10 Ways To Make WWE's Brand Split More Compelling

10. Exclusive Announcers

WWE is already screwing this entire brand split thing up. A bit surprising that it took this long.

They try to get us to buy into the entire Raw vs. SmackDown war, and part of that is having the announcers bash each other on-air. This is fine I guess. But the rivalry is apparently so heated that management allows Renee Young to work Talking Smack and Raw Talk, as well as letting her host both brand specific pay-per-view pre-shows. The powers that be are also going to let Raw’s Corey Graves and SmackDown’s Mauro Ranallo work together on 205 Live. That’s counterproductive.

WWE should trade Corey to SmackDown for JBL...or for JBL, David Otunga and Tom Phillips. Give SmackDown a great two-man team and Raw a crappy five-man one. Then after SmackDown, Mauro and Corey stick together. Otherwise, find a new co-host for 205 Live. If they don’t do that, it means within the context of the narrative that both Stephanie and Shane agreed to let one of their talents host a show that...nobody owns? Since both owners believe that they have all the best talent, and have shown a strong dislike for each other on a personal level, why would they do that?

It makes little logical sense, and they don’t even bother trying to explain why. If WWE is set on Renee Young hosting Raw and SmackDown's post-shows, then have her say that Vince superseded his kids and hired her to do both jobs. That’s easy enough. It's not a great explanation, but it's something. Otherwise, have different hosts so there isn't as many obvious gaps in logic. Little steps like that can make us buy into the whole split idea a little bit more.