[AmWolves10]

I think when he was still an active wrestler he brought instant credibility to the show almost single handedly and would be able to do so now if his health permitted. Especially when WWE decided to officially make Smackdown the B show during that time when they had Batista, Orton, and Cena the three highest profiled stars in the WWE, on RAW. Taker still made Smackdown seem somewhat credible, even though he was surrounded by guys who were talented but not booked as top stars(IE: guys like Edge, jericho, morrison, cm punk, rey mysterio, ziggler, christian, etc). Smackdown to me was Undertaker + all the work rate guys so it satisfied the old school fans/IWC fans like many of the posters on this forum to have arguably the biggest bad ass from the Attitude era + the work rate guys. Taker made Smackdown look legitimate because there was a guy who can probably beat everybody in the WWE including the RAW guys clean one on one. After he left, everyone just looked like B-level guys and it didnt help that they took most of the work rate guys and put them on RAW. Orton was not able to fill his shoes.

 

[TKOW]

I definitely The Undertaker's absence is nothing but bad news for the WWE, but I don't think it's "crippling" Smackdown. I think the creative team are doing a pretty good job of doing that all by themselves.

 

[DoubleAwesome]

Of Course it is.Undertaker IS SmackDown!.I haven't seen him on SmackDown in years.

 

[Anhstoppablexd]

I don't think so. Smackdown is the show for up and comers. It's a place for the rising stars to grow and develop their character/role they are playing. So not really.

 

[just1988]

I think most fans forget about Undertaker for 9 months of the year when he's out, so I think his absence isn't really that big. Now if you look at Undertaker specifically and say "would the show be better off if he was on it regularly?" then the answer would obviously be yes but then he'd be even more broken down than what he already is so then the question would become "If Undertaker was still fit, would Smackdown be better off?" So there's a lot of if's and's but's or's and maybe's in this discussion.

I'd go with the direct answer of no, it's not hurting Smackdown.

 

[samizayn]

He hasn't been there in yonkers, though. If it had been a sudden thing then yeah, it would have, but Undertaker faded away slowly, so the end result wasn't really a 'crippling' as much as a slow, dull aching.

Orton wasn't meant to fill Taker's shoes, he was meant to fill Edge's. I also take exception to you calling the WWE's top heel at the time 'just a work rate guy', lol

 

[Evolution]

He hasn't appeared regularly for a couple of years now so I don't really think he's remembered as being a vital part of Smackdown especially given that in his rare appearances he has been featured mostly on Raw.

Smackdown is missing Rey Mysterio a lot more than they're missing Taker. They need a utility babyface to boost the strength of their mid-card heels.

 

[That Guy]

The Undertaker is always someone nice to see but at this point of his career his body won't allow him to go weekly like he used to up until 2007-ish. He is a one match a year wonder. A special attraction. Sure he is nice to see every so often but the creative team need to slowly work on building up newer stars instead of relying on the old ones, cause one day- probably soon he won't be able to do the road to wrestlemania anymore and they'll be really left with nothing. Smackdown has been doing just fine by pushing newer stars slowly like Bryan, Sheamus, Rhdoes and a few others.

 

[DoubleDeckerBar]

A lazy creative team is crippling Smackdown, Taker hasn't been on SD for about 2 years and it has been good since he left so it's not him.

The absence of Barrett, Christian and Sin Cara is hurting them though.

 

[Vyed]

He hasn't appeared regularly for a couple of years now so I don't really think he's remembered as being a vital part of Smackdown especially given that in his rare appearances he has been featured mostly on Raw.

Smackdown is missing Rey Mysterio a lot more than they're missing Taker. They need a utility babyface to boost the strength of their mid-card heels.

This pretty much.

he has been gone for ages and even when he was part of SD, he was never the top guy.

 

[APEX]

No.
Not having the title around Randy Orton is crippling Smackdown!
I used to love smackdown when Orton was feuding with Christian.

 

[Jobbin'likenoother]

Taker returning to SD would be baaaaad news for all the younger guys on the rise. (See 2009)

I hope not to see him again until WM29.



I agree they would really benefit from the return of Mysterio.

 

[Rocket Samchay]

Undertaker is "specialty" status at this point and us fans have pretty much gotten used to it.

Smackdown's problems are that very little actually happens despite its decently sized roster, only a few of them get any shine. A good chunk of the Smackdown guys are NXT mainstays for whatever reason.

 

[MasterChan]

Guess we have to accept the fact that Taker is only coming back for Wrestlemania.. i'd still hope though he could do another one or two PPVs more a year.

I think especially up- and newcomers would benefit of a feud against Undertaker. I mean almost any pairing would be so must-see like (Sandow vs. Taker, Ryback vs. Taker, Sheamus vs. Taker, Daniel Bryan vs. Taker etc.)

 

[Dusty Roids]

No and I wouldn't mind if he really left to to retire.

don't want to wait 20 minutes for an entrance of a zombie that wears eyeliner