This day in wrestling history is a two for one special as WWE’s Raw and Smackdown left their respective networks on the same day but in different years.
On September 26, 2005, the WWE decided they were ready to move on from their deal with Viacom, ending their five year run on Spike TV to the day.
This was a mixed bag for some as Viacom managed to pull the WWE’s flagship show from USA network, but the timing was bad as they did so at the tail end of the peak of popularity.
With the Monday Night Wars ending shortly after the deal was struck, Spike TV never saw the huge rating USA did as professional wrestling started declining in the public view.
This came when Viacom ended negotiations with the WWE on a new deal earlier that year in March, and NBCUniversal came to an agreement with the WWE a month before they left Spike TV.
Raw would return to their original home beginning in October 2005.
Smackdown leaves the CW Network
Three years later on September 26, 2008, the WWE and the CW came to an agreement to go their separate ways and the CW didn’t renew the show.
This was an interesting time as Smackdown was credited as helping save its original home, UPN, and its ratings weren’t bad but it started dropping from the top spot to seventh in the 18-34 demographic.
The fall came as a result of the CW’s programing having shifted to focus on young women, and that’s a hard niche for professional wrestling as it was to fit into.
It was a big shift for a show that was created to counter WCW Thunder and even forced their competition to move to Wednesday night to avoid the head to head ratings war.
Smackdown would be picked up by MyNetworkTV, but a year later Smackdown was on the move again and found a new home on the SyFy network.
This put it with the rest of WWE’s programming under the NBCUniversal family tree.
It’s the nature of shows and networks to move around, and even the WWE isn’t immune to it. It was one of the cool yet annoying things about it as we’d get used to settling into a single network.
Hope you enjoyed this day in wrestling history two for one special edition. Nothing like following our favorite shows from one home to another.
Which network did you like to see Raw and Smackdown on the most? Let us know in the comments below.
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