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WWE Unifying All Their Titles & Ending The Brand Extension? - Separating Fact From Fiction With All The Details We Know According To Internal Sources In The Company
Written by Richard Gray on Sep 1, 2010 - 9:38:34 AM
We've received multiple emails asking us about a report ran by another publication indicating WWE plans to unify all titles by Wrestlemania next year. As of this writing, I am not able to independently confirm that rumor. I can confirm unification ideas have been pitched to Vince McMahon several times within the past several years but McMahon always ended up deciding against it. It's interesting to note Vince McMahon blamed WWE's poor second quarter financial results on the lack of big names in WWE, thus making it more believable he'd consider unifying titles and ending the brand extension.
WWE has been in a major transition period since Wrestlemania with the retirement of Shawn Michaels, unexpected injuries (Triple H, The Undertaker) and what top WWE executives say, the unexpected departure of Batista (although we ran that Batista was leaving months before he actually left). With Chris Jericho's contract coming up and his immediate future not completely known, the company could be spread even more thin. Vince McMahon and others in WWE have been pleased with The Nexus which is ultimately why the gimmick has extended past SummerSlam but there is still a need for more top talent.
The brand extension was first created after McMahon purchased WCW because of the overflow of top talent. The fact the company is facing the possibility of ending it nearly a decade later speaks loudly about the dire need for further development of new talent.
WWE has already shrunk from a three brand company with the demise of their version of ECW earlier this year because of lackluster TV ratings. WWE NXT was created to be used as a vehicle to develop workers quicker by exposing them to the TV audience, but the show's future is in limbo with a TV deal not extending past the end of this month. It's looking more and more likely if there is a fourth season of NXT it will either be incorporated into Raw or Smackdown or air on the official WWE website. The same thing happened to Tough Enough before the concept was later nixed. I do think it should be noted WWE plans to begin pitching their own cable network at the beginning of 2011 and that could end up a destination for original WWE programming such as NXT.
As things currently stand, Smackdown will premiere on SyFy on October 1, 2010 with its own talent, however, if ratings still slip I look for McMahon to go forth with unification plans of the roster. SyFy was upset with the ratings drew by ECW but bought the pitch for NXT which has actually performed lower ratings than what ECW did. The network has dropped the series in favor of Smackdown hoping for something to drive their Friday night viewership and are expecting higher numbers than that of ECW and WWE NXT.
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