>Weaker brand
What? Smackdown was hot at the time and attendance as well as ratings had been going up monthly. They had Cena, Orton, Styles, Dean, Wyatt, Bryan appearances, etc. and were the more favored brand at the time with fans. This was also right after WM leading to Summerslam, which is a hotter period, while Seth's run was mostly in the cooling down period before Mania build starts.
