The World Wrestling Entertainment Brand Extension was a device first used in 2002 by said 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

RAW and SmackDown!

After acquiring the remains of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), its main competitor throughout the 1990s, in March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (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 WWF following Survivor Series 2001 after Shane and Stephanie McMahon had sold their stocks to him in order to purchase WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (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.^[4] 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 held each year from 200 to 350, including tours in several new international markets.^[1]

On June 10 2002, 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.

ECW

After World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) bought all of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)'s assets in 2003, the company began releasing DVD's promoting the original ECW. Soon afterwards, the company promoted two ECW reunion shows for ECW alumni entitled, ECW One Night Stand in 2005 and in 2006.

On May 26, 2006, WWE announced a launch of a new brand, ECW, a revival of the 1990s promotion. The new brand debuted on it's current network, the Sci-Fi Channel on June 13, 2006.^[2]

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.

In late 2007, SmackDown and ECW superstars began to appear on each others shows as part of a (kayfabe) deal between ECW General Manager Armando Estrada and SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero

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/Cyber Sunday, New Year's Revolution, December to Dismember, and The Great American Bash. Eventually, WWE abandoned the practice of single-brand pay-per-view events following WrestleMania 23.^[5]. December to Dismember and New Year's Revolution were cancelled following the announcement.

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 the WWE Championship again and was moved to SmackDown! 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 Championship was re-established and is thus far that brand's sole title.

References

See also

• WWE Draft Lottery