What 3 things would you do to improve Smackdown?

[Ben G]

So there you have it! My 3 ideas to make Smackdown better going to SyFy!
1. Bring Y2J back to SD!- or if not make Christian the NEW 'face' of SD!
2. Major upgrades to SES & a major push to go with it!
3. Bring back the Cruiserweight Division- after the IC & US titles are unified together on RAW

probably three of the best ideas on this thread

1. whether its Y2J or christian i dont care, but one of them needs to be the top face of smackdown, actually on second though, preferably christian cos i REALLY want him to win a major wwe title

2. when the SES first started i though it was gonna be HUGE! but all i've seen is punk losing to everyone he fueds with as you said he lost to rey!! which was a serious WTF moment
i love your idea to add in mark henry as the muscle either him or ezekiel jackson, i havent seen anything from tyler black so i'll trust you on that one, a new young tag team would be awesome and the diva i'd like to see is beth pheonix she would dominate the womens division and i liked her as a heel

3. the thing i liked about the cruiserweight division was it put smaller guys where they belong, im the first to admit they can have awesome matches, but when i see someone like mysterio beating guys like kane and cm punk it really shits me off, repackage the title with a different name and it would be perfect for the show

 

[Wolf Pac]

No order

1) Take out Todd Grisham and have Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole & Matt Striker commentate for SD aswell as Raw & NXT. Todd sucks. With Lawler & Cole we will get some comedy which always spices up the show a little more.

2) Stop putting Taker in the main event scene, actually put him on Raw. We've seen enough of him on Smackdown to last us a lifetime.

3) Put Cena & Orton back on SD. WWE lives & breathes of em, so with the top men on the B show, the SD main event scene would be taken more seriously. Taker, Sheamus, HHH, Wade Barrett, JoMo, Miz, Daniel Bryan & Batista if he returns, can run Monday nights main event scene.

Extra: Change the theme song. The current theme is horrible.

 

[Narsat]

I really want John Morrison back on Samckdown...he was on such a roll before the draft...I can see him becoming a legitimate main eventer on Smakdown and then later on he can come to Raw and feud with the more established guys like Cena and Orton.

 

[Undertaker the 5th]

Push CM Punk to the moon like they have done with other wrestlers before. I think he deserves it and he can sure carry on SD.

Change its time slot and the day it airs. also make it live.

Make Cena disobey Barret. Get fired and picked up by Smackdown.

 

[CrossRhodes]

Rebuild the Roster!!! I have been saying this since the draft!! In the last year they have lost alot of people. Jeff Hardy, John Morrison, Chris Jericho and R-truth just to name some of them. I would bring Jomo and R-truth back to Smackdown and have Evan Bourne and Chris Jericho (After he comes back) come aswell.

Air Smackdown Live. Have Smackdown on Friday Nights live because alot of the fans easily look up the results of the taped show and don't bother to tune in. There would be alot more viewers if they wen't live.

Push younger talent. Last year Smackdown was easily considered the A show because they had alot of young talent and didn't have the superstars that were constantly in the Title matches e.g. John Cena, Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista.

There are alot more ways they could improve but those are the three in my head.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

Sorry if some of these ideas have been put out there already, but I didn't feel like reading through all of this.

Kill the Brand Split

There is a massive gap between the talent on Raw, and the talent on Smackdown. Do I mean a gap between those having talent and those who do not? No. I mean Raw has the guys who draw, and Smackdown doesn't.

The brand split has also caused certain divisions to take a major hit. The Tag division hasn't been the same since the split. There isn't a cruiserweight division, even though they have several guys who could do quite well with one (Evan Bourne, Justin Gabriel, Primo, Tyson Kidd, Chavo, Joey Mercury, Kaval, and possibly even Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan, even though both seem destined to do something outside of that division, Rey already has).

Smackdown Can Return to Being the #2 Show..and Be Proud of It.

Basically, I'm saying turn Smackdown back into what it was. Before the brand extension, Smackdown was used as a way to, A. Continue and further popular storylines, and B. Showcase talent they didn't have time for on Raw alone. By going back to the old Smackdown, you no longer have to split talent. Can you have feuds that take place on one show or the other? Sure, but you don't have to. And, you showcase those feuds on both shows freely. I guarantee (and I don't do that very often) Smackdown's ratings would increase if this were to happen.

Go Live?

Some people say to go live, others don't care. I probably enjoy a show more when I know it's live, but it isn't a huge deal. But the one thing I have liked about Smackdown on SyFy as opposed to Smackdown on MyTV, UPN, CW, etc. is picture quality. On those other channels, the picture quality was somewhat shitty. It was nowhere near as clear as it is on SyFy, looking more like the quality you see on USA every Monday.

The last reason wasn't a big thing, but it was something (up until a few weeks ago) that really bothered me.

 

[Morpheus101]

Perhaps Smackdown should be switched to Thursday nights? I don't know....how to WWE really expect a TV show aired on a FRIDAY night to generate amazing ratings, when so many people are out on Friday night and not glued to the television (not that there's anything wrong with staying in)? Friday nights just don't work IMO. Air Smackdown on any other night BUT Friday if high ratings are your goal. Few people are going to give up the Friday night party / trip to the club or bar to stay home and watch a wrestling show.

I don't think the roster split should be killed completely though, but I would like to see more cross brand competition and more cross brand feuds (e.g. Cena vs The Undertaker or Kane vs. Orton). If you end the split, you have to unify the titles and that leaves a lot of talent redundant and may give certain wrestlers a bit too much air time (as in more than they have now). As of right now, there is no Rock or Stone Cold to be entertaining enough to make that work, especially in the PG era.

 

[the_A-LIST]

1. Have SD get a new layout to differ itself from how RAW looks.
2. Bring a new feud to excite the crowd and have everyone looking forward to next week and the week after and the week after etc. Maybe after the Buried Alive Match at Bragging Rights, have Kane lose and him comeback with new attire and the Mask. Have him wreck havoc like he did when he first debuted and when he took off his mask. That Kane was a real monster. Have a similar storyline but please someone else besides Undertaker for now.
3. Bring back the Cruiserweight title. It's been a while since we seen high flying action in the WWE, and there's a ton of superstars who can be in the cruiserweight division.
4.
Put Intercontinental Title back on RAW.
Put U.S Title back on SD.
Ununify the Tag titles and bring back the ones they just switched. It was a stupid idea changing them to copper look a like titles.

 

[AYR Fool?]

1. Move Smackdown to Thursday nights to compete with TNA and will also boost the ratings more than on a Friday.
2. Make Smackdown Live on Thursday. The new talent on Smackdown, I think, are worthy of making the show go live. It's just how creative uses those superstars. People who go out on Friday night have something to do Thursday. Since WWE is PG, when Smackdown is on a Friday, it competes with new episodes of cartoons that kids watch. Changing Smackdown to Thursday nights would raise the ratings not only from adults but from the kids as well. (Smackdown is getting better every week with the current story lines but a live show brings a refreshing feel when watching it.)
3. Make tag-teams to utilize those superstars with nothing to do. Make the tag team division exciting and high flying like it used to be. Creative needs to make tag-team matches long, have close pinfalls, and have high flying action.

 

[sharu7]

1.Move back to thursdays - It was much better having it on thursdays, fridays, most people, are busy and hardly have time to watch it, thursday was much better, and it was at a good time slot as well. 7pm-9pm.

2.Make it go live - It would be MUCH better, I'm pretty sure, the ratings would go up ridiculously higher, because, it would be live, and no spoliers..

3.Kill the brand split - Since most are new wrestlers, it would be better if they appeared on both shows, it would help make their character more credible, instead of coming on tv, once a week, twice a week would be better...

 

[Djm]

Speaking realistically, because THE BRAND SPLIT ISN'T ENDING......

1. I'd change the set to it looks completely different Raws. Keep it blue, but make it totally different, with a MUCH better theme song. Enemy by Green Day? Seriously?
2. Remove Michael Cole. I like Todd Grisham and Matt Striker as a commentary team. WWE needs to stop playing hot potato with the announce booth and let guys get better together.
3. CM Punk, solo, as the top heel.

 

[LSN80]

1. I would have them go live, at least once a month. It would make it feel special if they did so for those shows. Ive always believed that people being able to read spoilers on web sites have killed ratings-If you go live, even every once in awhile, it would make the show feel special, and obviously jump ratings somewhat. This may mean a need to make a time change, or a night change, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing either. It would make people more inclined to watch, as Friday is generally a night where more people "go out." If you do it live, preferably every week, it would make the show feel "special" rather then just taped.

2. Face turns- Id start with the IC champion and go from there. The show is TOO heel heavy, especially with the recent injury to Christian, and the release of Matt Hardy that there are virtually no faces. You could further the Vickie-Kaitlyn-Dolph storyline by havinbg botched interference cost Dolph the title, and have Dolph lose Vickie. Then Vickie uses her power as "consultant" to get even, making Ziggler a sympathetic and eventually babyface character. But the show is desperately in need of faces, even if one needs to be imported from Raw.

3. Get rid of Todd Grisham as play by play announcer: Ive never heard someone try to froce enthusiasm or use such poor inflectiuon and timing to call big moments. He's so monotonous and unentusiastic, that even when something important DOES happen, its hard to feel excited about it because the guy is just so darn bland. Id much prefer if they flip-flopped Josh Matthews and Grisham, because I think Matthews brings alot more to the table then Grisham does.

 

[A-KO]

1. Re-address the balance of stars on both brands, Smackdown is too mid-card heavy whereas RAW is too ME heavy.

2. When was the last time a title physically changed hands on smackdown apart from Jack Swagger winning WHC? Better yet, change the title on a live broadcast, therefore no spoilers are leaked.

3. Go live on Thursdays and not pre-taped from a tuesday. Move superstars to Wednesday so you get 4 Days in a row (5 with Sunday PPV) of WWE and the weekend (Fri, Sat to go out)

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

1) Bring a big star to smackdown that hasn't been to smackdown for a while or ever. Edge was on smackdown very recently and is back there again now, so it just feels like home to have edge there. I noticed that cena was on both raw and smackdown world tour ads and thats interesting even though many tell me those things are subject to change, I wouldn't count out the possibilty of cena going to smackdown if he turns heel at the end of this nexus run. That would be a great starting point.

2) Smackdown needs some of the 'BIG' storylines. Smackdown has no mystery GM, no nexus trying to make an impact and the hottest thing right now is a feud between kane and undertaker for at least the third time which is now on hiatus because of taker's injury. Edge and swagger or del rio and rey are just general feuds. The last big stoyyline was when teddy long was ordered to screw over taker against CM punk for which a reason was never revealed. Before that it was edge and vicky but these things are a while ago now. The writers need to do something huge and smackdown exclusive.

3) Promote smackdown on raw. We always see clips of the latest ongoing saga with the nexus and john cena on smackdown, why not do it in reverse? It's a simple thing that could really boost ratings.

There are more I could think of and these aren't the definitive actions I would take, these are just three that popped into my head when I thought about it.

 

[Pepperami]

1) Rid of Teddy Long and have a veteran superstar take his place. His segments are ridiculous I get the feeling that the show is 'less important' with him at the helm. His announcements are stupidly predictable and he is boring. I'd like to see someone come through and shake everything up.

2) Shut Kane up. From the moment the Undertaker / Kane feud began, he has spouted some awful stuff through the microphone. The whole feud was embarrassing to watch. I can see how they wanted to revive a classic rivalry, but it's way past its sell-by-date. Kane is a terrible actor. I would trade Kane to Raw for Ted DiBiase.

3) A thrilling storyline. When the Nexus appeared on the scene and terrorised Raw by trashing the ring on a couple of occasions, I was on the edge of my seat. Smackdown (as a whole show) severely needs a storyline that is gripping and will have viewers taking it all in. I'd personally love to see the roster split in two, with a mix of heels and faces on each side. The show would spin out of control with each side determined to wipe the other off Smackdown. It would lead up to a huge PPV elimination match (or a series of tag matches) with a special stipulation. Each superstar in the losing team would have to choose whether to surrender to the other team or to enter a trade situation with Raw. It's just a general idea, but Smackdown absolutely needs a storyline that shakes the show to the ground.

(Also, a Nexus takeover would be a great way to stir the show up)

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

1. Bring a main event heel to Smackdown- Smackdown presently has just one main event heel and he is Kane. Alberto Del Rio is rising up the ranks fast but he will need to have at least a few IC title runs before making the jump up to the main event. In the meanwhile you need a main event heel alongside Kane to feud with the face Kane is not feuding with. I personally want to see Sheamus on Smackdown.

2. Move Smackdown to Thursday nights: Most people have already explained this point on the thread. Competition with Impact is good for both shows. Plus most people are too busy on Friday nights to watch Smackdown so it makes no sense having it on that day

3. Brothers of Destruction as a heel team: Would love to see this happen but I'm sure this won't happen because Undertaker is just about ready to hang up his boots. But this has never happened before and would surely give a much needed ratings boost to Smackdown.

 

[bigdogstalfos]

1) Allow more cross-brand feuding
It's been said before in this thread, but Smackdown is really heel-heavy, especially in the midcard. Assuming Del Rio will resume his feud with Rey eventually and Rhodes will feud with McIntyre, you're still left with Ziggler and Swagger to do nothing except fight Kofi Kingston and lower-level guys. It would just be nice to see something different and, if Smackdown and Raw were feuding, it would add something to the Bragging Rights concept to make it seem the Raw-Smackdown rivalry goes beyond a trophy no one cares about.

2) Make it live on Thursdays
There's a reason Friday nights are usually called the death slot for primetime. People are out doing things besides watching TV. Thursdays, not so much. And making it live is just more exciting. Do you watch tape delayed sports events? No, you watch it live. It's just more exciting.

3) Make the GM a more viable character
At this point, Teddy Long's only purposes on show appear to liberally call people "player" and occasionally make main event matches. Raw's GM does something a couple of times per show usually, and he/she/it is a computer. Half the time I forget Teddy even exists. If you're going to have an authority figure, use him! He doesn't need to be evil Vince trying to always screw Stone Cold, but he should at least be there to remind the wrestlers he's the one in charge.

 

[wwefan4lyfe]

this about how smackdown can be improved its about how the entire wwe can be improved because lets face it wwe sucks right now so here is my plan to improve wwe and hopefully this doesnt get deleted......#1-combine both rosters allowing all superstars to wrestle on either show and also by doing that it would make for more better and interesting feuds instead of seeing the same fueds over and over again....#2-stop putting pay per views so close together,for example wwe will run one pay per view and then 2 weeks later they will have another pay per view and that doesnt give them enough time to build up the storylines and feuds for that pay per view so go back to using pay per views like backlash,judgement day,armageddon,survivor series,summer slam,royal rumble,wrestlemania and 2 or 3 more pay per view but seperate them out enough where the storylines and feuds for the pay per views can be built up more.....#3-get rid of the world and u.s. titles and just keep the wwe and i.c. titles...the reason for getting rid of the world title is this..ok look at the raw roster ur main even guys are triple h,john cena,randy orton,sheamus,wade barrett,cm punk and the miz once he cashes in his briefcase but lets face it the only ones who really wrestle for the wwe title is john cena,randy orton,wade barrett,sheamus and the miz..triple h has basically stepped away from winning the title and is more interested in building future stars and cm punk hasnt been a contender in i dont know how long...now lets look at smackdowns main event guys..u have undertaker,edge,kane,rey mysterio,big show,jack swagger,christian and maybe alberto del rio but the only ones wrestling for the world title is kane and edge..the undertaker much like triple h is only interested in building future stars and i guarantee any of those other guys i named will not be winning the world title or even recieving a shot at it in the future and also undertaker,rey mysterio and even edge are being reported to be retiring in the next year or 3 so thats going to dwindle down thier main event scene and triple h is one more major injury away from retirement and i guarantee once kane loses the world title its gonna be a long time before he gets another shot at it so like i said i would just keep the wwe title and make randy orton,john cena,wade barrett,sheamus,edge,the miz,drew mcintyre,christian and john morrison my contenders for that title and those would be my top main event guys and the rest of the roster would be my lower main event or just fillers..triple h and undertaker will just be there to build up future stars...#4-i would bring back the tag team division and make it stronger that includes bringing back tag teams that wwe released that had potential....#5-i would release superstars that u will never see on raw or smackdown....#6-i would stop all the stupid backstage comedy skits because they are just stupid and not one bit funny at all....#7-i would keep the pg era but make it more edgier,like let the superstars swear a little bit and let the divas show some skin but not too much

 

[Calderownz]

1. Change the ring colors. I know it seems weird, but the colors are so bland, it makes the product bland. I just can't stand how boring it seems.

2. Stop taking all the big stars from Smackdown! and sending them on over to Raw. Let them build up two very solid shows, instead of overloading one and almost damaging it and letting the other bleed itself to death.

3. Bring back a legitimate Cruiserweight division. Let it actually have a home, show it prominently and let the emphasis actually draw in unique fans that want fast-paced action.

 

[Pepperami]

I agree with changing the colour. I've never liked the overtones of blue in the show. It looks too 'pre-watershed' whereas Raw is the opposite.

 

[Tna-WWE]

the three things i would change is.
1. Smack down making promos that would quite interest everyone's attention. Instead of some like Kane's
2. Make some more main eventers go to smack down for example the miz he could actually make a great heel on smack down because the only thing they use him on raw is rarely main events and mostly he is a mid carder.
3. Change the atmosphere-- first of all i know its a pg zone but could they tone some matches with great scripts like they did when smack down started that got people's attention.

 

[Montague]

1. Make SD live: if its life people cant just get the details off line, they have to sit and watch it themselves

2. Move SD from Friday: friday nights is the night that noone is home, that means noone is watching SD move it to Thursday, more people are home = more people will watch

3. Take SD off SyFy: syfy is for Horror/Fantasy shows and movies, NOT for wrestling entertainment. And if someone is looking to watch 2 guy wrestle they arnt going to flip to the same channel that just had Sharktopuss on 20 minutes ago

4. Get rid of Teddy Long: T-Lo has been GM way too long. He was great...WAS, now he is boring and predictable, holla holla holla. And dont go and put Vickie as the GM either, get someone new in the lime light.

5. Develop more stars:
We got Taker(only appears 8 months out of the year IF we are lucky, and half the time he doesnt even wrestle)
Edge(9 time world champ, great wrestler, does NOT need another world title)
Mysterio(boring title reigns, 619 -> Diving Splash -> Pin)
Show(Slow and boring)
Kane(he deserves the title, but after the taker feud doesnt have anyone good to compete against thats he hasnt done before)
We need more Ziggler, Swagger, DelRio(even if i do hate the gimmick),Cody Rhodes, Kofi, & McIntyre in the picture...some new blood just like wwe is doing with Miz, Morrison, Shamus, & Barrett on Raw right now

I know its 5 things but this is what I believe needs to be done to SD to have it competing with Raw

 

[Remix]

My list:

Call up some FCW tallent to pad the roster. To be specific I'd call up Richie Steamboat, Johnny Curtis and Byron Saxton. Curtis is all around awesome, he's not perfect, but he's more than good enough for a midcard run. Steamboat is simply awesome in the ring (I've got him on my sig for a reason) and Bryon Saxton makes for a damn good heel manager. With those three I'd give call up Saxton first and give him to Trent Baretta to get him over (he's 23 and good in the ring. Worth elevating to a level above Superstars). At around the same time I'd call up Steamboat to feud with the smaller midcard guys at a personal level (i.e. not over a title), maybe Baretta w/ Saxton and have good matches in the feud to get over before putting him in the ring with the IC champion (but probably not winning). Curtis, while the best of the three is also the one that can wait longest. Have him arrive, but not immediately start a programme with someone. Let him have a few matches, cut a few promos and get over first before putting him in a feud with someone over and go from there.

2) Bring over some new Main Eventers. Of the midcarders on Smackdown, I do not believe that any of them are ready for the WHC. There are plenty of upper midcarders on Raw who are. There are only so long that Edge, Kane, Mysterio, Swagger (to a lesser extent) and Show can keep a Main event scene interesting. Injecting a Morrison or Miz into the mix would allow things to be changed up once in a while and allow for elevation of guys who are almost ready.

3) Drop the PG rating Cross promote with Raw. Yes there's a brandsplit, but Raw is watched by more people than Smackdown. Have a segment or a match on Raw which serves little other purpose than to advertise Smackdown. Not to be rediculous (e.g. a Smackdown invasion) or anything, just something to give casual fans a reason to watch the "B-Show" and up the ratings.

 

[TheFatManFromYoutube]

Ok while i was creating a recent thread about the draft i realized that smackdown 36 people on their roster, "Hey fat ass thats not bad." Hear me out. They may have 36 people but 8 of those(not counting hornswoggle) aren't wrestlers. That leaves 28 wrestlers while raw has 39 wrestlers. And alot of SD! roster i can see being released in a little while. But yet again it could be good, create more stars that way. What do you guys think about the roster?

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

Smackdown cetainly has a problem with the amount og guys that will be retiring soon that are on their particular brand. I mean let's looks at them! Rey Mysterio, Kane, Edge, Undertaker, Christian (most likely), Big show (possibly), and if you take away all of these guys, who do you have left than can main event on your brand? Del Rio, Swagger - these are the only two guys I can see being consederable as main event superstars right now, so work on the young guys has to be done fast, otherwise we'll end up with a situation worse than what raw was going to be like now had sheamus, nexus and miz not reared their heads.

It's bad enough that undertaker will not have the possibility of showing up ever which will instantaneously reduce the viewing number a fair chunk, but the rest of the guys cannot afford to be lost either. So smackdown needs to be pushing drew, cody, kval and other really hard right now but not force them. Either way they need to get up their otherwise smackdown will become a starless show! Forget about B show, it'll be a C-ya later show.