The WWE 2016 Brand Split

Hello ladies, gentlemen and TWC Misfits from all around. Tomorrow the WWE shakes things up again with bringing back the brand extension. Thus, having two separate rosters for both Raw and Smackdown. It’s a formula the WWE had used before and there were many pros and cons from it. However, I won’t be focusing much about the brand split from 2002-2012 but more about my opinions of the upcoming brand extension. In the end of this blog, I’ll also share my idea fantasy Raw and Smackdown rosters.

In this section, I’ll list all the things we already know about the upcoming brand extension including the rules for it.

• Stephanie McMahon will be the COO of Raw and Shane McMahon will be the COO of Smackdown. They’ll both have General Managers working under them managing the day-to-day work. I would say it’s almost guaranteed that Triple H would be running Raw along with Stephanie.
• Mick Foley is the General Manager of Raw and Daniel Bryan is the general manager of Smackdown.
• The announcements of who will be the general managers of the brands will be made at the opening segment of Raw tonight.
• The actual draft will take place tomorrow July, 19, 2016 on the first ever live episode of Smackdown.
• Now that Smackdown is going live, there will no longer be Smackdown spoilers. Smackdown was always taped on Tuesday, but always aired later in the week, therefore the Smackdown results would always be on the dirt sheets as soon as possible. It was always hard to avoid the temptation of reading them and spoiling Smackdown for yourself. I think going live is a smart move and will get more having to tune into Smackdown to see whats going to happen.
• Raw has the first over all pick.
• Since SmackDown Live is a two-hour show and RAW will remain with its full three hours, for every two picks SmackDown Live receives, RAW will receive three picks. Therefore the Raw roster is expected to be bigger still.
• Tag Teams count as one pick unless a Commissioner/General Manager specifically only wants one member of the team
• Six drafts picks will be made from the NXT roster.
• The Cruiserweight Division is returning to Raw, which is awesome.
  

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  What we’ve heard about the 2016 Brand Extension through the grapevine

  In this section, I’ll discuss the popular rumours and theories that have been circulating the inter web about the 2016 Brand Extension, that have yet been confirmed.

• Daniel Bryan will be the Smackdown GM. I find this to be very intriguing, as I speculated with Brie retiring to be home with Bryan and starting a family, it meant we wouldn’t see Bryan and Brie on WWE TV (with exception of the CWC, Total Divas & Total Bellas) anytime soon. There was a leak that unofficially announced it being Bryan, and it officially was announced that it was Bryan on Raw.
• It’s also being said that with their being two separate brands again, the blue brand will receive their own exclusive PPVs. The two brands will still both compete on the big four which are Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and Survivor Series but otherwise every month both brands would be hosting their own PPV. A WWE event calendar reportedly leaked showing the return of PPV’s such as Backlash and No Mercy to be under the Smackdown brand. I really like this idea, as I feel with the WWE Network where you get everything just $9.99 anyway, this works perfectly fine.
• Both shows will have their own World Title. This idea has a lot of pros and cons to it. There are some that says it devalues the championship, it doesn’t make sense for one company to have two World Champions and that last time the WWE did this, they dropped the ball on, when the World Title slowly became second to the WWE title during the brief period before the unification.
• The IC Title will be featured on one show and the US title on the other show. This is the most ideal case, but the draft is unpredictable and anything is possible.
• There may be former wrestlers returning for the brand extension. Popular names mentioned were the likes of MVP, Rey Mystery, Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle.
  

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  What I personally want to see from the 2016 Brand Extension

  In the section, Ill talk about the things I would love to see happen during this brand extension. Remember folks, these are just my opinions and what I would want to see.

• Both brands having a unique look. Let Raw and Smackdown have unique stages and appearances rather than just the colour theme. I miss when Raw and Smackdown had their own unique sets and it’s really what set them a part as different brands. I’m not saying bring the fist back, although I’m not against it, but BE DIFFERENT. This is a great opportunity to give the company a makeover.
• I remember during the previous brand extension during 2002 and 2003, superstars were allowed to jump shows when working out a deal with the other brands GM (or now even COO). It made watching both shows seem more compelling. I would want the brands to stay as separate as possible but the idea of a Smackdown guy randomly showing up on Raw out of nowhere or vice versa every once in a blue moon is great. The GMs and the McMahon siblings can use this factor to be competitive with each  other. It also allows things to get refreshed and rebooted on each brand when needed and not having to wait for another draft day the following year. For example, just imagine that somebody wanted to wrestle someone on the other brand for Wrestlemania, they could just start showing up on that brand. I loved it before and I think I would love it now. I was not a fan when they got rid of that idea last time and changed it to trading only. I think trades should still be a thing but the jumping brands should be a thing as well.
• Use NXT stars as free agent bait for Stephanie, Shane and their respective GM’s to fight over. Imagine them on a PPV all trying to sign Bobby Roode to their show. One, it lets the two brands interact for a reason and two makes Bobby Roode seem important as fuck.
• Stay away from brand vs. brand PPVs and matches. When they are trying to create two separate brands under the same company, its best to keep them as far apart as possible. Yeah, I know my last two points makes points of how the brands would interact but having the wrestlers on both brands compete against each other for bragging rights in my mind kills the brand extension idea. The reason WCW vs. WWF during the Monday Night Wars was so great was because even though they were competitive against each other, had people jumping shows and so on, they never went head to head in a match where one of them came out on top which made the other one look week. If they don’t compete against each other, nobody loses and both brands stay competitive to each other.
• This isn’t the Diva era anymore. In the previous WWE brand extension, when the women were split on two different brands it worked because one brand had the Women’s Title and the other brand had the women who would compete in swim suit and bikini contests. Those contests don’t exist anymore and instead gratefully we live in an era where the focus is mainly on Women’s wrestling. Therefore, I think one Women’s Title doesn’t work with girls on two different shows. Is the Women’s Champion going to be featured on both shows? Are the women on the show without the title supposed to just have epic grudge feuds? I know I don’t want two Women’s titles but maybe we can have Divas tag titles on one of the shows? I really don’t know.
• New commentary teams for both shows. Lets have Graves on Smackdown with Mauro and King. I guess you can keep the Raw commentary team the same, but I’m totally fine with a change there too.
• I am totally fine with having two sets of tag team titles again if the brands are going to be split again.
• If there is going to be a new World Title, can we have a tournament for it rather it being rewarded to the first champion, like it was to Triple H in 2002.
  

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  TWC’s 2016 Brand Extension Fantasy Roster  

  Remember this is my opinion of what I would have the rosters look like and not what they actually are or even what I predict they will be. It’s my fantasy rosters for both brands if I was in charge. I want to make it as realistic as possible and following the rules already set out for the upcoming brand extension. Remember this would just be the initial roster and changes would be made yearly or whenever someone would jump ship. I’m also going to draft some NXT stars I think will eventually end up on each brand, by the end of the year. I didn’t add any surprise draft picks such as MVP, Mysterio or Angle but its still a possibility we’re going to have a few surprise picks.

  RAW ROSTER

  COO – Stephanie McMahon & Triple H
  GM – Mick Foley
  Announce Team – Michael Cole, JBL & Tom Phillips

  1. Seth Rollins
  2. Roman Reigns
  3. Brock Lesnar
  4. Randy Orton
  5. Chris Jericho
  6. Charlotte
  7. Sami Zayn
  8. Samoa Joe
  9. Enzo & Cass
  10. American Alpha
  11. Becky Lynch
  12. Bray Wyatt
  13. Rusev w/Lana
  14. Luke Harper
  15. Braun Strowmann
  16. Erick Rowen
  17. Natalya
  18. Dana Brooke
  19. Austin Aries
  20. The Usos
  21. The Vaude Villians
  22. Kalisto
  23. Sin Cara
  24. Brian Kendrick
  25. Dorada
  26. Alberto Del Rio
  27. Darren Young
  28, The Acension
  29. Kane
  30. Emma
  31. Zack Ryder
  32. Golden Truth
  33. Nia Jax
  34. Paige
  35. Eva Marie
  36. Kota Ibushi
  37. Mojo Rawley
  38. Carmella

  SMACKDOWN ROSTER

  COO – Shane McMahon
  GM – Daniel Bryan
  Announce Team – Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves & Jerry Lawler

  1. Dean Ambrose
  2. John Cena
  3. AJ Styles
  4. Finn Balor
  5. Sasha Banks
  6. Kevin Owens
  7. Cesaro
  8. The Club
  9. The New Day
  10. Bayley
  11. Shinsuke Nakamura
  12. The Miz w/ Maryse
  13. Dolph Ziggler
  14. Nikki Bella
  15. Tamina
  16. Summer Rae
  17. Naomi
  18. The Revival
  19. Shining Stars
  20. Heath Slater
  21. Curtis Axel
  22. The Dudley Boyz
  23. Sheamus
  24. Big Show
  25. Baron Corbin
  26. Bo Dallas
  27. Titus O Neil
  28. Neville
  29. Breezdango
  30. Asuka
  31. Apollo Crews
  32. Alexa Bliss
  33. Bobby Roode

  Well that is it for my 2016 Brand Extension blog. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Share your thoughts and opinion on the draft below in the comment section. Tell me what your rosters would look like if you were in charge.

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