10 Decisions That Helped Kill WWE Raw's Ratings

By 2002, WWE had realized that there was a huge business dropoff after the death of WCW, and that maybe competition was really best for business. That fact, combined with a bloated roster following the company's purchase, led WWE to create the brand split. Raw and SmackDown would now have different talent and be run as different promotions in the interest of simulating competition.

SmackDown drew universal praise in the early days of the split, but Raw soon got a reputation as Triple H's personal playground. 'The Game' was declared the first World Heavyweight Champion, and from September of 2002 to March of 2005, he would hold the title five times. During that time, he squashed all of the popular babyfaces on the show, made the hot heels into underlings in his Evolution stable, and cut a ton of really long promos.

For those two-and-a-half years, the formula was always the same. Even when Chris Benoit was champion in 2004, Triple H headlined more shows. Fans simply got tired of 'The Game', and viewership steadily eroded during the period. In 2005, when he lost the title to Batista and took a leave of absence, there was something of a rebound.