Holiday episodes of Raw are often episodes in which not much happens. To make matters worse, in addition to it being Memorial Day, WWE was staring down the barrel of a hugely hyped Game Seven in the NBA Western Conference Finals, and the first game of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals (so you know no Canadians were watching Raw), plus pretty much every team in baseball was playing due to the holiday, so it was definitely going to be tough sledding ratings-wise. But, they had promoted the long-awaited return of John Cena, so there was a chance that at least one segment of Raw might be important. The rest of the show, however…not so much.
10. We Have No Plan. Send For The New Day!
So, in case you hadn’t heard, Smackdown will become a live show on July 19th and the Brand Extension is back on starting that week as well. Apparently the USA Network isn’t exactly thrilled with Raw’s consistently sliding ratings and the fact that Smackdown gets treated like WWE’s red-headed stepchild, and since they’re paying a significant amount of money for the TV rights to both shows, they’d like to actually see some return on that investment. And if there was ever a moment for you to start worrying a little bit about WWE’s plans for the brand extension (we were already slightly worried, but that’s because we lived through the first iteration of the split), it should probably be the fact that WWE dedicated an entire segment to announcing the brand extension on Raw, basically admitted that they haven’t actually worked out any of the details of the plan, as such, then distracted us by having The New Day make jokes and dance. It was literally an example of WWE saying “Look over there!” and scuttling away while your attention was diverted. We’re not saying they don’t have a plan, but do they actually have a plan for this industry-changing brand split?
http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2016-05-30/gallery/shane-and-stephanie-mcmahon-address-rumors-surrounding-2016-wwe-brand#fid-40026747 Source: WWE.com