8 Times WWE Ignored The Second Brand Extension
6. Renee Young And Corey Graves Appear On Both Brands
It didn't take long after the 2016 WWE draft for WWE to announce that Raw and SmackDown Live would have their own commentary teams: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, and Corey Graves on Raw with Mauro Ranallo, JBL, and David Otunga on SmackDown. Say what you will about each trio and the chemistry they did or did not share, but it was refreshing to not have to hear the same voice(s) on both Monday and Tuesday nights for the first time in many years.
In fact, the commentators went as far as to insult the opposing brand every opportunity they had, and to the company's credit, they stuck with these commentary teams for close to a year. Even the interviewers were exclusive to one show or the other, but that changed when WWE announced on 26 July that Renee Young would be a part of both brands moving forward.
The move didn't make too much sense (aside from allowing Young to travel with her husband Dean Ambrose on Raw), but it wasn't the end of the world. That said, WWE's decision to have Corey Graves serve as a commentator on SmackDown in addition to Raw was downright dumb. He's the best in the company at what he does, but it was just another nail in the coffin of the latest Brand Split.