When one thinks of booking decisions WWE must make to find success at pleasing fans in the wake of the Roman Reigns Tribal Chief era coming to a close, the usual names come up.

Think Reigns, Cody Rhodes, The Rock, warring factions, WWE drafts and how to navigate the tricky booking waters in a satisfying way.

But believe it or not, the most important booking decision isn't directly tied to those Superstars or storylines.

No, it's more important, yet also basic: Follow the rules.

Rules, above all else, meaning establishing boundaries and sticking to them. The main, critical example is a timely one as WWE undergoes its "draft" to capitalize on the hype of the NFL draft and do a seasonal refresh: enforcing the brand split.

That brand split can be a critical tool for WWE in the way it helps each show carve out an identity around certain top stars. This would rather dramatically help with the oversaturation problem pro wrestling as a whole has right now. If each show feels quite different from the other, it's easier to get fans invested in three different shows per week, never mind PLE events and stuff.

In turn, that would amplify an event that oozes potential but annually disappoints, such as Survivor Series. Having opposing brand styles square off shouldn't be as difficult to pull off as recent years have made it seem.

There's a compounding effect to being so strict about a split too. It shows fans that the draft actually matters and isn't some silly gimmick (like some of the named PLEs). It isn't some afterthought, cheap thing WWE does because it's just that time of year, folks. Not that long ago, fans laughed off a "draft" where a room of cheesy "executives" often "celebrated" after making draft picks—then little came of said decisions.

But imagine a few years from now, after years of actual meaningful implications of brand draft picks, the anticipation that will build when separated Superstars reunite for feuds on the same brand. The sheer fantasy-booking the internet could do of potential feuds, almost like these guys are in different promotions. Heck, it would make things like mock drafts matter, too.

This "follow the rules" approach that could start with the brand split would ripple effect into other areas of the product and presentation, too. In a way, it would help to set this whole "Triple H era" far apart from the past.

Because let's be honest, one of the defining traits of the Vince McMahon era was hearing rumblings that a show's script was ripped up right before the broadcast went live. Or...even that the show was getting rewritten as it aired.

One of the funniest, yet worst, and cringe-inducing examples of this was back in the day when WWE had a "brand split" yet also had the atrocious "Wildcard Rule" that let Superstars ignore the split and appear on other shows anyway. It was poorly thought out, then poorly executed, and did near-permanent damage to splits in WWE outright.

That's an underrated element here to consider. This calming of the waters via an enforced split would mean Superstars given more time to actually prep for defined roles. How much of the McMahon era, especially most recently, saw improv promos and feuds at the last second that were tarnished because there was little prep time? A surefire split could enhance storytelling and characters, giving them room to breathe, both in terms of week-to-week promos and on outright rosters that aren't clogged up because Superstars from other brands show up every week.

But WWE must also follow the rules for another reason—so it can break them.

Stick with it here because yes, we just bemoaned when the brand split rules were broken. But imagine, for a moment, that while every other Superstar on the roster follows these rules and it immerses the fans more in the experience, there are a select few who don't.

Such as say, a heel, executive Rock and his Solo Sikoa-led Bloodline, who run rampant on all rosters at random, taking out Superstars until Roman Reigns returns, effectively as a babyface, to reclaim his Tribal Chief crown.

That sort of storytelling is amplified through a true brand split in the wake of the draft. An "uncontrollable" Bloodline outright sanctioned by an "executive" for Rhodes and even Reigns to combat on a weekly basis suddenly makes all three programs must-see material.

This overarching idea of brand split enforcement requires careful planning and the plotting out of major points for the next six months to a year, yes. But given the long-running storytelling chops of the Triple H era so far, there's little reason to think that will be a problem.

If the split is done right, the rest will follow. And if the split enhances the stories and programming, the fans will be there in droves, perhaps more so than in the recent past.