10 Reasons WWE Raw Will Never Be The Same Again
7. Because SmackDown's Where The Money Is
For decades - decades, two of them - SmackDown was the undisputed B-show.
People that had been close to Vince McMahon over the years admitted it when pushed - he saw competition between the shows even when the audience didn't, and always favoured his 1993 baby live on Monday Nights over the once-fruitful secondary show getting taped and bouncing around the schedule.
It didn't even change in 2016 when USA Network converted the blue brand into SmackDown Live in line with creative reinvestment in the show. It remained 'The B-Show', and was occasionally beloved because of that, but McMahon wasn't for turning. Not until Fox dropped one billion dollars on it anyway.
Raw's not stood even half a chance since. Every draft, shake-up or randomly-invented superstar swapper will always favour Friday nights, even if McMahon does his best kissy face towards the Network that has propped his product up for the bulk of its existence.
SmackDown was a recap/rematch show for so many years in the early 2010s that it became hard to name individual memorable moments that happened over 52 weeks at a time. WWE technically can't afford Raw to fall into a similar pattern, but it's never felt closer to it.