By Rick Gardner, PWTorch Specialist

Smackdown moved home from The CW Network to My Network TV this week. Due to the WWE's domination over its rivals, Smackdown has remained the second most popular wrestling show in North America since its inception in 1999, despite several changes of network. Nevertheless, the move comes at a time when domestic interest in the WWE product is in severe decline, and could have wider implications for a company that is struggling to find solutions to a whole host of problems.

Smackdown has never had the benefit of the sustained network backing that Raw has had. Commissioned on the back of the late 90s wrestling boom, Smackdown was a massive success, regularly drawing ratings of 5.0 and above through 1999 and 2000. But as wrestling's popularity began to fade, so did the ratings of Smackdown along with the faith that the network executives once had in the show. 2005 saw Smackdown move timeslots twice, amid speculation that the show would be cancelled by UPN.

In contrast to the turmoil involving the WWE on UPN, Raw received massive promotion upon its return to the USA network from Spike TV in autumn 2005, culminating in a three hour star-studded "Homecoming" show. With Smackdown struggling, Raw Homecoming featured a loaded card of stars that wouldn't be seen dead on the UPN show, announcing a new boom in popularity for the WWE. A boom that never came.

Smackdown's ratings are at a similar level to what they were in 2005, and a move to My Network TV, which has a lower profile than The CW Network will surely result in the loss of viewers who don't have My Network, or simply do not have the motivation to find it. To combat this decline, the WWE sought to remedy the lopsided roster split by moving some of Raw's more popular stars, such as Triple H, Jeff Hardy and JR, to Smackdown in the WWE draft. However, these moves have had a negligible impact on the ratings, and are unlikely to stop further viewer attrition due to the change.

The second course of action that the WWE took to increase awareness of the move to My Network TV was to broadcast matches from Wrestlemania 24 on Thursday. Granted, it wasn't the entire card as WWE implied it would be, but DVD sales were surely sacrificed by broadcasting two of the event's key matches on network television.

Thirdly, the WWE made sure that the first Smackdown on My Network was a loaded card. Not quite in the same way that Raw Homecoming was; there were no appearances by Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin, but there were several inter-brand matches featuring champions competing against one another. 

It is impossible to say exactly how the move to My Network TV will impact WWE Smackdown. There will surely be a slight decline initially as viewers get used to the new network, and if the ratings subsequently recover then all will be well. However, there is already concern about Raw's audience decreasing to the worst level in eleven years, and there will be further alarm if Smackdown suffers a significant viewership decline. If this were to happen, then surely the WWE would give some consideration to merging the Raw, Smackdown and ECW rosters.

If you think that the WWE ending the brand extension is farfetched then consider this; when the buy rates for the Smackdown brand Pay per Views reached embarrassingly low levels, the WWE responded by featuring all three brands at every pay-per-view. The WWE's reaction to Raws sagging ratings is to feature stars from other brands, such as Triple H, Evan Bourne and Miz and Morrison.  This raises the expectations of the fans, and if the WWE continues to mix the brands in this way then any show without all the big stars will feel anti-climactic.

Whether the brand extension should be ended or not is open for debate, and discussion on the subject merits an entire column of its own. Smackdown's move to My Network TV could prove to be one of the biggest tests of WWE's three brand model yet, as a dramatic decline in ratings would encourage the WWE to bring in wrestlers from other brands more regularly. Whether or not the brand extension can survive this approach remains to be seen.

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt