WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; 1982–2002) and World Wrestling Entertainment (2002–2011), currently promotes its core business of professional wrestling through two "brands" (that are intended to operate on television as scripted independent branches of the company) named after their two major television shows Raw and SmackDown. Upon the completion of the Monday Night Wars in 2001, a brand rivalry between promotions: World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the WWF, the latter company emerged superior. This eventually led to the WWF acquiring all assets of WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW; the third largest promotion in the United States during this point in time) through separate buyouts that included the employees (on and off-air talent) from both companies. With the acquisition of new talent, the WWF's already large roster was doubled in size. In order to allow equal opportunity to all roster members, the company endorsed a brand extension to have the WWF represented and promoted with two "brands" named after the promotion's two primary television programs: Raw and SmackDown.
The extension officially started on March 25, 2002 with a mock draft on Raw. In 2006, after several reunions and video releases, WWE announced an addition to its prime time programming with ECW on Sci-Fi. For the second time in company history, WWE was extending its representation with the addition of ECW in a revival state to the original brand extension. Both instances of the brand extensions required that representatives of each brand draft "superstars" (terminology used by the company to refer to its contracted personnel) onto each brand in a mock–draft lottery.
On the August 29, 2011 episode of Raw, the day before a planned SmackDown "supershow" featuring both brands, WWE chief operating officer Triple H announced that Raw would also feature SmackDown stars until further notice, effectively ending the brand extension.
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On March 18, 2002, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) CEO Linda McMahon officially announced that the company would represent its business of professional wrestling through two distinct brands called "Raw" and "SmackDown"—named after the WWF's weekly television programs. This was a direct result of the acquisition of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), the WWF's primary rival corporations throughout the 1990s, that resulted in the addition of numerous talent to the extensive WWF roster, whom were referred to as "superstars" by the company.[1]
In terms of storyline, WWF superstar Ric Flair had become fifty percent owner of the WWF following Survivor Series 2001 after Shane and Stephanie McMahon had sold their stocks to him in order to purchase WCW and ECW, respectively, a campaign to launch the Invasion script.[2] Original full WWF owner Vince McMahon detested having to share his creation with Flair and sought to dissolve their partnership.[3] Simultaneously, Flair was engaged in a feud with The Undertaker and wanted to conclude it with a bout at WrestleMania X8.[3] However, the WWF Board of Directors would only allow the match if Flair returned full ownership back to McMahon.[3][4] Flair agreed, but the Board stated that it would review the WWF's status and ownership following WrestleMania.[3][4]
In continuation with storyline, the Board's ultimate decision was to split the entire WWF roster into two separate entities, with McMahon in control of the SmackDown! brand and Ric Flair in control of the Raw brand.[5][6] All WWF superstars were to be assigned to a brand based on random selections conducted through a mock–draft lottery. On the March 25, 2002 episode of Raw, the WWF Draft was held, in which each owner received a total of thirty picks.[7]
The 2002 WWF Brand Extension Draft took place at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania on March 25, 2002.[8][9] The first half of the draft was televised live on TNN for two hours, as part of the WWF's flagship program, Raw.[8] The second half was conducted over the Internet on WWF's official website, WWF.com.[9] There were thirty draft picks, with sixty superstars drafted overall by co-owners of the WWF, Ric Flair and Vince McMahon, onto their respective brands, Raw and SmackDown!.[10] For the televised half of the draft, ten brand selections were manually made by Flair and McMahon.[8][9][10] The remaining superstars were divided randomly in a draft lottery, with each brand receiving a grand total of thirty superstars.[11]
On the March 25, 2002 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon won a coin toss to determine who would receive the first draft selection.
| Overall Pick # |
Brand [9][11] |
Pick # [9][11] |
Superstar/Diva Real name [9][11] |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SmackDown! | 1 | The Rock Dwayne Johnson |
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| 2 | Raw | 1 | The Undertaker Mark Callaway |
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| 3 | SmackDown! | 2 | Kurt Angle | |
| 4 | Raw | 2 | n.W.o (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & X-Pac) Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & Sean Waltman |
McMahon allowed the n.W.o to be drafted as a group. |
| 5 | SmackDown! | 3 | Chris Benoit | Drafted while recovering from neck surgery. Benoit made his WWE return on the Raw brand instead. |
| 6 | Raw | 3 | Kane Glenn Jacobs |
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| 7 | SmackDown! | 4 | "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan Terrence Bollea |
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| 8 | Raw | 4 | Rob Van Dam Robert Szatkwosky |
When drafted, Van Dam was the WWE Intercontinental Championship, making the title exclusive to Raw.[8][10] |
| 9 | SmackDown! | 5 | Billy and Chuck Monty Sopp & Chuck Palumbo |
When drafted, Billy and Chuck were the Tag Team Champions, making the title exclusive to SmackDown! In addition, Billy and Chuck's manager, Rico went along with them in the draft.[8][10] |
| 10 | Raw | 5 | Booker T Booker Huffman |
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| 11 | SmackDown! | 6 | Edge Adam Copeland |
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| 12 | Raw | 6 | The Big Show Paul Wight |
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| 13 | SmackDown! | 7 | Rikishi Solofa Fatu |
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| 14 | Raw | 7 | Bubba Ray Dudley Mark LoMonaco |
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| 15 | SmackDown! | 8 | D-Von Dudley Devon Hughes |
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| 16 | Raw | 8 | Brock Lesnar | When drafted, Lesnar's manager, Paul Heyman, went along with him in the draft. |
| 17 | SmackDown! | 9 | Mark Henry | |
| 18 | Raw | 9 | William Regal Darren Matthews |
When drafted, Regal was the Euro Champion, making the title exclusive to Raw.[8][10] |
| 19 | SmackDown! | 10 | Maven Maven Huffman |
When drafted, Maven was the Hardcore Champion, making the title exclusive to SmackDown! However, Raven would defeat Maven for the championship prior to the brand separation, bring the title to Raw with him.[8][10] |
| 20 | Raw | 10 | Lita Amy Dumas |
First Diva Drafted. Only Diva selected on television. |
| 21 | SmackDown! | 11 | Billy Kidman | |
| 22 | Raw | 11 | Bradshaw John Layfield |
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| 23 | SmackDown! | 12 | Tajiri Yoshihiro Tajiri |
When drafted, Tajiri was the Cruiserweight Champion, making the title exclusive to SmackDown!. |
| 24 | Raw | 12 | Steven Richards Michael Manna |
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| 25 | SmackDown! | 13 | Chris Jericho Christopher Irvine |
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| 26 | Raw | 13 | Matt Hardy | |
| 27 | SmackDown! | 14 | Ivory Lisa Moretti |
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| 28 | Raw | 14 | Raven Scott Levy |
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| 29 | SmackDown! | 15 | Albert Matt Bloom |
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| 30 | Raw | 15 | Jeff Hardy | |
| 31 | SmackDown! | 16 | The Hurricane Gregory Helms |
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| 32 | Raw | 16 | Mr.Perfect Curt Hennig |
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| 33 | SmackDown! | 17 | Al Snow Allen Severs |
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| 34 | Raw | 17 | Spike Dudley Matt Hyson |
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| 35 | SmackDown! | 18 | Lance Storm Lance Evers |
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| 36 | Raw | 18 | D-Lo Brown Accie Coner |
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| 37 | SmackDown! | 19 | Diamond Dallas Page Page Falkingburg, Jr. |
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| 38 | Raw | 19 | Shawn Stasiak | |
| 39 | SmackDown! | 20 | Torrie Wilson | |
| 40 | Raw | 20 | Terri | |
| 41 | SmackDown! | 21 | Scotty 2 Hotty Scott Garland |
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| 42 | Raw | 21 | Jacqueline | |
| 43 | SmackDown! | 22 | Stacy Keibler | |
| 44 | Raw | 22 | Goldust Dustin Runnels |
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| 45 | SmackDown! | 23 | Christian William Reso |
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| 46 | Raw | 23 | Trish Stratus Patricia Statigas |
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| 47 | SmackDown! | 24 | Test Andrew Martin |
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| 48 | Raw | 24 | Justin Credible Peter Polaco |
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| 49 | SmackDown! | 25 | Faarooq Ron Simmons |
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| 50 | Raw | 25 | Big Bossman Ray Taylor |
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| 51 | SmackDown! | 26 | Tazz Peter Senerchia |
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| 52 | Raw | 26 | Tommy Dreamer Thomas Lagulin |
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| 53 | SmackDown! | 27 | Hardcore Holly Robert William Howard |
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| 54 | Raw | 27 | Crash Holly Mike Lockwood |
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| 55 | SmackDown! | 28 | Val Venis Sean Morley |
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| 56 | Raw | 28 | Mighty Molly Nora Greenwald |
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| 57 | SmackDown! | 29 | Perry Saturn |
Note:
The brand extension was officially enforced on April 1, 2002.[1] On that day, Stone Cold Steve Austin was the final member of the WWF roster to be assigned a brand, when he was placed on the Raw brand.[12] A month later, the WWF was sued by the World Wildlife Fund over the WWF acronym. This resulted in the company being renamed from "World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc." to simply "World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.", which caused all of the WWF's assets to be properly renamed and branded.[13] The Flair and McMahon feud came to an end on the June 10, 2002 edition of Raw, when McMahon became the sole owner of WWE by defeating Flair in a No Holds Barred match.[14] Following the situations with the brand extension and name change, by having two brands in place, the WWF was able to increase the number of live events held each year from 200 to 350, including tours in several new international markets.[1]
After World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. bought all of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)'s assets in 2003, the company began releasing DVDs promoting the original ECW.[15] Soon afterwards, the company promoted two ECW reunion shows for ECW Alumni entitled, ECW One Night Stand in 2005 and in 2006.[15]
On May 26, 2006, WWE announced a launch of a new brand, ECW, a revival of the 1990s promotion.[16] The new brand debuted on Sci Fi Channel on June 13, 2006.[16]
The 2006 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Brand Extension Draft took place from the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington on May 29, 2006, where ECW representative, Paul Heyman, drafted two superstars, one from SmackDown! and one from Raw onto the newly created ECW brand.[17][18]
| Pick # | Brand (to) | Employee (Real name)[1] |
Role | Brand (from) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ECW | Rob Van Dam (Robert Szatkowski) |
Male wrestler | Raw |
| 2 | ECW | Kurt Angle | Male wrestler | SmackDown! |
In late 2007, SmackDown! and ECW superstars began to appear on each others shows as part of a (kayfabe) deal between then-ECW General Manager Armando Estrada and then-SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero.[19]
In addition to the Talent Exchange between SmackDown and ECW, an exchange between Raw and ECW was announced in September 2008.[20]
On February 2, 2010, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that ECW would air its final episode on February 16, 2010.[21] The ECW brand was disbanded after the final show, with every ECW wrestler becoming a free agent and eligible to join either the Raw or SmackDown brands.[22] ECW was replaced by NXT,a show promoted as a reality television show,taking ECW's slot on Tuesday nights.
Interbrand competition was kept to a minimum, with superstars from all brands competing together only at pay-per-view events. However, in 2003, all pay per view events became brand exclusive, leaving the "big four" pay-per-views (WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble) as the only interbrand shows.[23]
Starting in late 2006, in an attempt to add more star power to the shows, interbrand matches became more common. Most notably, MNM and The Hardys reformed, despite the fact that the teammates were on separate brands.[24] Bobby Lashley is also notable for his interbrand action, who was involved in a storyline with the WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon.[25][26] The return of Saturday Night's Main Event to NBC also led to more interaction between the brands.[27]
Starting in April 2007 with Backlash, all pay-per-views now feature all the brands as they originally were in 2002.[23]
The separation of the WWE roster between two brands also intended to split the pay-per-view offerings, which began with Bad Blood in June 2003.[28] The original idea had the "major" pay-per-view events at the time (Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and WrestleMania) would contain the only instances where wrestlers from different brands would interact with each other, and even among the four shows only the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania would have wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. Wrestlers, as a result, appeared only in two-thirds of the shows in a given year, and thus appeared in fewer shows compared to before the brand extension. With single-brand PPVs in place, WWE was able to add more pay-per-view events to their offerings, such as Taboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday, New Year's Revolution, December to Dismember, and The Great American Bash. Eventually, WWE abandoned the practice of single-brand pay-per-view events following WrestleMania 23.[29] December to Dismember and New Year's Revolution were cancelled following the announcement.
Initially, the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship were available to both brands.[8][9][11] The other championships were exclusive to the brand the champion was a part of.[8][9][11] With several specialty championships being exclusive to one brand, numerous wrestlers were left with no title to fight for.
This issue was corrected in September 2002 when the Undisputed Championship became the WWE Championship again and was moved to SmackDown! while Eric Bischoff created the World Heavyweight Championship for Raw.[30] Shortly thereafter, SmackDown! created their own Tag Team Championship, revived the United States Championship, and became the exclusive home of the Cruiserweight Championship.[31][32][33] Meanwhile Raw became the exclusive brand for WWE's original World Tag Team Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and the Women's Championship.[31][32] The end result was each brand having four championships. When ECW was revived in 2006, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship was reactivated.[34] The United States Championship and WWE Tag Team Championships were able to be shared between SmackDown and ECW following a talent exchange agreement between the two brands, which meant that SmackDown superstars could appear on ECW and vice versa. In July 2008, the WWE Divas Championship was created on SmackDown, allowing the SmackDown Divas to compete for a title. Following a talent exchange agreement between Raw and ECW made in September 2008, the World Tag Team Championship was also eligible to be shared between Raw and ECW, as seen when John Morrison and The Miz beat CM Punk and Kofi Kingston to become new World Tag Team Champions. John Morrison and The Miz appeared more frequently on the RAW brand during the course of their reign as World Tag Team Champions, moving to a feud with reigning WWE Tag Team Champions of SmackDown, brothers Carlito and Primo Colon. The teams fought several non-title and title bouts for their respective brands' tag team championships before the two fought in a winner take all title unification lumberjack match at WrestleMania XXV. Carlito and Primo would go on to win the contest, forming the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship. The Tag Team Championships remained separate but were defended collectively as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship until the World Tag Team Championship was retired on the August 16 episode of Raw, leaving WWE Tag Team Championship as the sole active title.
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