10 Big Talking Points From WWE Raw (Aug 29)
9. So Much For The Brand Split Making New Talent
One of the most often-mentioned benefits of a Raw/Smackdown brand split is that on each show, new talent will get a chance to be pushed. Unfortunately, that typical tends to be a misconception, and that was the case on Raw.
Following last week, when Chris Jericho helped Kevin Owens beat Neville to advance to the Universal Title fatal four-way match, Y2J and "The Man That Gravity Forgot" were in action against one another. The bout was great (as it always is when Jericho and Neville wrestle - well, except for that time when Neville got hurt), but Jericho picked up the clean win, making Neville submit to the Liontamer.
Given that Raw has a full Pay-Per-View to fill out in four weeks and only half the wrestlers in the company to populate it, the smart thing to do would be to build to a rematch. Either Neville could win and Jericho could attack him after, or Jericho could get DQed, or Jericho could cheat to win - pretty much anything besides what happened would protect Neville and deliver a Clash of Champions bout.
Instead, Neville is still a lower-tier babyface, no matter how many wrestlers are on his brand.