I love Smackdown, and it gets better with every week!

[Jimmy Carter]

Hey, fellow fannies. How are all of you doing tonight? If the news has escaped your busy interconnected social media world, a new show made its debut a little more than a month ago. Have you heard of something called Smackdown Live?

Facetious façade aside, I implore you to see the positive aspects in the past weeks of Smackdown and how it has distinguished itself from RAW in various ways:

The Ring / The Stage / The Sets
Visual presentation goes a long way, and the blue theme imbues Smackdown with a distinct look and consistently attractive graphics. The entrance stage looks different from RAW and brings a pleasant house show- / wrestling-oriented feel to the program. Also: blue ropes forever.

Subtlety Within Broad Strokes
The in-ring action intertwines with the storyline segments and vice-versa. The Apollo Crews/Miz match tonight serves as just one particular example, with Crews utilizing his impressing arsenal only to find himself overcome by dirty opportunistic tactics courtesy of The Miz. The Usos retaliating against American Alpha after suffering a quick defeat shows their continued descent into devious deeds. Slater's road to gainful employment reveals a scathing indictment of the current job market. I usually observe insights and revelations about life's truths from pro wrestling anyway, but recently I'm finding much more material that reflects day-to-day reality. Points for that.

Build, Build, Build
We need not break down the oft-discussed deadpan brilliance of last week's Heath Slater/Rhyno interview segment, though it nevertheless serves to mention that so much of Smackdown effectively builds to the next week and (it would seem) the subsequent pay-per-view. The Tag Team Tournament, Wyatt/Orton, Ziggler/Miz, the blue Womens Championship, they all present intriguing possibilities from what we have seen in their setup.

I concede that Smackdown features its own particular flaws: Ambrose's character as champion, proper depth in the female and tag divisions, other concerns. The show stands far from perfect, though various sources (Wrestling Observer, Uncle Sam, the thoughts I'm pulling out of my ass right now) indicate that response is improving. At this point, this fresh revision has made me interested to attend a Smackdown event when it next arrives in my area.

So now I leave the floor open for you rascals to chime in with your thoughts. Is Smackdown improving, or do you think it has a long way to go still before it outclasses RAW? Enter your comments below, or post a link to your Tout.

 

[Sean Valjean]

FYI Raw and Smackdown share the same stage again (the one that debuted at Summerslam). I do like the name plates with the superstar factoids, though.

Smackdown Live has yet to produce a truly great episode IMO, but one thing it has over Raw is that the quality is consistent. It's never amazing or terrible - just "solid". I'm always sufficiently entertained and never furious with the show, something I can't say about Raw. Running one hour shorter helps a lot too.

The show has potential to be awesome if they can beef up the roster. They're very slowly doing so with Curt Hawkins re-debuting next week and, eventually, Shelton Benjamin. They desperately need more credible women and tag teams to make those divisions truly shine, but they've got a decent foundation for now. I don't mind Ambrose as champion, they just need more legitimate main eventers to challenge for the title because beyond Cena/Orton, AJ Styles is the only new guy that could believably be world champion.

Overall, I find myself looking forward to Smackdown more because I at least know I'm in for a decent show so there's little worry. With Raw, I have perform a rain dance to the wrestling gods each Monday to pray that the show isn't a boring disaster.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The funny thing about smackdown is that it feel like everybody on that brand has a role and it doesn't feel like some wrestlers are getting lost in the shuffle. They have the strongest woman's division compare to raw which seem to be consisting of only charlotte, sasha and bayley. The main event picture seem better on smackdown with orton, wyatt, aj styles and ambrose but the best thing about smackdown is that it's only 2 hours so they don't have time to waste on stupid segment like raw and that mean that they're going to waste an opportunity just get people talking during the week. Something like the kevin owens title wins should have been done at clash of champion instead of raw because they need to make and impact on their first raw only ppv.

but they went with it because they needed something to save what was until that point a mediocre show with no direction like most raw feel like most week.

 

[Navi]

I'm really enjoying SD and that's something I can't say I've done in the past. The sets to me look the same just sort of different colours. The talent however is the story.

Even though Cena hasn't been around, you don't feel like you are missing anything. Orton has stepped up to the plate, along with Styles, Ambrose and Wyatt. Miz has been totally fantastic heeling up the joint, and while the SD midcard could use a little bit of a fluffing, they are actually doing okay.

Even the Uso heel turn, which I don't really care about, was refreshing and might pump some life into a otherwise going nowhere tag team. American Alpha once they are back up and running are one of the highlights for me right now and Nikki Bella coming back has made the women's division just a little better.

I don't really have any complaints but would love to make a trade, anyone for Dolph Ziggler would be fine with me. God he's such a douche.

RAW on the other hand is still putting out some garbage, especially the way that Gallow and Anderson are being used. What a slap in the face to one of the best tag teams in the world.

 

[kadroan]

I'm really enjoying SD and that's something I can't say I've done in the past. The sets to me look the same just sort of different colours. The talent however is the story.

Even though Cena hasn't been around, you don't feel like you are missing anything. Orton has stepped up to the plate, along with Styles, Ambrose and Wyatt. Miz has been totally fantastic heeling up the joint, and while the SD midcard could use a little bit of a fluffing, they are actually doing okay.

Even the Uso heel turn, which I don't really care about, was refreshing and might pump some life into a otherwise going nowhere tag team. American Alpha once they are back up and running are one of the highlights for me right now and Nikki Bella coming back has made the women's division just a little better.

I don't really have any complaints but would love to make a trade, anyone for Dolph Ziggler would be fine with me. God he's such a douche.

RAW on the other hand is still putting out some garbage, especially the way that Gallow and Anderson are being used. What a slap in the face to one of the best tag teams in the world.

I really hope they let Gallows and Anderson get the win at COTC. I'd hate to see New Day run through Gallows and Anderson then Enzo and Big Cass. Therefore, won't have anybody left to face.