As noted before, Vince McMahon announced a new “Wild Card” rule for the RAW and SmackDown Live brands earlier this week, allowing up to four wrestlers to appear on the other brand’s show each week.
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that the reason for this new rule was due to recent pressure that WWE was feeling from both NBC Universal (parent company of USA Network) and FOX. It was reported that both networks have recently been pushing for more star power to be available for their respective brands in response to WWE’s current ratings and viewership struggles. Vince McMahon reportedly does not want to end the brand split anytime soon, so this was a compromise.
In regards to possible issues with the new Wild Card rule, there is a strong possibility for a rise in false advertisements to occur with live events, since SmackDown typically runs house shows on Monday nights. With the way WWE operates creatively these days, these weekly Wild Card appearances likely will not be planned out ahead too far in advance, so it is very likely that more stars will be pulled from live events at the last minute despite being locally advertised for shows for weeks or even up to months in advance.
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