Before the brand extension WWE story lines could be spread out to two two-hour programs over the week ... Monday on Raw and Thursday on Smackdown ... and the superstars would be showcased on both programs. This allowed WWE to build longer stories and use more wreslters because they had more time to give to there top talent and undercard superstars.
But with the WWE's purchase of WCW, their biggest competition, WWE needed to build a competition for themselves. Now much of the WCW fans wanted Vince and Co. to turn Smackdown in the "new" WCW and showcase the superstars from WCW that he bought. With the weak talent pool that came to WWE after the purchase of WCW the thought of rebranding Smackdown to the "new" WCW was almost impossible. A lot of people blame Vince for the failed invasion story line that preceeded the WCW purchase, but I believe that most of the blame falls of the weak talent pool from WCW itself.
With the brand extension in place WWE story lines became shorter because of the restriction in time and the talent pool of superstars became very thin ... and it has taken WWE a couple of years to build Raw and Smackdown up to the same level we see now with Main event superstars
Monday Night Raw, the Flagship of WWE, probably had the least problems with the brand extension but with the shorter time frame for story lines you had many superstars fighting for TV time in the ring. WWE lost many of the mid-card wrestlers that filled time before the brand extension but they also lost a lot of different sytles and personalites that brought fans to the program.
Triple H really dominated the first few years of the brand extension on Raw ... he was fed many wrestlers that really should not have been competing in the main event including Scott Steiner, RVD, Kane, and even Goldberg to a lesser extent. Because of all the afore mentions superstars wreslting talent or lack their of, Raw spent most of its time building these matches up with talking and not wrestling - not giving the undercard any TV time.
Now with Raw developing some major main event talent outside of Triple H we are starting to see more wrestling and different undercard superstars on the program - superstars like, John Cena, Johnny Nitro, Umaga, Jeff Hardy, Big Show, Edge, etc.
Smackdown had the hardest time in the brand extension. When the extension and the first draft happened Smackdown got a few main event superstars, but not the numbers they needed. Smackdown housed superstars such as Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesner, and the crusier weight division (a carry over from WCW). One of their biggest hurdles to overcome was the concept of being the "B" show.
With the hard work of Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Teddy Long and JBL, as a wrestler and later an announcer, Smackdown slowly became known as the 'wrestlers program' with more wrestling and less talking. However, when ECW brand came back to life Smackdown was hit the hardest because most of their undercard and Kurt Angle were transferred to ECW ... we are just seeing Smackdown bounce back from this rebranding.
So is the brand extension gold or squash?? I have to say emphatically...GOLD. It is working better then I expected it to work! With the build-up to Wrestlemania 23 we are seeing a lot of interbrand promotion with superstars from each brand competing on different shows. Man, the ratings have shown that fans from each brand will turn in to the other show to watch their superstars!! In short, Raw, Smackdown, and even ECW, have built loyalty with their fans. Isn't this want the brand extension was about from the beginning?? ... different shows with a slightly different feel and loyal fans who will follow their favorite superstars!
Now don't get me wrong there are still some rough spots that they are currently working out ... like limited time for storytelling, but given time I think these aspects will work themselves out.
28 Days till Wreslemania 23 ... OH YEAH!
----BoneDaddy
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