Soft or Hard

By Scott Keith on 24 August 2023

Hi Scott,
I remember years ago, arguing about the original WWE Brand Extension on wrestling forums (which all sounds very 2002), and my argument was that you do not have to do a hard split to “give everyone more TV time”. There’s nothing to say that Triple H and The Undertaker both have to be on Raw and Smackdown in the same week. One can appear on Raw, one can appear on Smackdown, but it’s flexible. A soft split, effectively. Allows more people to get on TV.

20 odd years later and that soft split is kind of what we have with AEW Dynamite and Collision, and by coincidence you are also currently reviewing 2002 Smackdown which is the early days of the WWE brand extension (with Steph and “her show”). Now, ignoring the fact that this may all be happening in AEW because Punk has a faux restraining order against half the roster, it seems the perfect time to ask this question:

What do you prefer – the soft split or the hard split?

I prefer to be softly split. That way if stuff happens you can move people around and don’t need ridiculous “contract” storylines to justify it.