There have been some rumors floating around over the past little while about the WWE brand split ending in 2019. This would coincide with Smackdown moving over to FOX in their recent billion dollar deal with WWE.
These rumors suggested that FOX didn’t pay so much money for Smackdown to only get half of the WWE roster.
Dave Meltzer provided an update on these rumors in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribe here).
According to Meltzer, the brand split will NOT be ending in 2019 when Smackdown moves over to FOX.
A big reason why is that FOX doesn’t want to cross-promote any of the talents from Monday Night RAW. This is because the RAW television rights are owned by NBC Universal.
The expectation right now is that the split crew will remain.
SmackDown Live will debut on Fox on Friday, October 4th, 2019.
How do you feel about the brand split staying? Let us know in the comment section below.
On a related note, we have put together some early predictions for the WWE Superstar Shake-Up in 2019.
This felt like a “wishful thinking” rumor, but I would hate to see the brand split end. Most of my favorite memories of WWE is when some players can stay away from each other and extend the suspense of marquee matches. Having two main events, two mid-cards and two tag divisions help flesh out the card.
The Women’s Evolution would virtually disappear. There’s just so many more guys than gals and the brand split gives more time weekly for each division whether they get the chance to all appear on PPV or not.