Storyline wise Smackdown is great, but does the repetition of matches bother you?

[AegonTargaryen]

Hi Guys.

So I've noticed Smackdown Live, and the brand split in general has been great on a few levels, which were quite touched upon in the June discussion on the announcement of Brand Split/Live Smackdown.

They've succeeded in character development, giving time to develop stories and feuds rather than the old formula where we saw random tag matches and singles matches both on Raw and Smackdown. Let's consider Smackdown:-

1)Miz is doing fine, is a good heel and talkshow host and is finally getting a deserved "role" than being just there, as before the Split.
2)Same can be said about Bray Wyatt.
3)Even Heath Slater has gotten a level of importance.
4)I've enjoyed the cocky side of James Ellsworth, which I've realized makes him really hilarious, apart from his very sight.
5)Dean Ambrose has also been interesting and somewhat Edgy(especially two segments where he practically villified John Cena), and AJ Styles is AJ Styles.

All this was made possible as a result of a brand split.

But here comes the other side of the coin, the negative, which was also touched upon by Brand Split detractors.

However, I'd like your opinion on this.

How many times have we seen the following matches in the last 4 months itself:-

Miz vs Ziggler
Miz vs Ambrose
Styles vs Ambrose
Kane vs Luke Harper or Bray Wyatt
Baron Corbin vs Kalisto

Also, in the tag division, the same matches are put on over and over, which naturally, when you have 5-6 teams, you only cycle the same matches by putting two teams against each other,over and over, then switch Team A or B with Team C, D, or E (depending on what team happens to be Face, Heel, and so on).

Hype Bros vs The Ascension for example.

On Raw, we've had the Club versus The New day, and The Club versus Truth/Goldust like a million times?

I'm not even going to bother elaborating on the Women's division because I'm not really into Women's wrestling, two separate women's divisions is an insane idea, when you barely have fresh and credible contenders and performers for your singles Male Titles- The IC title and WWE title. (Since the moment of the announcement of the return of the brand split, I've held that they should've made the Women's division exclusive to a particular brand, while the other brand got the Cruiserweights. )

Just tell me, What now that the Miz and Ziggler have fought 10K times, as have Ambrose and Styles(both on PPV and TV)?

Consider the main singles players of the SDL roster:- AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, John Cena, Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Kane, Luke Harper, Baron Corbin, Kalisto, Apollo Crews, Jack Swagger and Curt Hawkins.

John Cena is a parttimer and at any rate has already had extensive feuds with Styles, Wyatt and Orton.

Kane is, well, "near Expiry" if not already Expired, and who really has an interest in watching Kane contend for the IC title anyway? I'd really like to see a Kane vs AJ Styles match, just once, but that's that.

Luke Harper isn't an established singles performer, Apollo Crews is just floating, and I don't quite think he's at the level of Miz or Ziggler, and we all know how talented Curt Hawkins is, and then there's Kalisto and Baron Corbin.

So having elaborated this much, I'll end with two questions:-

Does the repetition of matches bother you?

Who on the SDL roster is really ready to contend for either the IC or WWE title, considering the extreme number of times the main players have already fought against each other?

Please try and justify your view, if for example you're going to say Kalisto or Apollo Crews should be the next IC champ, and so on.

Also keep in mind, Randy and Bray are a team now, and may well prolong and end their feud, before either of them is available to face Styles, Ambrose, Miz, Ziggler or Cena.

 

[ShinChan]

The matches are repetitive, there's no doubt in it.

I guess that the solution for it is addition of one or two wrestlers either from Raw or NxT.

For example, if you add Joe from NxT and trade in Cesaro/Zayn from Raw, the repetition stops.

Still, there are some matches to be seen.

Use Apollo Crews more. Styles Vs. Crews, Wyatt Vs Crews, Orton Vs. Crews.

The midcard of Smackdown isn't deep enough.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

While I'm not a big fan of repetitive matches, their are alot of fans that seems to not dislike it as much so I get why wwe would continue with this formula. The problem especially on raw is that they have way to many talents that if you give them a chance could be over with the crowd.

Let's take for exemple, darren young and titus o'neil. Why are these 2 single wrestlers? As the prime time players these 2 we're really over last year, so why not send them to smackdown and reunite the team which would be a breath of fresh air for the smackdown tag division.

neville, another guy that use to be over but since being drafted to raw, he's nowhere to be seen. Put him in the cruiserweight division and let him be the face of the division until the young guys in the division can gett over.

On smackdown, while I don't get why, jack swagger is over with the crowd, why not use him more, put him in the ic title mix.

Crews is a great wrestler and could be a great lower card wrestlers to get the crowd work up for the rest
Of the show. The guy might not have any charisma, but he's a great talent that can give a good wrestling match with anybody

Also try to surprise the fan with some of the tag team and push some of the teams that have been look at as jobber teams. The ascension have change their look lately, it's a good opportunity for them to repackage them and push them as a dominent tag team.

their so many exemple that I could give to spice up both brand but since the casual doesn't seem to dislike the reetitive matches and wwe is still making a lot of money, I don't see them changing their booking style anytime soon.

 

[Navi]

With the lack of depth on both rosters you are going to see repetitive matches, it's the nature of the beast. Also take into account that they have to let storylines play out, so we will see the same people wrestling each other over and over again. As a matter of fact we saw that before the brand split.

Both RAW and SD are guilty of the same. The difference is that SD seems to progress their storylines, RAW does not. For example, the Ambrose/Styles feud introduced James Ellesworth to the roster. Now I'm getting kind of tired of the guy as he does the same thing every week (interferes in the match), but he is effective and the fans like him. It has also added a new dimension too it and is able to draw it out a little longer.

I do agree that the women should have stayed on one show and maybe the tag teams on another, but SD has done well with their women, RAW not so much. It's been all Sasha and Charlotte and while that's not a bad thing, the rest are forgotten. Same with the tag teams. The WWE are building up American Alpha while putting Orton and Wyatt at the top. That's one hell of a team to try and take out. New Day on the other hand have basically stalled the RAW division with the record attempt.

I'm tired of Miz and Ziggler as well, but they are putting on great matches so the IC title has stayed interesting. That's one big complaint I have against RAW. Owens is being booked weakly, and the US title has done nothing for Reigns and he's done nothing for it.

I think what they should do coming up is a draft. Once most of the major storylines are over, start trading some of the talent around. The matches will become repetitive again, but as I said before, with a smaller roster that is bound to happen.

 

[LoveReignsO'erMe]

I think the biggest issue with Smackdown is the lack of credible faces to contend for titles.

You have all "heels" as champs: Styles, Miz, Wyatt Family.

We've seen Ambrose against Styles a bunch, we've seen Ziggler against Miz a bunch, and WWE seems unsure if they want to push American Alpha to the top yet (they want to eventually I'm sure, but probably not until WM33).

So what do we do until then? I'd say the wrestler who most deserves a title shot is Baron Corbin, who has been doing some great work and has a great look. But he's also a heel.

Do you let Ambrose go down a notch and challenge Miz? If so, who is challenging Styles? Is Undertaker going to fill that role for a PPV or 2?

I'm just not sure they built up enough credible face challengers to belts. Someone like Sami Zayn could be well positioned on Smackdown, instead of having this weird Foley/Strowman storyline. Maybe they can do a Heath/Rhyno split and have one of them get a storyline with Miz.

What it boils down to is, I honestly don't know what they can do to get fresh pairings without a part-timer stepping in for AJ.

 

[#tamale]

There is a repetitive nature throughout all three brands, but I feel that once they are closer to the Royal Rumble we will see what fresh feuds they can come up with.

More surprising is that the brand split has worked in terms of ratings. Raw has maintained steady ratings throughout the NFL season. Smackdown going live on Tuesdays has actually improved the ratings. Even though they may have repetitive matchups, they are working because the audience is staying tuned in.

The difference is that SD seems to progress their storylines, RAW does not.

This may have been true at the start of the brand split, but in the past month Raw has done a much better job at progressing their storylines. Raw is actually progressing their current ongoing feuds and introducing some fresh feuds. Smackdown has somewhat stalled in the past month.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

WWE has had repetitive programming for years. I watch every ppv without fail, but don't bother with Raw and Smackdown weekly - though I obviously keep up with the results. It does seem like sometimes the reporters on here can cut and paste week by week.

Given how many wrestlers are on the books, there really is no need for it. Like in the summer time, how many times did Dolphins Ziggler face Baron Corbin? I'm very much in the less in more camp, and believe that repetitive matches on tv make the ppv matches mean a lot less

 

[The Yes Guy]

I've always been astonished when people say SD is more interesting. Raw has done a lot better job of keeping their storylines fresh than SD.
JeriKO are splitting up. Seth Rollins is moving towards the HHH feud, KO has moved on from Rollins to Reigns, The women are doing a great job (although it has been only the two, they've done some great work), they're trying to build up Sheamus-Cesaro as a credible tag team, Enzo-Rusev have their thing going on. All of this is way better than the repetitive non sense that we get on SD. And this is not their fault. There is a severe lack of depth to the roster and they've failed to build up faces apart from Ellsworth. Also the non availability of Cena is a huge issue here. He provides the importance to everything he's involved in.
I think AJ is being wasted at SD and should shift to Raw where he'd be better used.

 

[TheLoneCharles]

A quick NXT callup to challenge for a title would fix the repetiveness. I would buy Samoa Joe to face AJ and Tye Dillinger to face Miz.

 

[Mudlup50]

While I fully agree the repetitive matches are annoying we should be about over it soon. You figure rumor is Taker is coming back at the Rumble and I'd imagine Cena will right before then so that's 2 more Main event faces so Ambrose slides down to upper midcard and takes the IC belt off the Miz, this allows the Miz to jump up to the main event scene in about April or May and allows Corbin to take the belt off Ambrose after a couple months. Then with more time in the company Crews will hopefully be better and Kalisto will be more polished. By then Dillenger should be called up and on Smackdown as well as Samoa Joe! By then the division will be so fresh that it'll hold us off till about June where they'll do a draft and that'll keep it fresh for a couple more months.


But crazy thoughts aside, I think the problem was when they did the brand split and the stupid 3-2 rule. On Raw this week they had 2 cruiserweight matches, so Raw has an entire division over Smackdown and then 150% of the rest of the competitors! Then add to that the fact Smackdown got the shaft. I mean think about who they got for a second
AJ Styles(at this point upper midcard guy who might lose to Cena at Summerslam)
Dean Ambrose(least main event level guy of the Shield, lost most of his feuds before)
Miz(former world champ stuck in the midcard for years since)
Becky Lynch(lost all of her title matches because she couldn't hang with Charlotte or Banks)
Ascension, Vaudevillains(the jobber tag teams)

That's not even card stacking, the best superstars went to Raw and in droves. Smackdown was left with the crumbs and has made a decent show out of it. In 6 months though, everything will be fine I'm certain of it



Right Now
Main Eventers: Styles, Ambrose, Cena?
Mid card: Miz, Ziggler, Corbin, Kalisto

June 2017(Before Draft)
Main Eventers: Styles, Cena, Miz, Ziggler, Ambrose, Joe, Orton, Wyatt
Mid card: Corbin, Kalisto, Dillenger, Harper, Crews

And then after the draft Smackdown could have guys like Zayn, Owens, Rollins, Reigns, Cesaro, Sheamus, etc. It's just a timing thing I think and it will get better I assure you