The "Ask the Specialists" Roundtable is the latest spin-off from the "Ask the Torch" feature. CSI led to CSI: New York and CSI: Miami, which is where you'll find the Specialists tackling a daily topic submitted by PWTorch readers to askpwtorch@gmail.com.

Ask the Specialists Roundtable #60

- Question from Prince in Jersey City, N.J.: WWE spent ten years creating two separate, distinct brands with Raw and Smackdown. However, when they ended the brand split, instead of having a huge event to celebrate the occasion, they just let it gradually fizzle out. I always envisioned the brand split ending with some kind of big payoff, like a final Raw vs. Smackdown inter-brand event and then a celebration with lots of fanfare to unite the brands and officially create one massive mega-roster. Did WWE miss a big money opportunity by having it be a slow, gradual thing that was never formally acknowledged?

- "Hits & Misses" Jon Mezzera responds: I think the brand split had been so hurt by several years of being so weak, that it didn't really matter in the end. Once upon a time, when the brands were totally separate and WWE actually did a decent to good job of playing up a real rivalry between Raw and Smackdown, I would have said that if the split were to end it should end in the way you describe. But, it basically faded out over a long period of time. It was so weak for so long that doing a bigger Raw vs. Smackdown battle at the end would have felt totally forced if WWE hadn't taken at least a year to really rebuild the split at that point.

- "Mr. PPV" Nathan Kyght responds: I don't think so. The brand split was watered down for so long, that most fans probably forgot who belonged to which show anyway. Even when they tried to have the Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown 'Bragging Rights' match for the brand split cup, no one seemed to really put much value in it. Combining the shows was the way to go.

- "Common Fan" Jimmy Eaton (@TheCommonFan) responds: Good question, Prince. Knowing how WWE tends to miss out on a lot, it wouldn't shock me. They seem to be awfully jumpy in the last few years especially when it comes to pleasing shareholders and keeping up with social media. Not to sound overly negative, but yeah, they probably missed a nice chance to make it matter but that's been the MO recently. We see the same matches on PPV that we see on Raw, Smackdown, etc. and very few matches or angles are given the chance to feel special, which is really a shame. Maybe they'll make a new brand split a big deal in the future? One can hope. Thanks for the question!

- "Instant Reaction" Ben Tucker (@BTuckerTorch) responds: Almost everything about the brand extension was a failure. A final Raw vs. Smackdown match would have meant nothing considering the rosters were already extremely watered down by the time the split ended. If they had a long-term plan to end it, then there would have maybe been one final big match between the two brands, but the final call seemed to be made as a short-term decision due to necessity (i.e. a small roster).

- "Mr. TV" Justin James (@Justin_M_James) responds: I think that by the time the brand extension fizzled, no one cared enough about it for it to mean anything by making an event out of it. Remember those awful Raw vs. Smackdown matches or the Raw vs. Smackdown PPV they had? It was so forced and unorganic because neither brand had the roster depth, they tried to make us believe that the wrestlers cared more about their "brand" than their own feuds and issues.

- "Showstopper" Shawn Valentino responds: Thank you for your question, Prince. I do believe that WWE completely dropped the ball on the brand split. It was pretty good for a couple years when WWE had the discipline to actually keep the wrestlers from Raw and Smackdown separate, but it went downhill when they started showing up on on the other show without explanation. This was an opportunity for the company to build some dream matches and some stars in their respective brands. Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels was a perfect example of a feud that was helped because of the brand separation. Sadly, there were very few of these fantasy encounters.

I never really liked the contrived Raw versus Smackdown rivalry because it was never believable that they wrestlers had a reason to dislike each other just because they were on different shows. It was also stupid how heels and faces would suddenly come together for these showdowns. I do believe that certain stars were allowed to shine because of the two-show format, including JBL and Eddie Guerrero. If the Brand Extension were done properly, there would be more stars developed, and there would have been more matches that fans dreamed of seeing. Ultimately, the experiment was a failure, and it was because WWE did not have the patience or the discipline to do it properly.

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[ FYI: The specialists consist of a mix of current PWTorch contributors providing their opinion on today's wrestling scene and modern wrestling history questions, including Shawn Valentino, Michael Moore, Ben Tucker, Jon Mezzera, Justin James, Brian Leahy, Jimmy Eaton, Nathan Kyght, Tony Donofrio, and Mike Roe. ]

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