10 Times WWE's Smackdown Brand Got Shafted
The B-show has lived up to that billing.
The original idea behind the WWE brand extension was to create two separate, yet ostensibly equal, rosters and shows. When Smackdown in 2002 surged ahead in terms of match and story quality, it was reported that WWE still viewed Raw as the primary brand.
Sure, it was better for broadcasting the fall-out from Sunday pay-per-views, but as WWE rolled through 2004, it grew much clearer just how much WWE valued their red-tinted show.
Smackdown was a good show to watch if you wanted a wrestling show with less BS. Certainly, they've been incubated from crappy guest hosts, but gradually, important storylines became more of Raw's domain. Any good idea within the company would be couriered to Mondays, leaving Smackdown increasingly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Looking through the timeline of the split brand era, it's amazing how many times Smackdown was shortchanged by design, or rendered a bit more obsolete through other decisions. It's hard to nail down an exact moment when WWE just said, "Screw it, we're going to be putting less resources into it", but it looks like something that became much easier to do over time.
Just how soon WWE resorts to the same disparity in the upcoming split remains to be seen.
10. The Rock Spends More Time On Raw (2003)
If you've seen the 2002 Draft, you know that Vince McMahon's Smackdown had the first pick, and that selection was The Rock. Makes sense, given his lofty status. Shame that over the next year (and pretty much forever after that), Smackdown was a brand he generally avoided.
Other than two months in the summer of 2002 working main events and reigning as WWE Champion, Rock would spend more time filming blockbusters than visiting his designated home.
Upon completing The Rundown in late 2002, Rock's appearances for the next four months were mostly on Raw, where he feuded with Stone Cold and Goldberg. In his sparing appearances since (particularly 2011 through today), Rock's time on Raw has grossly outnumbered his time appearing on Smackdown, the show named for one of his catchphrases.
It makes sense to display your biggest star on the A-show, but that shows what Smackdown truly was: the perceived B-show.