David Lagana passed this along:
David Lagana discusses the circumstances of the 2005 WWE Draft wrapped around the two top stars in WWE and their championships. Article discusses what caused the draft, why it seems like RAW always gets the “bigger” talent, and what made Smackdown different.
http://iwantwrestling.com/2011/04/23/tale-of-two-titl-wwe-draft-2005/
Excerpt
“Batista was the champion on the “A” show. Cena’s moment winning the WWE Title was muted. It look like the dye was cast on the future of the WWE. You might ask, “How come Smackdown was considered the ‘B’ show?” We never looked at it that way but there we circumstances that led to that perception. Raw was live. Smackdown was taped. Raw was first, Smackdown was second. And yes, Brian Gewirtz was head writer of Raw and I was the head writer of Smackdown. Yup, I was considered a “b” writer compared to Brian. I didn’t think that, nor did I think I was better then Brian. I simply was different. Smackdown was always wrote and produced to be “different” then Raw. But in my mind, Smackdown became a “b” show with one decision not made by anyone in WWE.”
Read more at IWantWrestling.com