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| Bad | 59% | 145 votes | Total: 245 votes | |
| Good | 41% | 100 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThe WWE created the brand extension with the sole purpose of trying to create multiple stars at once.
There was also an attempt to give it the feel of having some form of competition exist since the demise of WCW.
Raw and Smackdown were initially going to be used as promotions with storyline General Managers but the problem was that people knew it was all WWE. In the sense, it was an interesting idea on paper but in reality, it was really not something that can be used to build stars up.
Sure, there are guys in the Main Event that would get TV time but there is a different between wrestlers at the top of the card and below. If anything, the tag team division has really suffered the most because of the split roster because there is no luxury of it being a potential option to help build talent up. There are simply no real tag teams anymore and it has seen a very weak tag team division but in reality there are two divisions.
Championsh ip wise, there were eight titles but now there are nine because of WWE having a second Woman's Title and bringing in the ECW brand with its own title being the ECW Championship.
No performer has to wait as it is extremely easy to be a top star. The more World Titles out there, the more likely it is to see wrestlers get to the top without having that road that used to exist.
It is understandable on why it was done but it should have been done better looking back on it. An attempt would be having the ECW brand just branch off and be its own promotion being like a minor league promotion for talent with a TV deal in place so people can watch right now.
Sure, it would mean fewer crossovers, but at the same time would be used in the way it needs to be used, develop talent. Sure, it would be the use of having a couple championships extra like a TV and Tag but it would be worth it if you can form tag teams. Have Vince McMahon be the financial backer of it and have someone actually own it. That may be the only way for the ECW brand to really be looked at differently.
It does come down to point of view on that and while there is a case for it to be considered successful, it isn't completely in the way that it was intended to be. Anymore, watching Raw lately it does seem to have some interaction with Smackdown and almost fazing it out of the picture.
In reality, all it did was simply make it too easy for talent to get to the top and just the impact has not worked out. In the sense, it really wasn't the big success that it was intending to be. That is why it may be considered to a degree somewhat of a bad thing.
Learn more about this author, Bruce Bostwick.
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Good
In my opinion, the draft extension has been a VERY good thing. Pre-Draft we had the Invasion Angle which failed miserably, which int he end left the former WCW and ECW stars, among the new talent just coming up from both the WCW's and WWF Development Territories with nowhere to go on the roster, basically, things were beginning to look the way WCW was with overflowing talent, nothing to do with them, which means more jobbers. WWE then did the smart thing, bought in a brand extension and separated equally both shows with STARS and UP AND COMERS who would potentially lead the show in the future, bringing in fresh and new talent with GOOD pushes instead of jobber after jobber being decimated by the current breed of superstars both past and present.
Nowadays, you see people like Edge and John Cena who have benefited from the draft especially, as well as people in the rival company such as Christian Cage and Tomko. Without the draft extension, Edge And Christian most likely wouldn't have been pushed in a singles run, neither would Tomko, who was exclusively a Heat jobber. Cena would have been a nobody, Eddie Guerrero wouldn't have been pushed to the main event, Rey Mysterio Jr, the list goes on. Literally a never-ending list of why the extension was, and still IS proving to be a great thing.
People complain about the draft separating the roster, they want to see the main eventer's of each show collide together, they want to see and EXPECT to see up and coming talent be pushed to the top, a new generation and a new breed of Wrestlers and Superstars of the 2000's. If the draft ended, do you really expect to see this happen? Without the extension, the company itself would have over 100 wrestlers, all competing together to be on a show. Feuds would be short and pointless extending across all three shows; Raw, Smackdown and ECW, and would be hard to follow. The fans are often also exclusive to a show, they like their main eventer's on their show. The Draft introduced a new age of wrestling within a company quickly growing stale and old, it introduced a new, organized and meaningful Roster with a shuffle around every few years, this in my opinion was pure genius at it's best.
In an un-extended brand, we would still be seeing 80's and 90's based wrestlers taking up the main event spots, with minimal to NO pushes whatsoever. The likes of Edge and Christian and the Hardy's would still be in the tag-team division endlessly with no future other than to hype up the crowd with breath-taking performances ready for the main event, the likes of the new age talent such as John Cena and Brock Lesnar would not have received the pushes they have now, or in Lesnar's case, had in the past, and the new age wrestlers on the rosters such as Elijah Burke, Monty Brown, CM Punk, would still be either working in the independents or be glorified jobbers with NO microphone time and squash matches.
Does any wrestling fan want that? No, simple as that.
Any real wrestling fan wants to witness a new age and a new introduction to professional wrestling. This means new stars being born and pushed into the top slowly but surely. Any pace is better than no pace, and with the WWE still being the ELITE company in the wrestling world, they did the right thing by extending their company into two, then three brands, therefore making room for more talent. More talent means more potential stars, more potential stars means a huge gain to the wrestling world, more quality matches and in turn more money for the business itself. What more could any fan want? It adds more aura of mystery and anxiousness to see what could potentially be if the stars of each brand collided.
The brand in my opinion was the best thing to happen in wrestling in many years. I was a fan of both WCW and ECW, and i was literally lifeless when they went bankrupt. The bran extension bought new life to my wrestling senses, a fresh new approach which i was very grateful for.
I suggest you take a moment to think about what the company did, and realize that it WAS a great move, and possibly the best move thats happened in decades fr the wrestling world. New life, new talent, new fans! the possibilities are seemingly endless, and the new future of wrestling has just begun with WWE leading the track, and TNA not far behind! Is war inevitable? Time will tell.
Learn more about this author, Wayne K. Wilkins.
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