Vinny discusses the potential direction of WWE in 2019 and why it makes sense in the current environment.

Okay, I might be shooting myself in the foot here.

As this is being published, WWE is about to have another”Superstar Shake-Up” promising new roster alignments for Raw and Smackdown, not to mention a few call-ups of NXT talent. It is advertised as look into the future of the WWE and their coming story lines. While this certainly will be true, I think that WWE have already tipped us off to their plan to combat the growing influence of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and the advent of All Elite Wrestling. I have an idea that I’d rather say it right now.

The WWE in 2019 has started with the women’s division.

Who’s The Man?

WWE's Becky Lynch

Coming out of Wrestlemania (and the Raw and Smackdown after), there isone WWE Women’s Champion and one pair of WWE Women’s Tag Team champions. It has done wonders to organize the large roster and allowed Becky Lynch to maintain significance. This was a challenge as her underdog persona has been thoroughly contradicted. It is also a solution to the problem of title significance that WWE has struggled with in recent years. Even so, this seems counter-intuitive to the WWE’s current split roster system.

But, they don’t seem to care.

Almost immediately after Wrestlemania, the WWE began to tease the crowd with a unification of their two “world” titles, the Universal and WWE championships. As the first show back’s biggest angle, this isn’t a fluke and seems to be setting the stage for definitive champions reigning over the entire WWE in 2019. This rumor even started back when Smackdown/Fox deal was finalized.

The question is, why are they doing this?

The Best in the World

WWE's Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins

With AEW, NJPW, ROH, MLW, Impact and others all promoting shows in the U.S., we’re about to have a lot of supposed world champions running around. The WWE is still the dominant brand globally. The ball is in their court to create the world champion that most fans accept. I think these unifications are an attempt to focus their storytelling and affirm their champions as top dogs. Getting rid of this internal conflict not only could unite fans behind the champion, but will place due pressure on the creative team to pick champions that will truly advance the brand. As rumors spread about a TBS/TNT deal for AEW, wrestling fans could once again see wrestlers being proclaimed as the true world champions… without a WWE logo slapped on them.

This will cut in on WWE’s media coverage and allow for these other champions to show up on talk shows, game shows and whatever other shows have been reserved for John Cena in the last fifteen years or so. Choosing a true brand leader is necessary.

The WWE just might be prepared.