10 Times WWE Tried To Rejuvenate SmackDown But Failed

7. Winning At Bragging Rights

WWE went through a phase in 2009 that saw them get rid of all of their old original events (Backlash, Judgement Day, No Mercy, etc.) in favour of new ones. The only issue was that these themed shows, which were designed to boost pay-per-view numbers, were much more generic. Bragging Rights was among the fresh batch of shows and, essentially, it was a battle for brand supremacy between Raw and SmackDown. It was an idea that would have worked much more effectively years earlier when the brand split still meant something because, by 2009, fans couldn't have cared less about which brand was better because it was already obvious Raw was superior in more ways than one. The seven-on-seven tag team match that year was hardly memorable outside of Big Show turning on his team to hand SmackDown the victory. Raw and SmackDown went at it yet again the following year, this time with the match being contested under elimination style rules. Instead of giving the flagship show their win back, SmackDown won for the second consecutive year. To answer WWE's question, no, winning a multi-man tag team two years in a row does not in any way make SmackDown the "A-show"; ratings do, and that's something SmackDown clearly didn't have by that point. Thankfully, the concept was dropped the following year when the brand split was quietly done away with.