A Look At The WWE Split and Why It's A Bad Idea

A Look At The WWE Split and Why It's A Bad Idea
July 9, 2016
By Ryan Porzl

After months of rumors, the WWE made the announcement that they would bring back the brand split in July. While many fans have asked for the split to return, it's a very bad idea and I'll explain why the split was better left in the past as well as why the WWE is also ill-equipped and ill-prepared. I also want to bring up that when talking about certain divisions and wrestlers, I'm not going to give my opinion of whether they're good or not because that's only my opinion.



The best place to start is star power or lack thereof. Simply put, WWE has extremely little "star power" to serve as the top stars of the ranks. When the first split started in 2002, they had more stars to carry the brands in Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Kane, Big Show, The nWo (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and X-Pac), Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Edge and Kurt Angle while Hollywood Hulk Hogan was part time and Eddie Guerrero returned to the WWE. WWE right now doesn't have that star power.

John Cena has never been the star WWE wanted him to be like Hogan or Austin and even if he did, he now clearly has one foot out the door as he's been attempting to go to Hollywood by taken roles in movies and TV so it's obvious that Cena is preparing for life after the WWE. On top of that, Cena's body is fallen apart as he gets hurt more and more all the while coming back earlier than he should. Given Cena is pushing 40 and has 16 years of wear and tear, his body is only going to get worse. Randy Orton has been out since October, won't return until August, and like Cena, he has one foot out the door as rumors have circulated that he wants a lighter schedule with his next contract and with his wife pregnant with his second child, Orton is likely not going to want to be on the road 300 days a year. Roman Reigns has been a failure as a top star as the majority of fans have turned on him despite being positioned as one of the company's top fan favorites. He's also not proven to be a solid draw either in ratings or attendances for live events. Seth Rollins is not only coming off an injury but his first run as WWE Champion was possibly the worst booked WWE Championship reign in history as the only feud he won was against Dean Ambrose in the spring of 2015. Aside from that, he was torn apart by Brock Lesnar, his match with Lesnar was only used to restart Lesnar's feud with Undertaker while his matches played second fiddle to those matches, and he lost almost every match he had with John Cena except for Summerslam where he needed Jon Stewart to help him. Dean Ambrose is popular but up until recently, he's never been treated as a main eventer by the WWE and if anything, the WWE has seemingly been telling their fans for the last two years that he's not a main eventer. Meanwhile, he's coming off a squash loss to Lesnar at Wrestlemania and was not groomed or properly booked before his WWE Championship victory as he won Money in the Bank and then the Championship all in the same night. Brock Lesnar's MMA drawing power has never translated to his wrestling career outside of his matches at Extreme Rules 2012 and Summerslam 2012. He also doesn't wrestle enough so he there's no justifiable reason to use him as a top star and his matches have significantly declined as he does almost nothing but german suplexes in his matches. Alberto Del Rio has never shown much success or caught on as a top star despite multiple title reigns and pushes by the WWE to get him in the position of the company's top hispanic star. Sheamus has only had one world title reign in four years and it wasn't successful all the while he's struggled to get the same momentum in his current heel run that he had in 2009 when he was an intimidating career killer. Kane and Big Show are both far past their primes while having absolutely no business in the main event, both are ridiculously stale, and both should be retired. Triple H and Undertaker barely wrestle anymore, both are past their primes, and both are broken down with injuries. Chris Jericho doesn't work all year long as he takes months off to tour with band Fozzy and the ship has also long sailed where he would've worked as the face of a company. In 2000 or 2001, he would've been perfect but not in 2016. Safe to say, WWE doesn't have a lot of the much needed firepower on the top as it is so they definitely don't have enough for two brands where they're splitting the rosters.

Certain divisions will also be greatly affected namely the tag team and women's division. While rumors are saying the women's division will be on one brand, let's pretend it'll be on both since it likely will eventually. To say the very least, there's not enough depth for two brands and a lot of it isn't quantity as they have some of that but not much quality or credibility. In the case of the tag team division, the WWE currently has The New Day, The Usos, The Ascension, The Lucha Dragons, The Vaudevillains, The Club, The Golden Truth, Breezeango, The Dudley Boyz, The Wyatt Family, The Shining Stars, and Enzo & Cass. That's about twelve teams which isn't bad now but splitting them will give both brands six teams which isn't enough for a strong division. Even worse, the credibility isn't there. As of writing, The New Day and The Usos are the only ones with any shred of credibility when the split begins. The Ascension have been jobbers for most of their main roster runs and haven't done anything since beating The New Age Outlaws at the 2015 Royal Rumble a year and a half ago. In fact, the team has been losing for so long that WWE would have to spend at least six months to a year rebuilding them before they could give them a title run or it will expose the lack of depth in the divisions. The Lucha Dragons have been a midcard team at best during their run on the main roster and they haven't teamed much in 2016 with Kalisto enjoying a singles run where he won the WWE United States Championship twice. While not as bad as The Ascension, it will still take time for the team to build credibility to the point where they could be a top tag team. The Shining Stars are former tag team champions but that reign was years ago and they're coming off a two year run as Los Matadores. The Vaudevillains, The Club, and Enzo & Cass are teams who will only have been on the main roster for three and a half months which is too soon to have them be pushed as the top team of a brand. Plus, there's other issues as well. The Vaudevillains have a gimmick that may not work as a top team and while they were former NXT Tag Team Champions, they never had the same dominance that The Ascension had and The Revival do. The Club is established in New Japan and were reminded of that but in the WWE, they've mostly been little more than AJ Styles' henchmen for his feuds with Roman Reigns and John Cena all the while both Reigns and Cena have been able to beat them in 2-on-1 fights. Enzo & Cass were never NXT Tag Team Champions but rather were NXT's resident choker team as they got multiple title shots but never won the titles so it would be weird for them to quickly win WWE gold. Then there's the lingering question that has to be on WWE staff's mind in that Enzo & Cass are very popular with fans but how much longer? Unlike NXT, Enzo & Cass do more live events and are on TV every week so how much longer are fans going to recite the same introduction word for word and spell the same word before they get bored with it. You can only hear Enzo introduce himself & Cass the same way and then have Cass spell "Sawft" so many times before it gets tiresome. The Dudley Boyz nostalgia is long gone as the team is now at their absolute lowest having gained weight and gotten out of shape again all the while desperately trying to recapture lightning in a bottle by acting like it's 2000 instead of 2016. On top of that, the team has largely become jobbers since their return as they're mostly used to put over the new teams like The New Day, The Wyatt Family, and Enzo & Cass. The Wyatts are among one of the most casturated acts in WWE history. After coming into the company in 2013 and getting white hot by early 2014, the group has plummeted at break neck speed since Wrestlemania XXX as their feud with John Cena destroyed their momentum and they never recovered after being among the many sacrificed to the alter of Cena. Since then, they engaged in a feud with The Big Show and Mark Henry that saw them routinely lose to the makeshift team that broke up immediately after the feud, they then broke up, had little success, reunited less than a year later, and have since been fed to The Brothers of Destruction, Brock Lesnar, The Rock, and John Cena which included Erik Rowan suffering a six second loss to The Rock at Wrestlemania 32. By this point, it's unknown if you can even repair the damage the group has suffered and it's gotten worse as Luke Harper, the best wrestler in the stable, is out long term with an injury. Breezeango is a team consisting of two singles jobbers that just formed and The Golden Truth is a comedy team between two guys way past their primes.

Then there's the women's division which has also seen better days and is lacking as well. Brie Bella has just retired back in April. Nikki Bella is sidelined with a neck injury that will keep her out for the remainder of the summer and given the severity of the injury along with the reality shows she's doing, Nikki could potentially be gone within a year. Natalya could possibly be on her way out as her contract is ending and she may not resign in light of Tyson Kidd's neck injury and not wanting to be gone all the time while he's home with a potential career ending injury. Emma is out with a back injury, just had surgery, and will likely be gone for months. Tamina Snuka is out with torn ligaments along with pushing 40 and having missed most of 2014 due to a torn ACL so her career is on borrowed time. Dana Brooke and Eva Marie are still very green and not ready for the main roster or not ready to be on TV yet as they're still inexperienced. Lana is more of a valet than a wrestler and has only wrestled a few matches which means she's in no position to be used as top women's wrestler. Naomi had just come back from injury but her heel run has not worked out or helped her take that next step and is rudderless with Team B.A.D. having self-destructed due to Sasha Banks doing her own thing while Tamina is injured. Alicia Fox and Summer Rae have either not been a title contender in a long time or ever as Summer Rae has always been a low midcarder while Fox had one run with Diva's Championship but that was six years ago. If the WWE wants to position them as top talent in one of the divisions then it will take time to build them up.

Another huge issue brought up is the case with RAW. During the original brand split, RAW was a two hour show and the WWE didn't have trouble filling time. Fast forward to 2016 and RAW is now three hours and WWE has continually struggled on a weekly basis to write a TV show that long and now they're going to try with half the roster. If WWE is having a hard time doing a three hour show with a full roster than one with half could ultimately be a disaster. Another issue was RAW clearly got favoritism from Vince originally and everybody knew it. While WWE is trying to make it seem like RAW and Smackdown will be equal with Smackdown going live, it won't because of that third hour RAW has. Both shows will be live but RAW will have an extra hour so there won't be any equality.

Having also brought up the roster situation earlier, another problem regarding it is that with WWE splitting the rosters that they will have to replenish them by bringing in talent but the question is what talent is WWE bringing in? WWE is going to have to be smart in who they decide to bring in or promote to the main roster. If the WWE brings the best in the indy circuit and the ones long overdue in NXT then cool. However, rumors have circulated that WWE wants to bring in former names and aging name to fill the roster which won't work. WWE is trying to claim they're in a "new era" so using stale names will hurt this claim and image. Also, aging names are wrestlers who are older and more beat up which likely means they can't go as well as they once did and most will likely refuse to go on the road again which means they won't work full time so there's no point in using them if they're not full time. Another way WWE will bring in talent is through NXT but the problem is the majority are not ready. Of the NXT talent, only Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bayley, and Asuka are ready for the main roster or have enough experience. Meanwhile, The Revival are NXT Tag Team Champions, Oney Lorcan, & TM-61 just debuted in NXT, and Hideo Itami just came back from a long injury. Even worse is who is rumored to be called up with names like American Alpha and Nia Jax being those considered. American Alpha has potential to be a great team but they've only been teaming for a year and can still benefit from more time to gel. Then there's individual experience and while Jason Jordan has five years in the business, Chad Gable's only a two year pro so he's still inexperienced. Then there's Nia Jax who has only been wrestling for a year and clearly shows she's miles away from being ready for the main roster. Another issue to consider is that with both RAW and Smackdown being live that WWE has to be 100% confident that whoever they bring up is ready because NXT wrestlers benefit from wrestling in front of smaller crowds and NXT TV is taped. If they go up to the main roster not ready then that means they'll get exposed as the TV shows are live which means no editing and no do-overs. If they mess up then everyone sees it and that could kill them as fans can turn on them and WWE officials could get sour on them which means their careers may never recover in the WWE. Sadly, with WWE now desperately needing to fill rosters, they may bring in wrestlers not ready to go and some will fall on their faces.

Another major issue is Vince's attention span or lack thereof. To say the very least, Vince at times shows that he must have a bad case of ADD as it seems like he has a difficult time of staying focused, constantly changes his mind, and loses interest with things instantly with no warning. The best way probably to describe Vince is a child who gets a new toy and is excited for a while but eventually gets bored and wants a new one. Such is the case with Vince as he'll have a new wrestler on every WWE show only to eventually lose interest and send them to the B-Shows with no direction. I know I've said this before but it needs to be repeated. As far as the split goes, there's a big possibility that Vince will lose interest in it very quickly and like last time, it's a split in name only as Vince will likely move wrestlers and titles from one brand to the other until you lose track of which wrestler and which title is on which brand. Plus, there's the risk that wrestlers will cross the brands eventually with RAW wrestlers making appearances on Smackdown TV & PPVs and vice versa until it eventually becomes normal to see RAW vs. Smackdown wrestlers battling it out or wrestlers making appearances on the other brand. We already saw the WWE not respect the rules of the previous split after awhile so what makes anyone think it will be different?

Then there's the issues with Pay-Per-Views and over saturation. The WWE is already over saturated these days with three hours of RAW, two hours of Smackdown, one hour of Main Event, and one hour of Superstars. Along with that, WWE does 12-15 PPVs a year and some WWE Network specials. Now with the split, they'll get even more overexposed as RAW and Smackdown will have separate PPVs outside of Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series which means that there will be nearly 24 PPVs and two a month. How many WWE fans are going to sit and spend two Sundays a month watching PPVs especially with some now going over the three hour limit? Also, this could mean more WWE Network specials which are also likely to be three hours long. The last thing WWE needs is more shows and PPVs when they already have more than enough.

Injuries have also become a serious issue for WWE especially over the last year along with other issues. Heading into 2016, Randy Orton, Cesaro, and Seth Rollins were out with serious injuries while John Cena, Luke Harper, Bray Wyatt, and Neville all went down with injuries this year. Meanwhile, Daniel Bryan was forced to retire while Tyson Kidd will likely follow. Then there's Sami Zayn who missed most of 2015 due to injury while The Usos were on the shelf with Jey Uso out with an injury in 2015 and Enzo Amore was sidelined due to a concussion. AJ Styles also missed nearly two weeks in May 2016 due to nagging injuries. The women haven't been any better as Nikki Bella, Naomi, Tamina Snuka, and Emma have gone down with injuries with some being long term while Sasha Banks missed a few weeks due a concussion. Then there's other problem like wellness violations that could lead to suspensions as we've just seen with top star Roman Reigns. Then there's WWE Films who use WWE talent for their movies which means wrestlers could miss at least a month. So what happens when the WWE gets another injury bug or someone flunks a wellness test or someone is filming a movie? WWE already lacks depth as it is and they can afford to lose a lot of wrestlers because they're dividing the roster in half.

Yet another problem with the split is that outside of the talent, nothing is going to look different. Again, going back to the original split, RAW and Smackdown not only had different wrestlers along with different announcers but they also had their owns sets, graphics, and came off like they had their own identity. Now, WWE has become incredibly cookie cutter that you can't tell the brands apart outside of RAW using red & black colors while Smackdown uses blue & silver. The sets are identical, the graphic are the same, the intros look alike, and the camera angles are the same. There's nothing unique about either show besides color schemes and unless you're a huge WWE fan or you have favorites in both brands, why should you watch both when they come off the same? Why watch a three hour RAW and then watch a two hour Smackdown 24 hours later or why watch RAW when that's an hour longer than Smackdown and drags because of it? Basically, RAW is an extended Smackdown while Smackdown is a shorter RAW.

Finally, another reason the split won't succeed is because it didn't once before. Like him or not, there's no denying that Vince hasn't learned from the mistakes of the past whether it be relying heavily on aging names to botching invasion storylines after purchasing a company to allowing his flagship show to go three hours to shoving certain talent down the fans' throats. There's nothing that makes me believe that Vince will do a better job with the split this time. It probably won't be long before all the same mistakes are back with wrestlers bouncing around brands and titles also switching brands or he puts more focus on RAW.

Overall, we're still weeks away from the beginning of the split so time will tell whether WWE gets it right this time or if it's a bad case of deja vu. However, giving their past attempt at it, I won't hold my breath.