2011 WWE draft
The Brand Extension storyline was initiated in March 2002, in which WWE's Raw and SmackDown television programs were made into brands (similar to conferences within a league) to which employees were assigned; the ECW brand was additionally involved between 2006 and 2009. Annual drafts have followed since this occurrence, except for in 2003. As with past drafts, the purpose of the 2011 WWE draft was to increase television ratings of WWE programming and refresh the rosters for each brand. The 2011 event was confirmed by the RBC Center in April 2011, with WWE officially announcing it on the April 18 episode of "Raw". A USA Network executive had also confirmed the event to occur via a press release on the same day of the WWE announcement.
WWE Main Event
The show is produced on Monday evenings, right before the "Raw" airing, and is broadcast on Thursday Nights at 9 pm similar to the system SmackDown used before it went live on July 19, 2016. It originally aired live, with a slight broadcast delay. It uses the same HD set as Raw with all ring ropes being red to represent the Raw brand, except for the month of October, when the middle rope is pink, to promote WWE and Susan G. Komen for the Cure's breast cancer awareness campaign.