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.
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.