Could WWE Be Ending the Brand Split Soon? Sane Returning to Japan

July 21, 2020 / By mobanmarket

WWE resurrected the brand split concept back in 2016 when the company officially split up the roster with certain talents competing on Raw on Monday nights and others competing on Smackdown on Tuesday nights. The brand split is still being utilized by the company today, although WWE no longer splits their pay-per-view events by brand anymore. It is also common knowledge by now that WWE and Fox will be working together next year when Smackdown officially moves over to the network, but could that TV deal be putting the brand split in jeopardy now? According to some new reports, WWE may be considering the option of ending the brand split at some point over the next few months.
According to the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, the ratings for Smackdown on the USA Network have been declining and Fox has taken notice of this. Fox’s 5-year deal for Smackdown is believed to be worth about $1 billion, which is why WWE officials are reportedly growing worried about Fox possibly backing out of the deal. It was noted that the agreement likely would not allow Fox to completely drop Smackdown and that the worst case scenario is that the show would be broadcasted on the FS1 station instead. However, if ratings continue to go down, WWE may just end up panicking and adding both rosters back to the show in order to boost the ratings back up and remain on the Fox network next October.
There was understandably a lot of buzz when Japanese wrestling sensation Kairi Sane joined WWE last year. Sane made an immediate impact by winning the inaugural Mae Young Classic tournament last year, and she has competed in some enjoyable matches in NXT since then. Sane will also be receiving a shot against Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn later this month, and as if that was not enough, Sane will be competing on her first show with the main WWE roster later this year as well. Kairi’s good luck will continue as WWE has just announced that Sane will be competing on the upcoming Raw live event in Osaka, Japan, and she will be taking on former Women’s Champion Mickie James.

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— WWE Japan (@WWEJapan) July 31, 2018