What A Roster Split Means For The Future Of WWE

A few days ago, WWE announced that they would begin airing SmackDown live, starting in July. Along with this blockbuster announcement, they also revealed the return to a split roster with certain superstars being exclusive to one show. This presents a massive opportunity for WWE to right the ship, and be able to focus on the things that make wrestling work across all angles. In its current state, WWE faces constant backlash from the fans due to their tendency to fire up the same set of matchups with virtually the same outcome, week after week. The roster split should afford WWE writers the ability to diversify matches and rivalries alike, drawing both new and old fans into the product like never before.

So what does this mean for the current roster? Well, it means more face time for a lot of your favorite WWE superstars. With each show having their own unique roster, we could be treated to more diverse matchups and match types, brand-specific rivalries, and of course more focus on title rankings and prestige. Imagine Having Seth Rollins and AJ Styles feuding over a newly created World Title on SmackDown, while Roman Reigns and John Cena wage war against each other on RAW. For the bookers and writers of WWE, a split roster couldn’t have come at a better time, as they have the daunting task of dealing with perhaps the deepest roster the WWE has ever had. With the sudden influx of talent from both the indies and WWE’s talent feeder system NXT, there’s seemingly no end to the amount of wrestlers the WWE has access to.

The goal here should be to take the writing staff in its current form and split it into two separate teams. Of course one team would man RAW, the other SmackDown, and let them start to build the perfect program. Competition between the writing staffs should be encouraged in an effort to create the best program possible every week. If you need evidence of how effective good writing could be, rewind back to the last roster split, when Paul Heyman was writing and he had the SmackDown Six (Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie and Chavo Guerrero, Kurt Angle, and Chris Benoit). These six superstars were almost single-handedly responsible for an amazing ratings surge by SmackDown due to them all having ridiculously good matches with each other. Again, with the current roster as deep as it is, there should be no problem stringing together a new SmackDown six, or seven, or eight for that matter to be the standard bearers for the “new era” of SmackDown.

I firmly believe that if there will be unique or specific rosters for each show, then WWE is going to have to create another title in order to better establish stars from within the talent pool. It would be ideal if WWE decided to make a secondary World Title, but in all honesty they probably wouldn’t have to. The Intercontinental Championship could be just that, and with the right mix of contenders around it, it should be. Back in its heyday, the IC Title was clearly the number two title in the company, being consistently sought after by former World Champs and upper mid card wrestlers. By Establishing the IC Title as the number two title in the company, it can essentially be like the World Title contested exclusively on SmackDown (Daniel Bryan had actually pitched this idea before Wrestlemania 31). The US Title would also see a slight bump in importance, and to have a title for “throwaway” feuds the WWE could reinstate the Cruiserweight Title, or my personal choice the TV Title.

If the WWE pulls this off right, they could reignite the old flames of the Attitude Era, by pulling in young and old wrestling fans. By combining the best mix of veteran and new talent, the roster split will force WWE to manage their talent, and more importantly their talent much better than they have in the past. If they continue to repeat their latest failings however, they could be incidentally flaming the fire of a second “Monday Night War”.