2013, Baron Corbin has had a rather tumultuous run in developmental. After around a year stuck in a spot as enhancement talent, Corbin was rebooted in May 2014, and has been a focus of developmental, to the point where a main roster call-up is on the horizon.