Vince McMahon had spoken about the WWE brand split during the Q4 earnings call. The chairman is highly satisfied with the way things are moving along in the company, given the extremely good performance of both RAW and SmackDown Live ever since the brand split.
Vince even went ahead and mentioned that SmackDown Live has been successful in garnering crossover viewers. Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer revealed that the Draft will most likely take place in June after WrestleMania 33.
In case you didn’t know…
On 19th July 2016, the first episode of SmackDown Live took place at Massachusetts and this officially symbolises the beginning of the PG version of the WWE brand split. The draft took place on the same date and the roster was divided into two. Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar and Finn Balor were some of the big names picked up by the red brand while Dean Ambrose, Aj Styles, John Cena and The Miz were the kingpins on SmackDown Live.
During the course of the year, WWE also had brand exclusive PPVs except for the big four – WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble and Survivor Series. Shane McMahon took reigns as the Commissioner of SmackDown Live while Stephanie McMahon was his counterpart on RAW.
Hardcore legend Mick Foley took up the role of RAW GM, whereas Daniel Bryan has been working as the GM of SmackDown Live.
The heart of the matter
The report also revealed Vince McMahon’s intentions of having a talent switch between the brands. The boss opined that it’s hard to create new stars with one show whereas the brand split gave them the flexibility to build future stars.
As mentioned above, Bryan Alvarez disclosed on the Wrestling Observer Live that WWE is actually planning to have the next edition of the draft during the second half of this year. Word is that the draft will most likely take place during June, which could be sometime after WrestleMania and before the SummerSlam.
What’s next?
WWE has been successful in reviving SmackDown Live, whose ratings have taken a severe hit during the 2014-16 period. Given the star power and the booking, the quality of the show has gone up significantly and for the first time in history, SmackDown Live beat RAW in the ratings battle during John Cena’s return episode.
WWE might shuffle top guys between the rosters and come up with some interesting storylines in the future. Also, Roman Reigns was rumoured to jump ships to SmackDown.
Sportskeeda’s take
Given the pool of talent available with WWE right now and the much awaited main roster debuts of Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode in the pipeline, the company can actually make this draft very interesting. WWE is all about storytelling and what better way to excite the fans than giving them refreshing storylines every now and then?
The Shield reunion maybe? Bullet Club under the same roof!
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