It appears AEW is planning on creating a brand split a la WWE’s separation of talent between Raw and SmackDown when its new show launches this summer.
That was the word from Fightful Select (subscription required) ahead of the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) upfronts today in New York City, where AEW Collision, the company’s new Saturday night prime time show, was expected to be officially revealed.
The expectation was that there would be a “soft” brand split with the arrival of Collision — that is, that some talent would be exclusive to each show (the better to keep CM Punk separated from those who don’t want to work with him or vice versa) but that most wrestlers would be used on both.
According to Fightful, however, it appears there will be a “hard” split instead, which would make the majority of the talent excusive to one show or another. The exceptions would be most AEW champions and “additional exceptions here and there.” The outlet had no details on how the split would be presented or announced, and whether there would be a draft to establish the rosters for each show.
WWE’s brand split has famously ebbed and waned over the years, with the company enforcing it when it sees fit and ignoring it at other times. However, the buzz recently has been that its two different broadcast partners (Fox for SmackDown and NBCUniversal/USA for Raw) preferred having exclusive talent they could market as truly their own.
AEW doesn’t have that outside pressure since WBD broadcasts all of its shows. But it must feel that the Punk situation and the logistics for launching Collision (Rampage is likely to tape with Dynamite as it does now, with ROH taping with Collision) warrant the brand split.
All should become clear very quickly, with Collision’s expected premiere happening a month from now.