8 Signs WWE's Latest Brand Split Is Dying
1. Superstars Can Apparently Return Wherever They Please
WWE has never gone into detail about how the contracts of certain superstars work whenever they are away for an extended period of time, but fans have been led to believe that wrestlers can show up wherever they want regardless of what brand they were previously assigned to.
It would be one thing if these stars were shown negotiating with the Raw and SmackDown Live general managers in an attempt to get a better deal, but WWE has never bothered to put that much effort into making the Brand Split feel important. Instead, the company would rather have them show up on whatever brand they feel is best from a storyline standpoint at that point in time and hope fans don't notice.
For example, Kevin Owens recently returned from injury on SmackDown, despite being a member of the Raw roster before he got hurt last year. In fact, the same night Owens resurfaced, Matt Hardy also made a comeback alongside his brother Jeff Hardy. Matt's move from Raw to SmackDown and how it happened was never acknowledged by anyone in the company.
From Kurt Angle being allowed to compete on both Raw and SmackDown during his retirement tour to Shelton Benjamin's random outing against Seth Rollins on Raw, WWE obviously has no regard for the Brand Split, and therefore fans shouldn't be blamed for not caring anymore, either.