WWE "Aware" of Poor SDL Performance

[Dave]

https://www.ringsidenews.com/2018/02/24/wwe-reportedly-aware-lackluster-smackdown-live/


I'm going to be honest, I've been enjoying Smackdown a lot more since Jinder Mahal was removed from the main event picture. AJ is the right choice for WWE Champion, since he is the best talent on the blue brand. There's no hiding that making Mahal WWE Champion was a bad move that didn't work out as well as it could have. That said, I've still been enjoying Smackdown Live to a point.

The problem with filling arenas, at least in my eyes, is the price of a ticket. The WWE has tried to market itself as a family show but taking your family to an event could be an extortionate business indeed. I looked at the price of taking my fiance and brother to the last set of shows in Glasgow and was quoted over £200 for 3 tickets. That's crazy money. As long as people are willing to pay the price to get in, the WWE will continue to charge the high prices.

I don't think the WWE has a poor show on Tuesday nights really, certainly no worse than what is offered on a Monday. One of the biggest issues is, however, that Smackdown is totally missable whilst anything can happen on Raw. The WWE has tried to bridge the gap but the gap is still there and just as wide as ever.

What do you think? What can the WWE do to bridge the gap? Is there a problem there and what is it? Pricing, quality?

[smarkmouth]

Last time I went to Smackdown, it was roughly $70 dollars for two virtual back-row tickets. In truth, I certainly didn't mind the ticket price. Had I more expendable income, I'd have gladly paid more for the show that I got. Tag Team Turmoil and a ladder match between Ellsworth and AJ. Not to mention an NXT taping which included Joe vs Dillinger.

That being said, I don't think I would have been happy with the ticket prices at the quality show Smackdown has been delivering lately. It's been passable, but outside of Kevin and Sami's angle antics (in which the WWE Champion is a secondary character to that angle), there's not much going on. One of their top angles has virtually no intrigue because it's pretty much unlikely that one of the participants, Daniel Bryan, can even compete in any kind of blow-off match.

We had a lot of moving parts on Smackdown only a year ago, now there's a complete lack of direction that doesn't entice me to buy a ticket. I mean, I probably would anyway because I'm a sucker, but I'd probably leave with a bad taste in my mouth. I suspect others are more likely to skip buying a ticket altogether.

[FunKay]

The show has become centered on an inconsistent and uninteresting power struggle between Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan (via proxy's Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn). All those individuals contribute much, but the way they're used and the story they're telling is just dull and it dominates television so much that it squeezes the enjoyment out of some of those characters. Combine that with a stale midcard, a lack of true star power (Orton, Styles, Owens and that's about it) and a lot of people who felt their time was wasted by the protracted Jinder Mahal reign/experiment and you've got a struggling show.

[Spidey]

It's the writing. This is the Road to Wrestlemania, and there just isn't enough in the way of story lately. They've reverted back to Smackdown being summarized in a few clips on Youtube (which I swear has helped make things worse). An actor is nothing without a good script though, and if you can't put asses in seats, well maybe turn in a script that isn't boring? I don't know. I'm just calling it how I see it as a fan. Maybe there is something there with the ticket price argument, and maybe the Jinder Mahal experiment backfired so spectacularly that they're still recovering from it. But I believe those things could be compensated with plot fans want to see. The Daniel Bryan/Shane McMahon bickering hour isn't that.

['Ravishing' Ned Flanders]

Give me something to care about. Right now it's the same crap every week and I just don't care.

Less authority struggle & better matches woukd go a long way in getting things going the way they should be going

[ABMorales787]

The fact that its Smackdown lowering while Raw has remained on average should point to two things. Either fans aren't really in the mood to sit through three different show tapings even if the total is the same as Raw/Main Event at 4 hours. Or they're worn off by the terrible creative writing.

Sure, Smackdown has star power for the most part. They have the best performer in the whole company with AJ Styles. A legend in Randy Orton plus Kevin Owens and Shinsuke Nakamura. But they're not what this show has been about since September. It's been, like I read in POST Wrestling if I recall "a Shane McMahon Documentary". As we watch a guy who's been written as completely incompetent and hypocritical by pure accident cause a ton of problems while blaming others. It would be fine as a side story. But it has eaten up 5 months of TV as the main story and it's coming off one of the worst World title runs in God knows how long and has affected other stories with glaring plotholes like we've seen with the referees and Gable/Benjamin and the Top 10 list. It's been very poor writing and fans are more than likely catching on.

[FunKay]

I'd actually forgotten about Nakamura...maybe that says it all?

[jmt225]

The Smackdown roster just isn't very good and lacks name power. Of course everything went downhill after they put Cena on Raw. Now all they're left with is AJ Styles and top indy guys and foreign draws.

[DNA 2.0]

Best thing they can do with Smackdown is have someone come out shoot on McMahon and Bryan for turning the show into a load of crap authority centered shit, when they promised that it would be about the WRESTLERS and not the authorities.

AJ styles, would make the perfect shooter. Seriously SD reminds me of WCW 2000. It's BAD. Raw has been GREAT. SD needs stars ASAP. Nothing has worked for SD this past year.

Even the stupid son of Angle angle turned out better than anything SD did these past 12 months!!!

[Skairipa]

I agree with everybody saying a big issue is Shane and Bryan being the focus of the main story, what I enjoyed about SDL when the brand split first started was they weren't on screen more than they had to be and the show was about the wrestlers. But another big issue is when they did the superstar shake up last year they really took about 90% of who was doing well on SD and shipped them to Raw, while the best that SD got in return was Owens, Zayn and Charlotte who are good but can't be expected to cover the star power lost by Cena becoming a "free agent" who is just basically a Raw star, Wyatt, Bliss, Mickie, Miz, Ambrose, etc.

I'm really hoping when they shake up the rosters again they fix the balance a bit, send a 2 or 3 of Raw's top guys who could be world champ tomorrow over to SD, add a credible heel to the women's division since Riott Squad is a flop so far and Natayla has no personality, and a couple guys to help out the midcard. There's no reason to have Rollins, Ambrose, Strowman, Balor, Joe, Miz and more sitting behind Lesnar and Reigns likely to not ever get the world title on Raw or in the case of Joe, Strowman, Rollins and Balor, haven't been allowed to win it because we had to have over a year of part time champs and now we're gonna likely get 4-5 months at least of Reigns after Mania.

[Yaz]

I've always found the whole "star power" argument to be overblown. Yeah, maybe a big name like a Cena may get a few more casual fans to tune in, but most people who watch WWE are watching it fairly consistently week in and week out. They are no longer tuning in or filling out arenas because there is nothing of note happening on SD.

Things were going well for a bit, until the whole Randy Orton/Bray Wyatt feud took a turn for the stupid and around that time the entire direction of the show shifted. Jinder rose with zero build, and kept beating fan favorites in boring, predictable matches with boring and uninspired builds.

At the same time, AJ and Owens were in a feud that featured a lot of average matches for two guys considered among the best workers today, then Shane and Bryan got involved. During the entire Shane/Bryan feud, Shane is presented as an unfair dickhead boss who constantly belittles Bryan and questions his authority, but is somehow the good guy. This stupid story line was hammered home by how Byron Saxton went out of his way to suck Shane's literal dick each night on commentary and talk about how he was the world's greatest boss.

Then you had the US Title story post AJ and Owens. Corbin should have gotten the title much sooner. By the time he failed his MITB cash in, all his momentum had been killed, yet we are still supposed to buy him as a credible threat to anything that isn't a buffet that gives out shitty tattoos for eating all their food. Then they give Dolph Ziggler the title, because reasons, only for him to vacate the title and fuck off for about a hot minute before becoming the most uninspired #30 in the RR in my life. Oh and he is somehow back in the World Title picture so he can scream and do mean faces to show how serious he is. Now you have Roode who is mostly a face but not always in a feud with Orton, whose entire character these days is RKO, and maybe Jinder is in there too.

The women's division is "fuck, we have women on the roster, we need to book them. 6 woman tags on SD and fatal five ways for the title on PPVs it is!" The Riott Squad are clear heels and Charlotte, Becky, and Naomi are clear faces, but the other girls on the show just take whatever role is needed on a week to week basis. Its screams of the days when women were the piss break on PPVs.

For much of last summer, The Usos and New Day were the highlight of Raw and SD. Multiple great matches, memorable promos, and a feud so good you couldn't believe WWE was giving it to the tag division. Now you have The Usos and Gable and Benjamin, I mean The Bludgeon Brothers, I mean New Day again. The Fashion Police, once the best part of SD for many people, made the mistake of being cool and got punished. The Hype Bros broke up so Mojo could get a pre show US Title shot. Rusev and English made the fatal mistake of getting over without the permission of the writers. The Colons were never anything special, but I'm pretty sure Epico is dead at this point and WWE is using him as a coat rack. The Ascension were always shit, but WWE killed them for the sake of nostalgia.

Oh and Tye Dillinger exists as a meme.

Does any of the above sound exciting to you?

[Dave]

With Cena going back to Smackdown, potentially for a little while, it seems though WWE rarely taking steps to try and bring back some interest in Smackdown. But it does beg the question of that came first, the chicken or the egg.

Is the WWE putting Cena back on Smackdown because of the dwindling viewership and poor ticket sales? Is it a reaction the poor press that Smackdown has been getting on the road to WrestleMania? Or was that the plan anyway? To tease the idea of Cena not having a road to Mania even on Smackdown?

I fully expect Cena to have a major match with someone at Fastlane. Actually, I expect that person to be Shinsuke Nakamura for a place in the WWE Championship match. Which he will go on to lose. It gives them both something to do for the next couple of weeks until Taker returns and answers the challenge. It's predictable but it'll do.