It’s been two years since WWE relaunched the brand split, separating the Raw and SmackDown Live rosters, giving each show their own exclusive titles (and for a while their own pay-per-views) and reigniting what, at the time, was a very stale product. Despite this, more rumors have been running wild that ‘the E’ may bring those rosters back together sooner rather than later.
It was confirmed earlier this year in May that WWE had signed a five-year deal with Fox to broadcast SmackDown Live beginning in October 2019 reportedly worth a casual $1.025 billion. For those trying to keep track, the amount of zeros on that is classified as ‘a whole bunch’. Discussions on the Wrestling Observer Radio were had regarding this deal and its potential impact on the product.
It seems a residing opinion is that because of the ratings SmackDown Live pulls on a regular basis, the big-wigs over at Fox may not want to keep the blue brand in the prime-time slot. This could lead to a few different options. They may move ‘the house that AJ Styles built’ to FS1 (which isn’t in and of itself necessarily a bad thing as it could still pull decent numbers), or the more ‘WWE‘ thing to do would be to scrap the brand split in an effort to bring the numbers back up for the blue show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPOtDStsLUU
This is, of course, just speculation for now so it’s best to take this with a pinch of salt. However, the points raised do lend some credence to the theory. I’m sure if WWE did decide to bring both brands back together, it would come as a disappointment for a majority of fans.
While its praises aren’t sung very often, the brand split has brought something special to each show. Removing that exclusivity would send the product down several rungs on the ladder, right back to where they were prior to the 2016 split.
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How would you feel if the brand split ended? Do you think it could realistically happen or are these speculations without merit? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter or on Discord today!
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