WWE changed the landscape of wrestling when they came up with the brand split concept in 2002. The company was struggling without WCW as their competition as viewers started to tune out, slowing down the massive momentum from the prior few years. Steve Austin’s heel turn and the failure of the invasion storyline made WWE realize a fundamental change was needed to add excitement again.
The brand split started with Ric Flair running Monday Night Raw and Vince McMahon in charge of Smackdown. Both men took part in a draft that led to nearly every talent having to remain exclusive to one of the shows. There were many details to the storyline that set this up and how things changed on the fly.
10 Inspired From Plan of Continuing WCW
WWE purchasing WCW changed everything about the industry forever. The original plan was for WCW to continue on its own, having a weekly show on Mondays with WWE continuing with Smackdown as their weekly content.
Vince McMahon bailed on WCW continuing during the failed Invasion storyline. The brand split came about one year later since the concept still held great value. Raw and Smackdown becoming separate brands was the easiest way to enact this change.
9 Paul Heyman Aggressively Ran Smackdown
Paul Heyman was given the lead creative role for Smackdown in the early stages of the brand split. Vince McMahon wanted his best talents to be placed in the right positions and Heyman clearly deserved creative input based on his success in ECW.
The moves from Heyman often saw hostility building with the creative team of Raw. Heyman was aggressive in getting Eddie Guerrero traded to Smackdown. There was even a story shared about Heyman eavesdropping during a Raw conference call to get the scoop on his competition.
8 Pivoted to General Managers When First Concept Flopped
The original idea of Ric Flair and Vince McMahon competing in the brand split was canceled after a short while. Flair was doing poorly in the role of the leader of Raw following a horrible program with Steve Austin.
Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon were placed into the roles of General Managers for their respective shows. The shock of Bischoff arriving in WWE and the uniqueness of Stephanie playing a face led to success for the brand split changes.
7 Triple H Instantly Dominated Raw
Triple H became the top fixture of Raw after Eric Bischoff took over. The need for a new world title saw Triple H being handed the World Championship by Bischoff. Triple H’s infamous “Reign of Terror” started with him dominating the title picture.
Wrestlers like Rob Van Dam, Booker T, and Scott Steiner were sacrificed to make Triple H look stronger instead of using their momentum. Many fans favored Smackdown over Raw and faulted Triple H for the red brand falling behind.
6 Smackdown Built New Stars
The influence of Paul Heyman made it easier for Smackdown to become a fresher product than Raw. Heyman always focused on building new stars when given a position in power from his time running ECW to the stints on WWE’s creative team.
Smackdown helped elevate new stars like Rey Mysterio, Edge, and John Cena in the early years of the brand split. WWE initially created the split with the intention of building new stars and the better results came from Smackdown to start things off.
5 Brought Back WCW Belts
WWE needed to add a few more belts to the product since two shows required titles for various divisions. The big gold WCW Championship belt was used on Raw as the World Championship before moving to Smackdown in 2005.
WCW’s former United States Championship was brought back in 2003 with a tournament to crown Eddie Guerrero as the man to win it on Smackdown. WWE is still using the United States Championship all these years later.
4 Only Raw Had A Women's Championship
The women’s divisions of the brand split saw drastic differences for Raw and Smackdown. Trish Stratus and Lita getting drafted by Raw made that show the standard for women’s wrestling by getting the Women’s Championship as an exclusive part of the brand.
Smackdown tried to have a women’s roster with Torrie Wilson leading the way, but they never had a title to compete for in the early stages. Wilson, Dawn Marie, Sable, and a few others were involved in more bikini contests and eye candy segments than matches without a belt on the line.
3 Made It Easier To Sign Former WCW Legends
WWE missed out on quite a few WCW legends when purchasing the company. A clause allowed the wrestlers with bigger contracts to get paid the same to sit out rather than taking a pay cut to join WWE by giving up that money.
Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page were the only two established WCW main eventers to make the move right away. The brand split opened more roster spots for the likes of Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and Scott Steiner to provide a bigger impact.
2 Steve Austin and Triple H Were Free Agents
Steve Austin was the biggest name not involved in the original 2002 Draft to start the brand split. WWE used Austin’s free agent status as a major storyline as both Ric Flair and Vince McMahon wanted to sign him.
Raw eventually added Austin with Flair becoming his newest enemy. Triple H was the Undisputed Champion and didn’t get drafted either since original plans called for the champ to work both brands. The following free agency storyline saw Triple H signing with Raw and Eric Bischoff over his ex-wife Stephanie McMahon’s Smackdown brand.
1 Vince Wanted to Split Up Tag Teams
Vince McMahon has been viewed as not caring about tag team wrestling if he feels he can get two singles stars out of a great duo. The 2002 Draft saw WWE splitting up all of their top teams from the division at the time.
Matt Hardy turned heel when drafted to Smackdown and Jeff remained a pushed face on Raw. The Dudley Boyz were livid when they split up for D-Von to become the Reverend heel on Smackdown. Even the APA broke up for a short while due to the draft splitting them up. None of the six names involved instantly found singles success since the teams broke up too early.