Brand Supremacy?

WrestleMania XXIV (I'm soooooo happy that they've returned to the Roman Numerals, by the way) is just around the corner, and as such I plan on posting my predictions at the end of the week, probably Friday or Saturday.

Before I get to that, though, there's one match in particular that makes me scratch my head: Batista vs. Umaga. This match is being billed as Smackdown vs. Raw, respectively, to determine which brand is superior. Normally I wouldn't mind that. I mean, you have a main event face and a main event heel, at relatively the same level on the card, fighting against each other. The only problem is, virtually every single match on the WrestleMania card is Raw vs. Smackdown, or at the very least multi-branded.

You've got Shawn Michaels (of Raw) facing Ric Flair (of Smackdown) in a Career Threatening Match. Then you have Raw's JBL squaring off against Smackdown's Finlay in a Belfast Brawl. Then there's the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, which includes three Raw Superstars (Jericho, Carlito, and Mr. Kennedy), three ECW Superstars (CM Punk, Shelton Benjamin, and John Morrison), and one (or two, depending on what happens) Smackdown Superstar (MVP). Last but not least, we have the 24-Man Battle Royal (including wrestlers from Raw, Smackdown, and ECW) to face Smackdown Superstar (and, ironically enough, ECW Champion) Chavo Guerrero. If you want to get technical, even though the BunnyMania match only includes Raw Divas, women from all three brands will be acting as Lumberjacks.

What makes matters more interesting is that Jerry Lawler explicitly stated that he'll be siding with Umaga, since he's a contracted Raw Superstar. This seems to imply that brand loyalty supercedes the actions that the Superstar commits. Does this mean that Lawler and JR will also be siding with JBL, who savagely attacked a midget, over Finlay, who is merely defending his beaten son?

In fact, there are only TWO matches on the entire card (three if you want to count the BunnyMania one) that consists of Superstars from one brand: The WWE Championship Match (with Randy Orton defending against John Cena and Triple H), and the World Heavyweight Championship Match (which has Edge defending against the Undertaker).

Not to mention the fact that, for the past few weeks, we've seen numerous inter-brand matches on their weekly shows. Last night alone we had Jericho (Raw) teaming with CM Punk (ECW) taking on MVP (Smackdown) and Carlito (Raw), Hardcore Holly (Raw) against The Great Khali (Smackdown), and John Cena (Raw), Triple H (Raw), Shawn Michaels (Raw) and Ric Flair (Smackdown) battling Randy Orton (Raw), JBL (Raw), Umaga (Raw), and The Big Show (Smackdown).

So, my question is: With three Raw vs. Smackdown matches, and two competitions consisting of Superstars from all three brands, what exactly is so special about Batista vs. Umaga? Why is THIS match determining brand supremacy?