Vince McMahon Announces Raw, SmackDown Commissioners on WWE Raw

Stephanie and Shane McMahon's rivalry will carry on through the brand extension.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced Monday night that Shane will be the commissioner of SmackDown, while Stephanie will run Raw, via WWE on Twitter.  

The news comes a little over a week before the first live edition of SmackDown. During the July 19 show, WWE will hold a draft to split the roster between the company's two biggest television shows.

Adding a further layer of intrigue regarding Monday's announcement is the fact that Raw and SmackDown will also have general managers who will be separate from Shane's and Stephanie's new roles for each program. The McMahons will announce their GM selections next week.

Naming Shane and Stephanie the commissioners was somewhat anticlimactic since this outcome seemed obvious ever since the question of who would control SmackDown began:

One McMahon sibling would be in charge of Raw, and the other would be in charge of SmackDown. It makes sense, but it's also WWE taking the low-hanging fruit. At least with general managers added to the fold, the element of surprise comes into play a little more.

Bleacher Report's Mike Chiari isn't a fan of where the story is going, though:

To a certain extent, this all feels like needlessly complicating the brand extension. Making Raw and SmackDown separate entities once again should be the main plot point. Instead, a McMahon vs. McMahon feud is overshadowing proceedings. It's like the WCW-ECW invasion angle on a far lesser scale.

Plus, depending on Triple H's role with the company whenever he returns, there could be as many as six figures of authority on WWE programming by the time all is said and done.

It's still far too early to form any opinions over the brand extension itself, but things aren't getting off to a great start following Raw on Monday night.