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Revision as of 23:08, 14 June 2006 by 165.196.194.167 (talk) (→Criticisms)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The World Wrestling Entertainment Brand Extension was a device used by the professional wrestling organization as a means of providing separate brands of wrestling through its two top shows, RAW and SmackDown!. WWE expanded the Brand Extension in 2006 when they revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as a WWE brand.
History
Ever since acquiring the remains of World Championship Wrestling, its greatest competitor in the 1990s, in March 2001, the then-WWF sought for a way to split itself into two separate promotions, due to the numbers of talent that it had acquired as part of its purchase. The original plan was to recreate a new WCW (which would be an independent entity in the storylines but would be under the WWF's auspices in reality), and for this new WCW to take over RAW and use the show to recreate its WCW counterpart, WCW Monday Nitro (ironically, in 2006, WWE would go ahead with this idea with ECW). This experiment was first made in June 2001, when the final few minutes of RAW was given to WCW programming, in which the RAW crew was largely replaced (with Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson doing commentary, as well as a major stage overhaul). Fans, however, did not hold the WCW segment in high regard, especially when WWF wrestlers interfered at the end of a match between Buff Bagwell and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T. With WWF focused on splitting its roster, the infamous Invasion storyline was used as a second resort.
Faced with the early termination of the storyline in that year's Survivor Series, the WWF executed their alternate plan, which was to separate the two shows themselves: previously, wrestlers appeared on both RAW and SmackDown!, but with this extension, wrestlers would be exclusive to only one show. Only the men's champion and the women's champion were exempt and could appear on both shows.
This was represented in storylines as a feud between the on-screen co-owners Ric Flair and Vince McMahon, who would each take one show -- Flair with RAW, McMahon with SmackDown! -- and draft their initial group of superstars. Later on, when McMahon reasserted control over both shows, he appointed general managers to lead each brand. To many of the fans' surprise, Eric Bischoff, who as WCW's head tried to run the WWF into the ground, was placed as the general manager of RAW, while Stephanie McMahon, who had led the faction of Extreme Championship Wrestling superstars in the Invasion storyline, was installed as Bischoff's counterpart on SmackDown!.
Wrestler impact
As a result of the WCW acquisition, the WWF had acquired many lower-card WCW talents (higher-card talents were typically contracted to Time Warner itself and were usually too expensive for WWF to buy out - and thus absent from the Invasion storyline), all of which worked both RAW and SmackDown!. However, because of the limited time given to each show, many wrestlers (especially former WCW talents) would not appear for weeks on end. The brand extension served to split up the roster so that more of these wrestlers would have screen time, but at the expense of mainstays who regularly appeared on both shows.
Wrestler movement between the two shows were mainly through trades set up by agreement between Flair and McMahon, and later between McMahon's appointed general managers. Other wrestler movements were largely done through brand-versus-brand storylines in which the two shows would compete for talent in bidding wars. Journeymen wrestlers could also quietly change shows by means of a character retool through the developmental territories. In 2004, shortly after WrestleMania XX the annual WWE Draft also served as a means of wrestler movement.
The tradition in giving the Royal Rumble winner a shot at the heavyweight championship at WrestleMania was also altered as a result of the brand extension and the separation of the men's titles in 2002 - initially (for 2003), the Rumble winner was slated to face their brand's champion (which led to the match between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle), while in 2004, a supposed "loophole" in tradition allowed SmackDown! talent Chris Benoit to face RAW's Triple H, much to the disappointment of RAW's top Rumble finisher that year, Chris Jericho. Since then, the Rumble winner has the choice of which champion to face at WrestleMania, allowing the winner a chance to change shows. To date, there has been no alternate arrangement, such as a handicap championship match between the Rumble winner and both top champions (with the Rumble winner gaining the title of whoever they pinned). Because of this arrangement, there is no special accolade given to the highest-finishing wrestler of the losing brand at the Rumble.
Starting in 2005, the losing brand has held a tournament to name a number 1 contender for themselves at Wrestlemania. This tournament has been called "Road to Wrestlemania"
Wrestlers could appear on both shows temporarily as part of an ongoing storyline. Examples of such instances include the aforementioned Rumble winner attempting to see which champion he will choose to face, and the brand-versus-brand storyline in which wrestlers from the opposite brand performing run-ins.
Pay-per-view impact
Although wrestlers were on separate brands, with each brand getting one show, the pay-per-view events were at the start shared between the two shows - this changed in June 2003, when WWE Bad Blood became the first RAW-exclusive pay-per-view event worldwide (the RAW-exclusive WWE Insurrextion pay-per-view was held before this in May 2002 but was only shown however in the United Kingdom). From then on, each pay-per-view event, with the exception of the major pay-per-views, would be show-exclusive. Even in the joint pay-per-views, inter-brand matches would be limited to the Royal Rumble main event, King of the Ring (before it became defunct), Summerslam, Survivor Series and WrestleMania, and the intermittent brand versus brand storyline. Former ECW superstars Rob Van Dam, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Tajiri, Tazz, Steven Richards, Simon Dean, Nunzio, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Dawn Marie, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mick Foley and The Dudley Boyz, who were all separate by the WWE draft, reunited on June 12, 2005 for ECW One Night Stand 2005.
The formats of the Rumble and King of the Ring were altered as a result of the brand extension - although many early reports assumed that there would be separate RAW and SmackDown! Rumble events, in the end, the single 30-man event would involve 15 wrestlers from each brand. For King of the Ring, the format varied from year to year, mainly in experimenting with whether the quarterfinal round would appear on the King of the Ring card itself, as well as determining the point in which wrestlers from opposite brands facing each other - the final King of the Ring card in 2002 only included the semifinal and final rounds, with inter-brand matches beginning in the semifinal round.
As a result of wrestlers effectively working a reduced schedule, due to the fact that wrestlers would (barring trades or other character retooling) work at most half of the televised shows and eight of the twelve pay-per-view events each year, WWE added several new pay-per-view events to their calendar, such as New Year's Revolution, Taboo Tuesday and the The Great American Bash.
Championship impact
Much of the redundant Invasion-era championships (that is, the WWF championship titles and their WCW counterparts) were unified in the fallout of the Invasion at the 2001 Survivor Series, with the WCW and WWF tag-team and second-tier titles being merged. Not long later, with the unification of the WWE Championship and the World Championship, the absorption of the Intercontinental, European, and Hardcore belts into the new World Heavyweight Championship, combined with X-Pac appearing without the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, despite him being the current title holder, there were effectively only four championships: the brand-neutral men's and women's champions, and the tag and cruiserweight belts, both of which were exclusive to SmackDown! (as both sets of champions, Tajiri and the team of Billy and Chuck, were drafted into the junior show).
Not long after then-undisputed champion Triple H lost his title on SmackDown!, there was an open period in which wrestlers were free to change shows for the supposed lure of bigger contracts on the other show, with some wrestlers regularly appearing on both shows due to an ongoing "bidding war". During this time, the tag champions (Lance Storm and Christian) moved to RAW. It was also during this period when then-undisputed champion Brock Lesnar refused a challenge from RAW's top-contender (Triple H) by agreeing to only wrestle on SmackDown!, and as a result, the World Heavyweight Championship would be created for the champion of RAW. With the "bidding war" at an end by an edict of Vince McMahon, a new set of tag team titles were created for SmackDown!, and both tag belts were renamed so as to be consistent with their heavyweight counterparts: thus the older title was renamed to the World Tag Team Championship while the newer belt became the WWE Tag Team Championship.
The Intercontinental and WCW United States Championship titles were also reintroduced (and for the latter, as a WWE belt), giving RAW three belts and SmackDown! four. To even out the number of belts on both brands, the women's championship was made de facto RAW-exclusive, although the title remained open to challenge to both brands.
It remains possible that any of WWE's eight belts (if the Women's championship is to be considered a RAW-brand title) can change shows. The most notable example of titles changing shows was in 2005, when, as part of the annual draft, the two heavyweight belts switched shows over a four-week period, with WWE Champion John Cena being drafted to RAW as the first pick. As a response, SmackDown! general manager Theodore Long attempted to create a third heavyweight belt that would represent SmackDown!, but found it unnecessary when World Heavyweight Champion Batista was drafted as the last pick in the draft. 2005 also saw the first title defense by a challenger from the opposite brand, when Trish Stratus defended the Women's Championship against Melina at Survivor Series, so the issue of whether or not a challenger from another show has to move shows was avoided.
In 2006, the WWE Cruiserweight Championship became the first belt to temporarily change shows as a result of a match, when RAW's Gregory Helms defeated various SmackDown! champion Kid Kash and other challengers at the Royal Rumble. It would not be revealed until after the Rumble that Helms would be moved to SmackDown! as a result of the victory.
To date, there has not been a title that has permanently changed shows as a result of a match.
Introduction of the ECW brand
The original concept of a defunct wrestling promotion to re-emerge within WWE's auspices finally came into place in 2006. After a revival of the Extreme Championship Wrestling style in ECW One Night Stand, the ECW promotion was announced to be revived as a brand on May 25, 2006. The brand will have its own TV show on the Sci Fi Channel, held on Tuesday nights starting from June.
However, some doubt ECW's sustainability as a long-term brand. There is a general fear that WWE might produce a "watered down" version of ECW that will focus more on WWE-style sports entertainment rather than edgy and risky matches and storylines that ECW became famous for. Those fears were amplified when it was announced on the May 29, 2006 edition of RAW that Kurt Angle was leaving the SmackDown! brand to join the new ECW brand. This has brought-back worries from the InVasion era when the WCW/ECW Alliance became swamped with ex-WWF wrestlers who diluted the faction's identity. Also ECW was famed for the creative freedom which allowed anyone to voice their opinion. Some are concerned that ECW will become restricted by the WWE.
But at the same time there is optimism that a revived ECW will enable new wrestlers to learn the ropes at a far better pace rather than rushing them onto RAW or SmackDown!
Criticisms
Some fans, mainly smarks feel that the Brand Extension has proven fruitless in many areas. They cite the current down-cycle in various divisions such as RAW's Tag Team division which is virtually void of any credible teams and has led to some fans claiming that tag team wrestling is "dead". SmackDown!'s Cruiserweight division is also a point of concern as many fans feel that the Cruiserweights are used only in squash matches and that the division rarely receives any recognition. Another major area of concern is the deteriorating Women's Division. Many believe that the Women's Division has no real challengers to the belt with "fluff" competition such as Ashley, Maria, and Candice Michelle challenging for the belt, especially as the Championship remains to be a RAW exclusive. This is why Trish Stratus could hold onto the Championship for 15 months, undefended for nearing 5 months. The state of the deteriorating Women's Division came to a climax in November 2005 with then-SmackDown! top women's wrestler Melina, went head-to-head with then-WWE Women's Champion Trish Stratus, in what waws arguably Trish's hardest defense during her reign. This revived the Women's Division for a while--but things still went back to normal a little later. This is surprising as the Women's Division was one of the few divisions to improve with the Brand Extension thanks to the rivalry between Victoria and Trish Stratus. There is also a feeling on the SmackDown! roster that WWE is more interested in pushing the RAW brand at the expense of SmackDown!
In addition, others criticize the lack of continuity in the Brand Extension. Although the Brand Extension was designed to maintain two "separate" brands, this angle has been blurred by constant "invasions", the Draft Lottery and subsequent trades, and especially due to the ability for wrestlers to "jump" brands seemingly at random (for example, Kurt Angle's jump to SmackDown! to win the World Heavyweight Championship, and Gregory Helms' jump to SmackDown! to win the Cruiserweight Championship, both in January 2006).
Currently, criticisms continue in the WWE with Kurt Angle being 'drafted' by Paul Heyman to the new ECW brand (Angle was never a part of ECW, he only appeared once and got 'punked out' by Tazz. Many believe that all this random jumping and trading is because WWE is allegedly not having the annual RAW & SmackDown! Draft Lottery this year (typically held in June, around the time of WWE Vengeance).
Brand Extension in WCW
The idea of having separate rosters is nothing new. Back in 1997 when WCW was the top wrestling promotion world-wide, there were various experiments in splitting the WCW roster between WCW wrestlers and New World Order (nWo) wrestlers, and the nWo would often refer to itself as a separate promotion altogether. This was done by promoting nWo pay-per-view events such as Souled Out and even an nWo Monday Nitro. Both of these experiments attracted little fan interest. By the time the decision had been made to not split the WCW/nWo roster, WCW had already announced the creation of a third television program, originally intended to feature nWo wrestlers. That show eventually became WCW Thunder, a complementary show to Monday Nitro rather than a separate brand.
The Brand Extension today
Today, each show has separate rosters, announcers, ring staff and writing teams, as well as a men's heavyweight championship, a men's tag-team championship, a men's second-tier championship, and a fourth belt. Despite the separation in staff, though, all shows are edited and given final approval by WWE owner Vince McMahon, leading to all of the shows having a similar feel despite the split. In truth, since all shows are WWE shows in the end, logic would dictate that to maximize profits, you don't want fans to cheer for one brand over another, you would want the fans to support ALL the brands, buy all WWE pay-per-view events, merchandise, etc. Because of the talent comparison between the two shows, and due to the fact that RAW is the older show and now has all of the original WWF titles, and the fact that RAW airs live while SmackDown! is pre-taped, RAW is widely perceived seen as the superior brand, which many of the SmackDown! roster have protested onscreen. At Survivor Series 2005, Michael Cole and Tazz began to take several verbal shots at the RAW announcers, with Tazz telling Coach that he "wasn't funny, good or credible". Many believe these were shoot comments, stemming from the frustration the SmackDown! team has had with being labeled the "B Show". On an episode of Byte This!, Cole and Tazz referred to this annoyance as well.
However, SmackDown! proved in the end of 2005 that their wrestling roster was able to beat RAW's as a result of Taboo Tuesday and Survivor Series.
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