It seems to me that business is picking up in the world of professional wrestling. Suffice to say that 2016 has been a wild one for sure. Who would have thought that the likes of AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura would both me major additions to WWE programming on the main roster and NXT respectively? Who would have thought that Shane McMahon would become a key authority figure in the WWE storylines, running the ship as the commissioner of SmackDown!? Who would have thought that Bob Backlund would appear as a regular WWE character in 2016? I could go on and on about how much of a crazy year this has been. However, I want to actually draw a comparison to the year of 2002.
In 2002, we saw a lot of debuts and returns that we’d never thought we’d see in the WWF. Hollywood Hogan returned to WWF, after being a major thorn in Vince McMahon’s backside during the Monday Night Wars. Eric Bischoff became the RAW general manager, after a bloody war between himself and Vince McMahon. We saw Chris Jericho, Triple H, Hogan, Undertaker, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels all become world champions in the company. Hell, even the name of the company changed from the World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment. The similarities between the madness of 2002 compared to 2016 are so apparent, and we haven’t even touched the biggest similarity of all. For you see, the WWF introduced the brand extension which turned RAW and SmackDown! into two separate brands of sports entertainment. In 2016, it was announced that the brand extension was coming back.
I thought back to the direction of the company since that brand split in 2002. This was a year before I started watching wrestling and the WWE were laying the foundations of both RAW and SmackDown! After some departures and internal changes, both shows were given different on-screen authority figures as well as completely different writing teams for both shows. Two writing teams with two different visions for what they want their show to do. They finally had the competition that the WWF severely needed since the WWF bought WCW and ECW. There was internal conflict between the two shows and it brought out the best of everyone involved. SmackDown! head writer Paul Heyman was given SmackDown!, while all eyes internally were on RAW. After some wheeling and dealing, Paul was able to secure a roster that would trump RAW by leaps and bounds. I personally thought SmackDown! was decimating RAW in terms of the product, but RAW had enough content for fans of the attitude era and the big stars to be able to gain its own following. These two brands were working very hard, with new found pressure to succeed and surpass the other show. From what I can gather from all the backstage reports I’ve seen on wrestling websites or from journalists like Dave Meltzer, that competition is coming back in a big way.
The WWE went in a brand new direction for its future content on both shows, which led to the introduction of more stars and the increased pressure on the writers to get behind new talent. With all the plans that Vince McMahon is cooking up and the reported new schedule of two pay-per-views per month, all of these writers have to step it up. It’s a message sent to them by the boss, which basically tells them that Vince is investing a lot to make this brand split work and the writers can’t let that work be all for nothing.
To say that history will repeat itself and the product will be hugely improved in a years time is a pretty bold claim. How the WWF was ran back then was completely different to how it’s ran right now. There have been many times where the fans’ hopes and dreams of a bright future for WWE has been dashed time after time over the years. Confidence in the WWE at the moment is low from a fan’s perspective, with the exception of the Cruiserweight Tournament and NXT. There’s a number of fans that even believe the words previously uttered by CM Punk, suggesting that maybe the company will be better after Vince McMahon’s dead. I don’t necessarily believe that to be the case, but the superstars that fans have begged WWE to get behind should already be stars right now. NXT’s developmental territory shouldn’t have better programming and a better reputation than the flagships shows of WWE.
I’ve seen many fans complain to me on Facebook and Twitter about not having confidence in WWE to make this brand split as good as it possibly can be. However, to me, they’ve got no other choice. The talent is there. The writers are there. The money is there. They have the resources to make this work now and even make it better than before, with the assistance of social media and the WWE Network. The times have changed, so now WWE need to change with the times. I’m even starting to think that Vince McMahon sees that as well. If he sees that, then the writers need to see that.
With all of the talent WWE has now, on the main roster and on NXT, this could become arguably one of the greatest years in professional wrestling history. I’ve complained about the certain aspects of booking in WWE a number of times so far this year, but that doesn’t mean that this has been bad year or anything. They’ve broken attendance records. WWE Network pay-per-views have had much stronger critical acclaim. I don’t actually think there’s been a particularly bad pay-per-view in all of WWE this year. Surely, there’s a lot of things that need fixing in WWE. The biggest ones, as far as I’m concerned, is the ratings as well as making the fans become more invested in the product. This brand extension gives them an opportunity to get right back on track.
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