Call ups

[TheBadGuy92]

Smackdown is by far my favorite of the 2 shows however the inevitable is already happening. AJ Styles is already just about out of believable challangers to the WWE title. Ziggler won the fatal 4 way and i doubt there is anyone who truly believes he has a chance to win the title.
The other options:
John Cena: Im sure they will feud again but Styles already has a W in that feud.
Dean Ambrose: Theyve been feuding since the split with Styles picking up the W in that one too.
Ziggler: is beginning right now. calling it, W.
Luke Harper: Shouldve won the fatal 4 way with the thought of possibly the Wyatts helping Harper making it more believable that he has a shot.
Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt: Im sure both of them will feud with Styles at some point but theyre both in the tag title picture for the immediate future before eventually losing and feuding with each other again.

So whos left? Baron Corbin? Sure, id personally like to see it. Apollo Crews? Showcase him and get some wins in a smaller feud first. The Miz? He would be believable with the help of Maryse, but that takes away IC storylines.

Id say if you're going to bring up Joe or Nakamora id bring both of them to smackdown. Smackdown more than Raw needs them and would be showcased well on the blue brand.

 

[Tenzen]

I agree, Smackdown needs more talent.

And they also need to build their mid card as well - right now, I'm having trouble to picture any challenger for Miz as well.

It would suck to have Ziggler/Ambrose flip flopping in the two title feuds.


I would have Joe, Nakamura and Tye going to Smackdown.
- Add Mickie James for the women and we are good.

 

[ColeMc]

I really want Luke Harper to be talked about in the title picture, maybe the IC title but the guy is so very good and criminally underused, hopefully with this return he will be pushed better as he is just so very talented. I see his next big singles feud being with Orton though. In regards to the fatal 4-way, I didn't think he could win it but what would have been the harm of him being booked stronger? Have him eliminate the Miz and have Ambrose and Zigglypoof team up on him for 2-3 minutes, have Harper fight back to get some heat and then the team up for elimination. Maybe even have one of the faces save the other one from elimination(it's okay, faces can do stupid shit).

Cena is obviously coming back into the main event title picture and Ziggles is just a place holder, but AJ v Dolph is an excellent matchup as they are two of the best in-ring workers the WWE has. Could it be AJ's first 5* WWE match? Probably not, they are really hard to get. But I'd expect 4.5 at least. If Cena does return as expected in this program with AJ, I wonder where this leaves the Undertaker. Isn't he supposed to be doing more full time? Have yet to see him dig a single hole.

I can see Dean and the Miz having a good long feud for the IC title and I like that idea. Dean can't keep losing to AJ and not incur some damage to his rep and the Miz has been really delivering recently. I'd expect Ambrose to not only clock up a few wins but also come away with the title at the end.

As far as the midcard, they are really light on genuine singles competitors who can step up at the moment. Seriously, check this list. Crews, Corbin, Kallisto, Swagger, Hawkins and Ellsworth. Out of those I like Corbin as he comes off as very believable in-ring. His mic work isn't terrible, but he does have a minion tattoo...seriously. I feel like his Mom should slap him for that one. Anyways, Crews is seriously talented but he has all the charisma of wet cardboard and I am not sure his great smile and happy clapper character is going to get him over. Kallisto again is excellent in-ring but has anyone seen the vignettes by Tito Santana? That's who Kallisto reminds me of, and it's not good.

As for callups from NXT, Samoa Joe is a great call but the guy is 100% a main eventer, so he won't help further down the card. Tye is a great shout and I hope his transition from the regular fullsail crowd to the touring SD show goes better than Breeze or Crews.

But the one I'm really waiting for is Shelton Benjamin, his injury has him out for another 4 months I believe but he could be inserted anywhere on the card and get massively over, still a shame the way they mishandled him last time in the WWE.

Sorry if all of that was nonsensical garbage, having some trouble sleeping and writing this at 1am.

 

[The Samoan Heritage]

I feel like if Smackdown would develop guys like Crews, Hawkins, Swagger, and Harper, the mid-card division/Ic title pic would do just fine.


At the moment, I see 3 guys who should be called up to Smackdown, but only one fits into the main event scene.

1: Samoa Joe-
AJ should turn face and feud with the Wyatt family, eventually calling an "old friend" for help. If wwe wants to even the heel:face ratio out, after their feud with the Wyatts, have Joe attack AJ.

2: Dillinger-
He's going to have to depend on the fans to get him over because he's on the level of guys like Breeze, Vaudevillians, and Crews, and none of them have seen much success.

3: Hideo Itami- ...just call him up. It was reported in October that due to his neck injury, he would be out of actions for 2-3 months. Keep him out for another month (maybe 2) and debut him on Smackdown roster. He's not getting any younger and these injuries aren't helping.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I feel like if Smackdown would develop guys like Crews, Hawkins, Swagger, and Harper, the mid-card division/Ic title pic would do just fine.


At the moment, I see 3 guys who should be called up to Smackdown, but only one fits into the main event scene.

1: Samoa Joe-
AJ should turn face and feud with the Wyatt family, eventually calling an "old friend" for help. If wwe wants to even the heel:face ratio out, after their feud with the Wyatts, have Joe attack AJ.

2: Dillinger-
He's going to have to depend on the fans to get him over because he's on the level of guys like Breeze, Vaudevillians, and Crews, and none of them have seen much success.

3: Hideo Itami- ...just call him up. It was reported in October that due to his neck injury, he would be out of actions for 2-3 months. Keep him out for another month (maybe 2) and debut him on Smackdown roster. He's not getting any younger and these injuries aren't helping.

I can see Joe & Dillinger moving to the main roster. I read something a month or so ago stating that Dillinger might be headed to the main roster soon and since Samoa Joe's dropped the NXT Championship back to Nakamura, I see no reason he should just spin his wheels in NXT.

As far as Itami goes, I'm at the point where I think they should just cut the guy and be done with it. He's spent more time on the injured list than he has wrestling since signing with WWE and he's not really that old at age 35. However, he does seem to be more than a bit injury prone and I'd be surprised if there aren't any higher ups in the company wondering if he's pretty much shot his wad and used himself up wrestling a very physical style his entire career.

Personally, I'd go with Bobby Roode instead. Roode is arguably the most over guy in NXT right now and the guy's ready. Truth be told, the guy's been ready for over a decade now and it's too bad that he waited so long before leaving TNA. Roode has the in-ring ability, the charisma, the mic skills and he's in the best shape of his life. He looks leaner than I've ever seen him, he's billed about 240 but I put him around 220 to 225.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The main problem right now is that alot of midcarders while being great wrestlers, don't know how to connect with the crowd. I love apollo crews but since he got called up to the main roster, he's getting the same reaction as darren young which is to say that you can hear cricket shirp when they get enter the ring and it's the problem for 85% of the roster. That why, it's always the same guys that are getting push.

The other problem is that in nxt, those guys don't need to work hard to get a fan reaction because those fans will react to pretty much anybody that's a good wrestler, so when they get called up, they continue the same way they learn in nxt and suddenly they aren't over excdpt for those that knows how to adapt to another environment.

Now joe is getting called up by the rumble, I really hope that he's going to be on smackdown because while smackdown got more top level talent, they do need guys that now how to get over and on raw he will get lost in the shuffle plus with what seem to be the plan to have either taker or cena as champion going into wrestlemania, I really want to see joe vs styles as one of the big match at wrestlemania.

 

[Navi]

The main problem right now is that alot of midcarders while being great wrestlers, don't know how to connect with the crowd. I love apollo crews but since he got called up to the main roster, he's getting the same reaction as darren young which is to say that you can hear cricket shirp when they get enter the ring and it's the problem for 85% of the roster. That why, it's always the same guys that are getting push.

The other problem is that in nxt, those guys don't need to work hard to get a fan reaction because those fans will react to pretty much anybody that's a good wrestler, so when they get called up, they continue the same way they learn in nxt and suddenly they aren't over excdpt for those that knows how to adapt to another environment.

Now joe is getting called up by the rumble, I really hope that he's going to be on smackdown because while smackdown got more top level talent, they do need guys that now how to get over and on raw he will get lost in the shuffle plus with what seem to be the plan to have either taker or cena as champion going into wrestlemania, I really want to see joe vs styles as one of the big match at wrestlemania.

Problem with Crews, and I like the guy, is that he has no gimmick for the fans to latch onto. He's just a muscular guy who can do good things in the ring. Now that should be enough, but these days it doesn't appear to get the job done.

If they had put the kind of effort into Apollo Crews that Darren Young got, and I say got because where the hell is he lately? Crews would be holding a belt by now, or in the hunt for one. All the WWE has to do is come up with something for him and he'll be fine, they seem to have issues with doing that though.

In regards to Samoa Joe. Love to see him on the SD roster. RAW doesn't need him as much as SD does. A feud between him and Styles is overdue and has to happen. On RAW he would be stuck until Balor comes back. In the meantime there are quite a few guys ahead of him.

Not 100% sure that either Cena or Taker will be champ going into Mania. I have no idea where they are going with either one of them. That will be interesting going forward.

 

[shadyfozzie]

Here's what WWE needs to do...
Let's just take Smackdown. You have 4 major titles:
Tag Team
IC
Woman's
World

In a 2 hour show, you need to set aside 30 minutes each to a 2 hour show to advancing these storylines (whether it's in-ring, backstage segments, pre-recorded settings, etc). With commercials, there's roughly 22 minutes each week devoted to their stories. Does Smackdown have enough talent to fill in those approximately 22 minutes each week?

On Raw, you have:
World
US
Tag Team
Woman's
Cruiserweights

In a 3 hour setting, you have 36 minutes (roughly 30 w/ commercials) to set up and advance stories. Do they have enough talent to fill in this time?

Now, in both cases, these times would be cut even shorter due to individual feuds not associated with the titles (like Bella vs. Carmella for example). So basically, cut each time by about 25%-30% to take care of that).

 

[TDFG]

I don't envisage any call ups happening until just after WrestleMania, I wouldn't be surprised if there was one or two roster trades before then though, maybe Zayn or Cesaro & Sheamus going to Smackdown with Swagger, Crews or The Uso's going the other way.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Keep in mind that NXT's roster became noticeably smaller in terms of bigger names who could be a threat to the champions when several NXT wrestlers got promoted during the past year. As much as Smackdown could benefit from a couple more names, they should not bring up too many more anytime soon. I could see Shinsuke, Joe, and Mickie James getting added to the main roster in the near future. Once Shinsuke/Joe are done with their feud, at least one has to be getting moved up. I see it being Joe, he would debut at the Rumble and go to Raw. I would prefer he goes to Smackdown, though Raw is the prediction despite it being clogged up at this time. Shinsuke follows by Wrestlemania. Likely to Smackdown. He would drop the NXT Championship to Roode. Mickie needs to go to Smackdown immediately. She would be valuable as a challenger to Alexa as well as someone who could put on great matches with girls like Natalya or Becky too. Asuka, perhaps, but she would need to drop the NXT Women's Championship to Ember Moon first. They should only call up those who have someone ready to take their place.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Smackdown will likely get the next big "singles star" from NXT... While Samoa Joe would be a good pick, I'd personally prefer it to be Nakamura and have Joe stay in NXT.

In terms of contenders, yes, Smackdown has a small problem but it's minor at worst. Ziggler is the kind of guy now who can always be a challenger, much as a DiBiase or Shawn could be back in the day. They'd always only be one match away from being in the title picture, even when occupied elsewhere.

The guy on the roster at the moment who would be interesting to "trade" and let loose is actually Neville.

Done correctly, with a heel turn and either Regal or Nigel McGuinness as his manager could be an exciting challenger to AJ or to Ziggler/Cena for the belt. He seems pretty wasted over on RAW as they're not using him in the Cruiser division or US title picture... Why not have a shock trade where he upsets a major star and earns his title shot with Nigel's help. Indeed with the UK title coming, it seems a great way to get him into the main event picture... have him "sub" for someone in the tournament when he takes them out, win it and the title and come back and demand a WWE Title shot on Smackdown.

 

[ShinChan]

The next NxT call-ups should be Samoa Joe and The Revival.

Why? They have done everything they could in NxT and now it's the right time to call them up to the main roster especially since the road to Wrestlemania 33 is going to start soon at Royal Rumble. These both should/must debut before Wrestlemania 33.

Samoa Joe could go to Smackdown where Midcard is quite shallow. Revival could go to either brand.

Except these two, I would love a perfect debut by Tye Dillinger after Wrestlemania 33.