10 Ways To Make WWE's Brand Split More Compelling

5. Nobody Switches Sides For Two Years

Switching a wrestler from one show to another was a crutch that WWE used far too many times in the last brand split. While each jump made the program more exciting for a short amount of time, it watered down the entire concept. It wasn't worth it. Once a year they'd do a whole new draft, and an influx of talent would enter both brands. They need to avoid doing that now.

What hurt the original brand split over the years was that you could not identify any wrestler long term on a particular show. While Undertaker and Edge both talked about bleeding blue on SmackDown, both men spent a considerable amount of time on Raw, so their sudden cheerleading felt more manufactured than anything. Considering Taker hadn't even appeared on SmackDown in three years, his claim seemed a bit silly.

Other top stars like John Cena, Batista and Triple H went back and forth over the years during the initial split. Trying to think of who was on what brand at what time would be a nearly impossible task.

WWE needs to be dedicated to making both shows feel like completely separate entities, or they need to give up on having the brands feud at all. When a wrestler starts to get stale, they should reevaluate what they've been doing, and start planning on how they can retool that act rather than just shipping them off to the other show. We already saw Jack Swagger jump from SmackDown to Raw, which did absolutely nothing for his career. Now the next time somebody signs with the other brand it will be that much less exciting.

A two year time limit would help us to firmly establish which wrestler is on which brand, and help to actually lead to dream matches when the time is right.