The WWE Draft finally comes our way next Tuesday on the first live episode of Smackdown , reincarnating a brand split that will result in two unique rosters. Vince McMahon appointed his daughter, Stephanie, as the Commissioner of RAW and his son, Shane, as the Commissioner of the blue brand. But the power positions won’t stop there. Shane and Stephanie will each have the right to name a General Manager, with those names set to be revealed on Monday.
Daniel Bryan’s name has emerged as the leading candidate for the GM role on Smackdown , largely due to a WWE error when their app sent out a premature alert. The WWE has kept a tighter lip on who Stephanie might appoint to run the flagship show as plenty of names have been bandied about.
There is still plenty to iron out from a public perspective, but often with the WWE, when there’s smoke, there’s fire. The prevailing thought is that there will be two world champions again with one representing each brand. It’s expected that the Intercontinental Champion would be on one show while the United States Championship would be exclusively defended on the other. As for the WWE Women’s Division and the WWE Tag Team Division, there have been conflicting reports as far as brand exclusivity or champions crossing over to both shows.
By pairing WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte with her protege, Dana Brooke against Sasha Banks and a mystery partner at Battleground , it almost guarantees that the stage is set for Charlotte and Sasha to collide for the first time for the belt at SummerSlam . Where all the women are placed via the draft remains to be seen.
As for the WWE Tag Team Division, The New Day will be competing at Battleground, but the tag titles will not be on the line during their six-man tag match with The Wyatt Family. Whether that is by design or because the Draft will have major implications for either of these factions is unclear at this point. But according to Ringside News , the WWE does plan on splitting up several tag teams as part of the upcoming brand extension.
Even though they are the champions, The New Day has been the subject of split up rumors, with Big E emerging as the future singles star to break away from the group. The WWE has been teasing Xavier Woods as the one to drive the wedge, but officials are confident in Big E as a potential superstar. Since the belts won’t be on the line at Battleground, it will be interesting to see how their reign plays out if they are in fact separated. Should Big E go it alone after Tuesday, the WWE can always move forward with Kofi and Xavier as champions, although their impact won’t be nearly as significant.
The other potential split that has been gaining traction over recent weeks involves Enzo & Cass. The pair has made a tremendous impact in their short time on the main roster, with Cass currying favor from WWE officials since his debut. There are plenty who oppose a break-up this soon, but the fact that they’ve been positioned alongside John Cena for a match against The Club at Battleground shows they’ve got a bright future.
The rest of the division features teams like The Club, The Usos, The Vaudevillains, The Dudley Boyz, Golden Truth, Breezango, the Lucha Dragons, The Ascension, the Shining Stars and the Social Outcasts. It’d be hard to imagine D-Von and Bubba Ray Dudley splitting up at this point in their careers, and the Breezango pairing has received a lot of backstage supportwith a more serious repackaging apparently on the horizon. The rest of the teams are all eligible for a shake-up, including The Usos, who may have hit their peak as a tandem, but they have yet to really test the waters individually.
[Image via WWE]