What if Smackdown never moved?

[Super Crazy]

As all the WWE fans know, Smackdown originally aired on Thursday nights. They ran on this day for approximately six years. Also, as we know, around the time of Smackdown's move to Friday's TNA Impact had made it's television debut.

Now , for a brief period of time, Smackdown was on Thursdays while Impact remained on Fridays. My logic here is that had Smackdown stayed on Thursdays, would Impact be where they are today? Let's say Smackdown continued to run on Thursdays, even to this day and produced excellent wrestling programs through and through. Would be seeing Impact competing with Raw right now or would they be competing with Smackdown?

I know this doesn't seem like very much, but personally, I feel if Smackdown had of stayed on Thursdays, that when Impact finally began to air on Thursdays, they would have been competing with another rather then Impact just directly shifting gears to Raw.

Another way to see it from the TNA standpoint would be that Impact would have gotten a taste earlier on of going head to head with the WWE. Instead of just instantly jumping over to Mondays to compete with Raw, they could have first tried to topple the blue brand and possibly become a " dominant " wrestling program for Thursday nights.

So what do you think? If Smackdown had stayed on Thursday nights for all this time, would Impact be any different? Would they even be competing with Raw or still on Thursdays facing a ratings battle with Smackdown?

 

[Mitch Henessey]

No matter what day Impact was on, I think they would've eventually went against Raw no matter what. TNA's goal is to be #1 in the wrestling world, and the only way you can do that is by going up against WWE's flagship show, Raw. Now there's a chance Impact could've beaten Smackdown in a ratings war because it is WWE's B show, but I don't think it TNA would've blown the blue brand away. The ratings would've been close.

Engaging in a ratings war with Smackdown could've helped TNA because it could've shown everyone that they could hang with the #1 company. This could've caused TNA to become THE show on thursday nights, and would've gave them a little boost, but eventually they would have to go head to head with Raw if they want to make a real statement. Again, Smackdown is WWE's B show, and even if TNA would've succeeded in a ratings war with them, they still would not have sent the message that they wanted to send. TNA wants to be #1, so in order to do that, they have to try and compete with WWE's A show.

 

[Nev]

Hmm...

Smackdown around 2005, was producing ratings equivalent to RAW, sometimes even better. Smackdown was not awful around, and before, the time it moved to Fridays. If SD! stayed on Thursdays, it would be considered competition, yeah, but it wouldn't even really be considered a war unless SD! back then was pulling the ratings it's doing today.

Had SD! stayed on Thursday and never moved? Maybe we would be seeing different ratings for TNA today, as in an upgrade over its underachieving 1.0 average. I still think SD! collapsed in the ratings due to poor booking, lack of any stars besides Batista and Taker, and the movement to Fridays. I think if SD! stayed on Thursdays and TNA never aired on SpikeTV on Thursdays, smackdown would have still drawn very poor ratings right now. If TNA was airing on Spike back then, I doubt there would be any difference in terms of how fast, or how low SD! dropped. Maybe TNA ratings would have found itself increasing because of how piss poor Smackdown eventually became, or then again -- TNA's ratings would have started out awful at first because of how strong SD! was back then, lol. Pretty fun to think about.

I still remember how fans would say 'if TNA was a 2-hour show, they would be pulling ratings just as good as the WWE's'. Or how 'Angle would take TNA to the next level'. Good times. All of that hype was bull, it's about time the damn company took some risks and had compete one-on-one with RAW.

 

[WWE Manster03]

I think Smackdown moving to Friday's might of blinded TNA a bit. They were the only dog on the block on Thursday and they assumed that to get the biggest ratings they would HAVE to move to Monday and go toe to toe with RAW. If Smackdown stayed on Thursday or was on Friday on a BETTER network, I think TNA might of planned the shift to Mondays a bit better, because Smackdown would have MUCH better ratings if they had a better network showing their program

 

[Tastycles]

Moving Smackdown to Fridays hurt the show. The show only drew 3.1 on one more occasion, after Eddie died, having easily topped that rating for most of 2005 until the move. Losing Cena didn't help matters, admittedly, but it was the slot that affected it so negatively. Being on Thursday has taken Impact from a show drawing 0.2 on a Friday night to being a legitimate competitor in the space of 5 years. If Smackdown had never moved, TNA would have probably just aired on a Wednesday, but assuming TNA's schedule had never changed, then TNA would never have become the force it has without Smackdown's move.

 

[Schizophrenic]

I think the two biggest things effecting SmackDown right now is the move to Friday and the fact that it's taped. People on this very forum have said the main reason they don't watch is because it's taped and they can read the results (Friday was an issue as well but not as much as spoilers). This leads me to wonder if RAW was taped would it be getting the same amount of viewers or would it be doing SmackDown numbers since MANY praise SmackDown as being the better show of the two.

Had SmackDown not changed and stayed on Thursdays I still feel they would be doing similar numbers but not much more since it's still taped. We would also probably have seen TNA try to compete with SmackDown first, get their feet wet, let their presence be known then once they were able to get past the ratings of SmackDown they would try to go after RAW. But that's just how I think they would have done it. Can't for sure tell you.

 

[ExPeRiEnCe KhAoS]

No matter what day Impact was on, I think they would've eventually went against Raw no matter what. TNA's goal is to be #1 in the wrestling world, and the only way you can do that is by going up against WWE's flagship show, Raw. Now there's a chance Impact could've beaten Smackdown in a ratings war because it is WWE's B show, but I don't think it TNA would've blown the blue brand away. The ratings would've been close.

Ditto. It's almost like you read my thoughts. If TNA wanted to get noticed, they would have went up against RAW either way, because
1. That's the Flagship Show
2. Vinnie Mac shows the most activity on RAW.
Smackdown has some good feuds, but RAW is always going to be the point of interest. Hulk always wanted to go against RAW, plain and simple. Not much more to say than what HHHKing said, he puts things good.