When the second ever brand split occurred just after WrestleMania 32, the landscape of the WWE looked a whole lot different to what it does now.

The general consensus at the time leaned towards SmackDown Live being the stronger show against the company's baby, Monday Night Raw.

SmackDown had a lot of the superstars that the older, hardcore audience appreciated. Stars like AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose and even Daniel Bryan as commissioner had been over with the crowd previously, and then the likes of Alexa Bliss and The Miz flourished so much on SmackDown, Raw would pinch them during the superstar shakeup after WrestleMania 33.

The return of John Cena in 2016 even saw the Blue Brand beat Raw in the ratings that week.

However, since the turn of 2017, it seems as though SD Live and Raw have been trending in opposite directions.

Jinder Mahal is the WWE champion and reigns atop of Tuesday nights while the likes of Kevin Owens and Styles have found themselves contending in the mid-card.

An e-mail the WWE has sent out to WWE Network consumers for their forthcoming house shows suggest that the formula that has been dragging the brand down doesn't appear to be stopping.

As you can see from the image below, Styles is set to square off against Mahal on the festive period house shows, seemingly indicating he will challenge for the WWE title.

Owens will set his sights on Randy Orton after his feud with Shane McMahon comes to a climax. Quite how he will move onto the Viper is up for debate, but Orton stated on Edge & Christian's Pod of Awesomeness that he's tired of playing a babyface.

Shinsuke Nakamura is going to move on from Mahal and take on the new heel version of Sami Zayn. Considering Zayn is aligning himself with Owens, the chances of seeing Nakamura and Orton team up against them is high.

And, finally, Ziggler is still paired with Bobby Roode to see out the year. These two began feuding ahead of the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view and it seems a big ask to expect fans to stay on board with these two for another 10 weeks.