Raw Vs. Smackdown or Smackdown Vs. Raw

[LEGEND KILLER]

i wouldnt say there is a full consensus but in terms of wrestling material i think its safe to say most of us would pick Smackdown Vs. Raw. I cant sit down and watch wrestling on a friday night for 2 hours.

Raw has this whole Guest Host thing and althought again a lot of us are annoyed by it WWE is getting what they want out of it which is more mainstream media attention.

Anyways along to my question....

Raw is in the best IMO timeslot for a wrestling show to be in and they have developed us viewers into the mindset that its monday turn on wrestling!

Smackdown has IMO a poor timeslot being that on a friday night.

SOOOOO...let me say this is obviously hypothetical BUT what if they switched Raw and Smackdown?? how would this effect the ratings??? which show would benefit most? How would Raw turn out on fridays? how would smackdown turn out on mondays??

i would personally LOVE to see this develop as a storyline. Have raw guys show up on smackdown tv and smackdown on raw tv proclaiming there show is the real #1. Have this setup a complete 1 month "switch" where the entire raw roster compets on smackdown and vice versa for smackdown on raw.

This would lead to novembers Survivor Series and a set of old school survivor series matchups....

thoughts.............

 

[ghoat]

If they switched RAW and SmackDown, SmackDown would turn into the entertainment show and RAW would become the wrestling show, that's all. Because Monday is the better night for ratings, the Monday night show, whether it is called RAW or SmackDown, will always be scripted to be more about entertainment and bringing in the most viewers. WWE can get away with a more wrestling-based program on Fridays because those who watch wrestling on Fridays are the type of fans who really enjoy watching wrestling.

 

[RawIsRamsey]

It's all about two things: star power and availability.

First, the star power. RAW has all the guys you see pushed to the mainstream, whether it's movies, music, tv shows, guest appearances, etc. They've got Cena, Trips, and Show, who are all notable media stars with their appearances on talk shows and movies. Smackdown, on the other hand, more or less just has Jericho as their mainstream guy (Fozzy, his work on VH-1, various B-level movies). Plus, whenever something big must go down, it's done on RAW, just to cement that THIS is where the stars are...you're not hearing celebs banging down the door to be on Smackdown! (well, unless your name is Freddie Prinze Jr, but that's another story). About the only real "star" power is the Undertaker, but that's wrestling star power, not mainstream star power.

Second is availability. USA is in tens of millions of more homes than MyNetworkTV. More people can catch RAW multiple times a week (various hispanic channels air it several times, there's an NBC HD channel that shows RAW AND ECW twice on Saturdays, A.M. RAW, etc.) whereas you get one shot at catching Smackdown, and that's if the station it's on hasn't preemted it due to a sporting event, sometimes sticking it in an even WORSE time slot (Saturday at 2 PM? No thanks). Sure, Smackdown! is on Hulu now, but we've all seen exactly how much of the audience the internet crowd makes up (about 10%, if even).

So, to answer your question, this kinda move wouldn't really benefit anyone. Smackdown! is still gonna have the same air problems no matter who is on their show, and RAW is always gonna be considered more big league because it's a Monday night institution.

 

[WinstonDeckard]

Haven't they done this before? Actually right around Survivor Series this little "rivalry" gets drudged up year after year it seems. In the end it wouldn't matter because Smackdown is on a shitty network during a shitty timeslot. Even Monday is not without it's problems but as has been said RAW is an institution on Monday's and that's a selling point in and of itself.

 

[HypnotizedHero2010]

i think smackdown being on friday reall hurts its ratings. i watch raw everyweek but i dont watch smackdown everyweek because i'm usually doing something on firday nights. i think moving it to wednesday or thursday would really help the ratings.