Over at Rudo Radio, we came up with a thought experiment. With NXT, the Performance Center and continual signings, WWE is getting close to a saturation point where it would make sense to split the RAW and SmackDown brands again. What would that look like in the modern era?
Let's build our own rosters and find out. Four of us are listing our rosters below so you can get the idea. You chime in with your own rosters in the comments. Let's build the best two brands possible. (Keeping in mind that NXT will survive as its own, third brand.)
There are rules for building your roster, however, so that we can all play by the same guidelines. The rules are as follows:
1. You are to select 20 wrestlers from the current WWE main roster (as listed on WWE.com's Superstars page) to RAW and 20 wrestlers to SmackDown
2. In addition, you will have a pool of five NXT call-ups TOTAL and one international free agent, who can be anyone you like not currently under WWE contract. You will assign three additional picks to each brand from this pool of six (denoted by asterisk). Your final RAW and SmackDown rosters will then have 23 wrestlers each
3. We will all operate under the assumption that The Authority and similar backstage/administrative figures will appear across both shows. Thus, there is no need to draft Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, J&J Security, etc.
4. Valets will be a package deal as long as they are currently on television in a non-wrestling role. If you draft Tyler Breeze, Summer Rae is assumed to remain his valet. Ditto Rusev/Lana
5. Tag teams do NOT count as one pick. Nor do factions
6. You can put titles on whomever you want after the move, but current champs must be moved if you want a particular brand to have a particular title
7. Be sure to include some rationale for your roster construction, as well as which brand will have which championships (or whether you are resurrecting any defunct championships or creating new ones)
8. Have fun!
[NOTE: Yes, we know that 23 spots per brand doesn't feel like nearly enough room. We may raise this limit the next time we play this game, but we feel this exercise benefits from a bit of a challenge.]
Let's get down to business!
Bill Hanstock
My thought process behind my roster construction is that I would have the "big name" or "household name" stars and "established" main event players on RAW, along with the tag team division and the United States Championship. In theory, this allows for a varied mix of star power, in-ring talent and exposure to new faces.
RAW CHAMPIONSHIPS: WWE Championship, Tag Team Championship, United States Championship
RAW ROSTER:
1. John Cena
2. Kofi Kingston
3. Big E
4. Xavier Woods
5. Seth Rollins
6. Darren Young
7. Titus O'Neil
8. Kalisto
9. Sin Cara
10. Bubba Ray
11. D-Von
12. Stardust
13. Konnor
14. Viktor
15. Cesaro
16. Randy Orton
17. Roman Reigns
18. Dean Ambrose
19. Brock Lesnar
20. Alberto Del Rio
21. Finn Bálor*
22. Baron Corbin*
23. Apollo Crews*
On the other end, my SmackDown roster will be a throwback to the SmackDown Six, in that the blue brand is intended to be the show that people watch almost exclusively for the matches. This is also where the Divas division will live.
SMACKDOWN CHAMPIONSHIPS: World Heavyweight Championship, Intercontinental Championship, Women's Championship
SMACKDOWN ROSTER:
1. Daniel Bryan
2. Kevin Owens
3. Bray Wyatt
4. Luke Harper
5. Erick Rowan
6. Braun Strowman
7. Dolph Ziggler
8. Neville
9. Rusev
10. Bo Dallas
11. King Barrett
12. Tyler Breeze
13. The Miz
14. Brie Bella
15. Nikki Bella
16. Charlotte
17. Becky Lynch
18. Sasha Banks
19. Paige
20. Naomi
21. Bayley*
22. Sami Zayn*
23. Ricochet*
Geno Mrosko
RAW CHAMPIONSHIPS: WWE World Heavyweight Championship, United States Championship, Divas Championship
RAW ROSTER:
1. Brock Lesnar
2. Roman Reigns
3. Seth Rollins
4. Bray Wyatt (WWE champ)
5. Braun Strowman
6. Luke Harper
7. Erick Rowan
8. Rusev (w/Lana)
9. Sheamus
10. AJ Styles*
11. Alberto Del Rio (US champ)
12. Big Show
13. Kane
14. Jack Swagger
15. King Barrett
16. Mark Henry
17. The Miz
18. Charlotte
19. Brie Bella
20. Alicia Fox
21. Naomi
22. Eva Marie* (Divas champ)
23. Tamina
Because RAW needs star power, it gets the big names who will be counted on to bring in the eyeballs. You've got multiple WrestleMania main event stars here, a top faction, a solid mid-card with a strong mid-card title, mid-carders who can give the main event guys great matches before doing the job (hi, Styles!), jobbers, and a whole lot of HOSS FIGHT to go around. It's a bit old school but that's by design to help differentiate from SmackDown. That's the same rationale I'm using in the Divas division, and I'm calling up Eva Marie to take the title off Charlotte and play up how much of a Diva she is for maximum heat with the hope it makes up for the relatively poor workrate.
SMACKDOWN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Intercontinental Championship, Tag Team Championship, Women's Championship
SMACKDOWN ROSTER:
1. John Cena
2. Dean Ambrose
3. Cesaro
4. Daniel Bryan
5. Kevin Owens (Intercontinental champ)
6. Dolph Ziggler
7. Big E (Tag champ)
8. Kofi Kingston (Tag champ)
9. Xavier Woods (Tag champ)
10. Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae)
11. Damien Sandow
12. Stardust
13. Jimmy Uso
14. Jey Uso
15. Enzo Amore*
16. Big Cass*
17. Nikki Bella
18. Natalya
19. Asuka*
20. Emma*
21. Becky Lynch
22. Paige
23. Sasha Banks (Women's champ)
I envision SmackDown will be to Raw what current NXT is to current WWE. There's talent all up and down the board here and everyone on the roster can work. I'm also stealing Daniel Bryan's idea to make the Intercontinental championship the main title for the blue brand and going back to the old Shawn Michaels workhorse days of said title. You've also got a solid tag team division with great characters who can also go in the ring. As for the women, they usher in a new era with a brand new championship they'll actually call the "women's title" and we'll get a never ending series of awesome matches, starting with Sasha winning and everyone chasing her. There is literally no way to go wrong with that roster of women.
Sean Rueter
RAW CHAMPIONSHIPS: WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Women's Championship
RAW ROSTER:
1. Kevin Owens
2. Alberto Del Rio
3. Brock Lesnar
4. Cesaro
5. Dolph Ziggler
6. John Cena
7. Seth Rollins
8. Shinsuke Nakamura*
9. Neville
10. Rusev
11. Sheamus
12. Sami Zayn*
13. Tyler Breeze
14. Paige
15. Emma
16. Sasha Banks
17. Becky Lynch
18. Bayley*
19. Asuka*
20. Natalya
21. Nikki Bella
22. Alicia Fox
23. Naomi
RAW will be the home of the top men and women's belts.
Brock is my "Sammartino with a mean streak" babyface champ. I'm assuming he's still part time, so the focus is often on jockeying for position among the field. As such, the ranks are filled with great in-ring and storytelling possibilities for rivalries we can revisit often (Zayn/Owens, Owens/Cena, Swagsuke/Rollins, Cesaro vs. anyone, etc).
The women's championship belongs to The Boss, who isn't allied with anyone else and stands alone against rivals of both alignments. Beside the title program, we'd build a big personal issue between Asuka and Nikki that would eventually have to be blown off in a Cell.
SMACKDOWN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Tag Team Championship, Television Championship
SMACKDOWN ROSTER:
1. The Miz
2. Big Show
3. Xavier Woods
4. Big E
5. Kofi Kingston
6. Stardust
7. King Barrett
8. Bray Wyatt
9. Luke Harper
10. Darren Young
11. Titus O'Neil
12. Dean Ambrose
13. Roman Reigns
14. Jey Uso
15. Jimmy Uso
16. Kalisto
17. Sin Cara
18. Chad Gable*
19. Jason Jordan*
20. Ryback
21. Curtis Axel
22. Daniel Bryan
23. Kane
This is the tag team show. There's lots of singles action and a solo belt, but even then they're identified as part of a pair (and listed her in order with their partner).
Show-Miz are my heel champs. Their primary feuds are with The Usos and Hell No (forcing Bryan to take it easy by working tag), but they've had beef with all the face teams - and formed temporary alliances with all the heel teams.
SD would also be the home of a new TV title, which Roman holds. The persistent thorn in his side is Wyatt, but we're also building to a big, shades of grey-style program between he and Dean.
Marc Normandin
I had a difficult time creating two shows that could have fresh match-ups if they both had men and women on them, so RAW became the show for men's wrestling and SmackDown the show for women's. RAW's lone stable is The New Day, and while there is tag team wrestling, there is no longer a tag belt: at least championship-wise, the focus is on singles titles. I haven't broken up Summer Breeze with this move, either: Summer is Tyler Breeze's valet on RAW, and Tyler returns the favor on SmackDown.
You won't find part-time legends on the RAW roster, and that's not because I lack respect for Undertaker or The Rock or Chris Jericho or anyone like that: there just wasn't enough room to both promote the future of the brand and the past at the same time. Do you want to see Jericho return for another short Cool Dad run, or do you want to see Kalisto wrestling Cesaro for a championship?
Well, no part-timers with the exception of Brock Lesnar, anyway, as he's too special to omit from a limited roster even if he isn't going to appear regularly. It's Brock, y'all.
The last note on the RAW roster is that I wanted to include Daniel Bryan and Tyson Kidd on it, but unlike with Seth Rollins, their futures are uncertain. I know, I know. I don't want to think about it, either.
RAW CHAMPIONSHIPS: WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship
RAW ROSTER:
1. Big E
2. Kofi Kingston
3. Xavier Woods
4. Brock Lesnar
5. Kalisto
6. Kevin Owens
7. The Miz
8. Cesaro
9. Titus O'Neal
10. Bray Wyatt
11. Stardust
12. Seth Rollins
13. Randy Orton
14. Tyler Breeze
15. Roman Reigns
16. Dean Ambrose
17. Rusev
18. Neville
19. John Cena
20. Luke Harper
The rules were bent a little bit to create the SmackDown roster, as I didn't use any of the NXT call-ups or the international signing for the RAW roster. That allowed for Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Bayley, Carmela, and Dana Brooke to all get the call from NXT, and for Sexy Star, who you know from Lucha Underground and Mexico's AAA, to join the women of WWE's main roster. The Divas belt has been replaced with the WWE Women's belt, which in my head is a rose gold version of the big gold belt, and if you want to find tag team wrestling with a championship attached, this is the place for it.
SMACKDOWN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Women's Championship, Women's Tag Team Championship
SMACKDOWN ROSTER:
1. Alicia Fox
2. Becky Lynch
3. Brie Bella
4. Cameron
5. Charlotte
6. Emma
7. Naomi
8. Natalya
9. Nikki Bella
10. Paige
11. Sasha Banks
12. Tamina
13. Summer Rae
14. Alexa Bliss*
15. Asuka*
16. Bayley*
17. Carmela*
18. Dana Brooke*
19. Sexy Star*
20. Lana
Now it's your turn. Take it away, Cagesiders!