WWE: Is the Three-Hour Raw Hurting Smackdown?

This week's version of WWE Smackdown did little to create intrigue for the Night of Champions pay-per-view. Instead, we were forced to see a recycled storyline.

The infamous "banned move."

Although many people have criticized the split of the Raw and Smackdown brands, at least this decision created the opportunity to develop stars who would have been overshadowed by already established main-eventers, a problem that seems to be resurfacing.

Stars such as Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger and Drew McIntyre made an impact on Smackdown during the brand-split era. All of these superstars are not making any kind of impact since the near-full merger of the brands.

Storyline ideas are also making the Smackdown brand lose its luster. On every episode, we see an oversaturation of Raw recaps and very little progression toward the next PPV. The most recent episode centered on the angle of Sheamus being banned from using the Brogue Kick.

Haven't we seen this before? Edge's spear? Undertaker's Hell's Gate? I guess it was worth recycling.

Not quite.

Smackdown needs to make a better effort to be a unique brand again. Although the hype has been based on the advent of the three-hour Raw, this may have been at the expense of the B Show—Smackdown—that once was known as the actual wrestling program.

When the brand split and two-hour Raw episodes were still intact, Raw was centered on the theatrical element of wrestling.

Wade Barrett's return would have made much more headway if Smackdown was a separate show. Instead, it virtually fell flat compared to the amazing vignettes we saw the previous weeks leading to the return.

Do you think the three-hour Raw and lack of brand split is hurting Smackdown? Comment civilly below.

Call and tune in to the Pancakes and Powerslams wrestling talk show Tuesday night at 11 p.m. ET. We will be recapping Raw, Smackdown, TNA, ROH and the weekly "Flavor of the Week" random wrestling topic. This week's topic is Superstars who benefited from the WWE version of ECW. The number to call is 347-884-8452. Click here for show link.  

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