One of the beautiful things about wrestling fans is that, cynical as they can be at times (even irritatingly so), when there is hope and potential they are the first ones to see it, and are happy to get on board and give things a chance.
Indeed, when you put on a piece of paper the sheer amount of talent in WWE and NXT and have a blank canvas like this to work with, the possibilities are endless, and the opportunity for dynamic, exciting television at a time when WWE isn't in the habit of producing it is a welcome steer. One thing Vince McMahon has never been too great at, however, is learning from past mistakes, since that requires admitting fault. And history tells a serious tale about the WWE's ability to do the things that need to be done to make this concept work. Ultimately, it was a short-term and long-term failure from 2002 to 2011. But rather than speak to vague, faded memories, let's take a jump into the time machine, and look a little more in-depth at how WWE put this into practice the first time, shall we?
One thing that can't be considered a promising sign in terms of following in their own footsteps, is that in both 2002 and 2016, the introduction to the split was utterly underwhelming. Despite the fact they were talking about breaking the company in half and doing a draft since April 2001 following the purchase of WCW, with one year to come up with a good angle to cause such an incident, what they produced didn't exactly pack a punch.
Vince McMahon and Ric Flair were storyline 50/50 owners of the then-WWF. It was announced that the WWF Board of Directors had a meeting and decided they wanted only one owner. Despite the fact that Vince McMahon had disgraced the company with the "Kiss My Ass Club" months before, had shown blatant on-screen partiality for years, and only one month prior had declared his desire to destroy the company by bringing in the nWo, a "lethal dose of poison" intended to "kill my creation", this stupid Board wanted McMahon, not Flair. But, said Linda, who had been publically cheated on by Vince in WWF storylines, they wished to review the decision after WrestleMania X8. Despite Vince doing nothing wrong during this period of review, the Board changed their minds and decided they were splitting the company in two. Alrighty.
Similarly, here we have Shane McMahon returning out of nowhere, attempting to blackmail Vince for control of Raw. The contents of Shane's lockbox were enough for Vince to risk it all, as Shane was put inside Hell In A Cell with The Undertaker at WrestleMania for the chance to run Monday Nights. But he lost.
The next day, Vince told Shane he could run Raw for the night. Uh-huh.
He did so for the next month. Stephanie and Shane cut a series of bile-filled promos on each other about who should control Raw, until Vince announced they were both responsible. They somehow started getting along, until a website broke a story on the internet that the company was doing a split. It's now referred to on television as a given, without any knowledge of who is actually running the shows, as indicated by the likes of Kane, Teddy Long and John Lauranitis applying for the positions.
So rather than these two "ripping each others" throats out as Vince requested back at Payback, prompting the company to get split in half with the aggressive Shane and Stephanie looking to outdo each other, we've got a passing announcement with all the climactic emotional impact of a wet fart. It's just something the company decided to do, for some reason.
It does harken back to the relaunch of ECW in 2006. After the exhilerating One Night Stand in 2005, the company made plans to bring back the tribe of Extreme. Joey Styles cut a blistering promo on WWE while leaving the broadcast booth, and the second One Night Stand was announced. And then, suddenly, Paul Heyman walked to the ring one week on Raw, and in the middle of a promo, flippantly mentioned, "As everybody knows, ECW is coming back full-time in a few weeks", before moving on to the whatever the real focus of the segment was. Major change leads to high expectations for the significance these events will be given. But it's as if WWE doesn't want to scare their fans with change. Of course, they miss that fans love change. Evolution of the world we're witnessing is a big part of the fun of wrestling, it gives people something to talk about.
Thus far, it's an unspectacular first chapter, but if all goes well when it matters most - the big split, then it's forgivable. So if it all comes down to the Draft, how did the WWF fare in 2002? Glad you asked.
In terms of the execution of a standalone show, the 2002 Draft show was a lot of fun. Vince and Kurt Angle in one "War Room", Flair and Arn Anderson in the other, stats screens used at times (and not enough, honestly) for the individuals drafted, and some cool developments along the way, such as the injured Chris Benoit being drafted third on Smackdown.
But the overwhelming perspective when you sit back and look at the rosters, even at the time, was that one side did significantly better than the other. Funnily enough, it was Raw that took the bullet in 2002, looking for all the world to be a horrible shambles set to be headlined by The Undertaker, Kane, the failed nWo and the Big Show. Oh, and Rob Van Dam, who was kept away from the top mix for God knows what reason at the time. Smackdown was packed with vibrant, fresh performers and matches, as well as flavour of the month nostalgia king Hulk Hogan.
Not only that, but Flair's Raw was booked completely illogically in terms of why he picked the guys he did. Undertaker, on the previous Smackdown, said he wanted to be picked by Flair so he could make his life miserable. When Flair drafted him first, Taker was angry. In his next brilliant move, Ric Flair picked the nWo. You may recall that one month before, Flair literally cried in the ring and played the incredible "Lonely Road of Faith" music video about the WWF's rich history, begging and pleading Vince not to bring the nWo in because they were company-killers.
While the little details seems minor, WWE has a tendency to book in a way to send a real message. Vince as the master businessman in 2002 was how the entire brand extension played out in the early months, and in 2016 they are clearly more concerned with making Stephanie look superior to Shane, due to the real life implications of Steph as the Chief Brand Officer. Just something to look out for. In addition, Raw has the extra hour, and would surely require a more stacked roster naturally anyway to fill the time.
On the night of the 2002 Draft, the sporting elements mentioned before made for a great experience. It was involving, it was intriguing, it made you want to see how things played out. Honestly, there wasn't enough of it going forward in future drafts, or lotteries, or random name generators as it later became. In 2016 with NXT, they have a perfect chance to incorporate more sporting elements by showcasing wrestlers "eligible for the draft" with short music videos. They love to use their Pay-Per-View panels for the pre-game shows, but why not spend some TV time on a breakdown of the eligible NXT guys akin to the old WWF Event Centre? It's a shame Jim Ross has been eighty-six'd by the company, because he'd be brilliant in the John Madden "expert" role, talking about the guys to watch that could make a big difference. You can make the newcomers feel like something special before Draft Day even comes.
In 2002, with both the early pick of Benoit and both sides arguing for the right to pick Brock Lesnar, they did a good job of putting over talent via the nature of the draft. Unfortunately, the second half of the draft was mired by illogical picks like a flat Big Show (who wasn't even on WrestleMania X8), a hadn't been seen in forever Mark Henry, splitting the Dudleyz just to do it, and Lita and Maven somehow being amongst the 20 most important possible draft picks.
This time, they have a chance to do it properly all the way through. Shane McMahon making an early pick out of Samoa Joe would be instantly exciting. Stephanie saying she wants the best tag wrestling in the world, so the first team she wants is American Alpha would get the blood pumping. Again, the potential is massive to make new stars quickly and move into this split with a positive vibe.
When Flair and McMahon split the shows, new talent wasn't really introduced well in the Draft. Mark Henry meant nothing to Smackdown in 2002 after the high draft placement, and Chris Benoit, picked third on Smackdown, somehow returned from injury to Raw without explanation. Eddy Guerrero and Rey Mysterio were signed around the time, and debuted once the split got going. Will WWE take the same tact this time around and not bother to make a big deal of NXT and just drip-feed the guys in once the shows are in motion?
All the recent talk about surprising contact being made to guys like Kurt Angle and Johnny Mundo to bring them in and strengthen both rosters is interesting, and shows a level of commitment to really make something of Raw and Smackdown. This awareness of the depth issue is encouraging. Currently Raw is three hours long and drags more often than Julian Clary, and now half the roster is being taken away to boot. Taking a look at the early days of the 2002 brand extension is quite alarming in this regard, if it serves as a precursor.
Raw was very stale on top early, staying with the pat hand of Steve Austin wrestling Undertaker and having issues with the authority figure. The top spots that were, in theory, opened up by splitting the crews, went to Kane and Bradshaw, who both ended up as failed experiments within weeks as show anchors. Smackdown's early days also relied on the past, as Kurt Angle, Edge and Chris Jericho played second fiddle to the Hulk Hogan comeback story, which petered out in record time.
As for the midcard, there were some positives scattered throughout - Edge and Kurt Angle had a great series, and RVD and Eddie Guerrero had a very memorable ladder match on Raw. But in exchange, we also got Planet Stasiak, Spike Dudley as European Champion, Reverend D-Von, a Heel Godfather, Faarooq Vs. Test and Jacqueline Vs. Crash Holly.
One advantage we have this time around is that they've freshened the top mix immediately with the shocking title win of Dean Ambrose at Money In The Bank. AJ Styles has a ton of mileage in him, and John Cena is coming back after a long layoff. As for underneath, it's anybody's guess how this will play out. If they load up with talent, there is promise. If not, Golden Truth may end up going 20 minutes on Raw with the Vaudevillains, and nobody is asking for that.
One of the other major lessons was just how quickly Vince McMahon panicked when the concept showed early signs of failing. Raw ratings early on started strong for the Ric Flair's Raw, but then started falling hard. Smackdown immediately took a hit. Within three months, Flair's Raw Vs. Vince's Smackdown was a dead issue, as McMahon beat the Nature Boy for full control in an ultimate hotshot move, before assigning the first ever General Managers, Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon.
There is a reality here that McMahon might not want to face, which is that all the business metrics are trending downwards and have been for some time. Seth Rollins' run as heel World Champion may be fondly remembered by some, but ratings collapsed on his watch. Roman Reigns was clearly not the answer. WWE has never been less about creating stars than they are now, and in a star driven business, they've foolishly put their energy into making the brand the big draw, which just doesn't work and never really has. So at a time when the numbers are down, in part due to this mentality in giving their "stars" such little value, they're hoping that making these stars exclusive to a specific show will be enough to get people more engaged. Hmm.
If the television shows are more lively with new faces showing up, hot matches, creative angles and original issues, then in the early going it might surprise us with better ratings. But sustainability is key here, and as we saw the last time the brand extension happened, the longer it went on, the less it resembled something unique and fell back in line with the same one vision Vince has always had for his company.
Sadly, another of the perils of the last split was the creation of two World Titles, which is something the company is rumoured to be returning to for this redux. Why this is being talked about is a mystery. The first time wasn't exactly a rousing success, as instead of two top A* level champions as desired, you get B+ champions instead. One look back again shows some less than stellar title holders, such as Kane, Jack Swagger, Great Khali, JBL getting a one year run despite being a terrible draw, and even CM Punk's first title win coming off tremendously weak, a lucky midcarder in above his station. It'd be expected they'd keep the two belts strong early, likely with John Cena holding one with a former member of the Shield holding the other. But this is a question that will truly be answered in two years.
One thing this will hopefully curb is the 50/50 booking that has been prevalent in WWE for far too long. With so much content to produce and very little roster churn in the past eight years, they've been keen to keep guys hovering in the middle rather than devalue some to get others over. With two writing crews, two rosters, and less TV time for the individuals per week, there is a chance to make wins and losses important again. As much as some inside wrestling scoff at the credence of wins and losses in a fake sport, there is a direct correlation between the impact results are given and the success of a promotion, historically speaking. Mostly because it's hard to make a star, convincing the world he's something special, if he loses as much as he wins. In any sport, top teams don't lose often, and when they do, it counts to the viewers. Ronda Rousey doesn't become the star she did if she wasn't winning in such convincing fashion, never showing a sign of weakness along the way.
WWE has had identity issues for years now. They've forgotten what they are, lost in the quest to become something as a company that they can never be. They've sacrificed viewers in the process. They have a chance, starting on July 19th, to get back to what works. But as ballsy as they may think they are doing this split, the real courage is shown in walking the path they haven't travelled before. Especially since the one they did led us here in the first place.
