WWE & SmackDown - Building It Up?

[Hard Hit Prince]

It looks like Cena's Construction Company has started over at Friday Night SmackDown and for a long time, I've actually had some interest to watch the "B" show. I was not disappointed as this week's show not only had strong segments as it also had good wrestling matches - even from the divas division - and I just think to myself: "What the hell happened!?"

I'm not a guy for spoilers, sometimes I read them, sometimes I don't and for some months now I've started to skip the show and only read some reports and reviews on our own klunderbunker website (promotional consideration eheh), and move on. In a matter of three years, the show became less than relevant to the main storylines and viewership drops have been noted with pretty much every year hitting new lows. But I can't seem to feel that this is just plain wrong - SmackDown was always the "Wrestling Show", where the "other" guys could show their talent, but now, it's a minor show for the same guys to show what they always do and it is pretty much fine to skip.

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I think that a two hour block on SyFy is great for the WWE, financially speaking and specially after the latest reports on television feeds. So why not build the "B" show as something where relevant and important things actually happen? Why not have an exclusive rivalry developing down there and, hype it on your Monday Night Raw episodes? It can't be that bad and it probably can increase people's interest. I'm not always on Facebook and specially not always on the WWE.com website to see what they are hyping for the show - however I'm an avid watcher of Monday Night Raw, and yet, it's like SmackDown never happened from one week to another.

What are your take on the current Friday Night SmackDown shows?
How can you turn them into a more competitive television show, in terms of interest and ratings? New TV channel? New stars? Brand Split? Different day? Live episodes?

Discuss it all in here and find the very first social answer to it!

 

[Spidey Revivey]

There isn't any intrigue for me in this moment for the blue show. It's like the writers have decided to pretty much skip Fridays and just do a few matches here and there while pushing for backstage segments that don't even do much. No reason to tune in on Fridays really. You'll see the same guys on Monday.

Just have select stars only be featured on Smackdown. You don't have to cut the roster in half; just give us reasons to tune in. That's all I really want at this moment.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

A few months back, reports on various sites came out claiming that WWE intended to build SmackDown! up to a level comparable to that of Raw. The reports alleged that they ultimately wanted to do away with the "B Show" perception that's taken root.

Over the past few months, I think that WWE has moved towards doing that to some degree. For instance, Triple H & Stephanie appearing on Raw is to be expected, but they've had follow up segments featuring The Authority on SmackDown!. The usual manner of following up with top happenings on Raw is limited to the commentators mentioning them and a video of said happenings being played and the real follow up held off until the next Raw. Another example is the WWE Champion and/or contenders for the title being on SD!. The WHC frequently shows up on Raw but the WWE Champion, for a very long time, almost never comes to SD!.

The most obvious sign, of course, is the fact that John Cena is World Heavyweight Champion and is looking to be on the blue brand for the foreseeable future. John Cena has reached a level in his career that very few ever reach. Cena's bigger than championships at this point and really has been for a long while. Even when Cena wasn't carrying a title, you'd hardly ever see him on SmackDown! for a good many years except for a very occasional appearance.

Cena being WHC is also an obvious move to increase the overall prestige of the title and there's talk of Cena possibly carrying the title all the way through to WrestleMania. I generally like watching SD!, but I tend to get less interested in it during WrestleMania season because a good deal of SD! is turned into a Raw recap show. Again, all the happenings from all the top WrestleMania feuds are endlessly talked about, video clips of what happened are played, the announcers hype it all up but there's virtually no follow up on SD! beyond that. With Cena as WHC through WrestleMania season, that means that SD! won't be used to primarily recap the major happenings of Raw.

In order to turn SD! into a more competitive show then the first place to start LOOKS to be where WWE is starting: by no longer treating SD! as a B Show platform. If people see SD! in that light, and some do, WWE officials have only themselves to blame. I see nothing wrong with keeping SD! on Syfy because it's the highest rated program on the network. NBC Universal owns Syfy and wouldn't want to lose something that brings in big numbers like WWE programming. SD! is often among the, of not THE, most watched show on cable on Friday nights.

Eventually, I think WWE should consider making the show live rather than taped at some point. The fact that Raw is live is a major factor as to why it's image as WWE's flagship show. I don't read spoilers as I think they ultimately cause more harm than good, so if SD! goes live, then people will have to tune in to find out what happens rather than being able to read the taping results late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. Making the show live and simply treating it as a show that's as important to WWE will go a long way. I don't believe they should go live, however, until they've firmly established that they're no longer treating SD! as the B Show and that's simply going to take time and consistent effort.

Some will no doubt scream that they feel the roster should be split the way it used to be and the brand extension reinitiated. That's all well & good until they get tired of it again after a few months and the "end the brand extension" threads start popping up like weeds.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This is about TV deals pure and simple. The time is soon coming to renegotiate and SD as it stands is a weak sell. They haven't had A+ talent regularly on there for some years, not as the face of the brand. They tried with Orton but he didn't work.

Cena is there to bolster SD's offering while HHH, Show, Orton and the rest are on RAW. Sure it helps that John is coming off an injury and thus can rehab without the pressure of live TV, or that this may be the beginning of his "part time" status, only doing alternate or odd RAW shows for example.

But from SyFy's perspective, if Cena brings ratings to SD, then they're gonna want to keep them up, which means paying more for Smackdown come contract time and if the ratings spike (which if the Hogan stuff is true and HE was on the show too they would) then suddenly NBC itself is gonna start looking at Smackdown, along with other networks. Either way WWE wins as they get more money for the same show, but it's very smart on Vince's part, as soon as the contract is signed either normal service will resume or Cena will do both shows but in the short term it gets maximum buck for the bang the show offers.

Taking it live nah, the E needs both types of show, not every competitor can go live all the time - the taped environment SD offers is invaluable to helping them. Sure in the future they have the performance centre, but there are guys there now who haven't got the hang of live work yet - you can't send them all back to developmental.

 

[Nyce18]

The answer is fairly simple yet complicated at the same time. The most logical idea is to go back to the SD heyday( when they were opposite wcw thunder and ratings for thursday night were also important) and have storylines continue from Raw to Sd to Raw to Sd and so on. Instead what we have now is major storylines only taking place mainly on Raw from raw to raw and SD feels like it gets a show thrown together just to have a show on Friday night. I mean for example the Wyatts attack Bryan and Punk Monday night but neither Punk nor Bryan show up on sd to continue the story. Orton shows up just to cut a somewhat promo on MizTV and get an RKO in. Nothing at all advances his storyline on SD. Sure the main event this past Friday was big but lets face it it does nothing to really advance the story. So knowing that u wont miss out on squat storyline wise, no one will feel like they miss anything important if they dont tune in to Sd. I say its complicated because of the way WWE runs house shows. They split the roster and run multiple house shows a week and often on the same day dubbing it a Raw house show or SD house show. If they continue doing that than we will continue to see SD the way it is because while they arent advancing major stories they r giving the lesser talent more time on SD in order to create some sort of face value to sell in the towns they run those shows during the week

 

[MCMG]

Smackdown is just really inconsistent. For a few months earlier this year, I thought it was of really high quality. I think the higher standard of matches were clear to see which is refreshing - perhaps the Triple H effect. However, then came a massive dip ( I swear it coincided with R-Truth competing more actively) and it became almost unbearable.

I suppose the WWE TV/PPV can be inconsistent in general but when Smackdown effectively becomes a slight version of Raw, there is little to no interest - hence why the actual matches need to deliver.

John Cena appearing on Smackdown can only be a good thing. He, single handedly, will boost ratings and if he isn't on every single week then they should have Punk and Bryan fill in. Stop treating Smackdown as a secondary show and it can only benefit.

I do think that Smackdown should go live. I really can't stand the fake cheers and boo's and having an actual audience should, in theory, help the characters.