Time to end the brand extension?

Minto

First off, apologies if this has been done before.

Now, is it time WWE mixed RAW and SmackDown! again?

I know that the brand extension was undertaken (supposedly) to give underutilized (spelling?) and new talent a chance to shine, but IMHO, it has just caused the entire WWE product to become less entertaining and it has also caused a drop in the level of matches.

Would it not be better to end the brand extension now and let the 'big dawgs' on both shows and have a better product on a whole?

Fozzy

Minto wrote:

I know that the brand extension was undertaken (supposedly) to give underutilized (spelling?) and new talent a chance to shine,

I think the reason for the brand extension was so WWE could make more money, and they seem to be doing just that, so I really doubt they're going to end it anytime soon. It'd be bad business if they did, plain and simple

Mr.Nice Guy

I'd like to see it end but I don't see it happening. To be fair to them they have developed a lot of main eventers through the brand extension.

Vince135792003

It won't happen like Fozzy said due to money. More brands means more house shows and more pay per views.

Minto

Vince135792003 wrote:

More brands means more house shows and more pay per views.

Yea, but why pay for production costs for 14 or 15 PPVs that are mediocre and with lower buyrates, when they can have 12 better PPVs with higher buyrates.

I do agree that it prob won't happen cos there is money to be made with it, but eventually they will realise that they want to improve their product more than their profits.

Vince135792003

I think and (this is going on memory by an observer issue) that they need 100 thousand or so buys to meet production costs.

WWE are getting quite low buys but they are never close to that. So obviously they have worked it out that more pay per views albeit with less people buying them is better than less pay per views with slightly more people watching.

Theres no reason why the brand extension should have meant a drop in the WWE product. On the plus side:

-Keeps characters and fedus fresh by only seeing them on a weekly basis
-Allows each creative team to concentrate on they're 2 hours of wrestling instead of worrying about every other show.
- Gives more spots for new guys like Lashley, Punk, Kennedy etc...

Gillie

The schedule that the top guys had before the split was crazy so I don't think they could go back to that. Remember how much the Rock and others were on the box in the Big matches each week. It was getting too much and a bit boring.
Anyway as you've already mentioned here it is about money so its gonna stay as is.

So long as every now and again they carry out the old draft i'll be happy. Keeps it semi fresh!

Cactus Col

I'm not sure what people expect ending the brand extension would do. WWE shows would become even more bloated and top heavy then ever before.

Putting the brands back together isn't gonna make the writers write any better, the workers work a bit harder, etc.

All it would mean is a few less ppv's, and a lot more of the mcmahons trying to relive 1999.

The split has been successful in a couple of ways, obviously more money, but also there are now to distinctive brands, Smackdown may not have all the big names that raw has, but it has given us a good few new stars, it has rebuilt maineventers, and focuses a good bit more on actual wrestling, than crap innuendos. Although it has also given us boogeyman, and the sooner this rey/chavo feud ends the better. I find it the better brand, and haven't watched too much raw in the last while. It's a shame that people seem so set against it.

Raw on the other hand, has a very different feel to smackdown, it deals more with the big established stars, but there's a bit of a trend in not pushing some wrestlers to their potential, and concentrating too much on the mcmahons. It feels very much like the wwe of the attitude era. Raw is the A show, and is treated as such (season premier on smackdown gets a guest spot for cena, raw family reunion gets a number of superstars and extremists from smackdown AND ecw).
I'm sure there's a tonne of good points about RAW, but I haven't been watching it too much recently .. the king annoys me lately.

Even ECW, although some people call it Raw-lite has a different feel to both the other brands.

If it were up to me, I'd go full hog and rebrand smackdown WCW.

Clareman

there's an good article on this exact topic here http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/columns/46228/MeeThinks-10.10.06:-Long-Live-the-Brand-Extension.htm