Vince McMahon participated in a call with investors after WWE’s fourth-quarter earnings results dropped today. WWE announced that 2016 marked a record year for revenue for the company. During the earnings call one of the most interesting topics that Vince spoke about was the possibility of WWE stars changing brands.
McMahon first spoke about the companies recent brand split. He says that the split is going ‘extremely well’ and seems very happy with it so far. He mentioned that Smackdown going live has led to a huge ratings increase for the show. It has also brought in new fans that are watching strictly one brand or the other.
One of the interesting parts was when he spoke about talent possibly crossing over from RAW to Smackdown or vise versa. Vince notes that this would be a way to keep things fresh.
He specifically uses Roman Reigns as an example saying that when or if Reigns jumps to Smackdown from RAW it would be a big deal and freshen up storylines for both shows.
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He also says that the brand split has given talent a chance to shine, more so than they would when the rosters were combined.
Our take: To me this confirms what many have been wondering: will we see talent traded between brands after Wrestlemania? I think it would be an awesome thing to make some changes and get some fresh matches. I don’t think they need to do a complete re-draft but switch some of the key pieces around.
Who would you like to see switch brands after Wrestlemania 33? Would you like to see any trades? Let us know in the comment section below.
if merely moving pieces back and forth is what’s going to happen, than the integrity of the split is in question.
I suppose im okay w/ maybe once every 6-7 months one person switches brands. but it can’t be more than a couple at most. since he split, storylines are slow-cooking, played out angles… which is great. but to jumble up the rosters would be to go back to the way it was. and every week would be a cluster to fit a bunch of different stories into the shows. the split allows everyone time to evolve and cultivate their angles and characters.