5 reasons why WWE should merge the Raw and SmackDown Live titles at SummerSlam 2019

#1 End the Survivor Series Champion vs. Champion format

The 2017 and 2018 Survivor Series events were built around Raw vs. SmackDown Live, with elimination matches and the following Champion vs. Champion encounters taking place: Universal vs. WWE, United States vs. Intercontinental, Raw Tag Team vs. SmackDown Tag Team, Raw Women’s vs. SmackDown Women’s.

This concept was interesting at first, especially in 2017 when Shane McMahon instructed SmackDown Live to invade Raw for the first time, but what followed at the PPV itself turned out to be massively underwhelming.

In 2017, while the Champion vs. Champion matches were of high quality, the elimination match focused on WWE’s old guard (Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon, Triple H etc) and the show-closing moment of Braun Strowman powerslamming HHH resulted in absolutely nothing.

In 2018, SmackDown Live lost 6-0 against Raw in main-show matches, so Shane promised that there would be big changes on the blue brand moving forward. However, no changes took place and Survivor Series was quickly forgotten about.

Simply put, although the Champion vs. Champion format at Survivor Series seems good on paper, it always fails to progress storylines, which is why a title merger at SummerSlam would allow WWE to go back to its previous Survivor Series format in time for this year’s November PPV.