WWE: The Pros & Cons of Ending the Brand Split & Using Less Formal Split Crews

A WrestleMania clash of the two general managers in seven days would suggest the end of the brand extension, which began a decade ago. Today marks the official 10-year anniversary of the promotion being split into two existing brands, as Raw and SmackDown went from shows in WWE to separate subsidiaries.

On March 25, 2002, there was the first-ever WWE draft, where the entire roster was designated to one specific brand, which would be their exclusive home. Rules became bent over the years and current rules are all but unenforced at this point.

A decade later, the beginning shots were fired in ending that separation. Raw would be deemed a Raw Supershow, which meant that SmackDown superstars were allowed to come on the show whenever WWE felt like it. It was a way to promote SmackDown’s TV show by exposing their superstars on the popular live program.

If only one GM remains following WrestleMania and that GM has the power for both brands, a merging of both shows seems inevitable. It doesn’t, however, mean that a split is entirely ended. After all, there is still a lot of hours of programming to make up for and house shows throughout the week to satisfy.

The current setup in WWE is that Mondays have Raw episodes shown live with Superstars matches being filmed earlier. The Tuesday nights are the busy ones. At those tapings, an entire episode of NXT is taped, followed by the other half of Superstars and then the taped edition of SmackDown. There are also dark matches to satisfy the crowd, as well as the plots in house shows, which rarely steer away from current booking plans.

The schedule of shows will not need to change, especially because SmackDown episodes were being taped on Tuesdays way before this brand split ever occurred. Despite the well wishes of fans wanting to see a live SmackDown, there has rarely been a show not taped prior to airing.

Since the programming schedule won't quite change, what benefit will it be for the two brands to become one? The filming for Superstars gets split between shows, while NXT, as well as the ECW brand before it, were filmed at SmackDown tapings. Perhaps with unified rosters, Superstars could exclusively come prior to a Raw show and NXT can preface a SmackDown taping.

Unified brands would make traveling on the road a bit more difficult, but could also lead to a thinner roster as a cost-cutting measure. SmackDown tapings occurring one night after a live Raw show could be made a little bit simpler with venues close to one another.

It has been that way, especially recently, to help ease the troubles of promoting the shows on the other brand. Continuing that in the future would make it easier for superstars to travel from one show to the other, while not staying too close to the same venue. It cannot be too close for fear of over-exhausting that particular market with two shows in two nights.

Hiccups will come into play as WWE would be unable to have one part of the roster on tour internationally, while the other satisfies dates in North America. That thinner roster mentioned earlier, which would lead to fewer contracts and money paid out, would ease some of that pain.

Even speaking aside from releasing talent, unifying brands would give some talent less to do. Remember how Daniel Bryan was being booked last summer before winning Money in the Bank? Just imagine there being one singular brand using two shows to promote. Even with two chances to put him on broadcast television, would Bryan be where he is now?

The fact is that much of the SmackDown talent would drown on Raw. Conversely, the dramatic and entertainment-based Raw storylines would need to be changed to keep up with the more wrestling-based storylines SmackDown has always produced.

So, let's recap. A unification of brands could make the workload easier and help WWE operate leaner with a smaller overall roster. However, combining the rosters would also push some stars back down and make traveling tours more tricky to juggle.

After 10 years, is the brand extension something that WWE still believes in? Would ratings for taped shows and buy rates for pay-per-views improve with the storylines being given time to grow and develop? Would it also help ticket sales for fans to know they are almost guaranteed to see the top stars in the business?

WWE has certainly seemed to show that the thought is crossing their minds. Wishful thinking would imply that next Sunday's WrestleMania clash will end with John Laurinaitis emerging as the sole authority figure.

His heat is incredible and fresh, while also showing flashes of Mr. McMahon during the Attitude Era. Johnny Ace in charge of both brands could ultimately shrink the roster to size, enabling the Executive VP of Talent Relations to do what he does best: hand out pink slips.

There is still a lot of work to be done before the brand contraction can commence. For now, after a decade of the extension, next Sunday's match could be an iconic and landscape-shattering event.

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