Thebrand extension, also referred to as thebrand split, is the separation of the Americanprofessional wrestling promotionWWE's roster of wrestlers (and, at various times, creative staff) into distinct divisions, or "brands". The promotion's wrestlers are assigned to a brand via the annualWWE Draft and exclusively perform on that brand's weekly television show, with some exceptions. Throughout its history, WWE has utilized the brand extension twice. The first brand split occurred from 2002 to 2011, while the ongoing second began in 2016.
WWE currently promotes four brands. The two main brands, referred to as the main roster, areRaw andSmackDown.NXT, WWE's third brand, was launched in 2010 and has served as WWE'sdevelopmental territory since 2012. A fourth brand,Evolve, launched in March 2025 as a sister brand to NXT and features trainees from theWWE Performance Center andindependent wrestlers recruited for theWWE Independent Development program.
The first brand split began in March 2002, following the company's acquisition of talent from the formerWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) andExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotions, and after the conclusion ofThe Invasion storyline. WWE's roster had doubled in size, and the company no longer had a major competitor in the professional wrestling industry. The brand extension was enacted to alleviate the issues of an overcrowded roster and to imitate competition the company no longer had from the former promotions. The first two brands established were Raw and SmackDown, named after the respective weekly shows,Raw andSmackDown.ECW—a revival of the former promotion—served as the third brand from 2006 to 2010. The first brand extension then ended on the August 29, 2011 episode of Raw during which Raw was then promoted under the title "Raw Supershow" untilWWE Raw 1000 on July 23, 2012 with the "Raw Supershow" logo featuring elements of SmackDown's logo to emphasize the end of the first brand extension.[1]
A relaunch of the brand extension as part "The New Era" went into effect on July 19, 2016. As before, Raw and SmackDown were the two primary brands, with NXT serving as a developmental brand and briefly as part of the main roster. Other brands during the second brand extension includedNXT UK, aUnited Kingdom-based subsidiary of NXT which was active from 2016 to 2022 (scheduled to be relaunched as NXT Europe in the future), and205 Live—a brand that specialized incruiserweight wrestlers (with all wrestlers for the brand having a billed weight of 205 pounds and under) and was active from 2016 to 2022 (first as a Raw subsidiary, then as a standalone brand, and finally as an NXT subsidiary).
In 2001, theMonday Night War, the rivalry between theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) andWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) ended with the WWF emerging victorious. The WWF would acquire the majority of assets of WCW, and laterExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) (the third largest promotion in the United States at the time), through separatebuyouts that included the employees (on and off-air talent) from both companies. The sales had left the WWF as the only majorprofessional wrestling promotion in the world with international television distribution (until the national expansion ofTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2004 and much later,All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2019 on a larger scale).
With the acquisition of new talent, the WWF's already large roster doubled in size. In order to allow equal opportunity to all wrestlers, the company endorsed abrand extension to have the WWF represented and promoted with two brands,Raw andSmackDown!, named after the promotion's two primary television programs,Raw andSmackDown!, respectively.
In early 2002, the idea was put in motion to separate the WWF's two shows into distinct brands while both being under the WWF banner. One year prior, the original plan was to create a new WCW (which would be an independent entity in the storylines but would be under the WWF's auspices in reality), and for this new WCW to take overRaw and use the show to recreate its WCW counterpart,WCW Monday Nitro. (The WWF was unable to find a television time slot for WCW due to its exclusivity deal withViacom.) This experiment was first made on July 2, 2001, when the final twenty minutes ofRaw was given to WCW programming, in which theRaw crew was largely replaced (with Scott Hudson andArn Anderson doing commentary, as well as a major stage overhaul) to present a match betweenBuff Bagwell andBooker T for theWCW World Heavyweight Championship, which Booker T had won on the finalNitro. The match was met with negative reactions from the fans and viewers at home, when the WWF wrestlers interfered at the end of the match. With WWF focused on splitting its roster, theInvasion storyline was used as a second resort.
Following the end of the angle atSurvivor Series, the WWF executed their alternate plan, which was to separate the two shows themselves: previously, wrestlers appeared on bothRaw andSmackDown, but with this extension, wrestlers would be exclusive to only one show. Only theUndisputed WWF Champion and theWWF Women's Champion were exempt and could appear on both shows. This would change as both championships were later assigned to a brand.
The brand extension began on March 25, 2002, with a draft onRaw and went into effect one week later on April 1. On May 6, 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, which became anorphaned initialism in 2011). On June 13, 2006, after an Extreme Championship Wrestling reunion pay-per-view and video releases, WWE announced an addition to its prime time programming withECW on Sci-Fi. The newECW brand launched in May 2006 and served as a third brand, and a revival of the original ECW promotion. 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 adraft lottery.
After WWE bought all the assets of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 2003, the company began releasingDVDs promoting the original ECW.[2] Soon afterwards, the company promoted two ECW reunion shows forECW alumni, entitledECW One Night Stand in2005 and in2006.[2]
On May 25, 2006, WWE announced a launch of a new brand, ECW, a revival of the former 1990s promotion.[3] The new brand debuted onSyfy on June 13, 2006,[3] with its final episode on February 16, 2010, on the rebranded Syfy. The ECW brand was dissolved and its show was replaced the following week with the reality series,WWE NXT.[4]
On May 25, 2016, it was announced that beginning July 19,SmackDown would broadcast live on Tuesday nights, as opposed to being taped on Tuesdays and airing on Thursdays as it was previously, receiving a unique roster and set of writers compared toRaw, thus restoring the brand extension.[5] The draft took place on the live premiere episode ofSmackDown to determine the rosters between both brands.[6] On the July 11 episode ofRaw,Vince McMahon namedShane McMahon the (on-screen) commissioner for SmackDown andStephanie McMahon the commissioner for Raw; both chose a General Manager for their respective shows.[7] On the July 18 episode ofRaw, Stephanie McMahon choseMick Foley as the Raw General Manager, and Shane McMahon choseDaniel Bryan as the SmackDown General Manager. Due toRaw being a three-hour show andSmackDown being a two-hour show, Raw received three picks each round and SmackDown received two. Six draft picks had to be made amongst the non-title holders from WWE'sdevelopmental brand,NXT.[8]Seth Rollins was picked first by Raw, with WWE ChampionDean Ambrose being SmackDown's first pick.[9]
Two other brands would also be established during the second split. After the second brand extension began, WWE revived thecruiserweight division. The cruiserweight wrestlers were originally exclusive to Raw but had a supplementary show called205 Live that premiered that November on theWWE Network. FollowingWrestleMania 34 in April 2018, the205 Live brand was split from Raw, with the promotion's cruiserweight wrestlers becoming exclusive to the new brand. Additionally, in December 2016, WWE announced that they would be establishing a United Kingdom-based brand that would be produced exclusively in the country. In June 2018, the brand was officially established asNXT UK, a sub-brand of the American-based NXT. In September 2021, NXT was rebranded as NXT 2.0 and then in February 2022, the 205 Live brand was dissolved. In 2022, it was announced that NXT UK would be relaunched as NXT Europe and feature wrestlers from all of Europe. According toShawn Michaels, two additional NXT sub-brands would also be launched: NXT Mexico and NXT Japan, which will also feature wrestlers from Mexico and Japan respectively.[10] NXT Europe was originally planned for 2023 but was delayed due to WWE's acquisition byEndeavor, which also ownsUltimate Fighting Championship (UFC), with WWE and UFC merging to formTKO Group Holdings. The merger was finalized in September 2023.[11] In September 2022 the brand dropped the 2.0 moniker, reverting to the NXT name, with a revised version of the logo featuring white lettering in the 2.0 font outlined in black and gold.[12]
In January 2025, it was reported that WWE were planning to revive Evolve as a brand. WWE acquired the assets ofEvolve in July 2020.[13] The company trademarked the name "Evolve" on January 30, 2025, with the first tapings set to be held at theWWE Performance Center on February 7, replacingWWE NXT Level Up, which was cancelled in December 2024.[14] During theRoyal Rumble on February 1, WWE announced thatWWE Evolve would premiere onTubi on March 5.[15] The brand would feature up and coming wrestlers from theWWE Performance Center and theWWE Independent Development (ID) program with the goal for theWWE Evolve wrestlers is to make it to WWE'sdevelopmental brand,NXT, and eventually to the main roster onRaw orSmackDown.[16]
AtWrestleMania 41 on April 19, 2025, WWE announced the acquisition ofLucha Libre AAA Worldwide. WWE PresidentNick Khan confirmed in August 2025 that AAA will be relaunched as a fifth brand and a third touring brand with a new logo to be unveiled in 2026.[17]
Interbrand competition was initially kept to a minimum, with wrestlers from all brands competing together only at pay-per-view events. However, from 2003 to 2007, all pay-per-view events became brand exclusive, leaving the "big four" pay-per-views (WrestleMania,SummerSlam,Survivor Series, andRoyal Rumble) as the only interbrand shows.[18]
Starting in late 2006, in an attempt to add more star power to the shows, interbrand matches became more common. Most notably,MNM andThe Hardy Boyz reformed, despite the teammates being on separate brands.[19]Bobby Lashley was also notable for his interbrand action, as he was involved in a storyline withDonald Trump against WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, which carried over from Raw throughWrestleMania 23 to ECW.[20][21] The brief return ofSaturday Night's Main Event toNBC also led to more interaction between the brands.[22]
Interbrand competition returned with the reestablishment of the brand extension in 2016; the first interbrand match that occurred after the brand extension went into full effect was atSummerSlam on August 21, 2016, where Raw'sBrock Lesnar defeated SmackDown'sRandy Orton. The next large interbrand matches occurred atSurvivor Series on November 20, 2016, featuring traditionalSurvivor Series elimination tag team matches between Raw and SmackDown,[23] and beginning the following year, the event became about brand supremacy; in addition to the traditional Survivor Series matches, each champion of the Raw brand faces their counterpart of the SmackDown brand in non-title matches (e.g., the Universal Champion against the WWE Champion). Following the2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up, aWild Card Rule was introduced. Interbrand competition became much more frequent, with interbrand matches occurring weekly onRaw andSmackDown Live, as well as at pay-per-views.[24][25] Witha second draft of 2019 occurring in October, the Wild Card Rule was abolished.
In May 2020, select and limited interbrand matches returned with the introduction of the Brand to Brand Invitational, though under stricter guidelines than the previous Wild Card Rule. This happened largely as a result of theCOVID-19 pandemic, in which several wrestlers have opted to not perform during the outbreak, thus resulting in fewer available talent on each show.[26]
The separation of the WWE roster between two brands also intended to split thepay-per-view (also known as premium live event from 2022) offerings, which began withBad Blood in June 2003.[27] 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 asTaboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday,New Year's Revolution,December to Dismember, andThe Great American Bash. Eventually, WWE abandoned the practice of single-brand pay-per-view events followingWrestleMania 23.[18] December to Dismember and New Year's Revolution were cancelled following the announcement.
With the reintroduction of the brand extension in 2016, single-branded pay-per-view events returned, and seven more pay-per-view events were added in 2017 so that each brand could have their own pay-per-view each month, in addition to the four major pay-per-views, in which both brands were involved. The only exception to this were the two months leading up toWrestleMania 33 in order to build the feuds for that event, and the two months (including the month of WrestleMania) following WrestleMania to begin new feuds for each brand. For example, February 2017 only had a SmackDown pay-per-view while March only had one for Raw. WrestleMania 33 was on April 2 and Raw had its first post-WrestleMania pay-per-view on April 30, while only SmackDown had a pay-per-view in May.[28] This also happened in 2018, however, for 2018, WWE announced that following WrestleMania 34, brand-exclusive PPVs would be discontinued, abandoning the single-brand practice for a second time. The 2018Elimination Chamber andFastlane events were the last two brand-exclusive pay-per-views for Raw and SmackDown, respectively.[29]
Since the launch of theWWE Network service in 2014, each brand have its own set of PPVs/PLEs each month with the main roster events (Raw and SmackDown) being dual-branded while NXT kept its brand-exclusive premium live events regardless the brand extension is in operation or not (from 2014 to 2021, NXT promoted its specials under theTakeOver banner), while NXT UK had this similar practice.
Initially, theUndisputed WWE Championship and the originalWWE Women's Championship were available to both brands.[30][31][32] The other championships were exclusive to the brand for which the champion was rostered.[30][31][32] When the brand extension began, Raw received theIntercontinental Championship andEuropean Championship when their respective holders were drafted, while SmackDown! became the exclusive home for theTag Team Championship and the originalCruiserweight Championship.[33] With several specialty championships being exclusive to one brand, numerous wrestlers were left with no title to fight for except for theHardcore Championship, which although a property of SmackDown! after the draft, it was contested under different rules than the other championships—the European and Hardcore championships were later unified with the Intercontinental Championship in July and August 2002, respectively, deactivating both championships.[34][35]
The issue of specialty championships being exclusive to one brand was partially corrected in September 2002. When SmackDown! general manager Stephanie McMahon announced that Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar signed a deal to exclusively appear onSmackDown!, Raw general managerEric Bischoff introduced theWorld Heavyweight Championship for Raw.[36] Shortly thereafter, Raw became the exclusive brand for the World Tag Team Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and the Women's Championship.[37][38] Meanwhile, SmackDown! created theWWE Tag Team Championship and revived theUnited States Championship.[37][38] The result was each brand having four championships: World Heavyweight, Intercontinental, World Tag Team, and Women's titles for Raw; WWE, United States, Tag Team, and Cruiserweight titles for SmackDown!. When ECW was revived in 2006 as a third brand, theECW World Heavyweight Championship was reactivated as the brand's only championship.[39] Over the course of the first brand extension, these championships switched between brands, usually due to the result of the annual draft. The Cruiserweight title, however, was the only championship to never switch brands, staying on SmackDown! from 2002 until the championship's retirement on September 28, 2007.
In October 2007, SmackDown! and ECW began a talent exchange agreement, which meant that SmackDown! wrestlers could appear on ECW and vice versa (both shows were taped as part of the same Tuesday night tapings at the time). This allowed the United States Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship to be shared between the two brands.[40] In July 2008, theWWE Divas Championship was created for SmackDown, allowing SmackDown's women wrestlers to compete for a title.[41] A talent exchange between ECW and Raw then began in September 2008.[42] AfterJohn Morrison and The Miz of ECW became World Tag Team Champions, they appeared more frequently on the Raw brand, moving to a feud with reigning WWE Tag Team Champions of SmackDown, brothersCarlito andPrimo 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 atWrestleMania 25. Carlito and Primo would go on to win the contest, forming the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.[43] The tag team championships remained separate titles, but were defended collectively as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship until the then-anonymous general manager of Raw announced that the World Tag Team Championship would be retired in favor of continuing the WWE Tag Team Championship, which received a new, single set of belts.[44] On February 16, 2010, the ECW Championship was deactivated along with the ECW brand.[45] On September 19, 2010, atNight of Champions, the Women's Championship was unified with the Divas Championship, retiring the Women's Championship in the process; the Divas Championship was briefly referred to as the Unified WWE Divas Championship.[41] The first brand extension would then end a year later and all champions could appear on both shows.[46]
In 2012, NXT became a developmental brand for WWE and they introduced theNXT Championship that year, followed by theNXT Women's Championship andNXT Tag Team Championship in 2013. On December 15, 2013, atTLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship to become the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The title retained the lineage of the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship was retired.[47] The name was reverted to WWE Championship on June 27, 2016.[48] AtWrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016, the Divas Championship was retired and then replaced with abrand-new WWE Women's Championship.[49]
After five years, a new brand extension was introduced on July 19, 2016. Raw drafted the WWE Women's Champion, the United States Champion, and the WWE Tag Team Champions, while SmackDown drafted the WWE Champion and the Intercontinental Champion; NXT champions were ineligible to be drafted.[50] This distribution of championships remained unchanged at theBattleground pay-per-view, which took place the Sunday immediately following the draft.[51] With the WWE Championship being defended exclusively on SmackDown, Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon and general managerMick Foley introduced theWWE Universal Championship to be Raw's world title.[52] As SmackDown was lacking a tag team championship and a women's championship, SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon and general manager Daniel Bryan introduced theSmackDown Tag Team Championship andSmackDown Women's Championship.[53] Subsequently, the WWE Women's Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship were renamed as the Raw Women's Championship[49] and the Raw Tag Team Championship,[54] respectively. With this, each brand had aworld championship, asecondary championship, atag team championship, and awomen's championship.
Since Raw became the exclusive home of WWE's revived cruiserweight division, they also created a newWWE Cruiserweight Championship.[55] Beginning November 29, 2016, in addition toRaw, the Cruiserweight Championship was defended on the cruiserweight-exclusive show,205 Live. 205 Live would become its own brand in 2018, making the title exclusive to the brand.[56][57] TheWWE United Kingdom Championship was unveiled in December 2016 with its inaugural holder determined in January 2017. The title later became the top championship for the United Kingdom-based NXT spinoff, NXT UK, which debuted in mid-2018 and also introduced theNXT UK Women's Championship andNXT UK Tag Team Championship; the WWE United Kingdom Championship was renamed to NXT United Kingdom Championship in January 2020. A secondary title of the NXT brand was also introduced in mid-2018, theNXT North American Championship.
In early 2019, theWWE Women's Tag Team Championship was established to be shared between Raw, SmackDown, and NXT.[58] In May 2019, theWWE 24/7 Championship was established. Defended across all five of WWE's brands, it was open to anyone, regardless of gender or WWE employment status.[59] In October 2019, after NXT's creative team took over 205 Live, the WWE Cruiserweight Championship was renamed to NXT Cruiserweight Championship, with the title shared between 205 Live and NXT, and was later extended to NXT UK in January 2020.[60][61] A secondary title was later introduced for NXT UK called theNXT UK Heritage Cup with its own special stipulations. Subsequently, theNXT Women's Tag Team Championship was created for NXT with the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship becoming only shared between Raw and SmackDown. In January 2022, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was retired after it was unified with the NXT North American Championship. In September 2022, the NXT United Kingdom Championship, the NXT UK Women's Championship, and the NXT UK Tag Team Championship were retired and unified into their respective NXT counterparts after the NXT UK brand went on hiatus (which will relaunch in 2023 as NXT Europe). The NXT UK Heritage Cup was not retired and after months of inactivity, it was transferred to NXT in April 2023 and renamed the NXT Heritage Cup. The 24/7 Championship was also retired in November 2022.
AtWrestleMania 38 in April 2022, SmackDown's Universal ChampionRoman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to win both titles and become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, although both titles retained their individual lineages. Similarly in May 2022, SmackDown Tag Team ChampionsThe Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated Raw Tag Team ChampionsRK-Bro (Randy Orton andRiddle) to win both titles and become the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, although both titles retained their individual lineages;Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn would then win the tag titles atWrestleMania 39; One year later, the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship would finally split atWrestleMania XL in a Six-Pack Ladder Match withA-Town Down Under winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championships andAwesome Truth winning the Raw Tag Team Championships, both of these titles would eventually renamed as theWWE Tag Team Championship andWorld Tag Team Championship respectively and both received new belt designs one week later. Meanwhile, a newWorld Heavyweight Championship was introduced for the brand that did not draft Roman Reigns in the2023 draft, with Reigns keeping his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.[62] SmackDown drafted Reigns, thus the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to Raw.[63] In June 2023, Reigns received a new belt design that represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, he would then finally drop the title toCody Rhodes at Night 2 of WrestleMania XL on April 7, 2024 and the championship was later renamed as the Undisputed WWE Championship. After Rhodes lost toJohn Cena atWrestleMania 41 one year later, WWE officially retired the Universal Championship in favor of continuing the WWE Championship (with the former amended its records by removing Rhodes, recognizing Reigns instead as the final champion and declared April 7, 2024 as the official retirement of its lineage).
Although mostly regarded as a WWE concept, brand extensions have also occurred in other professional wrestling promotions. In the 1990s, then-President ofWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW)Eric Bischoff proposed a brand extension between WCW and the popularNew World Order (nWo) stable, which would have seen the group expand in scope and the production of nWo-branded programming; this concept was scrapped due to budgetary concerns.[64] However, in 1997, an nWo-exclusivepay-per-view,Souled Out, was held. A year later in 1998, WCW began co-branding all of its pay-per-view events under the "WCW/nWo" banner, a practice that continued into 1999.[65]
In the mid-2000s,New Japan Pro-Wrestling introduced a brand extension which divided their roster into two sub-brands: Wrestle Land and Lock Up;[66] around the same period fellow Japanese promotionKaientai Dojo promoted two sub-brands for their roster, Get and Rave. In 2013,AAA launched a brand extension that split their roster into two sub-brands,Evolución andFusión.[67]
A similar concept to WWE's brand extension is currently utilized by the Japanese promotionsCyberFight, which promotes three distinct sub-brands,[68] andGleat, which also promotes three sub-brands.[69][70] Following the acquisition ofRing of Honor (ROH) byAll Elite Wrestling (AEW) founderTony Khan in March 2022, ROH and AEW are operated independently with separate rosters and championships while both are under Khan's ownership.[71][72][73] In 2023, AEW launched a soft brand extension between itsDynamite andCollision programs, which saw select wrestlers featured exclusively on one of the two shows for a select period of time; this was mostly abolished afterCM Punk (who was almost exclusively featured onCollision) was fired for his legitimate backstage incident withJack Perry at that year'sAll In event.[74][75]