The World Wrestling Entertainment Brand Extension was a device first used in 2002 by the professional wrestling organization as a means of providing separate brands of wrestling through its two top shows, RAW and SmackDown!, with the addition of ECW in 2006.^[1][2]

History

After acquiring the remains of World Championship Wrestling, its main competitor throughout the 1990s, in March 2001, the WWF sought a way to split itself into two separate promotions, because of the numbers of talent that it had acquired as part of its purchase.^{[citation needed]} On March 18 2002, Linda McMahon announced the "brand extension" in which the company would be split into two distinct brands.

In terms of storyline, Ric Flair had become fifty percent owner of the World Wrestling Federation on the RAW following Survivor Series 2001 after Shane and Stephanie McMahon had sold their stocks to him in order to purchase WCW and ECW, respectively. Vince McMahon detested having to share his creation with Flair and looked for a way to dissolve their partnership. After entering a feud with The Undertaker, Flair sought a match with him at WrestleMania X8. However, the WWF Board of Directors would only allow the match if Flair were to return one hundred percent control to McMahon. Flair agreed, however, the Board also reserved the right to review the ownership status of the WWF following WrestleMania. Their decision was to split the entire WWF roster into two separate entities, with Vince McMahon in command of SmackDown! and Ric Flair in command of RAW.^[3] A draft was held the following week on RAW. Each owner would get a total of thirty picks. The brand extension officially began on April 1 2002.^[1] By having two brands in place, the WWF was able to increase the number of live events from 200 to 350, including tours in several new international markets.^[1]

On June 102002, McMahon became the sole owner of World Wrestling Entertainment (after the WWF was court ordered to change their name) when he defeated Flair in a No-Holds-Barred match. The following month, he appointed general managers (Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon) to lead each brand. Since then, there have been four further drafts:

• In March 2004, with the theme of WrestleMania XX being "Where it all begins again," Mr. McMahon announced a draft lottery, stating "it's time to shake things up again." Each general manager received six picks.
• In June 2005, Mr. McMahon announced a second draft lottery which would take place throughout the entire month of June. Both general managers received five random picks.
• In May 2006, WWE added a third brand; the revived version of Extreme Championship Wrestling.^[2] "ECW Representative" Paul Heyman was allowed one pick from RAW and one pick from SmackDown!.
• On May 28 2007, Shane McMahon announced a new draft which would feature all three brands which would take place on June 11 2007 on a special three-hour episode of RAW.

Drafts

The WWE Draft Lottery, also known as The WWE Draft, is a device used to provide new brand competition and to refresh the rosters. The Draft was first used during the brand extension in 2002, but was officially created and used in 2004, 2005 and 2007. It was also used in 2006 during the brand extension of ECW.

March 2002 (Brand Extension: RAW and SmackDown!)

The initial draft was held live on the March 252002 edition of RAW in State College, Pennsylvania. It was set up like a normal sports draft, in that each brand would take turns selecting wrestlers from the WWF roster. After the initial ten picks for each brand, the rest of roster was randomly assigned via a lottery.

There were numerous exceptions, however. Triple H (WWF Undisputed Champion), Jazz (Women's Champion), Chris Jericho (competiting in a championship match), Stephanie McMahon (also competiting in a championship match), and Steve Austin (contractual clause) could not be drafted. Billy and Chuck (the then Tag Team Champions) and the New World Order (McMahon request) could each be drafted as a group.^[4]

Draft Results:^[4]

March 2004 (Draft Lottery)

Wanting to "shake things up," Vince McMahon announced that a second draft was to occur on the March 222004 edition of RAW in Detroit. In this draft, each general manager got six random lottery picks. Everyone was eligible for the lottery, including referees, announcers, and even the general managers.

Triple H was immediately traded back to RAW by the SmackDown! General Manager Kurt Angle in exchange for Booker T and The Dudley Boyz.

Paul Heyman immediately quit after being drafted to RAW.^[5]

June 2005 (Draft Lottery)

Another draft lottery was announced in 2005. Instead of taking place over one night, the draft would take place over editions of RAW and SmackDown! from June 6 to June 30.

June 2005 (Post-Draft Trade)

Once again, after the Draft a Trade occurred. Once again this was an agreed trade, not random lottery picks. Each Brand got 5 picks each, with certain picks having an extra with them (Eg. Managers).

June 2006 (Brand Extension: ECW)

WWE expanded again with the new ECW brand, and ECW representative Paul Heyman was allowed to draft one wrestler from RAW and one from SmackDown! Along with Heyman's two official draft picks, RAW wrestler The Big Show defected to ECW before the brand's premiere, as did SmackDown! announcer Tazz.

June 2007 (Draft Lottery)

On the May 28 2007 edition of RAW, Shane McMahon announced that there would be another Draft Lottery on June 11 2007 on a special 3 hour edition of RAW. For the first time in WWE history, the Draft Lottery occurred across all three brands. Superstars from all three brands competed in a series of interpromotional matches. The winner of each match won their brand a random draft pick.

Supplemental Draft

A supplemental draft took place on WWE.com on June 17 2007, and lasted for four hours. A draft pick was announced at twenty minute intervals. ^[6]

Impact

Interbrand competition

Interbrand competition was originally kept at a minimum. The only time wrestlers from both brands competed together was during pay-per-views. In 2003, the majority of the pay-per-views became brand exclusive, leaving the "big four" pay-per-views (WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble) as the only interbrand shows. Interbrand matches were even more rare. Most of these matches were a part of the SmackDown! vs. RAW rivalry.

Starting in late 2006, in an attempt to add more star power to the shows, interbrand matches became more common. Most notably, MNM and The Hardys reformed, despite the fact that the teammates were on separate brands. Bobby Lashley is also notable for his interbrand action. The return of Saturday Night's Main Event to NBC has also lead to more interaction between the brands

Starting in April 2007 with Backlash, all pay-per-views now feature all the brands, as they originally were in 2002.

Pay-per-views

The separation of the WWE roster between two brands also intended to split the pay-per-view offerings, which began with Bad Blood in June 2003. The original idea had the "major" pay-per-view events at the time (Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and WrestleMania) would contain the only instances where wrestlers from different brands would interact with each other, and even among the four shows only the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania would have wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. Wrestlers, as a result, appeared only in two-thirds of the shows in a given year, and thus appeared in fewer shows compared to before the brand extension. With single-brand PPVs in place, WWE was able to add more pay-per-view events to their offerings, such as Taboo Tuesday and The Great American Bash. Eventually, WWE abandoned the practice of single-brand pay-per-view events following WrestleMania 23.^[7]

Championships

Initially, the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship were available to both brands. The other championships were exclusive to the brand the champion was a part of. With several specialty championships being exclusive to one brand, numerous wrestlers were left with no title to fight for.

This issue was corrected in September 2002 when the Undisputed Championship became exclusive to SmackDown! (and renamed the WWE Championship) while Eric Bischoff created the World Heavyweight Championship for RAW. Shortly thereafter, SmackDown! created their own Tag Team Championship, revived the United States Championship, and became the exclusive home of the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Meanwhile RAW became the exclusive brand for WWE's original World Tag Team Championship, the WWE Intercontinental Championship, and the WWE Women's Championship. The end result was each brand having four championships. When ECW was revived in 2006, the ECW World Championship was re-established and is thus far that brand's sole title.

Rules have changed for interpromotional title matches. Initially, if a champion from one brand lost their title to a challenger from another brand, the title would become exclusive to the challenger's brand.^[8] Most recently, however, instead of the title switching brands the new champion would come over to the other brand. An example of this occurred during the May 8 2007 taping of SmackDown! when Edge from RAW cashed in his Money in the Bank contract for the World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker. Upon winning the title Edge became a member of the SmackDown! roster.

Whether a champion keeps their championship after being drafted is unpredictable. During the 2005 Draft, John Cena (the WWE Champion) was drafted from SmackDown! to RAW and kept his championship. General Manager Theodore Long announced that a new SmackDown! World Championship was to be created but abandoned when Batista (the World Heavyweight Champion) was drafted from RAW to SmackDown! and brought the title with him. During the 2007 Draft however, the ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley was stripped of the title after being drafted to RAW

References