The "brand extension" is BOMBING

[Guest nikowwf]

I like the brand extension fine. Without it, HHH, Undertaker and the like would be poisoning both shows. Its forced some people to be given more time simply because there is time that needs to be filled. The Canadian Mafia (can't pay me enough to call them there stupid name), Booker T & Goldust, Brock Lesnar, Ray Mysterio, Edge and others have gotten airtime because of it.

 

Lately the shows have been good too. This week is hopefully just a painful abberation.

 

Niko

[Guest Olympic Slam]

*And for those that are complaining about RVD's role in the company, what do you want? He's holding the I.C title and has been allowed to showcase what he can do in the mid-card without jobbing on a nightly basis. Do you want him to be elevated to the main event so he can job to Lesnar and HHH in shitty matches? Or do you want him to put on great matches in the mid-card with Eddie/Benoit?

 

I think its safe to say we want RVD to be elevated WITH THE CURRENT MID CARD, and have HHH and Taker quietly drift off into the night.

 

We dont want RVD jobbing to HHH and Taker, we want HHH and Taker gone, so that Benoit and RVD can fight for the WWE Title, oh, and we'd like that Angle guy to have something to do with it all too

Agreed, this is only way to save the split. Elevate ALL the upper mid-carders to create a bigger division at the top. They're starting with Lesnar but that's not exactly getting me excited. With the way the main event is now, RVD hell of doesn't belong. But if they can create some sort of B-Team main event with the split, then seeing RVD continue to be in matches with Edge, Benoit, Angle, Jericho except on a grander scale than that would definitely be good. At the very least they can treat the I.C title a little better and have bigger profile stars feud over it. RVD vs. Benoit is a start, but I wouldn't mind RVD vs. Jericho or Angle vs. Edge over the belt.

[Guest chirs3]

"Do you really think RVD and Booker T would be getting as much screen time as they are WITHOUT the roster split?"

 

Sure they would be.  In fact they'd be getting TWICE as much time because both guys would be featured on Raw and SMDN.

No they wouldn't. Because Taker, Triple H, Rock, Angle, and others would be main eventing, semi main eventing, and using up valuable match time for interviews on EVERY SHOW. At best, RVD and Booker would be permanent curtain jerkers.

 

I'm not saying I like where they are now, but Booker and 'Dust have main evented Raw, RVD has main evented Raw more than once, and none of those would've happened without the split.

[Guest MR. COOLING]

The problem with the first spilt was the way they did it, they just had Linda come out and announce it and it meant nothing AT ALL, there was no reason for it.

 

The second problem was that when the did the rosters they were just 50% of the old combined roster, neither roster had a character of its own, they also gave Flair and Vince the wrong show, Flair should have got Smackdown (which always has had more wrestling) and Vince RAW.

 

Also they didn't establish a strong central authority independent of the two GMs say a President or a Commissioner.

 

Also they were muddled as to what the split would mean for business, would it be two versions of the WWF or (as I would do) a WWF like product on RAW and more Wrestling orientated/ WCW type show on Smackdown to try and tempt the old WCW viewers (with recognisable WWF faces to keep the WWF'ers happy) so to stop a promotion sneak up and fill the void.

 

What they should have done is during the Undertaker/Flair feud (although I think having Angle in UT's role would be better) have Flair become more and more paranoid about it being Vince who has set The Undertaker on him. Flair accusing him many times of it but Vince denies it.

 

Come Wrestlemania The Undertaker beats Flair, afterwards Vince comes onto the stage and applauds the Undertaker and then gives UT a big wad of cash.

 

In the Title match after HHH has run Flair comes down and takes the old WCW belt leaving HHH with only the old WWF belt.

 

On Raw HHH demands that Flair brings him the other belt. Flair comes out and tells HHH to get lost. Flair then calls Vince out, Vince stays in the back. Flair then goes and has a big rant about how awful the WWF is with the short matches, the Seven-Footers, Sleaze, etc, etc. This provokes Vince to come out and demand that Flair gets to the point. Flair tells Vince that he wants out. Vince is happy thinking Ric wants to sell Flair his stock back but Flair buts he tells Vince he doesn't want to sell his stock. He wants to takes his half of the company, half the wrestlers, announces and TV time and leave the WWF. Vince goes crazy at Flair trying to divide the WWF up, the WWF President Jim Cornette (Linda? Yeah Right!) comes and calms them down and tells them to cool down and leave this till Smackdown.

 

During the rest of RAW Jim Cornette stays in Vince McMahon's office talking, we also see Arn Anderson join them, as Flair gets more and more paranoid.

 

On Smackdown Jim Cornette, Arn Anderson and Vince McMahon come out. Jim Cornette announces that he and Vince had come up with a compromise deal. Flair would be able to take half the wrestlers and TV time (Smackdown and an hour long show) and he would have his own independent Cruiserweight Title under his complete control which would be exclusive to Smackdown (Vince would have the Hardcore Title) and each belt would have its ten man roster that goes straight to each man's show. The rest of the roster would be selected with drafts. However it would still be in the WWF and the World Title, World Tag Team Titles and the Intercontential Title (which will be unified with the European Title) would be for both shows and irrespective of which show the champion belongs to.

 

They would be a central authority independent of the two GMs and they would be himself as President and Arn Anderson as his Commissioner who would decide who gets the shots at the three "federal" titles. Cornette also announces that as the WWF would no longer be a federation but a confederation and will be renamed the World Wrestling Confederation (WWC). Also Excess will be handed over to Cornette's OVW to groom the stars of the future and that Heat will be run by the central WWC with each Franchise supplying matches.

 

Flair comes out and after Anderson persuades him agrees. On RAW they sign the contract, which sets the date for the draft as Backlash and that it comes into force a week later. The draft would be split into Top 8 in the rankings/9-20/Tag Teams and the two division rosters, which have already been decided. They also decide that when King of the Ring comes each will hold a mini tournament of 16 (with Quarter Finals on the PPV) with the final two going to Interpromotional Semi Finals and they also set the amount of "Federal" funds each GM gets from the WWC although each can raise more. Also Vince McMahon will get exclusive rights to the Women's Belt

and the Women's division/diva's.

 

The draft comes and they select the wrestlers (with a separate draft for tag teams). Vince selects mostly bigger more name wrestlers although he selects Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho and Booker T. While Ric Flair selects more smaller, up and coming wrestlers although he selects Brock Lesnar, Austin and The Rock.

 

The two franchises then offer different types of wrestling. RAW is sports entertainment, edgy, more mature (TV-14) with the high octane pair of Joey Styles and Cyrus doing commentatory whilst Smackdown is more wrestling orientated, for a younger/older (TV-PG) audience i.e. the old WCW audience and has a more "Southern Feel" which is show in its announcer team of Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly. This is reflected in the areas they tour, RAW tours mostly in the old WWF areas like New York whilst Smackdown tours in the old WCW areas like Georgia and in there marketing; RAW has "ATTITUDE" and Sports Entertainers while Smackdown has "Desire" and Wrestlers.

 

Also to help the two franchises develop separate identities there would be two separate booking teams, for RAW it would be Paul Heyman with Shawn Michaels and Raven helping him and on Smackdown Ric Flair with Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerruro helping him although Paul Heyman would be "Head Booker" and book the "Federal Titles". Both will have a team of (proper) television writers to write the drama segments and a team of ex-wrestlers to help the athletes with their matches (RAW Pat Patterson, Shawn Michaels and Raven/ Smackdown Johnny Ace, Dean Malenko and Arn Anderson).

 

Such an set up would give the fans a reason to care about each promotion against the other and could also tempt the old WCW fans to watch Smackdown which would give the WWF say a combined audience of around 10.0 to hawk the PPVs too.

 

Well that's what I think

 

W.W.I Cooling

[Guest RicFlairGlory]

Holy Shit dude.

 

Just... wow, thats... wow... great stuff man

[Guest Rabbi_wilson13]

That's really cool. I'm all for the WWF, WCW, ECW dividing up. Nitro, Smackdown and either Heat or Velocidential. Split up the rosters, then keep them that way for a while to avoid all this dumb confusion. But that above booking scenario...thumbs waaaay up.

[Guest MR. COOLING]

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond but I kinda forgot I had wrote it. Anyway thanks for the thumbs up its appericated.

 

W.W.I COOLING

[Guest The Czech Republic]

I like it, but I don't think Vince wants to put Jim Cornette on TV. Don't know why though.