According to sources, WWE is planning to put a lot of focus on WWE SmackDown when the show moves live to Tuesday nights on July 19th. The plan right now is to try to make SmackDown an “equal brand” with RAW. Part of the reason for the move to Tuesday’s and the upcoming brand split is due to the fact that the USA Network wasn’t very happy with the low ratings numbers for the Thursday night SmackDown timeslot and reportedly wants the show to have the same value as the live Monday night RAW broadcasts. USA Network and WWE executives sat down within the last several weeks to discuss the slumping ratings and the idea was pitched to have SmackDown go live on Tuesday nights. Vince McMahon also decided on another brand split in order to help the show have its own identity so it could be equal to RAW. As you’d expect, USA Network executives were down with the idea..
As of now, John Cena is penciled in for the SmackDown brand in order to help boost its profile.