Brand Extension

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Wrestling may be cyclical, but something has to be done to start the new cycle each time around.  It can't start on it's own.  There was a reason for change before.  Now that WWE is the only game in town, what reason to change is there?

The desire to remain in business?

That's not a big enough threat yet. It might not be for years with the back up money WWE has.

[Guest Dangerous A]

I wouldn't say Vince McMahon is overrated as a promoter. If it weren't for McMahon we wouldn't be talking on this message board right now. He is the sole reason wrestling has became such a popular form of entertainment in America. However, he has never been the best guy as relates to creativity. Then again, wrestling is a cyclic industry, so you can't blame all of WWE's problems on McMahon.

While I won't blame Vince for all the problems with WWE, I will blame Vince for all the creative problems of WWE. He is the end all, be all of creative. He edits the final scripts before you see them appear on TV. He's vetoed stuff that was good and bad right before a show goes on and demanded stuff be rewritten.

 

Yes, wrestling is cyclic and the downward trend was probrably going to happen, but maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if Vince didn't let things get as bad as they have now creatively.

 

Vince is the one who botched the Invasion and decided to squash the WCW and ECW names for the sake of letting us know that he is indeed #1. He could've and should've stretched out that storyline for a good year of business. It ended with a thud.

 

Vince is the one who decided to bring in Flair, Steiner, Hogan, Hall, Nash, and Goldberg in too late and then botched them up. The only one of those characters to bring in any money was Hogan for WM18. After that, they fucked him up by having him on too much and the fans rejected it.

 

Vince is the one who allows writers to be intimidated by wrestlers who want to book for ego instead of business. HHH, Hogan, Taker, even Goldberg terrorize the writing team because if they aren't looking like a rose, it ain't gonna fly. Vince should nip this in the bud, pronto. Not have the inmates run the asylum.

 

Vince is the one who allows quality control to go right down the toilet. The Kane-isn't-really-disfigured debacles is just one example of this.

 

Yes, Vince is a big reason we are here on this message board. But he's made mistakes and I put it on him. I've given him credit when credit was due, but he deserves as much criticism when shit goes to hell as well.

[Guest hosserific]

yes, end it........cut the crap end have ONE GOOD BRAND

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

How will ending it give us One good brand? The crap from both shows will combine and all that's good will go away since all that is good is the stuff that the Brand Extension has allowed for (midcard wrestlers, cruiserweights)

[Guest Dangerous A]

LPYC is right. Ending the extention won't make WWE better.

 

My thing is if you aren't creating a new fanbase, why split? All you are doing is making it so that some fans can only watch one show or the other to keep up with storylines since WWE has failed to create an illusion of real competition of the brands.

 

I've said it before and the numbers back me up. The audience is the same because they don't differentiate. They just see it as all WWE, just with different wrapping on the product.

[Guest MixxMaster]

All you are doing is making it so that some fans can only watch one show or the other to keep up with storylines since WWE has failed to create an illusion of real competition of the brands.

 

I've said it before and the numbers back me up. The audience is the same because they don't differentiate. They just see it as all WWE, just with different wrapping on the product.

Which is the easiest way to fix things is NOT to end the Brand Extension, but to make the differences bigger...have totally seperate writing staffs for the shows. Don't have ads for the other "brand's" upcoming PPV's/shows.

Personally, I think they should also do something with what has been the typical 2nd tier shows (Velocity and Heat). Ideally, make these shows not inferior to RAW and SMACKDOWN!, by having storylines carry onto those shows. I actually liked that HHH was on SNH, and not because he wasn't on RAW. It made the show seem a little bit bigger, having the champion on it. I feel that this change would actually be very easy to do, IF they had seperate writers for each brand.

Now, if they really wanted to create something cool, why not get a Friday late night slot, and have ANOTHER brand, with it's own staff(read: ECW-like). The later hour can mean it can be more violent and adult in nature, and would most likely attract a slightly different crowd, or at the least, more of those who aren't big fans of the other two "brands"...

Hey, just my 2 cents.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Now, if they really wanted to create something cool, why not get a Friday late night slot, and have ANOTHER brand, with it's own staff(read: ECW-like). The later hour can mean it can be more violent and adult in nature, and would most likely attract a slightly different crowd, or at the least, more of those who aren't big fans of the other two "brands"...

Absolutely zero chance of this happening. *Piledrivers* are outlawed because they're viewed as "too dangerous", so what makes you think they'd do an ECW-like show?

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Brand Extension, End it?

 

Are you crazy? Its bad enough we gotta deal with HHH on one show...

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Brand Extension, End it?

 

Are you crazy? Its bad enough we gotta deal with HHH on one show...

Yeah, that's close to 50 minuts of Hunter time a week if he goes to both shows. Not to mention extra Taker, Vince, and Steph. Like I said earlier, if they ended the split the cruiser division would just up and die.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

They need to keep it going. I think its actually starting to work, although they do need to work on the competitiveness between brands.

 

I think they should do some trades between brands. Its been a while since any trades were actually made, instead of just moving wrestlers from one side to the other with no explanation after a long injury or something (Bradshaw for example).

 

I also had an interesting concept that would probably be overkill in the title department, but it wouldn't necessarily be. Bring back the TV title by having mini tourneys on Raw and SD leading up to Summerslam (4 wrestlers on each show..) Winners face each other for the TV title at Summerslam. Winning the TV title would entitle the winner to wrestle on both shows as long as they hold the TV title. When they lose the TV title, the person that wins it gets to wrestle on both shows. At first you'd think why would Eric/Austin or Steph want their wrestlers competing on other shows, but if they wanted to foster a competitive relationship between the two brands, then what would be better for RAW/SD then to have their wrestler go on the other show and beat one of their brand's wrestlers? Plus it would allow for some occasionally different matches (instead of having to see Christian vs Booker T wrestle every week for the last two months it seems). And it wouldn't be a title per se as it would be like a hall pass over to the next show. And they tape shows relatively close to each other so it wouldn't be much of a problem.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

I was for the brand extention up until Raw this week... now I am split... if we continue to get filler shows like on Monday which I couldn't even get through and got bored at the 45 minute mark, then there is no point. The creative staff doesn't seem like it can carry on storylines for over a long period of time, or if they can, it's just one storyline that takes up most of the show.... it's all very slow... and it's not particularly good either.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Oh and other than the superficial differences (wrestlers, music, set, etc) there is NO distinction between the Smackdown and Raw brand. They wrestle the same style, the same matches, they have the same angles. It's probably my biggest peeve at the moment.

[Guest Dangerous A]

Oh and other than the superficial differences (wrestlers, music, set, etc) there is NO distinction between the Smackdown and Raw brand. They wrestle the same style, the same matches, they have the same angles. It's probably my biggest peeve at the moment.

Bingo.

 

 

I've been saying that all thread except pointing out the same wrestling style bit. I figured everyone figured that out on their own.

 

 

Right?

[Guest Korgath]

Why the brand extension should end:

 

1) Not enough Main Eventers.

2) Too many recycled storylines.

 

Why the brand extension shouldn't end:

 

1) Never going to have new Main Eventers

2) Still to many recycled storylines.

[Guest Retro Rob]

Oh and other than the superficial differences (wrestlers, music, set, etc) there is NO distinction between the Smackdown and Raw brand. They wrestle the same style, the same matches, they have the same angles. It's probably my biggest peeve at the moment.

The same matches? When was the last time we have had a *** match on Raw and how often do we see them as compared to SmackDown?

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Smackdown Tag Matches:

 

Face wrestler gets beat up a lot. Hot tag.

 

Raw Tag Matches:

 

Face wrestler gets beat up a lot. Hot tag.

 

Smackdown Singles matches: Heel cheats a lot, beats up face, face comes back.

 

Raw Singles matches: Heel cheats a lot, beats up face, face comes back.

 

*All done with lots of punches and kicks and very little difference in moves aside from 'signature' spots of each respective wrestler.

 

The difference is that Smackdown does it better (though not lately as both shows seem to stink it up).

[Guest Retro Rob]

But isn't that the formula for every American wrestling match that has came from either the WWE/F or WCW?

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Why the brand extension should end:

 

1) Not enough Main Eventers.

2) Too many recycled storylines.

 

Why the brand extension shouldn't end:

 

1) Never going to have new Main Eventers

2) Still to many recycled storylines.

So in other words we're screwed?

 

I think they're is enough main eventers. They're just not spread out enough between the two shows. There needs to be some major trading between shows.

 

They could say that they're doing it to liven up the shows and mix things up a bit.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

It's the formula for every WWE match, yes. It wasn't always for WCW. WCW incorporated variety into their matches.

[Guest Retro Rob]

I was never a big fan of WCW, but as far as tag-team wrestling goes, the WWF stole the NWA/WCW's style from them.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Smackdown sells there "YOu can only see the cruiserweight division here on Smackdown." While RAW goes on about the women's division. But like others have said, once you get past that it's the same exact show really.

[Guest Stunt Granny]

Why are people completely wetting themselves to see the Brand Extension end? The WWE has too many wrestlers on their roster. The brand extension HAS helpcertain people and if ew didn't have it the WWE would be in even worse shape than it currently is.

[Guest Dangerous A]

Why are people completely wetting themselves to see the Brand Extension end? The WWE has too many wrestlers on their roster. The brand extension HAS helpcertain people and if ew didn't have it the WWE would be in even worse shape than it currently is.

Actually if you read through the thread, most people are for the brand extention.

 

Who has the brand extention exactly helped? The cruisers, while putting on ok matches, are not featured prominently or taken seriously. The women, well, let's not get into that. They've created exactly one star since the split and that is Brock. If you just want to keep HHH and Taker on one show per week, then just say it like some others here have and don't try to tell me there is a big difference in the shows because there's not. Wow, a *** match shows up here and there on SD. That's the difference maker.

 

Again, who has this brand extention really helped? If the extention was supposed to create new stars, where the fuck are they? If it's supposed to create or bring back a new/old audience, where the fuck are they? They aren't bringing any newer audience because the majority of people don't believe there is a difference between the brands and the current audience watches both shows anyways.

 

Bro, come with an argument next time, kay?

[LooseCannon25 0]

Brock,Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Batista, Rico, John Cena, Brian Kendrick, Rodney Mack

 

Many may not like some of these guys.....but, they get more TV time because of the brand extension.

 

Other than that I agree with your points

[Guest Dangerous A]

While the extention has helped those guys get tv time, it hasn't helped them become bigger stars. A big push is what helps someone become a star and you don't need a brand extention for that. How has the extention helped these guys in ring, where they need the most help? Plus all but one of those guys were from OVW and realistically only Rico and Kendrick were ready in ring. The rest picked it up quickly when thrown out there (Brock, Benjamin, Haas) and the others are still not ready in ring for tv yet IMO (Cena, Orton, Mack, Batista)

[LooseCannon25 0]

While the extention has helped those guys get tv time, it hasn't helped them become bigger stars. A big push is what helps someone become a star and you don't need a brand extention for that. How has the extention helped these guys in ring, where they need the most help? Plus all but one of those guys were from OVW and realistically only Rico and Kendrick were ready in ring. The rest picked it up quickly when thrown out there (Brock, Benjamin, Haas) and the others are still not ready in ring for tv yet IMO (Cena, Orton, Mack, Batista)

I agree... I just said they get more TV time BECAUSE of the split.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

With the brand extention gone a lot of guys would be out of work. And since WWE is the only major wrestling employer in the US this would be a bad idea

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Seriously, keep it. Why you ask? You think HHH is bad now, wait and see if both rosters were together how annoying his politics would be.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

seriously, don't triple post

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

But who says that those guys wouldn't have gotten the tv time they did in a non-split WWE?

 

What's WWE cruiserweight wrestling? Cause, it looks pretty much well the same as the heavyweight style, but maybe one spot thrown in.

 

WWE stole the tag formula and does it in EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TAG MATCH! I remember a raw about a month or two ago, it had 2 tag matches, both went maybe 10 minutes, and they had the same heat spots and the same format - it was the same match, just different guys.