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Setting Up for a Brand Extension?Mike Johnson and I talk about Shane McMahon's big return.
Posted by The Taz Show on Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Taz and Mike Johnson discuss the potential of a new brand extension on the 2/23 Taz Show
When Shane McMahon returned to WWE TV last night, he demanded his father Vince McMahon hand him control of Monday Night Raw. This led to the announcement of Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon in Hell in A Cell at Wrestlemania with McMahon getting Raw if he wins.
So, why is this stipulation happening?
Over the last few weeks, there's been talk of WWE bringing back some form of the old brand extension that the company had from 2002-2011.
At its height, the brand extension isolated talents on Raw or Smackdown with PPVs for each brand, creating some in-house competition among the wrestlers, announcing teams and creative teams to be the better side of the company. The two sides would only cross over on major events, such as Wrestlemania or the Royal Rumble. Over time, WWE loosened the extension so that talent from each brand appeared on every PPV and in 2011, the extension was dropped altogether.
It appears that the return of McMahon could be the beginning of the storyline that sees Raw, under Shane McMahon's rule and Smackdown under the rule of the other McMahons, setting those two sides, and their respective talents, against each other.
The idea of Shane in charge of Raw provides the company with something of a reboot for talents who haven't been used to their fullest potential as well. McMahon's verbiage last night noted how the company has fallen under the control of The Authority, specifically noting that WWE's stock price and TV ratings have dropped. Shane McMahon gaining control, either at Wrestlemania or another storyline point, would set the company up for Raw to have a "fresh start" - and one where a new, credible "leader", in the form of Shane, would be "calling the shots" on camera.
It's interesting to note that a Ticketmaster listing for a 5/23 Raw taping in Baltimore, Maryland is billed as "Monday Night Raw vs. WWE", providing potential insight into where things may be going. That taping will be the day after the 5/22 Extreme Rules PPV. The title of that show has been unchanged since it was added several weeks ago, meaning that it is not a Ticketmaster error as WWE would have had it corrected by now. Tickets for the Baltimore taping go on sale 3/19.
It should also be interesting to see where WWE NXT and its talents fit into all this, if at all, since that brand has so strongly been linked to Triple H over the last several years. WWE has big plans for NXT as a touring brand over the next few years, so how those plans will change, if at all, will be interesting to see.
The next six or so weeks will be VERY interesting to follow.
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