Raw and SmackDown have been separate entities ever since the 2016 Brand Split and it could be argued that SmackDown was on a hot streak for a good few months, but now it appears that Raw has taken back the mantle as WWE's flagship show.

The past year has seen some huge changes when it comes to the women of WWE and the way that the shows are presented and with FOX set to host SmackDown Live in the near future, there could be more substantial changes which would definitely be a positive right now since SmackDown is obviously having issues keeping up with Raw.

WWE has got a large number of dual brand events coming up which means that sometimes episodes of SmackDown and Raw are being overlooked because the focus is on Super Show-Down or Crown Jewel, so the company are not willing to give away their best ideas on free TV when they could have the WWE Universe pay to watch them on the Network.

Earlier this year, Raw was handed its lowest rating in history, which shows that even the flagship show flounders sometimes and SmackDown hasn't been breaking any records for views this year, so where has the company gone wrong?

The following list looks at just 10 of the biggest booking decisions that have hurt Raw over the past nine months, as well as 10 that have definitely had a lasting effect on SmackDown Live's popularity amongst many members of the WWE Universe. Most of the time, WWE's creative team get many of their booking decisions wrong but it's never the officials who have to deal with the consequences, that burden is handed down to the wrestlers themselves.

20 Raw: Bobby Lashley's Return

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Bobby Lashley made his return to WWE the night after WrestleMania this year and was expected to be pushed into a feud with Brock Lesnar since both men had MMA backgrounds and The Beast had managed to defeat every challenger that WWE had put in his path for more than a year.

Obviously, the match between the two men never materialized and instead, Lashley has been pushed into the same position he was in before he left the company more than a decade ago.

The former ECW World Champion is still hopeful that he is given the match against Lesnar though since he believes that it could be a money spinner for WWE.

19 SmackDown: Asuka's Fall From Dominance

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Asuka was undefeated in WWE for more than a year before she was defeated by Charlotte at WrestleMania 34, and rather than preserve her undefeated streak following WrestleMania, WWE decided to continue to allow Asuka to lose by putting her in a comedy feud with SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella.

Asuka lost back to back matches to Carmella at Money in the Bank and Extreme Rules and the former NXT Women's Champion and first ever Women's Royal Rumble winner is still yet to recover which could be why she's currently teaming with Naomi against The IIconics rather than being the dominating force she once was in the Women's Championship picture.

18 Raw: Braun Strowman Wins MITB Match Against Kevin Owens

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The WWE Universe will agree that the Money in the Bank contract was wasted once again this year as Braun Strowman became just the fifth man to cash in his contract and not win the title. Strowman should have lost the Money in the Bank contract to Kevin Owens so that KO could quit WWE with the contract and be forced back.

Instead, Owens kayfabe quit the company. There was no impact or buzz whatsoever from this announcement so WWE decided to bring him back just a week later as though it never happened. It was one of the strangest booking decisions of the year and one that Owens is still reeling from.

17 SmackDown: Nakamura Comes Up Short In Four WWE Championship Matches

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Shinsuke Nakamura won the men's Royal Rumble match back in January and then chose to face his longtime friend/rival AJ Styles at WrestleMania for the WWE Championship. The match was built up as a friendly rivalry between two babyfaces, but then Nakamura stunningly turned heel after their WrestleMania encounter. That would lead to several more matches between them, with several non-finishes.

Nakamura should have won the title in one of those matches.

Giving him the United States Championship and then failing to book him at Hell in a Cell or at Super Show-Down hasn't helped his credibility in the months that have followed either.

16 Raw: Losing The Cruiserweight Division

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Following Raw 25 back in January, the company rebranded the show with new graphics, a new entrance theme and a lack of Cruiserweight competitors. The decision was made to move the Cruiserweights over to 205 Live and no longer showcase what the WWE Universe could see on the show on a Monday Night.

This added a new dynamic to Raw and most of the time helped fans of the show to catch up on 25 Live's storylines if they had missed the show.  The Cruiserweights have since been moved to Wednesday nights, but there is no plan to bring them back to Raw, which is harsh since the Cruiserweights were something to look forward to in the last hour of the show for more than a year.

15 SmackDown: Maryse Vs Brie Bella

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Daniel Bryan was cleared to return to competition heading into this year's WrestleMania and it was decided that he would move into a feud with The Miz as part of SummerSlam season. Of course, the wives of Miz and Bryan decided to involve themselves in the feud ahead of Hell in a Cell which is why they were given the SmackDown main event a few weeks ago.

It was a bad segment that did very little for either star heading into their mixed tag team match at Hell in a Cell. The match was botchy and Miz and Bryan were left trying to put themselves over from ringside. Maryse and Brie Bella weren't the right choices for the main event spot on SmackDown, unlike Charlotte and Becky Lynch who absolutely excelled when they were given the spotlight.

14 Raw: Braun Strowman's Heel Turn

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Kevin Owens and Braun Strowman feuded for weeks, with WWE putting Braun Strowman over as a babyface, only for WWE to then turn Strowman heel anyway.

While a heel turn makes sense for the storyline he is in against The Shield right now, he will be left as a monster heel in the main event picture after this feud is over and he will still be cheered.

WWE tried to make Strowman the heel against Roman Reigns before and it failed, this experiment is expected to have the same outcome. Strowman was legitimately over as a top babyface and WWE is just going back to the well far too many times here.

13 SmackDown: The 2018 Superstar Shakeup

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The annual draft definitely wasn't in SmackDown's favor this year, since they lost the likes of The Miz, Natalya, Dolph Ziggler, Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode to Monday Night Raw and were unable to claim any stars with the same kind of popularity.

WWE has always put an emphasis on Raw, but AJ Styles has been pushing for SmackDown for more than two years now and he is the only real star power that the brand has, which is why the ratings continue to drop. He needs some help over on SmackDown and whilst The Shield members are all on Raw, it will always be seen as the flagship show.

12 Raw: Early Money In The Bank Cash-In

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The Money in the Bank contract has always been something that added excitement to Championship matches since the WWE Universe could never be too sure when it was going to be cashed in.

This year the company presented dual branded ladder matches and both winners were from Raw.

Alexa Bliss cashed in her contract on the same night to win the Raw Women's Championship, a title that she has now lost, while Braun cashed his in at Hell in a Cell and was unable to lift the title. It is now as though Money in the Bank never happened since neither winner is a champion and the contracts have already been cashed in just two months after the pay-per-view.

11 SmackDown: Ignoring Rusev's Popularity

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It's potentially the worst thing WWE has done over the past year since they blatantly ignored how popular Rusev and Aiden English were as a team and then refused to give them the tag team Championships. Aiden has since turned on Rusev and now they are expected to feud against each other, which will show just how popular Rusev remains with the WWE Universe.

WWE didn't want Rusev to be a face or a contender for any Championship which is why the company has ignored his popularity over the past few months, only once allowing him to challenge for the WWE Championship, which was another match that he lost.

10 Raw: The Nia Jax Problem

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Ronda Rousey was one of the best acquisitions that WWE has ever made, but the company obviously didn't think of the impact her arrival would have on the women currently contracted to Raw.

Before Rousey made her debut, Nia Jax was billed as the Irresistible Force and was pushed as a monster, before she was grounded by Rousey at Money in the Bank.

Jax has missed a lot of TV time since Money in the Bank and only recently returned as part of a tag team match alongside Ember Moon. Having both Jax and Rousey on the same roster is definitely going to lead to a number of creative problems in the coming months.

9 SmackDown: "Creative Has Nothing" For The Bar

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Cesaro and Sheamus have been two of the most dominant and consistent singles stars in WWE over the past few years and are now former SmackDown and Raw Tag Team Champions, but somehow when The Bludgeon Brothers became Champions, the company was unable to find anything creative for them to do.

This meant that Cesaro and Sheamus were kept off WWE TV for around two months and only recently returned to challenge The New Day in Australia. Is WWE's roster so big now that many of their seasoned stars are being overlooked? Since SmackDown doesn't have a lot of star power, to begin with, this was a terrible decision by the creative team.

8 Raw: What Happened Between Sasha & Bayley?

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This is a question that many of the WWE Universe is still asking right now, Sasha and Bayley had a few issues earlier this year, they were then sent to therapy after it was made obvious that they no longer liked each other and now they're a tag team again.

There was never any reason given as to why the two women were suddenly able to get back on the same page, but it seems to have been working well for the two women who many believed were being pushed as the first ever Women's Tag Team Champions, but Sasha's recent injury will definitely have put that speculation in doubt.

7 SmackDown: Turning Becky Lynch Heel, Keeping Charlotte Face

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Becky Lynch is been one of the most relatable women's wrestlers in WWE ever since she was in NXT, she's the only member of the Four Horsewomen who isn't a former NXT Women's Champion and has been overlooked throughout her career, which is why when she was turned heel, the WWE Universe refused to jeer.

Lynch hasn't been handed her Championship reigns like Sasha and Charlotte who exchanged the Raw Women's title a number of times throughout their feud.

Becky Lynch is a fantastic wrestler and the crowd unsurprisingly took her side in her feud with Charlotte. Charlotte has always worked far better as a heel, and despite being the heel, Becky seemed justified in her actions.

6 Raw: The Revival Losing Their Tag Team Championship Shot

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The Revival gained a Tag Team Championship fair and square and since they were one of the best tag teams down in NXT at one point, they should have been given the match against The B-Team rather than being attacked by Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler backstage.

The latter has since become Tag Team Champions and whilst WWE have somewhat rectified the situation by giving them a second title shot, the fact remains that the match shouldn't have been taken away in such a cheap manner. This is another fine example of how WWE seems to favor the teams they put together rather than experienced tag teams on the main roster.

5 SmackDown: Overlooking Luke Gallows And Karl Anderson

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As with the above entry, WWE doesn't seem to put a lot of emphasis on their Tag Team Division anymore, since there are a number of teams that have been put together in recent months and the company prefers to push them towards the titles.

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson could have been legitimate threats to the Tag Team Championship picture with The Bludgeon Brothers but instead, they had a feud that lasted a few weeks and hasn't been given a shot since. The duo wasn't even able to win the Tag Team Championship tournament in recent weeks, instead, it was Rusev Day who came out on top, when The Club has much more experience as a team.

4 Raw: Baron Corbin As Acting Raw General Manager

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It was definitely no accident that Baron Corbin became acting General Manager the same week that The Shield reunited.

WWE knows that The Shield work better against The Authority and Kurt Angle was a face and had teamed with them before, so giving Baron power was the best option.

That being said, Corbin putting himself into Universal Championship matches in the main event of Raw is definitely dwindling fan interest.

At some point, Stephanie McMahon will have to return and take the power away from him, but right now it doesn't seem to be working out very well for Corbin since The Shield continues to foil all of his plans.

3 SmackDown: Jeff Hardy's Stint As United States Champion

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Jeff Hardy was only really given the United States Championship so that he could take it over to SmackDown Live with him since it was a forgettable reign as Champion. Hardy is a former World Champion and he deserved much better from the booking team especially since he lost the title so cheaply at Extreme Rules to Shinsuke Nakamura.

While his reign was riddled with doubt since he was reportedly struggling with a number of nagging injuries, Hardy was recently able to step inside Hell in a Cell, which no one should do at less than a hundred percent. Perhaps it would've been better for the U.S. title to go to a younger talent.

2 Raw: Universal Championship Booking

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Brock Lesnar held the Universal Championship for more than a year before he was defeated by Roman Reigns at SummerSlam and for some reason, Reigns was the only man who was allowed to face him between WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

Lesnar was rarely available which meant that there were main events at a number of pay-per-views that weren't even for championships.

WWE allowed this because they wanted Lesnar to be a draw so the matches were much bigger when he was part of them, but it affected the pay-per-views that he wasn't part of since there was no main Championship in the main event.

1 SmackDown: Dual Brand Pay-Per-Views

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Following this year's WrestleMania, WWE made the decision to make all pay-per-views dual branded moving forward, which is why the WWE Championship hasn't main evented a dual brand pay-per-view in more than two years.

AJ Styles has held the title for almost a year and has been unable to push himself into the main event ahead of the likes of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar since WWE sees the Universal Championship as a bigger title despite it lacking decades of prestige. This could also be the main reason why SmackDown has been struggling over the past year since WWE seemingly has no faith in the WWE Champion.