WWE’s New ‘Wild Card Rule’ Explained

[Kemo]

In their latest attempt to keep the ratings of both Raw and SmackDown Live floating, WWE introduced a new ‘Wild Card Rule’ on this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw. The rule allows for 3 Superstars to make one-off appearances on shows they are not a part of.

For example, last night’s Raw saw [authorized] appearances by SmackDown Live stars Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston.

However, the restrictions for this rule were explained very vaguely at best. Just two hours into the broadcast, the Wild Card Rule was violated with the appearance of SmackDown Live Superstars Lars Sullivan and Shane McMahon.

The WWE website published an article attempting to make sense of it all. The latest wrinkle is that Superstars who make unauthorized Wild Card Rule appearances will be penalized. The article states:

“Mr. McMahon announced a new ‘Wild Card Rule’ in which a limited number of Superstars from Raw or SmackDown would be invited to cross brand lines for one-night-only appearances, with unauthorized jumps to be penalized by fines or even potential firing.’

Though the company mentions that this doesn’t mean that they are going back to the days of Raw Supershows or doing away with the Brand Extension.

The current implementation of this rule makes it look like another last-minute addition to the script to explain the appearance of SmackDown Stars on the Red brand. It appears that they are still figuring out the regulations for the same.

It’d be interesting to see if some Raw Stars show up on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live too and how this new setting impacts the current WWE Programming in the long run.

[TKO]

Stupid