10 Mistakes WWE Will Probably Make With The Brand Split
4. Bringing Back The World Heavyweight Championship
When the brands were first split in 2002, the Undisputed WWE Champion was able to travel back and forth between shows. This continued for about five months, until champion Brock Lesnar was drafted solely to SmackDown. After that, Raw introduced the World Heavyweight Championship, with HHH being handed the belt.
Having two world titles made the brands feel like separate promotions, but everyone knew it was all WWE, there was no one star who was "the" champion. Both titles were important, sure, but they were less important than they would have been without the presence of the other. As the brands started to cross over more, the World Heavyweight Title became distinctly second-tier. In 2013, the belts were finally unified once again, creating a serious title in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Early rumors indicate that WWE wants to split the titles once again, which would be a huge mistake. Love or hate Roman Reigns, he's clearly the top champion in the company, with nobody challenging that status, and the belt is seen as important. Even though bouncing a world champion back and forth between brands may take some careful planning (and may be a scheduling difficulty for the champ), it's worth it not to dilute the belt's importance. Unfortunately, that's not currently the direction in which things are headed.