10 Times WWE's Smackdown Brand Got Shafted

1. Smackdown Can't See Cena (2011)

Cena Smackdown 2011
WWE.com

So John Cena, inhabitant of Raw for six years running, is randomly selected to Smackdown as the first-hour bombshell of the 2011 draft. Fans on Twitter actually rejoiced, because it meant Cena wouldn't be performing in his stale capacity on Raw anymore, it seemed. The "Ha, you're going to Smackdown!" taunt really says a lot about Smackdown, doesn't it?

But swerve: Cena became the first person (naturally) in the history of the draft's automated "who will it land on" random picker to pop up twice. Sure enough, at the end of Raw, Cena was picked back to his original show, disappointing all of those gleeful social media users.

As stated before, WWE wasn't about to waste their cash cow on what they viewed as the inferior show. Any delusions that Smackdown was on par with Raw should've shattered for good on April 25, 2011.

Contributor
Contributor

Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.