It has been almost 3 months since the WWE brand split took place and we have already tasted the fruits of this epic event in WWE. We have seen some great storylines and matches in the past three months and have every reason to expect a lot more in the coming days.
Back on 19th July 2016, the day on which the official draft took place, expectations about the future were a mix of confusion and unpredictability.
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Today, we have a spectrum of things that you probably hadn’t expected on the day of the brand split to happen within 3 months of the D-day. As part of the slideshow, let us have a look at 5 things that seemed very distant immediately after the brand split and the draft but have still happened in the WWE-
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#1 The Rhyno reign
There are instances where we see veterans coming and going in WWE but these guys getting title reigns happens only once in a blue moon. The SmackDown team had unique plans for the returning Rhyno as he was crowned the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champion.
Rhyno has always maintained a power-house kind of an image since his earlier days with the company and other promotions in the past. He may not have carried the same aura today to the WWE ring but he surely was a Championship material back then.
Rhyno and Heath Slater, the weirdest combination you could ever think of were made the Tag Champs, and this duo is getting along quite well having defeated the Usos at No Mercy to retain their titles. None of us would have expected things to turn out so good for someone like Rhyno.
#2 Ziggler in the main event
I completely accept that Dolph Ziggler is a very talented wrestler and he certainly is a main-event entity on any given day, but how about the same happening just in the immediate PPV after the brand split? Yeah! With no prior storyline at all!
We expected Ziggler to do a lot better after the brand split but such an immediate knee-jerk kind of a storyline build up was just not expected. Guess what! He was taken out of the main event equation so quickly and all of a sudden he was busy with The Miz.
Winning the Intercontinental title at WWE No Mercy has boosted Dolph Ziggler’s stature in the WWE by quite a bit. After weeks of speculation about his future, Dolph’s win is a statement by the WWE that he’s here to stay, and how! Who could have foreseen this at the Brand Split?
#3 The Jericho-KO bromance
Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens, two of the greatest heels the company has ever seen, were drafted to RAW and there was nothing remarkable or unique about that. But these two guys have come up with a unique friendship formula claiming each other their best friends and protecting each other’s interests.
This is so very weird given the selfish image that the both of them have been associated with over the years. Now that KO is the WWE Universal Champion, we could expect things to change but this bromance is something that nobody expected after the brand split.
Imagine Jericho helping KO to win the WWE Universal Championship by walking down the ramp and causing a distraction? Isn’t that a little over the board?
#4 Roman Reigns winning the US title
The world has been asking for a character change for Roman Reigns since ages but what just actually happened was an absolute shocker. Roman Reigns is the new US Champion! I don’t even talk about how relevant it is from a storyline point of view but at the outset, it all appears totally unexpected at least 3 months after the brand split.
The world is going wild with the ‘Turn Roman Heel’ mantra but a shift to the mid-card might be a shock to even the anti-Roman guys. But in all honesty, let us accept that this bout between Roman and Rusev is the most interesting thing that is happening on RAW right now.
KO’s upgrade to the main event scene could have impressed some sections of the fans but the US title storyline is successful in winning hearts of the WWE universe. Let’s see how long this reign lasts!
#5 Kevin Owens becoming the WWE Universal Champion
The former NXT Champion and Intercontinental Champion, Kevin Owens was drafted to RAW a couple of months ago. It is a known fact that WWE obviously had the plans of making KO the face of the company somewhere down the line but it all happened so early. The injury to Finn Balor and Triple H’s double turn helped KO reach the top of the WWE ladder.
You might have expected KO holding the IC title today but he is playing on a different string altogether. The so-called longest running WWE Universal Champion is set to have multiple reigns with many other titles and as it seems, nothing is beyond his reach now.
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