In a much shorter time period than the first, WWE's brand split is already running its course. Due to the brand split, the tag team divisions on Raw and Smackdown have both suffered. The same goes for the women's divisions. With the Universal Title barely being seen and the way the WWE Championship has hardly, if ever main evented a PPV, the top tier divisions have also suffered. I may have indirectly pointed out that the reason why the brand split is failing its individual divisions could be because of too many Championships. Should the Titles be merged again, it would be more pointless to have split rosters. These problems definitely go hand in hand.
For a long time, Tag Team Championships for the women have been rumored. While I don't hold a position on the subject either way, I can see both sides of the argument. How would this arrangement work? Would there be two different sets of Tag Team Titles for Raw and Smackdown like the men have? If that's the case, it continues to dilute a Championship's importance and adds even more unnecessary Titles. It's overkill! The more conventional idea would be to have floating Tag Team Titles for the women from brand to brand. If that's the case, which I would be more in favor of, doesn't it then become redundant to have two singles Titles for the women? I would only be in favor of Women's Tag Team Championships if the singles Titles are unified. Based on the way the men's tag team divisions look, I'm not too hopeful for the women.
While I'm on the subject, I'll focus on the tag team divisions. Raw's is a complete joke at this point. While the Authors of Pain make sense to be holding the Titles, they weren't pushed correctly until recently and even then, their existence has been tainted by defeating only one man for the Titles, piss jokes, and the fact that WWE replaced Paul Ellering with Drake Maverick of all people. Don't get me started on The Revival! Who did they piss off? In NXT, they were the top team and their matches with DIY were classics. I know they have been plagued by injuries but that doesn't mean they should be treated like jokes when they are healthy. The B Team are jokes, the Ascension haven't been relevant on the main roster ever, you've got a makeshift nonsensical team in Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, and unless you've watched 205 Live, you'd have no idea where the Lucha House Party came from. WWE had Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler briefly hold the Titles in a ridiculous story with Braun Strowman and The Shield only held the Titles to help Roman Reigns not get booed as much.
While Smackdown's division is better, it's only by a short margin. While The New Day, The Bar, and the Usos are great teams, it's getting a little tiresome to see the same teams feud. Sanity was brought up and have been barely used, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson haven't been used right since they left New Japan, and the Colons were never even relevant to begin with. I think it's time to merge the tag team divisions and Championships, get rid of the dead weight, stop using makeshift teams as much, and focus on teams that could use the spotlight every once in a while. I know they're different animals under the WWE umbrella, but NXT seems to have itself a pretty great tag team division, which I thought was not going to be the case after the heartbreaking breakup of DIY and the call ups of the Authors of Pain and Sanity. The Undisputed Era, now at full force with the return from injury of Bobby Fish, are absolutely killing it. The likely next Champions are the impressive War Raiders. Waiting in the wings are popular teams like Heavy Machinery and the Street Profits, the wily Aussies known as The Mighty, a team flying under the radar in the Forgotten Sons, and the underdog duo of Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. There's also Mustache Mountain, varying between the main NXT brand and NXT UK.
Even worse than having two women's titles and two tag team titles is having more than one top Champion. Even in a brand split, it still makes no sense! How can one company have more than one World Champion? Which one is the top belt? You can't have two! For a majority of its just over two year existence, the Universal Championship has been with Brock Lesnar, who rarely makes appearances or Title defenses. To me, the Universal Title means nothing and is not a true World Title. Meanwhile, the WWE Title, which has been around for 55 years, is often considered an afterthought and its Champions are rarely, if ever, featured in the main event. While it was great to see AJ Styles have a year-long reign based on the Title's legacy, he was passed over in main events for Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns, therefore slightly diminishing his accomplishments. Unfortunately, Roman Reigns had to make a gut-wrenching announcement. Due to this, WWE scrambled and because of how they messed up Braun Strowman, they almost had no choice but to put the Universal Title on Lesnar again. I don't mind Lesnar's few and far between appearances, but I do when he's the Champion. He's at the level where he's an attraction and no longer needs Championships to be relevant. Unifying the main Titles would be a very welcomed thing.
Some argue that having separate brands enables superstars to grow and win the top Championships they may not have won without the brand split. I can understand that, as without the brand split the first time around, would we have seen Eddie Guerrero or Chris Benoit win World Championships? On the other hand, the brand split saw JBL hold the top Title for nearly 10 months, which would have been doubtful if there was no brand split. In today's standards, the brand split saw Jinder Mahal hold the WWE Title, which would never have happened without it. The brand split may have given us Christian and Mark Henry finally getting their moments, but we also had to suffer through the Great Khali and Jack Swagger. I understand that not everyone can win a World Title and that's okay. Ted DiBiase, Mr. Perfect, and Roddy Piper may not have won World Titles in WWE but it doesn't make them any less of the legends they are.
While guys like John Cena and especially the Undertaker have earned being able to go wherever they please, it takes away from the purpose of the brand split, which is to create two different and unique brands. Because the brand exclusive PPV's weren't as profitable, WWE decided to have duel-branded shows. While it makes the cards significantly better, it also takes away from the point of the split. Also, some wrestlers appear on each other's brands haphazardly so it isn't a true split anyway. The "shake-up" is the new form of the draft but it has become pointless. Then there's the promotion of NXT talent to the main roster without any plans for these men and women. In fact, NXT is arguably more of a separate and unique brand than Raw or Smackdown.
While the Championships may in fact be props, they should still be treated as if they're prestigious. Can we at least try to maintain some kayfabe? I believe unifying the World Titles and the Tag Team Titles would do loads of good. Also, Tag Team Titles for the women should only be introduced if there is a unification of the singles Titles. I'd be okay with the mid-card Titles both being around but then again, the end of the brand split should also unify those Titles as well. WWE ran for almost 40 years before the first split and did just fine. When the first brand split ended, it had lost all meaning a few years before anyway. The same could be said for this time around. It's time to end the experiment. It failed once and it is failing once again. This may not be a solution to all the problems within WWE but it's a start.
If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments. Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans. Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport. For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
https://tagmeadate.com/
While guys like John Cena and especially the Undertaker have earned being able to go wherever they please, it takes away from the purpose of the brand split, which is to create two different and unique brands. Because the brand exclusive PPV's weren't as profitable, WWE decided to have duel-branded shows. While it makes the cards significantly better, it also takes away from the point of the split. Also, some wrestlers appear on each other's brands haphazardly so it isn't a true split anyway. The "shake-up" is the new form of the draft but it has become pointless. Then there's the promotion of NXT talent to the main roster without any plans for these men and women. In fact, NXT is arguably more of a separate and unique brand than Raw or Smackdown.
While the Championships may in fact be props, they should still be treated as if they're prestigious. Can we at least try to maintain some kayfabe? I believe unifying the World Titles and the Tag Team Titles would do loads of good. Also, Tag Team Titles for the women should only be introduced if there is a unification of the singles Titles. I'd be okay with the mid-card Titles both being around but then again, the end of the brand split should also unify those Titles as well. WWE ran for almost 40 years before the first split and did just fine. When the first brand split ended, it had lost all meaning a few years before anyway. The same could be said for this time around. It's time to end the experiment. It failed once and it is failing once again. This may not be a solution to all the problems within WWE but it's a start.
If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments. Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans. Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport. For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
https://tagmeadate.com/
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