Why Raw and Smackdown storylines need to be demarcated

WWE superstar Seth Rollins

Seth Rollins switching ships from The Shield to Evolution is not just the biggest story this week but one of the biggest stories in WWE history. Arguably, there hasn’t been a three man tag team as young and reckless as the Shield in the company’s history. Their unity, their attires, their entrance and their sheer dominance has been one of the most consistent and reliable form of entertainment for the WWE. It was really easy to have nothing on the plate and just send the Shield for a match and get instant acclaim.

This storyline has also made me ardently vouch for the demarcation of Smackdown and Raw.

Smackdown should have a different set of regular superstars and Raw should have a different set of regular superstars. That means a singular storyline gets to be played out once a week. That can prevent the over exposure of fictional storylines. If WWE goes on full throttle with non-fictional storylines in the so called ‘Reality Era,’ then it’s such a waste of the art that is wrestling. If fiction’s gone then what’s the point of imagination? I mean, there should be something left to the imagination. WWE is just turning out to be neither engaging nor offending. It is just going on and on. And these are all the essential ingredients to go completely bland.

So, Seth Rollins has just provided one of the biggest shocks in an already shocking year. CM Punk just suddenly ‘went home’, Undertaker’s streak came to an end and now this! It was succinctly executed and it was all the more heartbreaking. The arena was probably silent in anticipation of what Triple H’s Plan B was. But when that plan was finally executed, the arena was filled with gasps, bewildered faces, yelps and a plethora of ‘NOOOOO’’s.

Ever since their arrival at Survivor Series in 2012, talks have been rampant about how their split should take place. It had been amply teased by the WWE during the initial phase of Roman Reigns’ push and Seth Rollins was the first one to leave the team in the middle of a match against the Wyatt Family. But that was his way of bringing back the essence of The Shield and a way to patch things up between Ambrose and Reigns. And now, the split has finally happened in a moment when their split wasn’t much under discussion.

Seth Rollins punishes Deam Ambrose with a chair

It was certainly an iconic moment but the mystery around it will probably be dissolved by Friday on Smackdown. Okay, so Smackdown always had much less viewers than Raw does. Surely, Seth Rollins’ explanation can get more viewers to Smackdown but if not, but isn’t it much better to let each part of one of the biggest storylines of the year to unravel on Raw one week after the other. That will lead to a week of fan discussions around the storyline and a week in anticipation to what is going to happen.

Demarcating Smackdown and Raw will give five hours of different storylines for concerning different superstars. Almost all the superstars on Smackdown are seen on Raw. So many brand extensions are hurting the quality of the product. You can have a million good matches but nothing compares to a good storyline. A good storyline can make a good match great.

Having Rollins’ reveal the reason behind his actions on the coming Raw will be much better for the storyline than immediately having him do it on Smackdown. Sometimes a huge chunk of replay of some event on Raw takes a major part of Smackdown. Repetition of this kind is never really awesome, given that they can see these replays online whenever they want to. The audience can be that patient to miss the live or prerecorded broadcast and then surf online for recaps.

Such storylines don’t come often and when they do, they should be handled with care. No demarcation with their brand extensions, except maybe NXT, is making their product get over exposed.