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Can We Be Serious About SmackDown for a Moment?

5K views 66 replies 49 participants last post by  Lariatoh! 
#1 ·
It's February 2017 and we still have people running around here and acting like sending someone to Smackdown is the universal solution to mediocrity, with the most recent example being in the Emma flopping thread: http://www.wrestlingforum.com/gener...ick-so-its-been-scrapped-10.html#post65678090

It's time to dissect the brand from top to bottom and isolate the pros and cons. This isn't a thread to blindly shit on Smackdown; it's just a reality check for the people who, for some reason, STILL think it's a happy wonderland where you can arbitrarily send the biggest bum to become a star. So with that said, I'm going to give it the compliment sandwich and start with the good and end with the bad.

Pros: The Main Event scene, the upper card, The Miz elevating talents by proxy, the fact that it's a 2 hour show, Talking Smack

Cons: The Women's Division, the Tag Team Division, champions jobbing, no low card


The Main Event: For the majority of 2016, we witnessed the phenomenal rise of AJ Styles into stardom. He came to Smackdown and made a huge impact after becoming champion. Disregarding the Ellsworth garbage, he had a hell of a run and a series of matches with Cena, and even Ambrose. Had the Slammys happened in December, he would've easily gotten my vote for Superstar of The Year. While AJ Styles was tearing it up in the main event scene, Randy Orton was elevating Wyatt back to relevancy in the upper card, and here he is several months later as your WWE Champion after pinning Cena clean, TWICE! That's excellent booking and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

The Upper Card: Staying with the upper card, we are now focusing on an Ambrose and Corbin feud. Contrary to the general belief on this site, Ambrose is right where he belongs as the IC Champion. Yes, he had the best year of his career in 2016. Yes, his character became more tolerable and less cringeworthy, but it was nothing spectacular, like to the level of what Styles delivered. Ambrose is a mid/upper card talent and his feud with Corbin is properly picking up steam after being screwed over at the chamber. Again, I have no complaints with the direction they're going, because it finally gives Corbin something significant to do, and it puts Ambrose in a position more conducive to his talents.

The Miz: Regardless of how you feel about him, The Miz has indisputably been a consistent highlight of Smackdown. EVERYONE he's worked with for the past 6 months has felt more important. He even made us care about Ziggler for a little while. We see how quickly that wore off when they separated up until his heel turn, but I digress. The Miz has been huge for the blue brand and makes anything he's involved in, infinitely better. There's not much else to discuss here. This is coming from a former Miz hater btw.

Two Hours=Less Filler: This section is pretty self explanatory. There's less possibility for irrelevant BS than RAW, simply because they shave off a whole hour.

Talking Smack: This show is a fantastic blend of kayfabe and reality. Sometimes, the best highlights come from the post show instead of the actual show. There's also significant storyline development at times, along with raw character development, since the interviews are unscripted. Talking Smack has been huge for the elevation of the show. The Miz is on fire BECAUSE of this show.

Now, I'm going to point out everything WRONG with Smackdown. I'm going to highlight the issues that people either ignore, or simply overlook, as they say "Send *insert failing Superstar here* to Smackdown and watch all of their problems magically go away."


The Women's Division: When the brand split was announced, the Becky Lynch fans rejoiced because she wouldn't have to job to Sasha and Charlotte anymore and would allegedly get great booking by default. That made sense in theory until it didn't happen. Becky still has the same old shitty booking she's had since...NXT. Literally nothing changed besides the brass giving her a sympathy reign to temporarily pacify her rabid fans. I guess her excessive jobbing is somehow better on Smackdown because Sasha and Charlotte aren't beating her :meh. Meanwhile, we're also told that the division is far superior to RAW's, simply because they use everyone. Quantity=!=Quality. Carmella and Nikki had a mediocre, lopsided feud, along with a piss poor No DQ match to conclude it. Natalya and Nikki are having a redundant feud with redundant ambush segments, using the same old recycled "lolCena, lolmarriage" jabs we've heard in every preview of Total Divas. Nikki is a terrible face and Natalya has no business being prominently featured, period. Prior to the last month, Alexa Bliss was the only woman with good to great booking. However, a month into her reign, she's booked just as badly as everyone else; getting jobbed out on free television and losing the belt to Naomi in a feud with no build other than the classic "She beat you, so she's the #1 contender." Mickie James' return has already fallen flat as well, as she's doing nothing of note and just trading wins with Becky, which puts NO ONE over. There's nothing compelling about this division right now, and it would be the worst booked part of the show if it weren't for the tag team division, which brings me to the second point.

The Tag Team Division: The Tag Team Division is absolutely dreadful. There is ZERO attempt to build stars, or hell, even build characters. Since the decline of Slater and Rhyno, we've seen no effort whatsoever put into this division. They've somehow managed to take the greatest Tag Team in 2015, American Apha, and turn them into completely irrelevant losers, WITH the Tag Team Titles. The writing staff has completely disregarded everything that made AA extremely entertaining in NXT. They had backstage segments to show off their impeccable chemistry, they had tension building promos, and they had hype hot tags for Jason Jordan. For the majority of their main roster stint, they're showing up, wrestling, and leaving with no excitement, and they lost most of their matches. Why exactly should the casual fan care about them? Why should ANY fan care about these constant clusterfucks filled with jobbers? I cannot fathom why the fans of The Revival want them shipped to Smackdown to be apart of the worst division in the company, period. If American Alpha are treated like generic losers when they were one of the most charismatic teams in the company, then what do you think is going to happen to a team with a gimmick that stresses pure old school wrestling?

Champions Jobbing: A couple of weeks ago, on RAW AND Smackdown, almost every champion in the company jobbed on free television, yet we keep being told that Smackdown has far and away superior booking. HOW SWAY?! If the EXACT same thing is happening on both shows, then how is Smackdown superior?

Non-Existent Lower Card: There are no low card matches at all that have any kind of impact on the show. As covered above in the positives of Smackdown, the uppercard and main event are the only parts of the show that are consistently good. If you aren't feuding with The Miz or for the IC title, you aren't doing anything of value. Singles wrestlers are shit out of luck and waiting in limbo until one of the aforementioned things happen. Just look at how quickly Corbin declined after winning the Andre The Jobber Battle Royal. You either get stuck in a heatless feud with Kalisto, or you do literally nothing. Neither of which are beneficial for development.

In conclusion, Smackdown's "superior booking" is extremely overhyped. Unless you're in the main event or uppercard, you will be subject to the same mediocrity that exists on RAW. Sending a struggling wrestler to Smackdown is not the one size fits all answer for success. Emma won't be shit on this show, and neither will someone like TJ Perkins. "Send X to Smackdown" is becoming worse than "Turn X heel". At least we've seen multiple examples of heel turns working, while Smackdown has been largely hit and miss with revitalizing careers from top to bottom.

 
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#35 · (Edited)
I agree whole heartedly. Early on I was fully on board the SDL love train; the women's division was fresh and exciting, as was the tag division, Miz was the hottest he had been in years, AJ was tearing things up, and even Ambrose was a good World Champ. There was a really good first few months...then we were reminded that's it's still WWE and everything turned to shit.

The women's division once Eva left just became an ocean of shit feuds between women that from a kayfabe perspective are all so mediocre. All the Title runs have sucked beyond terrible. I disagree about Nikki being a terrible face, that's just become the latest IWC trend to disparage her but her feuds are terrible and repetitive. All she did v Carmella is get jumped from behind EVERY week, and all she does v Nattie is get like 30 second long backstage brawls and nothing else. The worst part of her feuds is the Cena element to them...and how John utterly no sells it and doesn't give a shit. From a kayfabe perspective Nikki looks like a moron when Cena doesn't give a single fark when she gets jumped and they target her neck. Mickie is dead in the water as well already.

The tag division is so bad, Slater, Usos and AA were all so hot and now no one cares about any of them.

Mid card is dead.

Only positives are Wyatts/Orton and Corbin. Everything else sucks. I even disagree with you @Legit BOSS at this point about Miz. He WAS hot, he WAS great, he WAS doing fantastic things and getting everyone he came into contact over but that's all in the past. He's been booked horrifically as of late and has no momentum left. They have to rebuild the guy again already, especially if he's meant to be seen as a WM threat for Cena. They made the stupid move of putting the belt on Dolph for a month and then they killed all their hard work with him for the sake of giving Ambrose another midcard belt he can do nothing with.
 
#38 ·
The women's division once Eva left just became an ocean of shit feuds between women that from a kayfabe perspective are all so mediocre. All the Title runs have sucked beyond terrible. I disagree about Nikki being a terrible face, that's just become the latest IWC trend to disparage her but her feuds are terrible and repetitive. All she did v Carmella is get jumped from behind EVERY week, and all she does v Nattie is get like 30 second long backstage brawls and nothing else. The worst part of her feuds is the Cena element to them...and how John utterly no sells it and doesn't give a shit. From a kayfabe perspective Nikki looks like a moron when Cena doesn't give a single fark when she gets jumped and they target her neck. Mickie is dead in the water as well already.
It reads like the former had something to do with the latter and that isn't the case at all. The division was on fire when the Becky won the title and her Alexa feud began and that happened after Eva left.
 
#41 ·
Things went wrong for the Women's Division when Becky Lynch got a five minute long, goon reign, as the Champ after near universal praise at WWE FINALLY putting a title on this woman. She handed it to Alexa Bliss for no apparent reason and then clattered down the card so Bliss could build herself up to put... Naomi over and reintroduce Mickie James? It's so bad it's beyond belief.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Re: Can We Be Serious About Smackdown for a Moment?

Other than your total disrespect of Dean, I agree. I've been side eyeing people who act like SD does no wrong for the longest.

The main event scene is great, no one can deny that. And the upper midcard is promising and delivers with guys Dean and Baron residing in it. Although you can argue those two will be moved up soon and that will leave the upper midcard pretty lackluster.

But man, once you move further down, the flaws are glaring.

The women's division is full of 50/50 booking, champions losing and this everyone is a special snowflake mentality where it seems like every girl will end up with the belt. Participation award will be a thing with the title being passed around like they're running a train on it. To me, that results in being an unclear hierarchy. Everyone can't be special and on the same level. There has to be some established top woman and her number 2.

I know many can't stand Charlotte's booking, but there is no mistaking who is queen and above the rest. Sasha is second, but she won't truly cemented until she gets a heel run in my opinion. But still, those two were pushed consistently and WWE didn't stray the course. And what happened? They became stars and were even drawing ratings in the 3rd hour notorious for a steep drop off.

Smackdown's Midcard? Full of heatless boring geeks like Kalisto and Crews. Poor Ziggler's heel turn was wasted on those two. Having Ziggler working with those two as a fresh new heel should have meant something. But to me, he's just wasting his time.

The tag division? :lmao American Alpha went from a beloved team to this duo who gets blah to no reaction and barely any character development. Usos FINALLY turned heel like everyone wanted. But of course, they spent most of the next few months inconsistently on the show and disappearing at a time they should have been dominant and developed characters to cement their heel status in a shallow division. They should have been Champs that an American Alpha chased after. Not have a short lived Wyatts tag team that quickly fell to a barely off American Alpha.

And for the land of opportunity, a team like Fashion Police aren't be developed or showcased at all despite the tag division needing all the teams they can get. There's room for a comedy duo I think can get over with some screen time. Ascension seem to be getting a push at this point. Which is a step in the right direction. But as of right now, the tag division is a mess.

Smackdown isn't awful by any means. Because the show does deliver great matches and fun segments. Especially at the main event scene. But they're really top heavy at the moment and it will be felt when they have no guys to rotate to the top. AJ, Dean, Cena and Miz can't fight each other forever.

Baron is on his way up, but he can't be the only one. It's time to get that midcard working or it will bite them in the ass later.
 
#14 ·
For me, it's not so much that Smackdown is something special. Because it largely is not. But rather Raw has been mediocre to unwatchable for a long time. The current version of it is defined by

1. Golden Oldies that are well past their best (Goldberg, Lesnar, 'Taker.)
2. Main eventers that have not made the progress on the mic/in character that I hoped for or anticipated (Reigns, Rollins.)
3. Predictable endlessly repetitive formulaic booking and/or presentation (New Day, Women's Division.)
4. Acts that actually do pick it up getting the short sheet (Rusev, Cesaro & Sheamus.)
5. Authority figures that are more destructive (Shane is overrated but Stephanie can be poisonous toward development or momentum.)

Combine all that with an hour less time plus Miz being the most entertaining person in the fed over the previous year and warts and all I'll take my chances with hit or miss Smackdown. Things are likely to get worse yet on Raw when Jericho leaves soon as well. He's the best reason to tune in lately. And some weeks, the only reason I bother.
 
#22 ·
Don't disagree with much outside of the shade at Ambrose. He's main evented every SD PPV since the split and has worked more main events than anyone outside of Seth iirc since '14. He's absolutely a main event level talent. His issue is and always has been the companies reluctance to go all in on him, book him to his strengths (no nonsense tweener) and give him a marquee, definitive victory when it matters most. Given his reliability as a workhorse, charisma and promo ability, there's no way some should be above him on the card. It's not the 90s so I understand his reluctance to kick McMahons door down but you'll never convince me guys like Seth Rollins are superior performers or more charismatic. There's more to this business than work rate and if you give his Shield brethren his booking, they'd have dropped dead in March 2015.
 
#34 ·
Me too! Last week was a good week for WWE, both shows were really good.

But some weeks Raw is full of crap, and some weeks SDLive can't even keep my attention and I almost fall asleep lol.
 
#40 ·
Couldn't agree more, there's just so many things wrong with the brand.

The tag division- American Alpha aren't over, and then you look at the tag team turmoil match and apart from The Uso's, not a single team was believable enough to beat AA, I mean FFS they had The Ascension come out last, did anyone really expect them to win, and enough with the start/stopping Uso's vs AA, let them have the match.

Dolph Ziggler vs Kalisto/ Crews - HOW DOES THIS FEUD GET ANYONE OVER?, Ziggler turned heel because he was bland as a face and they told the story of him getting so frustrated at losing that he turns heel, so what happens, HE CONTINUES TO LOSE. Not to mention Crews & Kalisto are about as interesting as watching paint dry.

Guys like Corbin/Ambrose/Miz - Right, Corbin's booking I have no problem with, but what the hell was the point on giving Ambrose the IC title when Miz was doing great things with it, look at the reaction Ziggler had when he won it from The Miz, that was great storytelling, this wasn't.

The Women's Division - What an absolute joke, I was so happy to see Lynch get the title but then she lost it to Bliss in her first feud, and then Bliss just loses it to Naomi, why, apart from being there for a long time what has Naomi done to prove she deserves a run with the belt? Not to mention the dumb 50-50 booking in these feuds. Also message to Natalya, I know you think you're getting heel heat, but really, no one cares about you.

The main event - This has been their strongest point, but why is the title match for Mania Bray Wyatt vs Orton, the main story for SD has really been AJ's rise to the top and Cena being unable to beat him so it would've made sense for Cena to finally win at Mania, not many complaints about the main event scene.

If we're gonna bad mouth RAW for crap booking then we have to do the same for SD, just because they've had more good shows doesn't give them an excuse to start phoning it in.
 
#4 ·
Re: Can We Be Serious About Smackdown for a Moment?

So much this, SmackDown is more entertaining than RAW but people are so blinded on here just to think it automatically is the greatest thing going on. It still has plenty of flaws but it seems great compared to RAW with how terrible it is. There's still a lot of nonsense and so many people getting lost in the shuffle. Ellsworth overexposure is probably one of those things that needs mentioned as well.
 
#7 ·
Re: Can We Be Serious About Smackdown for a Moment?

Great post, LB (Y)

Though like others above, I (of course) disagree with your view of Dean Ambrose.

I agree about the weird women's division. It's all over the place, women are on the wrong side of the heel/face spectrum and even though they had 3 women's matches at EC, there's no compelling stories. And no I don't count Nikki/Natalya as a compelling feud :lol Most of their feud revolves around John Cena, who basically doesn't give a fuck about it lol. I like Naomi and I'm glad she got given a chance, but the buildup to her winning the title was way too rushed. And they completely wasted Becky's title reign too.

Tag team division is absolute meh. I don't care about American Alpha as much as I used to, and I loved them on NXT. They've made them boring. Plus, apart from maybe the Usos, all the other tag teams are lame and not even a threat.
 
#28 ·
Raw lately has been so much better than Smackdown lately and this for a simple reason, Smackdown doesn't what to do and you see it in each division, in each show. Everything they do is average which is good when the rest is boring but in the RTW, you see how bad it is while Raw may have sucked in the year but they builded stars like Braun Strowman or Owens vs Jericho which is paying off now while Smackdown created no stars outside of The Miz and they could've done a better job.

The WWE Title : It's the less obvious but shows how much they lack a direction, they don't have a vision for the future but simply switch off the title as they want.

AJ Styles wins the title against Dean Ambrose after defeating John Cena clean and then both of them. Surely, we have a megastar on our hand... Better make him job to James Ellsworth for a whole month. Then, John Cena wisn his 16th title before losing to Wyatt 2 weeks later. Why make Cena wins then ? You just screwed a big story for nothing....

The IC Title : Alright, this is a little bit better but mainly because of The Miz, because he did a great work but outside of that, they still managed to give the title to Ziggler for nothing except a big moment and the title to Ambrose for nothing, I always forget he have it

The Tag Title : That is the worst they could do. We are 6 months since the brand split and they still don't have any top teams, none. They had to put every team in a match because they don't know who to put in it. And the champions are pathetic. Rhyno & Slater, Orton & Wyatt, American Alpha. Good workers but where are the stories for them ? Where are the big opponents ? There is simply no division and all the hype it had with Rhyno & Slater vs The Usos in the beginning is gone

The Women's Title : There are two options when you are in a women's division. Either you are the heel against Nikki Bella because she's got everything thanks to John Cena or you are in the title picture against Alexa Bliss. They did a bad job at booking Nikki Bella but Carmella and Alexa Bliss got a nice build-up but once again, they do a " Smackdown Title " and give the title to Naomi for no reason when they were building Bliss as their top star.
 
#29 ·
As much as I like SD, the only highlights of the show right now are: Becky/Mickie, Orton/Wyatt, and AJ Styles. In the case of Bliss and Miz, they've done a good job of burning out their momentum for fucking reasons that I still don't know why; especially Bliss. The show is going on a downward spiral. Midcard is basically Miz/Ambrose and you can argue Harper. Tag-team division is just same old boring crap.
 
#37 ·
Never said it's why, just that the division really fell apart once she did. Poorly booked Champ after poorly booked Champ. Crap repetitive feud after crap repetitive feud. It was exciting times before Becky won the Title and was booked like the same old jobber and the rest of the division followed suit.
 
#43 ·
Most of the points I agree with. The midcard is very weak on the face side. Someone like Swagger who at least got a reaction could be used an example to have ziggler be an effective heel.

I prefer Smackdown women's division to Raw though recently Raw's has gotten better. Raw pushing women revolution in our face every five second instead of letting Charlotte and Sasha do what they do so well themselves amplified any problems. Smackdown women's division has problems but it felt like there were stories outside of the title picture. The 50/50 booking needs to stop.

Naomi being champ is awful too IMO but one thing that needs to stop post-mania is using Nikki banging Cena to build feuds.

Tag division has been booked like shit though a little may be due to a bad timed Uso injury but that is still no excuse for how bad it has been
 
#45 · (Edited)
Some great points made @Legit BOSS

I still prefer Smackdown over Raw for many reasons, I just find that the main event scene & upper card is far more flexible and less predictable than Raw. The pros of the brand split all fall towards Smackdown's main event in my opinion, if it wasn't for the brand split Bray Wyatt would be nowhere near the WWE Championship, I think we can all agree on that. Of course you always have the main guys, Styles, Cena, Orton and now Wyatt, but as mentioned with more flexibility, Ambrose, Corbin & Miz are also main event worthy, seven superstars there who wouldn't look out of place with the WWE Championship around their shoulder. With Raw despite Owens being Champ, they only really care about certain superstars, if you're not a part timer or Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins then you are an afterthought. Owens, Joe, Jericho are all great in their own right, all three have produced entertaining and watchable work of late; however when the time comes you just know that they will be fed and ruined by a Goldberg, Lesnar or Reigns. The main event storylines have also been much better on Smackdown than they have Raw, the Ellsworth shit aside we had Ambrose vs Ziggler, Styles vs Cena and now Wyatt vs Orton all of which from a storytelling point of view has produced entertaining content.

I agree with the points made about the lower card, Women's division and Tag Division. Starting with the lower card you only really have Kalisto & Crews, we had Corbin facing Kalisto before he got elevated now it's Dolph's turn to do the same. I wouldn't blame Ziggler here, his heel turn would be far more interesting if he had somebody interesting to feud with. Nobody cares about Crews & Kalisto so why should we care about Ziggler turning heel, the guy is getting cheered everytime he hits Crews or Kalisto with a chair for christ sake :lol I was thinking about this the other day but Ziggler really needs to feud with Dillinger, he is red hot right now with his "Perfect 10" gimmick, it would be the perfect way to get heel heat on Ziggler.

As for the Women I made a thread regarding them myself. I'm just really disappointed with the direction that they are heading in over the Road to Wrestlemania period. They started off so well when the brand split happened, all six women were being featured, all six women were working extremely hard and putting on good work, you had Carmella's heel turn that was the perfect call, Eva Marie trolling everybody, why Alexa was making great strides and Becky was Champ. All of that though has now cooled off, Becky's title reign was extremely disappointing, I wasn't frustrated at her booking because despite losing she came out of losses protected, but it would of been nice if she got the upper hand a few times and won a few matches. Putting the strap on Alexa was an acceptable move; however like we seen with Becky's reign suddenly things went flat and they booked her to lose matches to Naomi. With Becky as Champ and with Alexa as Champ, Smackdown had something hot, yet Vince, the writers or whoever just poured cold water over them and turned their title reigns into a flop. Now on the Road to Wrestlemania, we have Naomi as Champ for whatever bizarre reason, Becky & Mickie stuck in a rut and something with Nikki & Natalya which will turn into something with Nikki & Maryse. They've just sucked the life out of the Smackdown Women's Division, like Raw's it's just like a nonsensical merry-go-round. Raw may have the better talent, but both brands are having the same faults when it comes to booking.

Finally the Tag Divisions on both brands fucking suck, both have major faults right now to the point where both divisions are unwatchable. Regarding Smackdown though they have some very decent teams, Breezango, Vaudevillains & Ascension all have potential to be something but creative and Vince just don't care. American Alpha are great in the ring, but they need to delve into their Characters a bit more, they are willing to change the Usos characters, why can't they bring back the "Ready, Willing & Gable" catchphrase for American Alpha.

Both shows have major faults atm, but Smackdown for me since the Brand Split has produced better storylines and the superstars have produced far better work. Aside from Owens & Jericho feud and Samoa Joe, what does Raw have right now? Nothing is the answer.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Re: Can We Be Serious About Smackdown for a Moment?

Aside from Ambrose not being good enough to main event, I agree with all of that. The booking is usually just as bad across the board.

The biggest reason people prefer SmackDown is because they like the world champion better. Which is exactly why I preferred Raw when it was Owens and Styles, and now I prefer SmackDown because it's Owens and Bray. I have a feeling people are really gonna turn on SmackDown hard when the build for Styles and Shane starts.
 
#9 ·
Re: Can We Be Serious About Smackdown for a Moment?

Aside from Ambrose not being good enough to main event, I agree with all of that. The booking is usually just as bad across the board.

The biggest reason people prefer SmackDown is because they like the world champion better. Which is exactly why I preferred Raw when it was Owens and Styles, and now I prefer SmackDown because it's Owens and Bray. I have a feeling people are really gonna turn on SmackDown hard when the build for Styles and Shane starts.
you make great points on all of this except i do think that ambrose is good enough to be a main eventer. maybe this feud with corbin will elevate him or maybe both of them to a higher level.

That's fine, I expect Ambrose fans to disagree with me. He's just perfect where he is right now, which is why I haven't complained about him in months. As for people liking the champion: the main event scene in general is the best thing going right now. That's undeniable to me.


So much this, SmackDown is more entertaining than RAW but people are so blinded on here just to think it automatically is the greatest thing going on. It still has plenty of flaws but it seems great compared to RAW with how terrible it is. There's still a lot of nonsense and so many people getting lost in the shuffle. Ellsworth overexposure is probably one of those things that needs mentioned as well.
I quickly glossed over the Ellsworth fuckery while discussing Styles' Championship run. He isn't worth complaining about anymore as Carmella's bitch.
 
#12 ·
Re: Can We Be Serious About Smackdown for a Moment?

I don't agree with Smackdown being a magical place where everyone is booked great but take a look at the main cast of SD. A.J, Cena, Baron, Dean, Wyatt, Randy, Harper, Miz, Dolph. That group there is the majority of the show every week and when you look at each guy individually there's a big improvement over where they were and where they are now. Each has developed storylines and characters and can all main event convincingly when necessary because of how they've been presented to us over a long period.

SD does suffer when it comes to the lower card but the tag scene had flashes once. There's time. all the women being weekly characters as well shouldn't be understated. For example what they're doing with Carmella alone is great, may not be liked by all but Carmella is developing a character and name for herself while not in a feud. Much like the Attitude Era when everyone had something going on while the main eventers carried the load. Simply being on screen in these segments are very helpful to making the division feel alive.

Basically, no, SD isnt a automatic upgrade but if they see you as a main character they work hard at keeping your character active. Having a strong upper card carries the show. What could be considered filler on a different show is character progressive on this one. I think there is more of a sense hope because the show is much smaller.

Its easy to get lost on Raw. Plus SD is just more enjoyable as a whole IMO because characters interact more, storylines overlap at times, you get the sense they're all in the same universe even when a feud is done. Take last week for example, zero filler on the entrie show plus a good talking smack. Talking smack also allows for talents to get over more, & flesh out their character work. Another reason I believe people would want their favorites on SD.
 
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#13 ·
Re: Can We Be Serious About Smackdown for a Moment?

Smackdown is better than RAW but that doesn't mean much. The booking is equally terrible. Styles, Cena, Orton, Miz, Wyatt and the superior talented main event scene in general on Smackdown carries the show. The tag team booking is pretty glaring. There's no reason the American Alpha should be this boring when they are that talented. Luckily at least Smackdown doesn't have Stephanie and Roman Reigns making everyone look bad.
 
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#15 ·
Anyone who says SmackDown is perfect should not be taken seriously, their tag division is absolutely horendous and their womens division isnt all that gret either.

Though the reason why it hink SDL is beloved is because of the main event scene. Their main eent scene is 100 times better than Raw's, and that is what people look at. The Attitude Era undercard was garbage but its looked at such high praise because of the main event scene. The only division that actually matters.

Also your point about Dean being a midcard act, it cant be true becasue Ambrose has been a HUGE reason why the main event scene of SDL has been so good. Ambrose adapts to every level.
 
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#16 · (Edited)
- Becky's booking after No Mercy to TLC felt like a punishment. They never clued in that acknowledging someone on tv as a "lovable loser" and then booking them as such has never worked. It comes off as forced, manipulative and unnatural. They've been trying to fix it since. Becky is a natural underdog, that was the worst thing about it. The key with underdogs is you need to set a scenario in which they can be one and show they are capable of potentially great things.

- Too much focus on using screwy finishes because you don't want one to lose.

- They don't present their top female or hardly any of their top talent on Smackdown as stars, which hurts crowd investment for the most part. Raw doesn't have this problem.

- Bad character prioritization is rampant. James Ellsworth is becoming wrestling's equivalent of old yeller.

- The tag division is a joke.

- Smackdown doesn't present their champions as a big deal (with the exception of the main title)

- Face Gm's pampering faces instead of making them overcome obstacles along the way. The only people who really benefit are the one's who oppose them.
 
#20 ·
Only reason why people prefer SDL over RAW as a whole is because one brand has Roman and Steph. Two people who are hated and are considered channel changers by fans.

When the brand split was announced, the Becky Lynch fans rejoiced because she wouldn't have to job to Sasha and Charlotte anymore and would allegedly get great booking by default. That made sense in theory until it didn't happen. Becky still has the same old shitty booking she's had since...NXT. Literally nothing changed besides the brass giving her a sympathy reign to temporarily pacify her rabid fans. I guess her excessive jobbing is somehow better on Smackdown because Sasha and Charlotte aren't beating her :meh. Meanwhile, we're also told that the division is far superior to RAW's, simply because they use everyone. Quantity=!=Quality. Carmella and Nikki had a mediocre, lopsided feud, along with a piss poor No DQ match to conclude it. Natalya and Nikki are having a redundant feud with redundant ambush segments, using the same old recycled "lolCena, lolmarriage" jabs we've heard in every preview of Total Divas. Nikki is a terrible face and Natalya has no business being prominently featured, period. Prior to the last month, Alexa Bliss was the only woman with good to great booking. However, a month into her reign, she's booked just as badly as everyone else; getting jobbed out on free television and losing the belt to Naomi in a feud with no build other than the classic "She beat you, so she's the #1 contender." Mickie James' return has already fallen flat as well, as she's doing nothing of note and just trading wins with Becky, which puts NO ONE over. There's nothing compelling about this division right now, and it would be the worst booked part of the show if it weren't for the tag team division, which brings me to the second point.
I get so
at fans who say SDLs women are better than RAW and they usually say it because "OMG SDL uses everyone and RAW doesnt". Even on nights when all of RAWs active women are given TV time they still say RAWs women's division sucks. You are right about everything going on with the women of Smackdown. Nikki v. Nattie is just another feud where Nikki's opponent makes Cena and marriage references. The Mickie James return has indeed fallen flat, not that it was great to begin with considering the lack of reaction she got in the cage and the "WHAT" chants her first promo got the following week and now her feud with Becky is now another 50/50 booking debacle. What really gets me is the fans reaction to Naomi winning the title. Naomi wins the title out of the blue, no pun intended, after being gone for several weeks but everyone is happy for her despite her win coming with no story and no build. Meanwhile Bayley wins the title, albeit a bit early, and everyone is saying how shitty the division is because of it. At least Bayley's title win came with a little bit of build and it COULD lead to something. Bayley COULD beat Charlotte at Fastlane or Wrestlemania for the title which could lead to a Sasha heel turn. Bayley COULD beat Charlotte clean at Fastlane and then face Sasha at Wrestlemania which is what most of us want anyway. What does SDL possibly gain from Naomi holding the title?

- Face Gm's pampering faces instead of making them overcome obstacles along the way. The only people who really benefit are the one's who oppose them.
Heel GMs are always better because it's better to stack the deck against a beloved babyface than a heel. If the heel is always at a disadvantage then he/she isn't the heel anymore.

And for the land of opportunity, a team like Fashion Police aren't be developed or showcased at all despite the tag division needing all the teams they can get. There's room for a comedy duo I think can get over with some screen time. Ascension seem to be getting a push at this point. Which is a step in the right direction. But as of right now, the tag division is a mess.
It's the land of opportunity but no one has told that to the Vaudevillians, the Fashion Police and The Ascension were treated like big time geeks at Elimination Chamber.

I agree about the weird women's division. It's all over the place, women are on the wrong side of the heel/face spectrum and even though they had 3 women's matches at EC, there's no compelling stories. And no I don't count Nikki/Natalya as a compelling feud :lol Most of their feud revolves around John Cena, who basically doesn't give a fuck about it lol. I like Naomi and I'm glad she got given a chance, but the buildup to her winning the title was way too rushed. And they completely wasted Becky's title reign too.
Funny how Cena never seems interested in getting involved in Nikki's feuds. With all the brawls she's had with Carmella and now Nattie, Cena hasn't bothered to break up any of them.
 
#23 ·
I agree on everything, pretty much.

The only reason why I could give a pass to people "ignoring" the flaws and saying that SD is so incredibly better is that I, personally, feel like the bad things on SD are just as bad as everything else on RAW, whereas the good is miles away better.

Like the tag team division on Raw, in my opinion, it's just as bad, despite having all the big names but American Alpha and the Usos. So doing my maths, there are things that are equally bad on both shows while one of them has a main event scene and uppercard much more compelling.
 
#44 · (Edited)


Like any WWE produced show SD has its negatives, still overall more enjoyable than Raw :draper2

Though like a couple of others have said I am inclined to believe the reports that Vince had been hands off with Smackdown but now that we are getting close to Mania season he is back involved, given the directions it looks like SD was heading and how its really kind of shifted over the last month...
 
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