10 Things You Learn Binge Watching WWE's Ruthless Aggression Era
9. Single-Branded PPVs Were A Chore
There's a common Mandela Effect amongst fans that WWE started promoting single-branded pay-per-views almost immediately after the 2002 Draft. That isn’t true. In truth, the company began putting on Raw or SmackDown exclusive supershows starting with Bad Blood 2003 that June; yes, a full year and change after the original Draft.
Bad Blood was the first official Raw-only affair in the US. UK shows Insurrextion and Rebellion had been brand-exclusive in 2002, but that seemed to be a short-lived experiment to see if the formula would fly with fans. Following June '03's show, SmackDown followed suit with Vengeance in July. This practice continued until 2007, and some of the lineups were incredibly poor.
A lot of matches weren’t PPV quality. For example, Christopher Nowinski and Rodney Mack vs. The Dudley Boyz was the first bout at Bad Blood. It was a basic, seven-minute tag. Vengeance the following month boasted Jamie Noble vs. Billy Gunn in a five-minute snore that nobody asked for.
It's pretty wild that WWE managed to keep up the single-branded thing for approx four years.