For those who view Raw and Smackdown regularly, surely by now you must have asked yourself whether Smackdown is even relevant to WWE television anymore. When the split was originally made, it was to give those of the younger audience the illusion that there were 2 separate rosters or 2 separate brands, even 2 separate companies who were competing with each other. I think this was done for 2 reasons and no, neither of them has anything to do with allowing wrestlers to have more TV time. How could it be? There was still the same amount of time available on both shows and most of it was taken up by the main eventers. If anything, it was done to give more main eventers TV time, because since Raw main eventers could not be on Smackdown and vice versa, it meant each show could have a different main event fued that was the focus of it, with the main eventers not having to share a show anymore. Anyway, to the 2 reasons of the split.
1/ It was done to give the idea that there is still some competition in wrestling. Ever since the elimination of WCW and ECW, many had said that the WWE product was getting worse due to a lack of competition. A split with brands supposedly 'competing' against each other would bring back that [much loved by fans] element of 2 wrestling 'companies' competing with each other head to head. This would get more ratings, hence make Vince more money.
2/ Vince likes American football and he likes the idea of transfers and drafts. He even tried to start his own American football league, the XFL, but it simply could not compete with the NFL. With Raw and Smackdown, wrestlers could make shock transfers and be drafted over and over, making it more exciting. American football drafts are popular and give people in American something to talk about, so the hope was that they would get drawn in to wrestling transfers and drafts as well. Simply put, if the product is more exciting then it get more viewers and obviously makes Vince more money [that really seems to be the underlining factor].
Now though, ever since the announcement a while ago about Raw wrestlers being able to wrestle on Smackdown and vice versa, the split idea seems irrelevant. Apparently there is no split these days, but 2 world championships still exist. The roster split [or no split] mess is not my issue in this topic though, it's Smackdown. Why is it that wrestlers are allowed on both shows, yet it is only on Raw where we see guys from both brands. It's like Smackdown is for some wrestlers, then Raw is for others, but Smackdown guys are invited to join in. Watching the 2 shows you will have noticed that there are certain Raw wrestlers that are never on Smackdown. The WWE title never makes an appearance on Smackdown either. The World Heavyweight title, on the other hand, is on Raw almost every week. Not only that, but Smackdown often re-caps Raw. Sometimes wrestlers even re-cap it. There was a segment a few weeks ago with The Miz, in the ring on Smackdown, talking about stuff that is happening on Raw and hyping it. Imagine that. A wrestler, rather than discussing himself, as a good heel should, is discussing a lame, non wrestling related story line that is currently being played out on Raw. Add to this that Raw is now 3 hours and can now fit a lot more in to the show, Smackdown seems even more needless.
I think the fact that Raw was always [well almost always] a live show has hindered Smackdown from the beginning. When there was no split, Smackdown had a reason to be around as it was a continuation of storylines and always the last show [not including Heat] before a PPV. It was the last opportunity to advance all the fueds going on and hype the PPV in a few days. Even after the roster split, Smackdown did seem like it was on a level playing field with Raw. In fact there were even times when Smackdown was better than Raw, when Raw was practically the Triple H show while Smackdown had great wrestlers like Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar and Edge, putting on great wrestling matches and generally making Smackdown more than watchable. Now it just seems like Smackdown rolls around every week and the people at the WWE think 'uh, time to think something up for this taping.' Given the current state of it, I really would not be surprised if they either turned Smackdown in to a 1 hour show of less relevance, just there to re-cap what is going on and perhaps have a few unimportant matches, or simply got rid of it. 'The Rock's show has had a nice run for many years, but it might be time to put it to bed, sad as it might be.
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