On the 25th May, 2016, WWE announced that Smackdown will be going live from the 19th July, and that the WWE brand split will be returning. It’s exciting stuff, but we’ve been here before. In those early days of the original WWE brand split, Smackdown soared under Paul Heyman’s booking, but Raw was dominated by Triple H’s reign of terror. It’s like there’s only so much wrestling goodness to go around, with one brand always destined to be worse off.
So here’s how I – WrestleTalk’s Oli Davis – would stack the decks in equal favour. The grand masterplan – or complete buffoonery, you decide – will be spread over three videos, each focusing on a different area: Presentation, Content and Roster. God, that sounds corporate. It’s like a fantasy draft…just for everything. So here’s episode number one: Presentation.
First things first: both shows need to have new intro music, and preferably a track that isn’t the musical manifestation of the colour beige.
Next, the design. Weirdly, I’d keep Raw’s set the same. The production values are incredible, and I doubt they’ll ever get rid of their hugely expensive HD Titantron – which is why the set hasn’t changed since 2008.
Smackdown, however, needs to look different. The brand split is really Smackdown’s opportunity, not Raw’s. Which is why it needs a completely separate onscreen identity. I’m not saying bring back the fist – although I love the fist…that came out weird – but Smackdown needs to come up with a design that isn’t exactly the same as every other WWE product we’ve seen for the past 8 years.
And finally, the commentary team, arguably the most important part of a wrestling promotion’s presentation. They’re the people who narrate the stories you need to believe in. They provide the context for why we should care. They provide colour, they sell us on the significance of an angle, they’re the voices of the on-air product…
To see who Oli has picked as the commentary teams for Raw and Smackdown after the WWE brand split, watch the video above!
