WWE Smackdown Going Live – Draft & Brand Extension Confirmed?

[Crippler]

According to Variety (lol), WWE Smackdown will move to Tuesday nights on July 19th, and air live from 8-10 PM ET. This means that the show will go head to head with TNA Impact during the 9PMET hour. The move is being done in part because the network is looking for more ways to air content that needs to be seen as it airs and not on DVR.

The article also looks to confirm previous rumors of a brand extension, with the following paragraph…

The debut of a live “Smackdown” comes as two of the WWE’s biggest attractions, John Cena and Seth Rollins, are returning to competition from injuries. And the company is expected to create strong points of differentiation between “Smackdown” and USA’s other live program, “Monday Night Raw,” according to the WWE. A draft will be held before the “Smackdown” launch date to determine which wrestlers on the company’s talent roster will be assigned to which program. Each show is expected to feature separate cast, plots and writing teams.

It's a new era, yes it is

 

[Deezy]

Time to pretend we all didn't hate the brand extension after 04.

 

[Dale]

Very interesting to hear a brand split might happen and to see how they're gonna spread the talent around. Wonder if we get Reigns and Cena on opposite shows with Styles, Rollins, Ambrose & Owens as the #2 and #3 guys on each show.

Reigns, Rollins & Ambrose? on Raw maybe with Cena, Styles & Owens and SmackDown

 

[Smart Marx]

First thing I want to say is in reaction to the video is let Shane have it as I can't see it live and I want to see Stephanie on Monday nights. As for SmackDown going live, it's about time. How has it retained it's taped format after Raw going live 17 years ago? It made no sense then to stay taped and made less sense as the years went by.

We all know the brand extension began suck after only a year because the drafts kept taking every name on SmackDown that got over and sent them to Raw and replaced them with people who weren't over on Raw. The brand extension floundered for years and we didn't even see the extension fully dropped until the WWE and World Titles were unified on December 15, 2013 for the TLC PPV. So why would we bring it back after only 2 and a half years? It was a failure. Give SmackDown to NXT and make that its own live brand. Fuck splitting the WWE rosters.

 

[Deezy]

Taping is cheaper than going live. Raws cost almost a million dollars a show to produce, Smackdown saves 200 grand by bring taped.

 

[Deezy]

Let Triple H oversee Gorilla for Smackdown, go over what would make the show different and for fuck sakes, put it on Wednesday or Thursday, a day after a 3 hour Raw is going to force people to pick and choose.

 

[Sabretooth]

Not sure how this is gonna work considering they only have one world title. I'm gonna guess the title is staying on Raw so are smackdown stars not allowed to compete for the title? WWE better start explaining.

 

[Deezy]

Champs should be able to go on whatever show they like,b benefit of being champion. Fuck bringing in brand specific belts....was a failure before and it dilluted titles and made people a million time champs when they didn't even belong in midcard.

No new titles.

 

[Smart Marx]

If they're going to go through with this disaster of an idea, I agree with @Deezy that we don't need new belts. I would, however, say keep the Intercontinental Championship on Raw and the United States Championship on SmackDown and let the "world" titles (WWE, Women's and Tag) go on both shows.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[Drew]

I stopped watching before the brand split, and came back after it was just about over with.

Agree with no new titles. But they have WAY too much talent to stick to the status quo.

Either get rid of some and make smack down like a triple aaa version of WWE with the guys who have talent and potential but not there yet. Or give it to NXT like said above.

 

[Messiah]

At least Seth Rollins will only be on one show now.. Fuck the other show, i won't ever watch it... Hopefully he's drafted to RAW, kick the worthless divas to Smackdown and we'll all be happy.

 

[Wang Chung]

They screwed the whole brand extension up by not keeping them separate and making each show like its own company. They need to do that in order to survive. My main question is what are they going to do with all of the championships they consolodated. They either need to ununify them or make new championships.

Do you smell what Tap a Talk is cooking?

 

[Deezy]

Meltzer or Alvarez or whichever wants to take credit if it's wrong is saying the brands are going to have their own world title.

Now back to remembering why we were hating the brand split in the first place.