The WWE has announced a major shakeup of its weekly programming.Starting in July, Smackdown, the WWE’s two-hour “secondary” show, will move from its traditional Thursday night slot to Tuesday night.As Smackdown traditionally films on Tuesdays already, the show will now air live as opposed to its current two day tape delay. In conjunction with the move, the WWE will also have a “brand split”, dividing its roster between the two programs.The WWE will hold a “brand draft” prior to the switch to determine the rosters for both shows.Of course, this isn’t the first time the WWE has split its brand. Smackdown and Monday Night RAW had separate rosters from 2002 to 2011, with very little crossover between the two shows.
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The brand split has wide-reaching implications for the WWE on both the programming and creative sides.While the WWE originally had separate titles for RAW and Smackdown, the company consolidated the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship a little over three years ago.In addition, there’s currently only one Women’s Championship and Tag Team title, so those divisions could be relegated to a single show.This could also mean a shake up as to how the WWE books its PPV events.During the early brand split years, many of the secondary shows exclusively featured one show’s rosters, although this practice was eventually discontinued.
Variety, which first reported the news, cited NBCUniversal’s desire for more live programming as one of the major reasons for the change. While network television has suffered in ratings due to DVR, live programming such as sports and wrestling are seen as “DVR proof”.The WWE might also be shifting to two separate rosters to lighten the workload on its wrestlers in an effort to combat a string of injuries dating back to last year and leverage an increasingly deep cast of wrestlers.In addition to the return of former WWE Champions John Cena and Seth Rollins, the WWE also has bonafide main eventers in Shinsuke Nakamura, Finn Balor, and Samoa Joe all waiting to be called up from its NXT developmental program.
The roster split will begin on July 19th, one week before the now aptly named “Battleground” PPV event.
