Tag teams and the brand split.

If you're like me you like some good tag team wrestling.  But this week on Raw Xavier Woods brought up an interesting questions.  How will the brand split affect the tag team division.  In response Shane pulled a Donald Trump and said that every aspect will be "very well thought through."  Very well thought through.  What the hell is that.  So this week I want to take a closer look at what the brand split could mean for the WWE Tag Team Division.

For the past couple years the tag team division has been going though a renaissance of sorts and with teams like American Alpha and the Revival in NXT, while it isn't the tag divisions of the late 80's and early 90's it is stronger then it has been in years.  However the brand split could put that in jeopardy, just when it is starting to really pick up some steam again.  There two possible problems that could occur.

Possible problem 1:  The splitting up of tag teams.

It's always possible that they will split up tag teams.  While there are some teams that could probably make it as singles guys, like Enzo and Cass, or maybe the Vaudevillains.  Most teams don't have that luxury.  Remember when Jimmy (or was it Jay) Usso went out with an injury.  What did the other do?  He was put on commentary just so that he has something to do.  Split those two up and they are done.  They barely have enough charisma between the two of them to get one guy over.  We've seen what happens when you split the Dudleys up, nothing good.  On top of that this lowers the number of tag teams which will just lead to a stale division.

This leads us to problem 2:  Not having enough teams.

As things stand today I'm not sure that they have enough teams to split them to two shows.  Especially if they want to have a title for each show rather then having one set of champions.  Let's list the tag teams active today and you'll see what I mean.

New Day
VaudeVillains
Enzo and Cass
Dudleys
Ussos
The Club (Anderson and Gallows)
The Social Outcasts
Golden Truth
Breezango
The Shining Stars

I'm assuming the Revival will be called to the main roster after Takeover, and American Alpha might be shortly after.  So in total that is 10 teams, 12 if you include the two coming NXT teams.  Plenty of teams right, but how many of them are likely to get any kind or real push?  Count the outcasts out, the Dudleys aren't doing anything but getting over the younger talent (nor should they be), Breezango will likely be done come the end of the Golden Truth feud.  Speaking of the Golden Truth they are a comedy team so count them out.  The Shinning Stars are fine wrestlers more then deserving of a push, but with the gimmick they have it wont happen.  The Ussos are just too bland for another real push without an overhaul.  That leaves us with four viable teams.  Split them between two shows and it will run it's course real quick.

How can we avoid this?  First off don't split anyone up, let all the teams stay together.  Secondly have only one set of tag champs, like I talked about in my last post.  This will let the champs flow from show to show and keep it at least somewhat fresh.  Thinking outside the box a little you could move all the tag teams to one show.  Maybe Smackdown is the tag team show.  Lastly, with the tag teams it might be best just to rotate the teams between the shows somehow.  Even if it is just the jobber or middle of the road teams.  This will keep us from seeing the same old matches week after week.

What are your thoughts?  Do you like tag team wrestling or would you rather see it fade into the background?  What would you do to keep the division intact?

Brand split redux

Big news hit yesterday for the land of WWE.  The brand split will be returning in July.  To read the official announcement from WWE.com click here.

Here's what we know: 

- The split will start on July 19th. 
- Smackdown will move from Thursday to Tuesday and be live.  That's right no more pre-tapped Smackdown's.  This means that there will be 5 hours of live TV each week.  Of course this will be on the USA network. 
- Stephanie will likely be in charge of one, while Shane gets the other. 
- Lastly each show will have it's own roster.  I assume there will be a draft a week or two before the split officially begins.

Here's what we don't know yet:

- How will this affect the title pictures?  My guess is that one show will get the Intercontinental title (likely Raw) while the other gets the US title (likely Smackdown).  But what about the world, tag and women's championships?  Will each show get their own?  Or will these titles appear on both shows?

Personally I think that these titles should be divided between the two shows.  I don't think the tag or women's divisions are large enough at this point to host two separate titles.  The world title is supposed to be the big one, so naturally there should be only one.  Not to mention potential logistic problems with separating the WWE and World Heavyweight belts again.  Because when you do that one title inevitably gets devalued.  Which was one of the problems with the original brand split in my opinion.  This can also be used to elevate the IC and US titles.  But that is a topic for another day.

- What does this mean for PPV's?  Will the PPV's be split up between Raw and Smackdown with the rosters coming together for the big 4(Survivor Series, Summer Slam, Royal Rumble and WrestleMania)?  Will there be two PPV's a month (on for each show) plus the occasional NXT takeover?  Or will all the PPV's host matches from each show?

Please don't add more PPV's.  There are already too many.  It hurts the story telling element of the product, giving less time to build stories, and let's face it they are already hurting in this department.  I think the best bet would be to split up the existing PPV's between the two shows, bringing the brands together for the big 4.  This would mean that the world, tag and women's champs would work most if not all the PPV's.  Maybe have a triple threat match as a special attraction on one shows PPV or the other.

How exclusive will the rosters be?  One of the problems with the original brand split was that towards the end the rosters merged back together making the split mean nothing.  So please keep the rosters exclusive.  If you want to have a big name like Lesnar, or the Rock when does a return to push a movie be a wild card that could show up on either fine.  But there can't be more then one or two of them for this to work.

Final thoughts:

I think the split has potential.  Last time around I don't think they really had enough big names to make it work.  But there are lots of quality wrestlers on the roster today who are getting lost in the shuffle.  This could be a chance for guys like Ziggler, Ryder, Breeze and Neville to shine somewhere if handled right.  But it could just as easily be a disaster.  For now I'm going to choose to be optimistic and hope that they'll do right by the fans and right by the talent.

So what are your thoughts, hopes and concerns about the brand split?  Is there anything I missed?  I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.