The A Show

[bigmackdaddy]

Raw is looked at as the 'A' show now, but wasn't Smackdown the 'A' show in 2002 and 2003?

[Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill]

Raw has always been the "A show" even at its worst, Raw is still treated by WWE as a bigger deal than Smackdown.

[CH Punk]

While Raw has and will always be the "A show" in WWE's mind (sometimes throwing a bone to Smackdown), Smackdown was called the "A show" during that time period because it was, quality-wise, the better program.

[Mozenrath]

Jan 18, 2013 22:12:46 GMT -5 CH Punk said:

While Raw has and will always be the "A show" in WWE's mind (sometimes throwing a bone to Smackdown), Smackdown was called the "A show" during that time period because it was, quality-wise, the better program.

Not surprising, given that it loaded up the roster with most of the name talent.

[Deleted]

You misheard. People were saying Smackdown was the "A-Train show" during that time.

[Sparkybob]

Well early on they wanted to make smackdown look important so they had some big names on smackdown like Brock, Taker and Vince even. But after the 2010 draft, smackdown has been the B show.

[frogsplash45]

Smackdown was, IMO, the A-Show during the time of Lesnar, Angle, Eddie, etc.

[Nathan Bridger]

No pun intended, but, RAW really got a raw deal in the early years of the draft as it was saddled with some real horrible programming like the infamous necrophilia episode, Triple H's "reign of terror" over the World Heavyweight Championship (which also had to be built up as a legit WWE heavyweight title after so many years of just having ONE WWF champion), and the mismanagement of Goldberg's WWE run, among other things from 2002 through 2004. Plus, RAW showcased a lot of established stars like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin (even though he wasn't wrestling, but was the "sheriff of RAW"), Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Chris Jericho, and so on.

Meanwhile, SmackDown! was more interested in taking guys who had shown potential or were rising stars in the WWE or WCW in the previous few years and pushed them hard, like Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Chavo Guerrero, and JBL coupled with some very popular WWE mainstays like Vince McMahon, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, and the Undertaker. SmackDown! also showcased more pure wrestling on the show whereas RAW was more geared towards the sports entertainment side of things. Not to mention that John Cena got on the map during his SmackDown! tenure, made him a star. I remember during the 2004 draft when he made his first appearance on RAW that there was a huge public clamoring for him to be moved to the red show.

It wasn't until RAW moved back to the USA Network in fall 2005 really that the WWE's focus was really on rebuilding RAW as the flagship show of the company. Oh, sure... SmackDown would win the little interbrand competitions more often than RAW would, but, everyone knew that those were fairly meaningless and if something important was going to happen on WWE TV after 2005, it was going to happen on RAW.

[Welfare Willis]

The last time I can remember WWE pretending Smackdown was even in the same league as Raw was when Smackdown moved to the SyFy network.

[thegame415]

I think the Internet looked at Smackdown as the A show. During that time, WWE did a better job at promoting both shows as about even. They were treated like separate, distinct brands.

I'd say it was in 2004 that Smackdown really became the "B" show. If not then, definitely in 2006.

[Henry Mark]

Jan 19, 2013 1:53:27 GMT -5 thegame415 said:

I think the Internet looked at Smackdown as the A show. During that time, WWE did a better job at promoting both shows as about even. They were treated like separate, distinct brands.

I'd say it was in 2004 that Smackdown really became the "B" show. If not then, definitely in 2006.

I think the Internet did as well, but I'm not positive because I didn't know of message boards, news sites, etc like I do now. I wasn't in the IWC loop back then. I think that's another reason Smackdown isn't on the same level as Raw anymore, the Internet wasn't as useful/commonplace/accessible/etc (whatever you wanna call it) as it is now. It's sometimes hard to not see spoilers about Smackdown tapings, even when you aren't looking for them. They're even posted on WWE's own site when something big happens, and like JR has defended, they acknowledge someone on a news site, message board, Twitter, Facebook, etc will announce a title change/big win, so why not just post it themselves and say "yeah, this happened, watch to see how on Friday night." It seems like I've been a member of these boards forever, and from my profile, even I have only been here since '07. I've been an active wrestling fan my whole life and it wasn't until '07, at the age of 26, that I found a message board about wrestling because I never thought to even look for one.

I think the Internet and the highly active IWC have aided in making Raw the 100%, without a doubt, "A Show" simply because it is live and spoilers can't be posted about it.

[mrbananagrabber]

Unless you're JBL, Smackdown is clearly the B show.

I still often prefer it over Raw, though.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

For an indication that Raw is the main show, look no further than the treatment of their top titles.

Lots of people say that the WWE title is more prestigious. At the moment, that's true, and depending on what lineage you believe you could argue it one of several ways.

As such the WWE title headlines above the heavyweight title.

Except that wasn't always the case.

When the WHC was the big belt on Raw, whenever it was a cross-brand PPV (or at least most of the time), then the WHC would headline.

As soon as the titles swapped brands, suddenly the WWE title was the more important one again.

[crowwreak was WRONG]

Before the split started fading (say, 2007 or so) Smackdown was pretty much the wrestling show while RAW was the Entertainment-heavy show, and Smackdown always seemed to come out on top in brand wars to make it more even in terms of power.

[mikey_editor]

You can edit SmackDown to make it look cleaner. But there is something about the edge of a live show that just works.