Could SmackDown Live Become The Flagship Show Of WWE?
By Josh Raibick
Ever since WWE SmackDown Live was introduced to the WWE Universe, the show has played second fiddle to WWE Raw on Monday nights. In the past six weeks though, a few key acquisitions from Raw and an agreement to move to Fox in October 2019 begs the question, could SmackDown Live become the new flagship show of WWE?
First we have to talk about the big move that would potentially pay WWE in the ball park of 1 billion dollars for Fox to acquire the rights of SmackDown Live. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox is committing over 3 billion dollars for the rights to Thursday Night Football, which paired with SmackDown Live are two huge acquisitions of live television.
While not all the details have been released, it does appear that SmackDown Live is intended to air on Fox and not FS1. If this is the case, then SmackDown Live is going to be in front of more potential eye balls than Raw and needs to be treated as a priority.
Now maybe Raw also becomes an addition to the Fox family and both SmackDown Live and Raw will air on Fox, in which case Raw would still be king. As of now I am going to treat this hypothetical as if Raw will stay on the USA Network.
If Raw is on USA, being advertised during commercial breaks of Chrisley Knows Best, and SmackDown Live is being advertised during NFL games on Fox, which is the more valuable advertising slot? WWE will want their best superstars and most intense storylines to be what is advertised to millions of football fans on Sundays.
Speaking of big name superstars, think about the performers who have been on Raw exclusively since the WWE Draft in 2016. Names that include: Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Brock Lesnar, Sasha Banks, and Bayley.
While a move to Fox for SmackDown Live is still a year and a half away, is it possible for the majority of superstars previously mentioned to stay on Raw? All the previous names on Raw have already been on Monday nights for around two years, by the time SmackDown Live makes the move to Fox, that would make it three and a half years.
At a certain point, moving the same superstars back and forth between brands, and having to wait a year for a mass NXT call up can only shake up the roster so much. Big superstars are going to be due to move next year, and my bet is that half the names listed above will make the move to the Blue Brand.
Then there is the argument that SmackDown Live will have to give up some big names as well, which is true. But remember, the top superstars that are on Raw now are looked at by certain members of WWE Management as the most marketable the company has, and if they move to SmackDown Live it would be evidence that the company is making the Blue Brand the top priority.
A scenario where Raw stays at three hours and SmackDown Live stays at two hours is only a minor concern. One of the big reasons why SmackDown Live has felt like the better show for the majority of the brand split is that there is less fluff on Tuesday nights (potentially Friday nights after the move) than Monday nights because of the extra hour Raw has to fill.
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So SmackDown Live as of this moment has an agreement to a big TV deal on a major network, a few major faces of the company should be due to switch brands in the next year, and all around is a better quality of show than what is produced on Mondays. If Raw stays put on the USA Network, then it won’t be a question of “Can Smackdown Live overtake Raw?” it will be a statement that “SmackDown Live has surpassed Raw as the flagship show of WWE.”