AegonTargaryen
Championship Contender
It's no secret that Smackdown live following the draft episode(which was horrendous, I might add) looks and feels like crap. Everything about the show screams "phoney", at least to me. But lets just say, instead of imposing my subjective, personal bitterness and distaste for Smackdown, I logically present to you 5 Major mistakes the WWE made, which will cause SD Live to be an absolute snoozefest, for the next many months, if not the next year? Here it goes:-
5)The picks were all wrong.
Raw deserved Reigns and Seth Rollins, no doubt, as they're the top two legitimate maineventers (IMO) in the WWE today (apart from Cena, Orton who are for better or worse not feuding for world championships anymore) and Raw is 3 hours long.
But since Shane and Bryan have been claiming SD is all about "change" and the New Era, it makes little sense to have Randy Orton and John Cena on your show. (even though it could be argued that it's a good move they put them on SD). For their New Era guys, they picked Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles, which is fine.
But excluding the aforementioned four, most of the remaining superstars they got comprise of tag teams, random NxT picks and women.
IMO, for their upper mid-card/prospective maineventers- they should've gone with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Cesaro. That was the only way SD live! could be about "change". In fact, SD live would then have been a perfect balance between the Old(Cena and Orton) and the new (Ambrose, Styles, Cesaro, Owens and Zayn).
4)At least Sami Zayn should've been on SD.
Since Raw is 3 hours long and they needed a solid midcard comprising Cesaro, Sheamus, KO, and others, they SHOULD'VE picked Sami Zayn at least.
What they have right now is Ziggler and Baron Corbin (who have already wrestled at least 10 times in the last 3 months) on the same show- and KO and Sami Zayn (who have already faced each other plenty) on Raw. That leaves little room for those two pairings to do on their respective brands. Just putting Zayn on SD instead of Ziggler would've made a lot of difference. Zayn on SD would've meant fresh matchups against Styles, Cena, Orton, Ambrose, all 4 top stars of the show, and I can conceive some great matches and promos, especially with Orton.
3)The women's division should've been exclusive to SD.
Raw already has the Cruiserweight division, so why not make the Women's division exclusive to SD? What they have right now is just 5-6 divas in total for both Raw and SD live. Right now, both shows are going to have an insufficient amount of female star-power, and two women's championships really make no sense. Also, this could've given SD live! an edge over Raw(which would have the cruiserweight division). They could've had a few women on Raw in non-wrestling roles, such as Rusev and Lana as well as the Miz and Maryse.
2)The IC title should've been on Raw, US title on SD.
The IC title has a prestigious history and has revolved around great wrestlers such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, and so on. They could've continued with that legacy, had they put that title on Raw- where Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Sami Zayn and others could continue that legacy.
SD would have the US championship, which can be booked how it was in the past- with Cena and Booker T feuding for it. I just feel like the US title doesn't go that well with guys like Zayn, Cesaro and Owens. Whereas the IC title doesn't go well when you have guys like Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin and Alberto Del Rio on your show.
and lastly,
1)The WWE WHC should've been on Raw, and SD should've had a tournament for the new title.
With SD live! being the new show, and one with promise, they should've gone in the opposite way. SD live has little star power, so they could've gone with 4 guys(lets say Cena, Styles, Wyatt and Ambrose) facing each other in a tournament, and the new title could've been unveiled on Summerslam.
This would've given SD live! something intriguing in its inception, and some good TV in their first series of episodes. What has happened instead is, Raw (which already has the star power, the solid midcard, the women's title, the cruiserweights), got another advantage. With Dean Ambrose already as your champion, and Dolph Ziggler as your challenger, you have 4 weeks of really boring TV. These two have wrestled numerous times for the IC title and Ziggler really doesn't have any personality. And they're both face, on top of that.
The WWE thought that having the WWE champ on SD live! would give it advantage over Raw(for the first month), but actually, it's going to have the opposite effect. And the ratings for SD! in the following weeks are going to reflect just that (more and more people are going to stop watching SD).
Final notes.
I feel like Vince is deliberately controlling Smackdown live! indirectly, by allowing Shane/Bryan/writers to go on and please the IWC, by putting guys like Ziggler in the main event. But it's going to suck. I guess Vince is smarter than most of us combined when it comes to Wrestling, and the future ratings of SD will prove once and for all- that his formula of booking mainevents- adding drama- with what we jave seen over the years in feuds like Cena-Orton, Austin-Rock, and Reigns-Seth story, which continues to unfold, is the one which draws viewers. Randomly putting Ziggler in the mainevent with Dean Ambrose, who isn't even a great wrestler, or doesn't draw a quarter as many viewers as Steve Austin, isn't going to make SD live! "the show".
5)The picks were all wrong.
Raw deserved Reigns and Seth Rollins, no doubt, as they're the top two legitimate maineventers (IMO) in the WWE today (apart from Cena, Orton who are for better or worse not feuding for world championships anymore) and Raw is 3 hours long.
But since Shane and Bryan have been claiming SD is all about "change" and the New Era, it makes little sense to have Randy Orton and John Cena on your show. (even though it could be argued that it's a good move they put them on SD). For their New Era guys, they picked Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles, which is fine.
But excluding the aforementioned four, most of the remaining superstars they got comprise of tag teams, random NxT picks and women.
IMO, for their upper mid-card/prospective maineventers- they should've gone with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Cesaro. That was the only way SD live! could be about "change". In fact, SD live would then have been a perfect balance between the Old(Cena and Orton) and the new (Ambrose, Styles, Cesaro, Owens and Zayn).
4)At least Sami Zayn should've been on SD.
Since Raw is 3 hours long and they needed a solid midcard comprising Cesaro, Sheamus, KO, and others, they SHOULD'VE picked Sami Zayn at least.
What they have right now is Ziggler and Baron Corbin (who have already wrestled at least 10 times in the last 3 months) on the same show- and KO and Sami Zayn (who have already faced each other plenty) on Raw. That leaves little room for those two pairings to do on their respective brands. Just putting Zayn on SD instead of Ziggler would've made a lot of difference. Zayn on SD would've meant fresh matchups against Styles, Cena, Orton, Ambrose, all 4 top stars of the show, and I can conceive some great matches and promos, especially with Orton.
3)The women's division should've been exclusive to SD.
Raw already has the Cruiserweight division, so why not make the Women's division exclusive to SD? What they have right now is just 5-6 divas in total for both Raw and SD live. Right now, both shows are going to have an insufficient amount of female star-power, and two women's championships really make no sense. Also, this could've given SD live! an edge over Raw(which would have the cruiserweight division). They could've had a few women on Raw in non-wrestling roles, such as Rusev and Lana as well as the Miz and Maryse.
2)The IC title should've been on Raw, US title on SD.
The IC title has a prestigious history and has revolved around great wrestlers such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, and so on. They could've continued with that legacy, had they put that title on Raw- where Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Sami Zayn and others could continue that legacy.
SD would have the US championship, which can be booked how it was in the past- with Cena and Booker T feuding for it. I just feel like the US title doesn't go that well with guys like Zayn, Cesaro and Owens. Whereas the IC title doesn't go well when you have guys like Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin and Alberto Del Rio on your show.
and lastly,
1)The WWE WHC should've been on Raw, and SD should've had a tournament for the new title.
With SD live! being the new show, and one with promise, they should've gone in the opposite way. SD live has little star power, so they could've gone with 4 guys(lets say Cena, Styles, Wyatt and Ambrose) facing each other in a tournament, and the new title could've been unveiled on Summerslam.
This would've given SD live! something intriguing in its inception, and some good TV in their first series of episodes. What has happened instead is, Raw (which already has the star power, the solid midcard, the women's title, the cruiserweights), got another advantage. With Dean Ambrose already as your champion, and Dolph Ziggler as your challenger, you have 4 weeks of really boring TV. These two have wrestled numerous times for the IC title and Ziggler really doesn't have any personality. And they're both face, on top of that.
The WWE thought that having the WWE champ on SD live! would give it advantage over Raw(for the first month), but actually, it's going to have the opposite effect. And the ratings for SD! in the following weeks are going to reflect just that (more and more people are going to stop watching SD).
Final notes.
I feel like Vince is deliberately controlling Smackdown live! indirectly, by allowing Shane/Bryan/writers to go on and please the IWC, by putting guys like Ziggler in the main event. But it's going to suck. I guess Vince is smarter than most of us combined when it comes to Wrestling, and the future ratings of SD will prove once and for all- that his formula of booking mainevents- adding drama- with what we jave seen over the years in feuds like Cena-Orton, Austin-Rock, and Reigns-Seth story, which continues to unfold, is the one which draws viewers. Randomly putting Ziggler in the mainevent with Dean Ambrose, who isn't even a great wrestler, or doesn't draw a quarter as many viewers as Steve Austin, isn't going to make SD live! "the show".
