10 Rules WWE Must Follow For A New Brand Extension

8. No Switching

A few months into the original brand extension, WWE owner Vince McMahon decreed that General Managers Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon were able to poach each other's talent. For a few months, there was a flow of wrestlers moving between shows until finally, McMahon declared the rosters frozen. Starting in 2004, though, the company held an annual lottery where talent would be "randomly" shuffled back and forth. For this draft to work, the rosters need to be frozen from the get-go. All of the switching in the early days of the last split undermined its importance, and this time, the lack of star power on the roster would mean that the extension would need all the help that it could get. While it's possible that the lotteries could be brought back (on a smaller scale) in the future, it would be important - at least for a couple of years - for each brand to build its own identity, and for each roster to become associated with the show that hosts it.