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WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Wrestling Entertainment promoted its core business of professional wrestling through two "brands" (that were intended to operate on television as scripted independent branches of the company) named after their two major television shows ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'' until the August 29, 2011 episode of ''Raw'' when WWE chief operating officer Triple H announced that ''Raw'' would also feature ''SmackDown'' stars on a full-time basis. A similar announcement regarding ''Raw'' wrestlers on ''SmackDown'' was made later that week. Since the establishment of the "supershow" format, all televised events and house show cards have featured the entire WWE roster, thus effectively dissolving the brand extension. As a result, the yearly draft (which had taken place since 2004) was also discontinued.〔http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/The_Undertaker_Possibly_Returning_To_Television_Soon_Reason_For_McMahon_s_Return.html〕 WWE explained that their decision to end the brand extension was due to wanting their content to flow across TV and online platforms.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_68058.shtml )〕 ==Overview== Upon the completion of the Monday Night Wars in 2001, a rivalry between promotions: World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the WWF, the latter company emerged victorious. 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. The sales had left WWF as the sole wrestling promotion in the world with international TV distribution (until the national expansion of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor in 2002). 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''. Ironically, the original plan was to relaunch 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 find a time slot on TNN (now Spike TV) for two hours on Saturday night (plans originally called for the 90 minute timeslot ahead of Raw that was to begin in May 2001).〔http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2001/2001_03_23.jsp〕 Also, ''WCW Monday Nitro'' was to air directly opposite ''Raw'' on the USA Network, whereas ''WCW Thunder'' would run opposite ''SmackDown'' on NBC as well as ECW to also air on Saturday nights on TNN (see below). These plans were eventually scrapped due to WCW's reputation of losing money (The Saturday night timeslot would eventually be given to ''WWF Excess'' and later, ''WWE Velocity'' and ''WWE Confidential''). After failing to secure a television timeslot, another method was for WCW to take over ''Raw'' or ''SmackDown'' and use the show to recreate its WCW counterparts, ''Nitro'' or ''Thunder''. This experiment was first made on July 2, 2001 edition of Raw in Tacoma, Washington when the final 20 minutes was given to WCW, in which the Raw crew was largely replaced (with Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson doing commentary, as well as a major stage overhaul). The audience in the Tacoma Dome, however, did not hold the WCW segment in high regard, especially when WWF wrestlers Kurt Angle and Stone Cold Steve Austin interfered at the end of a match between Buff Bagwell and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T. With WWF focused on splitting its roster and plans for both WCW brand and timeslot scrapped, the infamous Invasion storyline was used as a second resort. Because of the early termination of the storyline after the 2001 Survivor Series, the WWF executed their alternate plan, which was to separate the two shows themselves: previously, wrestlers appeared on both ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'', but with this extension, wrestlers would be exclusive to only one show. Only the WWF Undisputed Champion and the WWF Women's Champion were exempt and could appear on both shows. The extension officially started on March 25, 2002 with a draft on ''Raw''. On June 13, 2006, after a reunion PPV and video releases, WWE announced an addition to its prime time programming with ''ECW on Sci-Fi''. The new ECW 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 a draft lottery. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WWE Brand Extension」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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