Analyzing The Future Of The WWE Brand Extension, Unifying Titles and More

WrestleMania Backlash is almost upon us and at that show, RK-Bro and The Usos will unify the Raw and Smackdown World Tag Team Titles. It seems to be the latest trend within WWE that they want to make The Bloodline as strong as possible.

The visual of The Usos and Roman Reigns holding up two sets of titles is one that obviously Vince McMahon wants. Is that what the fans want? Well, that’s debatable. The Tag Team division hasn’t been booked consistently in years so it probably wouldn’t hurt much to see those titles unified. We have seen some combination of RK-Bro, Street Profits, and Alpha Academy for months and The Usos and New Day have run it back more times than I can count. So, in that respect, I guess it doesn’t matter. The bigger question is what this means for the overall brand split. The current brand split has been active since July 2016 when Smackdown started as a live show (on Tuesdays until the Fox move to Fridays in October 2019) and despite the unification of the titles, I don’t see that ending anytime soon. Let’s look over some talking points about WWE’s brand extension.

FOX AND USA WANT SEPARATE ROSTERS

The biggest reason is the fact that Raw and Smackdown are on separate networks. If both were on USA, I feel like the brand split would’ve ended already. However, Fox and USA have both made it clear that they want their own rosters (according to past insider reports). They don’t mind certain guys floating back and forth, but they want their own identity. With both television deals coming up in 2024, WWE is going to want to do everything they can to make their television partners happy.

Fox made it clear that they wanted Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair. They got both. The USA network wanted Becky Lynch. They got her (along with husband Seth Rollins). I can’t see the brand split ending as long as both shows are on two different networks. If Smackdown ever moves back to NBCU, that could and probably would change.

SHOULD WWE UNIFY THE UNITED STATES AND INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIPS?

This begs the other question of should the WWE unify the two mid-card titles. The current WWE Intercontinental Champion is Ricochet. The current WWE United States Champion is Theory after defeating Finn Balor.

My answer to this question is a no simply because those titles aren’t booked that well. A lack of relevant tag teams is a good reason to unify the tag team titles. Neither show is lacking a mid-card. They just lack the ability to book a mid-card feud with any consistency. If you’re going to keep two separate shows, they have to have their own identities. You can’t just have all champions appearing on both shows. You have to be able to say: “Hey, if you want to see the United States Champion, you have to watch Raw” or vice versa. The solution is just to simply book those titles better. Ricochet and Theory are two world-class wrestlers. Let them show what they can do.

WHAT ABOUT THE WOMEN’S TITLES?

Much like the mid-card titles, there are way too many women to unify those titles. Raw just got the return of Asuka while Alexa Bliss is coming back. They have Becky, Bianca, Zelina, Carmella, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Dana Brooke, etc.

Smackdown has Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey. They also have Sasha Banks, Naomi, Shayna, Natalya, Raquel, and women just sitting around doing nothing such as Shotzi and Aliyah. I just named nine women on each brand. That doesn’t include Bayley, who could be back any week now as well as Sonya Deville who can slot in on either show. They have more than enough women for a Women’s Title on each show.

They would have enough women for the Women’s Tag Team Titles if they got rid of the NXT version and just let Sasha Banks and Naomi go to all three shows. The top of the women’s division is booked extremely well. The problem is the rest of the division that isn’t a Horsewoman or Bianca Belair. Just book them better and you can justify the two Women’s Titles.

WILL THE UNIFICATION LAST?

That’s the million-dollar question. Becky Lynch won a Winner Take All match for both Women’s Titles at Wrestlemania 35. Soon after that, she lost the Smackdown Women’s Title back to Charlotte. The difference is that they never used the word unification when talking about that triple threat match in 2019. WWE saying Roman Reigns is the “Undisputed WWE Universal Champion” leads me to believe it is going to last for a while. The key will be what happens when they lose it. If somebody beats Roman Reigns, do they also get both titles? Or does Roman keep one? That’s the question. If Roman loses and keeps one of his titles, then most likely it was just a short-term thing to make Roman look strong. If Roman loses and they take both of his titles, the unification is probably here to stay for a while, which I get but don’t agree with.

I’m old enough to remember the first brand split in 2002. I’m old enough to remember when the brands had one Undisputed Champion. When that happened, one show always suffered while the WWE World Title feud was going on on another show. Remember how bad Raw was when Brock Lesnar was Universal Champion and took several months off in between matches? Imagine that for Smackdown. Raw has a pretty stacked roster at the moment that they could probably survive a month or so without a World Champion. Can Smackdown? If Roman is feuding with Cody Rhodes on Raw, what’s the main rivalry on Smackdown? Madcap Moss and Happy Corbin? Drew McIntyre and Jinder? All due respect. I love all four guys, but that ain’t going to cut it.

That’s why I think it’s in WWE’s best interests to split those titles back up as soon as possible. Raw has been the clearly better show for months. Not having Roman on Smackdown every week would only make matters worse for them. As far as the Tag Teams go, it doesn’t really matter. There aren’t enough credible tag teams to have two separate titles. You have more than enough main event talent. On Raw alone you have Cody, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Randy Orton, Edge, and AJ Styles with guys like Riddle, Finn Balor, Miz, Damien Priest that you could slide in there for one-month feuds. On Smackdown you basically have Drew McIntyre. Sure, you can use guys like Kofi Kingston, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sheamus, Ricochet, Sami Zayn for little one-month premium live event matches. Drew McIntyre is your only consistent main event draw on Smackdown. That is an issue that WWE needs to address quickly before Smackdown fully reclaims its “B-show” status.

THE FUTURE OF THE BRAND EXTENSION

As I’ve stated, with the television rights deals coming up in 2024, I feel like the Brand Extension stays in place until then. Whether it continues after that depends on how the deals go. If both shows end up back on the same network, I think you can consider the brand extension as good as dead. If both Fox and USA retain their rights to their respective shows then it depends on their desires. Are they okay with still maintaining their own shows and own identity? Or do they want more of every superstar on their show? Only time will tell.

I’ll leave it at that. That’s what I think about the brand extension as it currently stands. I do believe The Usos walk out of Wrestlemania Backlash with both Tag Team Titles. I think Roman’s next two biggest feuds are Drew McIntyre from Smackdown and Cody Rhodes from Raw. Only time will tell if The Bloodline makes it through the summer with all the gold.

Thanks for reading. Check out my TJRWrestling writing archive here. I’m on Twitter @GiftedMoney talking about wrestling among other things, so feel free to message me on there with any thoughts or comments.