Would ending the brand extension boost ratings?

[Cactus Jack]

I think it undoubtedly would.

[MGH]

You'd have the biggest stars on all the shows, so yes it would for awhile. Just like now though, they'd book everything to be repetitive, the novelty of everyone being on the same show again would die out sooner or later, and they're back to square one. They could have really good ratings now if they could remember how to write interesting storylines aside from Hardy/MVP.

[wwerules60]

Yes, it would keep things fresh seeing as you could put anyone together in a feud now without having to worry about what brand they are on.

[acressl]

If they could organize it properly it could be huge. The lack of brands would allow the E to do different things creatively. Sick of the same tired match every week? Why go there? You've a whole locker room full of different people you can use again. But then either some people never get used or they do use everyone and it results in a clustersmurf.

[nerdinitupagain]

After 3-4 months after all the rushing of the "big matches"... ratings would be down right where they should be.

Short term fixes are never a good problem.

[ChibiDiablo]

I'd be worried of guys getting lost in the shuffle.

[Deleted]

Yes.

The ratings would dramatically increase, for all three shows. As long as they provide the audience with good storytelling and characters, they'll have no problem maintaining high ratings.

Also, the prestige of the individual championships would also improve, as there's not so many floating around. For example, imagine the Intercontinental title? They'd have CM Punk, MVP, Morrison, Jeff Hardy and others in that division and it would make people care more about the whole show (instead of just the main eventers).

But, they need to keep the product fresh. This is the key to success. If they can develop a solid roster of about forty wrestlers, introducing new characters regularly shouldn't be a problem.

Plus, if they ended the split, there would be an opportunity to keep rotating the roster - which means that not only does the product remain fresh, but it's not as bad on the actual wrestlers as they're not working all year. It should cut back on the violations of the Wellness Policy and also boost the morale of the talent.

[The Panda Powered]

Well, firstly they'd have to merge the majority of the titles, so let's say we unify the World/WWE Titles, IC/US, both tag titles, get rid of ECW all together (the show, not just the belt) and instead of the cruiserweight title, just turn it into the 2007 version of the European title, so you'd have a clearly defined structure of:

WWE World Title: Main Eventers and challenging upper-midcarders

Intercontinental: Upper-Mid Carders not in the title scene and the midcarders

Tag Title: Established tag teams only, no MVP/Matt Hardy teams where it's two singles wrestlers working as a team, just proper teams, like Londrick, WGTT, Cade/Murdoch

European: Lower Midcarders

Womens: Not the men

Then, WWE could shed some dead weight off of TV, such as:

Ashley
Balls Mahoney
Big Daddy V
Boogeyman
Chuck Palumbo
Funaki
Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Kelly Kelly
Kenny Dykstra
Layla
Maryse
Matt Striker
Mike Knox
Snitsky
Tommy Dreamer
Vickie Guerrero

[Jiren]

pandapowered said:

Well, firstly they'd have to merge the majority of the titles, so let's say we unify the World/WWE Titles, IC/US, both tag titles, get rid of ECW all together (the show, not just the belt) and instead of the cruiserweight title, just turn it into the 2007 version of the European title, so you'd have a clearly defined structure of:

WWE World Title: Main Eventers and challenging upper-midcarders

Intercontinental: Upper-Mid Carders not in the title scene and the midcarders

Tag Title: Established tag teams only, no MVP/Matt Hardy teams where it's two singles wrestlers working as a team, just proper teams, like Londrick, WGTT, Cade/Murdoch

European: Lower Midcarders

Womens: Not the men

Then, WWE could shed some dead weight off of TV, such as:

Ashley
Balls Mahoney
Big Daddy V
Boogeyman
Chuck Palumbo
Funaki
Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Kelly Kelly
Kenny Dykstra
Layla
Maryse
Matt Striker
Mike Knox
Snitsky
Tommy Dreamer
Vickie Guerrero

That could work

[Palatial Regalia]

A few shows, yes, but unless the booking style changed things would grow stale even quicker. Leading to overall decline in ratings.

[franchisedavis]

What it would do is make people watch both shows. I would think more people watch Raw instead of Smackdown. And Smackdown more than ECW.

I remember before the brand extension I would always watch both shows. The tough part is that the shows are going to be dominated by the stars and there just isn't enough time for them all.

[Dean-o]

The key is, to know how to book everybody. First off, killing off dead weight is bad because you always need jobbers and JTTS to enhance talent, and buy killing off guys like Knox, Dykstra, Dreamer, etc...all you are doing is creating the same void we have now: rosters are too small.

That is what I think the major problem is with the WWE. The rosters are way too small. What happens is storylines, matches, and feuds become repetitive far too soon then they should be.

[Andrew is Good]

The thing about the brand extension is Smackdown's ratings aren't going down. They've consistently been between 2.5 and 2.9 forever. And for the audience they play too, and for their day, that's a ridiculous rating. So Smackdown right now is doing extremely well in the ratings. However, Raw and ECW's ratings are the shits. Raw has consistently been between 3.5 and 4.5 for a good 5 years, and this year, it's been really bad.

They can't blame the Benoit tragedy for losing fans, because Smackdown was where he was usually at, and their ratings are great. They can't blame the steroid scandal because Smackdown's still doing good. It's all in the booking on Raw and ECW. That's the only thing to blame, because if it was anything, Smackdown's ratings would be down as well.

I'll give you the best example of the booking difference between Raw and Smackdown. Undertaker and Batista vs World Tag Champions Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch. They get beaten in 3 minutes. The Champions are made to look like jobbers.

Ric Flair and Batista vs WWE Tag Champs Deuce n' Domino. They get a whole angle for the show, and have a good 10-15 minute match on television and they win by DQ. The Champions are then kept strong. And even with Taker & Kane vs Finlay and Booker, they still had a good long match. On Smackdown, they attempt to make all the talent they're pushing look good, and try not to step on the toes of people who are in a decent spot. Like, when they have John Cena beat the Intercontinental and the Tag Champs by himself, what do you think is going to happen when they see the Tag Champs wrestle anyone else. Click, tv stations all across the world changing the channel because it's just a bunch of jobbers.

During the singles matches with Batista against Deuce & Domino, Batista is dominent because he's a former World Champion, but in a tag team situation, Deuce n' Domino are the ones who are dominent. They aren't doing much with them now, but the champions usually are made to look somewhat strong, especially ever since Michael Hayes took the reigns. Before, it would be the Crusierweight Champ vs the Heavyweight Champ in a squash match. Then once Hayes got the book, the matches were a little more evened out, and were more competitive. So the problem is that Raw is full of lazy booking, they only care about the top 5 guys and screw everybody else.

With ECW, the only way to bring their ratings up is to make it an alternative brand and have it be somewhat similar to the original ECW. Don't have WWE rules, not every wrestle has to go out and use a chair because not all wrestlers wrestle that style. The ECW originals as well were really over. Tommy Dreamer is OVER. Balls Mahoney is OVER. But, they don't care. They have an angle, which is a little corny, but my god, at least it's an angle. But since they want to have Miz in the title picture, they f*** the angle completely up. There's no build to anything, there's no payoff. I really liked the angle because I'm a big fan of Balls Mahoney, and I wanted to see Balls kick Miz's ass. I was really enjoying it, but they screwed it up and put him in the title picture. Vince's ego is too big to let ECW succeed on it's own.

I read an interview with Rob Van Dam in a UK wrestling magazine when I was over there, and Rob said that Vince McMahon believes that he programmed the fans to chant ECW. So it's not really about ending the brand extension, because it can function on its own. But because the Raw booking/writing staff are too lazy, and because Vince doesn't want ECW to flurish, the ratings are going to go down.