Recently on Pulse Wrestling an article was written about the idea of ending the brand extension. It stated that the talent roster is too shallow for all four hours of WWE Raw and WWE Smackdown to be supported. It’s a really interesting perspective to me to think of the roster split actually ending.
If the split did end, I would be worried about the very large mid card on each show. In the year before the beginning of the roster split we had Intercontinental Champions Triple H and Kane. Think about that, these two main event level talents at the time were the mid card champion. This is a primary reason why the brand split needs to exist.
What would happen to Dolph Ziggler if he was suddenly having to fight for his current roster spot with every main event talent? What about a guy like Christian? Would there even be room for him on WWE’s roster? Let’s look lower on the card at a talent like Goldust. He is in a career resurgence and is in the best shape he has ever been in. Would WWE even put him on TV if they were trying to cram all of their wrestlers onto one show?
TNA has this problem, where it often seems like they have two rosters that alternate every other week. Sometimes we do not see the X-Division champion on TV for a couple weeks. At times the tag team champions are not emphasized because there is so much happening. I feel that WWE’s shows would go this way without the brand extension.
It is actually refreshing to tune in to a different show on Friday nights. The roster may be depleted, but I appreciate the fact that I usually will not see Randy Orton, John Cena and Triple H on that show. Once that roster has built some new stars (which until this year, it was very good at) we will all be happy to see the new main event talent. Why throw out that opportunity to see Randy Orton twice a week?
Right now, WWE’s roster is depleted and in transition. Is that a reason to throw out their current structure and attempt to change things back to the way they were? What about the build to pay per views? Sometimes it seems like WWE does not know how to stretch out a story over four weeks because they are so used to setting up the next main event on the first night. Now instead of four shows that a story needs to stretch over, we will see eight.
Right now, I believe that it is the easy choice to throw out the brand split. It puts all of the talent on every show and bulks up what looks like a depleted roster. In a year WWE will regret this choice if they make it because they will have a healthy roster that is main event heavy.
These are just my thoughts on ending the split. Please feel free to express your own!
