10 New Year’s Resolutions WWE Must Make For 2021
9. Avoid Brand Warfare
Resolution: WWE will scrap the tired brand warfare format at Survivor Series and move away from Raw vs. SmackDown completely.
Why: Booking around a calendar has become company law in WWE over the past decade or so. Perhaps McMahon always formatted things this way really, but it's more glaring now that gimmick bouts like Elimination Chamber, Hell In A Cell and Money In The Bank have their own pay-per-views.
Survivor Series, with it's played out Raw vs. SmackDown vibes, also needs a rethink.
"Brand warfare" is boring now, and it has been for several years. Although 2020's event was fun, it's nonetheless true that the month-long build to Survivors feels like a repetitive slog fans are forced to sit through every November. Hopefully, 2021 will change that.
It is possible to book traditional elimination bouts without some sort of false show loyalty - WWE did this almost every single year until the first brand split in 2002. Their over-reliance on Raw vs. SmackDown is plain lazy.