WWE News: Vince McMahon Believes Brand Extension Is Working Extremely Well
A constant argument among the WWE Universe normally gravitates towards a few topics. One of them is the booking Vince McMahon decides on. It’s always a battle of not pushing the young stud from the Indies or the incessant push of a Roman Reigns or John Cena. Another complaint used to be with the favorable actions towards Monday Night Raw. Before the brand split occurred, Smackdown was simply an after thought. Not even the hardcore WWE fans were watching it on Thursday nights.
When all was thought to be lost for the blue brand, McMahon decided to shake things up a bit. The WWE’s CEO announced that the brand split was coming back. It was several years in the making, as Monday Night Raw just turned into the Raw Supershow, which was not best for business. Outside of a few golden moments like CM Punk or the Rock’s comeback, the same stars were showing up on TV, ruining any kind of spontaneity possible.
Now that the WWE Creative team has two brands to look over, there are seemingly some miscues in production. For example, Smackdown Live can get away with a lot more. On the microphone, it’s no contest. What Daniel Bryan, John Cena, AJ Styles and the Miz are able to say would never go smoothly on WWE Raw. Their matches are also more expressive and creative. Dean Ambrose and Styles had a great match at the end of Smackdown Live last week. They were allowed to produce something great in a short amount of time.
McMahon knew exactly what he was doing when he initially announced the brand split. He wanted to create competition within the company, which is what he did the first time when WCW closed its doors, and ECW became extinct. In a new report by SEScoops.com, Vince McMahon thinks the brand split is going according to plan.
“It’s working extremely well, it’s working exactly like we thought it would,” McMahon said. “There is some crossover, which is what we wanted. But at the same time, we’re introducing new viewers.
“You have fresh talent coming from one brand to the next,” he continued. “So in essence, if you haven’t seen a Roman Reigns on SmackDown, then when he does – if and when he does – then that’s really a big thing. It freshens up talent, and it gives us a much longer range in terms of the use of those talents and the IP that goes with them.”
To prove that it is working, a report by the Inquisitr highlighted big plans the blue brand had one evening in January, but it didn’t stop there. Shane McMahon, Bryan and the rest of the Smackdown creative team is putting in the work to make the blue brand as competitive as the red brand. Now, while big stars are being created on Tuesday nights like Baron Corbin, AJ Styles, Naomi and others, there are things to worry about when utilizing the brand split.
WhatCulture put together seven “traps” the brand extension could fall in as they continue to push their initiative towards building better talent. One of them, which rings true tremendously to the WWE product, the lack of the roster depth can be troubling at times.
Due to WWE Raw staying at three hours, they need to keep more wrestlers on their side. Smackdown Live hasn’t felt the pressure thus far, but they could in the coming months when more guys push for new goals. WWE programming is consistent at this time, which is a lot saying they weren’t a few years ago. Vince knows a good product when he sees it, and the wrestling on both nights is improving.
[Featured Image by WWE]
