Saffron and Sage

Why they did the brand split: They did it in 2001 after buying WCW and all their talent and having too many characters for one show. It was a big success for a while, because blah blah blah.

Why it sucked: Okay. You can write books about why wrestling writing sucks. People have! (Amazon referral link alert! Death of WCW is legit one of my favorite books, though, WCW was surreal).

WWE’s biggest successes came at a time when all involved were doing ashitload of drugs.

(WWF had a steroid scandal around this time, surprising literally no one)

Also, it’s comically political (wrestlers get popular when they win. For another wrestler to win, another wrestler must lose. Wrestlers who become stars become millionaires. This is not a formula for friendly co-operation) and all the writers have no training except doing wrestling for decades..

Imagine if Dave Willis, Aaron Diaz, Tatsuya Ishida, and Ryan Sohmer decided to pump out a series of crossover graphic novels at a rapid pace, except they were all on drugs at literally all times, hated each other, and wanted to destroy each other’s careers while making themselves and their characters look awesome. And occasionally someone would literally shit in someone else’s hat. That’s how wrestling has traditionally worked, and this is why I find it so fascinating. WWE is also infamously vindictive of anyone they don’t like, or anyone who gets popular without their permission.

Zack Ryder did, on his own, a YouTube show that was a bit of a hit, and made him the most popular wrestler in WWE even though he wasn’t “supposed” to be popular. This is how his character started getting written shortly thereafter. If you’re wondering how you do this stunt safely, the answer is “Fuck you, Zack Ryder”. It was years before he started showing up on Raw in any capacity. Dolph Ziggler was also subject to a bit of this, but not to the same extent. WWE is scummy. 
Modern WWE isn’t quite so insane, but it’s pretty insane. For example, last Tuesday was the first live episode of Smackdown (the other big gimmick they’re doing). The big hook of the episode was the “draft”, in which the storyline owners of the two shows would pick out wrestlers for their shows. The live show started at 8pm. The writers figured out who was on which show at 7:30. This meant that all the wrestlers found out what show they were on in real life at the same time their characters did.

Why is there no tag team or women’s title belt on Smackdown even though there’s a tag team and women’s division? I think the honest answer is literally “they forgot”. They’re making this shit up as they go, and it really shows at times.