WWE News: More Notes On WWE Brand Split And ‘SmackDown’ Going Live, Different Creative Staffs As Well?


With the absolutely massive news of WWE airing WWE SmackDown live this July, everyone was a bit amazed by it. A lot of people thought that WWE would never move the show to Tuesday, nor would they make it live every week. WWE has done it in the past for special occasions, but it was never a weekly thing. As everyone already knows, WWE tapes SmackDown every Tuesday. It made sense for them to not change their schedules to do it.

Trying to air the show live each Thursday or Friday is obviously harder, as WWE has to change their house show and productions schedules. WWE has taped SmackDown each Tuesday pretty much since the show began. That said, the move for WWE is a major one. USA Network wanted SmackDown to come in and help them with ratings, but the show has not been helpful. This is mainly because of the fact that the company has not really made the show as special as we all had hoped.

There were rumors of a live SmackDown when WWE moved to USA, but when it didn’t happen, the fans were kinda of disappointed. Now, WWE changed that up and decided to bring back the brand split along with it. Yes, WWE will be doing a big brand split once again to give each show their own roster of WWE Superstars.

Variety reported that both shows will have their own creative and writing teams as well as their own unique storylines. The rumor before this announcement was that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would run SmackDown. Not just run it on television — they would actually control all the storylines we see on the show on a weekly basis.

WWE is rumored to be pushing Stephanie up the corporate ladder by 2017. They are wanting her to do an extreme amount of press for her new book, which is set to hit stores in September. The plan is that she will end up getting into the public eye and become the face of WWE’s corporate world instead of her father, Vince McMahon. The plan would then be to slowly transition her into a major position, which is rumored to be happening next year.

Some speculate it may be a position like WWE President or CEO. Some claim the CEO position makes the most sense due to the fact that Vince McMahon took on this role along with his WWE Chairman duties when his wife, Linda McMahon, left to run for government office. It would make total sense for a CEO role to be thrown onto Stephanie, who would then start to become the top name in the WWE business itself and work alongside her father.

That makes WWE’s move with SmackDown even bigger, as the company can claim that Stephanie and Triple H have been running their own equal show to WWE RAW for some time by that point and shareholders won’t freak out when a change in power does occur. Plus, with a slow transition, Stephanie McMahon would have earned her way to the top role in the business.

As for WWE SmackDown and the brand split, the idea is to have SmackDown go live on July 19. This happens to be just a few days before WWE’s Battleground PPV, which airs on July 24. Most assume that WWE will end up doing the draft the week prior to this. This also means that all of the mess-ups with titles or storylines due to the draft will end up getting resolved with the Battleground show.

When it comes to championships, the rumor is that the company will have the WWE World Heavyweight, Women’s, and Tag Team Champions all travel between both shows for a while. WWE may eventually add other championships to even things up a bit. The problem is that WWE has not rebuilt their Women’s or Tag Team divisions well enough yet to make two/three more titles for each show for both divisions. With the split, it only hurts the division more. There is a rumored World Title coming to even out that area, but it may not occur right away either. As for other titles, the champions will be up for grabs in the WWE draft.

[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]

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