Will we ever see the WWE brand split again?

One of the things WWE fans do is pine about the past.

It really doesn’t matter if it’s good times or bad — there’s always something to object to when it comes to the overall quality of the product presented by McMahon and Family.

I’ve heard fans suggesting a return to the sharper, more focused booking of the Attitude Era which, let’s face it, isn’t going to happen no matter how many crickets in suits tell you that wishing upon a star will make dreams come true.

(Can I say that? Anybody? Are we in legal trouble? Oh, well…we’ll find out later when we get the court summons.)

Anyway, one of the more curious times in WWE was a unique idea called “The WWE Brand Split” or “Brand Extension” which started with a storyline where Ric Flair owned half of WWE due to Shane and Stephanie McMahon selling their company shares in order to pay for WCW and ECW.

Never mind that Shane paid for WCW a long time ago — but if you’re gonna quibble over little details like that, it’s gonna end up being a long, long article.

Anyhow, as it turned out, Flair was forced to sell his half of WWE back to the company in order to have a match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania X8. The Board of Directors, however, ruled that the company would end up being split into two and while Vince McMahon could run one half of the company, Flair could run the other — and the Brand Extension was born.

The two major Championships (Womens and Undisputed) were available to both brands and would end up being defended at major Pay Per View events. The problem, however, was that once a wrestler had a major title, that champion could only be seen on one brand — so EricBischoff (the RAW General Manager) brought back the Big Gold Belt, calling it “The World Championship”. Meanwhile, onSmackdown, the “Divas Title”was created.

WWE Hall of Fame Ric Flair during WWE RAW.

Photo Credit: WWE.com

Now each brand had a major title.

The main problem ended up being that there were simply too many titles floating around and way too many stories that people didn’t care about. It was hard enough to watch long, drawn-out tag team championship matches. It was just a pain to sit through another one of those, featuring teams that really weren’t all that great. I mean, The Legion of Doom holding them is one thing. Benoit and Angle, sure.

But The Basham Brothers? Kidman and London? Nitro and Mercury?

Who cares?

Around the latter half of the first decade of the 2000’s, WWE began unifying the titles, decommissioning the ECW, Cruiserweight, Tag Team, European and Womens Championships because, let’s face it, it’s no fun if just about everyone on the roster has a title.

WWE would eventually move to combining Smackdown and RAW but kept the GM’s going until The Authority angle came into play.

I’ve seen so many fans wishing the WWE brand split was back but I don’t hear any of them talking about WHY it was shut down.

According to Stephanie McMahon, the company wanted a linear storyline for their online content collection for WWE Network as well as what was on the website and the company, overall, wanted to avoid confusion regarding Superstars of WWE and the titles in their possession.

I don’t think we should go back to the brand split again mainly because it’s part of the reason WWE is in the mess it’s in: too many minor wrestlers nobody cares about in throwaway storylines.

The way WWE improves is to cut RAW back one hour and put as much care into Smackdown.

It’s a vicious circle, however, because WWE is beholden to the TV Networks who, for all intents and purposes, call the shots as far as advertising is concerned. They are stuck with a three-hour program and a taped (and very jarring) two-hour Smackdown. They don’t control their public content 100 percent except in terms of storyline.

The rest is due to public stockholders who have the McMahons by the balls.

Because of this, just like we will never see the Attitude Era again, we also won’t see the return of the WWE brand split.