Isaac’s Fantasy Booking of the Brand Extension:
The first thing is that the differing tone of the two shows would have to be established right from the start. Raw would remain the Status Quo show, the one dictated by Vince’s firmly established habits and preconceptions. Smackdown becomes the mad-science lab, the one where new ideas are tested, where in-ring work is given a bit more emphasis than promo-heavy Raw. In a perfect world, Paul Heyman would be brought in on the Smackdown booking staff, but I suspect that’s unlikely.
A new championship belt is crafted — perhaps the World Heavyweight Championship again, pulling from the WCW legacy, which goes to Smackdown, while the WWE World belt goes to Raw. Care is taken to make sure that the Smackdown belt is given just as much importance and legitimacy as the Raw belt — so sometimes, the main event of a PPV will be for the Smackdown belt while the Raw belt is on the midcard, that sort of thing, so it’s not seen as a secondary championship.
Roman Reigns is the initial Raw champ, and gets into a feud with Bray Wyatt that re-establishes Bray as a terrifying threat, as he works to “corrupt” Roman, laying seeds for a future heel turn for RR if the boos RR gets finally become too much even for Vince to bear. AJ Styles is the Smackdown champ, and in a perfect world, Shinsuke Nakamura premieres on the first live Smackdown to demand AJ’s head on a plate, and the two go on to delivery match of the year candidates at the next two PPVs.
The US Belt goes to Raw as it’s secondary championship, and John Cena becomes its primary caretaker at first, doing open challenges and the like to build up the belt’s urgency and importance. The Intercontinental belt goes to Smackdown, and essentially becomes the cruiserweight belt, with a strong focus on more complex in-ring action. The Miz can be the initial champ there, and continues with a long reign that cements him as the second coming of the HonkyTonk Man, the proud wanna-be celebrity that the audience loves to hate, and who keeps slipping away with the belt despite the faces’ best efforts time and again, with his first major opponent being Sami Zayn, who will need a short break from his Eternal War against Kevin Owens (who will be busy in main event scene, trying to butt in between AJ and Nakamura).
The women’s title goes to Smackdown, where Bayley is finally called up and the Four Horsewomen start tearing down the house week after week, with two women’s matches per show — one for angles revolving around the belt, and one for the women’s “mid-card” if you will. Paige re-enters the women’s main event scene, and starts recapturing the momentum that she lost after AJ left. I also think that Eva Marie could make a solid secondary heel with a little work, as she is good at getting people to boo her, and she does have a decent look.
The Tag Belts go to Raw, with the New Day starting things out. Anderson and Gallows are built up as the monster heels of that division, with the Vaudevillains as solid secondary heels, and Enzo and Cass going after everyone regardless of face or heel status. The Usos and the Dudleys remain in this scene as well, and for god’s sake, let’s give the Dudley Boyz another shot. In a No-DQ match, they cut loose on The New Day, bringing in Rusev or some other monster strongman to lay waste to whomever New Day’s third man on the outside is for the match, and then the Dudleys lay waste to the remaining two after an extended brawl, culminating in a 3-D through a table. The Dudleys won’t hold the belt for more than a few months, but in that time they re-establish themselves as monsters just as deadly as Anderson and Gallows, have some solid matches to give other teams some solid heat, and will be eventually defeated by Enzo & Cass for the belts at the Survivor Series.
Corey Graves gets called up to join Mauro and Lawler at the Smackdown announce table. Samoa Joe and Asuka continue to be the main draw for NXT for the next year, but after next year’s Wrestlemania, both get called up, joining Raw and Smackdown, respectively.
Any thoughts?