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EspañolWWE BRAND EXTENSION
The logo for the 2007 WWE Draft
The 'World Wrestling Entertainment Brand Extension' was a device first used in 2002 by said professional wrestling organization as a means of providing separate brands of wrestling through its two top shows, ''RAW'' and ''SmackDown!'', with the addition of ''ECW'' in 2006.[1][2]
History
After acquiring the remains of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), its main competitor throughout the 1990s, in March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) sought a way to split itself into two separate promotions, because of the numbers of talent that it had acquired as part of its purchase. On March 18 2002, Linda McMahon announced the "brand extension" in which the company would be split into two distinct brands.
In terms of storyline, Ric Flair had become fifty percent owner of the WWF following ''Survivor Series 2001'' after Shane and Stephanie McMahon had sold their stocks to him in order to purchase WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), respectively. Vince McMahon detested having to share his creation with Flair and looked for a way to dissolve their partnership. After entering a feud with The Undertaker, Flair sought a match with him at ''WrestleMania X8''. However, the WWF Board of Directors would only allow the match if Flair were to return one hundred percent control to McMahon. Flair agreed, however, the Board also reserved the right to review the ownership status of the WWF following ''WrestleMania''. Their decision was to split the entire WWF roster into two separate entities, with Vince McMahon in command of ''SmackDown!'' and Ric Flair in command of ''RAW''.[3] A draft was held the following week on ''RAW''. Each owner would get a total of thirty picks.[3] The brand extension officially began on April 1 2002. By having two brands in place, the WWF was able to increase the number of live events held each year from 200 to 350, including tours in several new international markets.
On June 102002, McMahon became the sole owner of World Wrestling Entertainment (after the WWF was court ordered to change their name) when he defeated Flair in a No-Holds-Barred match. The following month, he appointed general managers (Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon) to lead each brand. Since then, there have been four further drafts:
★ In March 2004, with the theme of ''WrestleMania XX'' being "Where it all begins again," Mr. McMahon announced a draft lottery, stating "it's time to shake things up again." Each general manager received six picks.
★ In June 2005, Mr. McMahon announced a second draft lottery which would take place throughout the entire month of June. Both general managers received five random picks.
★ In May 2006, WWE added a third brand; the revived version of Extreme Championship Wrestling. "ECW Representative" Paul Heyman was allowed one pick from ''RAW'' and one pick from ''SmackDown!''.
★ On May 28 2007, Shane McMahon announced a new draft which featured all three brands. The Draft took place on June 11 2007 on a special three-hour episode of ''RAW''.
Drafts
The 'WWE Draft Lottery', also known as 'The WWE Draft', is a device used to provide new brand competition and to refresh the rosters. The Draft was first used during the brand extension in 2002, but was officially created and used in 2004, 2005 and 2007. It was also used in 2006 during the brand extension of ECW.
March 2002 (Brand Extension: RAW and SmackDown!)
The initial draft was held live on the March 252002 edition of ''RAW'' in State College, Pennsylvania. It was set up like a normal sports draft, in that each brand would take turns selecting wrestlers from the WWF roster. After the initial ten picks for each brand, the rest of roster was randomly assigned via a lottery, with each brand receiving a grand total of 30 wrestlers.
There were numerous exceptions, however. Triple H (Men's Champion), Jazz (Women's Champion), Chris Jericho (competiting in a championship match), Stephanie McMahon (also competiting in a championship match), and Steve Austin (contractual clause) could not be drafted. Billy and Chuck (the then Tag Team Champions) and the New World Order (McMahon request) could each be drafted as a group.[5]
Draft Results:[5]
March 2004 (Draft Lottery)
Wanting to "shake things up," Vince McMahon announced that a second draft was to occur on the March 22, 2004 edition of ''RAW'' in Detroit. In this draft, each general manager got six random lottery picks. Everyone was eligible for the lottery, including referees, announcers, and even the general managers.
| ''SmackDown!'' (Paul Heyman) | ''RAW'' (Eric Bischoff) |
|---|---|
| René Duprée | Shelton Benjamin |
| Mark Jindrak | Nidia |
| Triple H | Rhyno |
| Rob Van Dam | Tajiri |
| Theodore Long | Edge |
| Spike Dudley | Paul Heyman |
Triple H was immediately traded back to ''RAW'' by the ''SmackDown!'' General Manager Kurt Angle in exchange for Booker T and The Dudley Boyz.
Paul Heyman immediately quit after being drafted to ''RAW''.[7]
June 2005 (Draft Lottery)
Another draft lottery was announced in 2005. Instead of taking place over one night, the draft would take place over editions of ''RAW'' and ''SmackDown!'' from June 6 to June 30.
| ''RAW'' (Eric Bischoff) | ''SmackDown!'' (Theodore Long) |
|---|---|
| John Cena (June 6) | Chris Benoit (June 7) |
| Kurt Angle (June 13) | Randy Orton (June 14) |
| Carlito (June 20) | Muhammad Hassan w/ Daivari (June 21) |
| Big Show and Rob Van Dam (June 27) | Christian and Batista (June 28)'' |
June 2006 (Brand Extension: ECW)
WWE expanded again with the new ECW brand, and ECW representative Paul Heyman was allowed to draft one wrestler from ''RAW'' and one from ''SmackDown!''
| ''Results'' |
|---|
| Rob Van Dam (''RAW'') |
| Kurt Angle (SmackDown!) |
June 2007 (Draft Lottery)
On the May 28, 2007 edition of ''RAW'', Shane McMahon announced that there would be another Draft Lottery on June 11, 2007 on a special 3 hour edition of ''RAW''. For the first time in WWE history, the Draft Lottery occurred across all three brands. Superstars from all three brands competed in a series of interpromotional matches. The winner of each match won their brand a random draft pick.
| ''Superstar(s)'' | ''From'' | ''To'' |
|---|---|---|
| The Great Khali w/ Runjin Singh | RAW | SD! |
| The Boogeyman | SD! | ECW |
| King Booker w/ Queen Sharmell | SD! | RAW |
| Chris Benoit | SD! | ECW |
| Torrie Wilson | RAW | SD! |
| Chris Masters | RAW | SD! |
| Bobby Lashley | ECW | RAW |
| Ric Flair | RAW | SD! |
| Snitsky | ECW | RAW |
| Mr. Kennedy | SD! | RAW |
Supplemental Draft
A supplemental draft took place on WWE.com on June 17, 2007, and lasted for four hours. A draft pick was announced at twenty minute intervals.[8]
| ''Superstar(s)'' | ''From'' | ''To'' |
|---|---|---|
| Paul London and Brian Kendrick | SD! | RAW |
| Kenny Dykstra | RAW | SD! |
| Viscera | RAW | ECW |
| The Sandman | ECW | RAW |
| Hardcore Holly | ECW | SD! |
| The Miz | SD! | ECW |
| Daivari | SD! | RAW |
| The Major Brothers | ECW | SD! |
| William Regal | SD! | RAW |
| Victoria | RAW | SD! |
| Jillian Hall | SD! | RAW |
| Eugene | RAW | SD! |
| Johnny Nitro | RAW | ECW |
Impact
Interbrand competition
Interbrand competition was originally kept at a minimum. The only time wrestlers from both brands competed together was during pay-per-views. In 2003, the majority of the pay-per-views became brand exclusive, leaving the "big four" pay-per-views (''WrestleMania'', ''SummerSlam'', ''Survivor Series'', and the ''Royal Rumble'') as the only interbrand shows. Interbrand matches were even more rare. Most of these matches were a part of the ''SmackDown!'' vs. ''RAW'' rivalry.
Starting in late 2006, in an attempt to add more star power to the shows, interbrand matches became more common. Most notably, MNM and The Hardys reformed, despite the fact that the teammates were on separate brands. Bobby Lashley is also notable for his interbrand action. The return of ''Saturday Night's Main Event'' to NBC has also lead to more interaction between the brands
Starting in April 2007 with ''Backlash'', all pay-per-views now feature all the brands, as they originally were in 2002.
Pay-per-views
The separation of the WWE roster between two brands also intended to split the pay-per-view offerings, which began with ''Bad Blood'' in June 2003. The original idea had the "major" pay-per-view events at the time (''Royal Rumble'', ''SummerSlam'', ''Survivor Series'', and ''WrestleMania'') would contain the only instances where wrestlers from different brands would interact with each other, and even among the four shows only the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania would have wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. Wrestlers, as a result, appeared only in two-thirds of the shows in a given year, and thus appeared in fewer shows compared to before the brand extension. With single-brand PPVs in place, WWE was able to add more pay-per-view events to their offerings, such as ''Taboo Tuesday'' and ''The Great American Bash''. Eventually, WWE abandoned the practice of single-brand pay-per-view events following ''WrestleMania 23''.[9]
Championships
Initially, the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship were available to both brands. The other championships were exclusive to the brand the champion was a part of. With several specialty championships being exclusive to one brand, numerous wrestlers were left with no title to fight for.
This issue was corrected in September 2002 when the Undisputed Championship became the WWE Championship again and was moved to ''SmackDown!'' while Eric Bischoff created the World Heavyweight Championship for ''RAW''. Shortly thereafter, ''SmackDown!'' created their own Tag Team Championship, revived the United States Championship, and became the exclusive home of the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Meanwhile ''RAW'' became the exclusive brand for WWE's original World Tag Team Championship, the WWE Intercontinental Championship, and the WWE Women's Championship. The end result was each brand having four championships. When ECW was revived in 2006, the ECW Championship was re-established and is thus far that brand's sole title.
Rules have changed for interpromotional title matches. Initially, if a champion from one brand lost their title to a challenger from another brand, the title would become exclusive to the challenger's brand.[10] Most recently, however, instead of the title switching brands the new champion would come over to the other brand. An example of this occurred during the May 8, 2007 taping of ''SmackDown!'' when Edge from ''RAW'' cashed in his Money in the Bank contract for the World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker. Upon winning the title Edge became a member of the ''SmackDown!'' roster.
Whether a champion keeps their championship after being drafted is unpredictable. During the 2005 Draft, John Cena (the WWE Champion) was drafted from ''SmackDown!'' to ''RAW'' and kept his championship. General Manager Theodore Long announced that a new ''SmackDown!'' World Championship was to be created but abandoned when Batista (the World Heavyweight Champion) was drafted to ''SmackDown!'' from ''RAW'' and brought the title with him. During the 2007 Draft however, the ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley was stripped of the title after being drafted to ''RAW''.
References
1. WWE Entertainment To Make RAW and SMACKDOWN Distinct Television Brands
2. WWE Launches ECW As Third Brand
3. WWE The Yearbook: 2003 Edition
4. WWE The Yearbook: 2003 Edition
5. WWF Draft Results
6. WWF Draft Results
7. A Career Changing Night: RAW Results March 22, 2004
8. 2007 Supplemental Draft results
9. WWE Pay-Per-Views To Follow WrestleMania Formula
10. Pro Wrestling Illustrated presents: 2007 Wrestling almanac & book of facts
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