More WWE Raw vs. SmackDown plans for Crown Jewel 2026: Could this year’s show get taken over by brand warfare?

WWE

Before Triple H introduced WarGames to WWE’s main roster, Survivor Series was an event solely focused on determining which brand was supreme.

This was the case between 2016 and 2021, with superstars from Raw and SmackDown (and NXT in 2019) doing battle throughout the night to ultimately crown a winner overall by the end of the show.

Triple H was quite right to kill off this idea for Survivor Series when he did as it was a bit played out and never actually meant anything in the grand scheme of things, but the idea may still have its place.

With Crown Jewel becoming the new home of champion vs. champion matches when Raw and SmackDown’s world title holders battle it out to hold the WWE Crown Jewel Championship, perhaps WWE can introduce more brand warfare elements.

Here are some more potential WWE Raw vs. SmackDown plans for Crown Jewel 2026:

More champion vs. champion matches

If WWE wants to turn Crown Jewel into the new Raw vs. SmackDown showcase then they will have to give some shine to each brand’s mid-card and tag team titles as well.

If going off who the champions are right now then the matches would be: Chad Gable vs. Trick Williams, The Vision vs. MFT and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Jacy Jayne.

You could argue that all three of those don’t work, as there would be no classic heel vs. babyface dynamics going on. That would maybe work with Gable vs. Williams, but the other two would most certainly need tweaked if the fans in Riyadh are going to get invested in them.

Team Nick Aldis vs. Team Adam Pearce

This past Friday’s SmackDown gave us a taste of the long-standing rivalry between Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce.

Now, this rivalry is a relatively friendly one, but it would be interesting if it stayed that way in a true brand vs. brand scenario; a scenario we haven’t seen play out since both became GM’s of their respective brand.

Much like the traditional Survivor Series matches of old, Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce could field teams of men or women against each other to determine which show reigns supreme.

Raw & SmackDown battle royal for world title shot at Survivor Series

If WWE wanted to sprinkle in a little brand warfare with actual stakes, they could simply book Raw and SmackDown battle royal, with the winner earning a world title opportunity at Survivor Series 2026.

If this idea is considered a little too similar to the Royal Rumble or Andre the Giant Battle Royal, an alternative would be a mixed brand gauntlet match or even a concept similar to NXT’s Iron Survivor or the forgotten Championship Scramble from Unforgiven 2008 (just without the championship).

It would be understandable if WWE didn’t want the entire show to be themed on Raw vs. SmackDown, but if they wanted to add just one additional match to Crown Jewel with that theme then something like this would be the way to go.

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• wwe
• Smackdown
• RAW
• Crown Jewel

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