Braun Strowman and the WWE Superstars Most Benefiting from Brand Split

Braun Strowman has had fewer species to compete with since WWE broke Raw and SmackDown into two distinct brands in July, allowing the beast to flourish.  

On the Raw stage, the bearded behemoth has garnered steady TV time. Just about every week, Strowman emerges from the back with a sneer on his face before he crushes some poor jobber under his boot.

No one knows if he'd be able to be such a constant part of the show if the Raw and SmackDown brands were still one. No one knows where he would fit on the food chain if WWE had to also showcase Baron Corbin and Bray Wyatt in the same space as it did Strowman.

Not everyone has benefited from Raw and SmackDown diverting. Just ask Neville.

But a number of Superstars—from SmackDown's top heel tag team to the blue brand's midcard champ—have seen their stocks shoot up since the brand split. These are the wrestlers who have been blessed with opportunities that may not have come their way pre-draft and who have found room to thrive since WWE halved its roster.

The Usos, Heath Slater (SmackDown)

The draft process itself became a launching pad for Heath Slater.

As the only healthy Superstar to not get drafted, he suddenly became desperate and hungry. He needed to prove that he belonged on one of the brands. 

He did so by partnering with Rhyno and winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at the Backlash pay-per-view in September. In the process, he upgraded to a double-wide trailer, went on the best streak of his career and hit it out of the park as SmackDown's resident dark horse.

WWE likely wouldn't have had room for that underdog tale before the brand split.

Slater had never been a priority. Weeks often went by without him even appearing on TV. And now he's a titleholder sitting atop the tag team division.

His rivals, The Usos, have to be happy about how things have turned out after the draft, too. The brand split provided them a fresh start.

Before the draft, Jimmy and Jey Uso were becoming WWE's forgotten team, a duo spinning their wheels. On SmackDown, though, the lack of depth in the tag division afforded them a major opportunity.

WWE positioned The Usos as SmackDown's top heel squad. The turn to villainy has recharged them, and now they look poised to not only be the next champs, but to also be cornerstones of the blue brand's tag team scene for a good while. 

Indy wrestler Gran Akuma tweeted, "The Usos might have benefited more from the brand split than anyone that was on the main roster."

Their success likely wouldn't have happened with a more crowded tag team division. If WWE also had to showcase The New Day, The Club, Enzo Amore and Big Cass and Sheamus and Cesaro, The Usos may have been shoved to the back of the line. 

And Slater wouldn't have been asked to be Cinderella. He would have been more likely to spend WWE prime time in the catering area.

Braun Strowman (Raw)

Draft night set Braun Strowman free.

He was no longer the muscle for The Wyatt Family; he was a solitary predator. Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan headed to SmackDown. The injured Luke Harper remained a free agent.

As a result, Strowman was forced to do his own talking and issue his own destruction. WWE asked him to tear through a series of no-name wrestlers until the lack of competition enraged him. 

During that time, Strowman has grown into his monster skin. He has looked like the intimidator WWE wanted him to be.

That's, in part, a result of him getting experience and having to perform in the spotlight.

Had he remained a part of The Wyatt Family, his progress may have been slower. Without the brand split, WWE may not have made him a key figure. He was forced to the forefront on Monday nights, and he has since made the most of it. 

Alexa Bliss, Carmella (SmackDown)

Alexa Bliss is the No. 1 contender to the SmackDown Women's Championship. Carmella is in a high-profile feud with former Divas champ Nikki Bella.

That's far removed from where those women were before SmackDown drafted them. Previously, Bliss and Carmella were midcarders in the NXT women's division. In a matter of months, they have become prominent players every Tuesday night.

The brand split forced WWE's hand to call up both Superstars early.

And the stage they stepped onto is less crowded than it would be were Raw and SmackDown not their own worlds. Bliss and Carmella would have found themselves fighting for limelight against Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Bayley.

Instead, three of those women are on Raw. Lynch is Bliss' first rival, the woman set to put up her title against the rising heel.

The rookies are working against more experienced foils. They are getting plenty of mic time and room to grow. Bliss and The Princess of Staten Island are excelling when called upon, too.

This is the kind of seizing of opportunities WWE had to envision when mulling over whether to split the brands again.

AJ Styles (SmackDown), Kevin Owens (Raw)

AJ Styles and Kevin Owens are both ruling over their separate kingdoms.

Styles is the reigning WWE world champ. Owens became the second Superstar to ever win the WWE Universal Championship.

Before the brand split, the best those two could hope for was for one of them to be presiding over WWE as the top titleholder. Now, both of them have the space to show off their skills. Both have appeared in PPV main events as champion.

And the brand split led to both Raw and SmackDown taking more chances. 

To emphasize WWE's march into the New Era, the blue brand crowned Styles at its first exclusive PPV, Backlash. Raw later created its own major championship. When Finn Balor had to relinquish it due to injury, WWE again made a bold move in crowning Owens.

Each wrestler is now getting a shot to prove he is a marquee star.

For Owens, he's at the heart of Raw's central story, even if it is a crowded one. Styles, meanwhile, is lighting it up as SmackDown's captain.

It's clear he belongs there. Justin LaBar of Upgruv was spot on when he wrote of Styles, "A smile can't be held back that he's finally showing off on the stage he should be."

The Cruiserweights (Raw)

Months ago, T.J. Perkins was known to only the diehards who follow independent wrestling. To the casual fan, Rich Swann and Cedric Alexander might as well have been James Ellsworth and Chase Silver.

The brand split led to Raw looking to separate itself from SmackDown by creating a cruiserweight division. That has altered the careers of men like Perkins and Alexander in a major way.

Perkins is currently the cruiserweight champ. Swann, Alexander, Tony Nese and Lince Dorado are the high-flying athletes chasing his crown.

They don't get nearly as much time on Raw as some would like, but their current positions are worlds away from not even having WWE contracts. Swann has had more matches than future Hall of Famer Big Show in the last month. Perkins has been a bigger part of Raw than former NXT champ Neville.

And if the cruiserweights arrived in a WWE where SmackDown's stars were still competing with Raw's, Perkins and his peers would be pushed down the ladder. As it stands, they are getting a crack at thriving as a niche part of WWE's marquee show.

The Miz, Dolph Ziggler (SmackDown)

Pre-brand split, the Intercontinental Championship was sometimes the third-most important title in WWE—sometimes the fourth if the tag team belts were hot.

Dolph Ziggler was an afterthought. The Miz mostly hosted talking segments for other stars.

That all seems like a distant memory now.

SmackDown has made the IC title a priority, given Ziggler the narrative of his life and made it clear just how valuable The Miz is to the company. 

The Miz created huge buzz when he tore down Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack. He has been one of the blue brand's top heels, a constant presence on the show. And that's resulted in the best stretch of his career.

Nic Negrepontis wrote for The Camel Clutch, "The Miz has always been this good, but the draft has given him the perfect storm to breakout."

Ziggler immediately tasted the benefits of the brand split. The midcarder morphed into a title contender when The Showoff earned the right to challenge Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Championship. He then put his career on the line during his rivalry with The Miz, leading to a show-stealing performance at No Mercy.

WWE could have told that story before the brand split, but it wouldn't have. SmackDown being its own entity forced the company to use more of its roster. That's been a godsend for Ziggler and The Miz, who are both on the roll of a lifetime.

Neville, Sami Zayn and Apollo Crews, the brand split's forgotten sons, have to be wondering if their turns are next.