10 Signs WWE's Brand Split Just Isn't Working
4. Survivor Series Is Going To Boil Down To Routine 'Us Vs. Them' Mentality
Fans who have been watching for longer than just a few years will recall the terrible scheduling in 2009 and 2010 that had the Bragging Rights pay-per-view falling just before Survivor Series. The core premise of the former was to present a 'Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown' match, with both sides fighting it out to see which was superior.
Of course, Survivor Series has traditionally always featured at least one elimination style match itself. This meant that Bragging Rights encroached on what the older pay-per-view had to offer. Worse yet, fans just weren't that interested in some paper-thin brand battle that mixed heels and babyfaces together for no real reason.
For Survivor Series 2016, WWE hope that three elimination-style matches pitting Raw against SmackDown will enthral viewers. Using history as a sounding board, there's no evidence to suggest it will. This is something the company have tried before; it didn't work then and it's hard to see it working now.
There would have been some merit in a well-booked 'WWE Universal Champion vs. WWE World Champion' scenario, ironically for bragging rights. Simply throwing a whole load of talent out into the ring for a multi-man match doesn't quite inspire the same way.