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Thread: 20118 Smackdown Is Road Dogg's Trial By Fire

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    Death By Retarded ABMorales787's Avatar

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    20118 Smackdown Is Road Dogg's Trial By Fire



    Road Dogg has been the butt of many bad booking jokes since 2017. Taking the spot of head of creative from the very much loved Ryan Ward of NXT fame, Smackdown's quality went from damn impressive with killer matches and solid storytelling in two hours to shift afterwards to having uneventful main events. A midcard scene that had all the talent in the world but also had Shane McMahon butting in constantly. Odd stop-start pushes for random talents like Tye Dillinger, The Fashion Police, Mojo Rawley and Sin Cara. Inconsistencies started to become commonplace Tuesday nights as we would have segments with Kevin Owens complaining about referee calls and getting "the referee's decision is final" and then having a referee reverse a decision between the Usos and Gable/Benjamin on the same episode. Or more glaringly, Shane accusing Daniel Bryan of favoring Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn right after seeing Bryan punishing them. When Road Dogg is discussed, it's usually not in a positive light.

    The detail when it comes to Road Dogg is how criticism falls on Smackdown. It's the show called out for weak storytelling, weak match quality and an abundance of inconsistencies. Raw does not get that kind of criticism. As such, it's hard to say Smackdown's quality is Vince and Triple H's fault because even though they make the decisions above others, they do it for both shows. As such, what makes Raw except from what Smackdown does? The writing team. Who leads the writing team? Road Dogg. When did the perceived decline in quality start? When Road Dogg took over for Ryan Ward in February 2017. As such, right or wrong, all fingers point to him.

    But the 2018 Superstar Shake-Up has come and gone. A Smackdown that only had Shinsuke Nakamura as a top heel with AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan as top babyfaces, the brand now boasts an All-Star roster that would make the biggest PWG Battle Of Los Angeles tournament bluff. From the already mentioned three, the likes of Samoa Joe, Andrade Cien Almas, Eric Young, Killian Dain, Cesaro and Jeff Hardy all join guys like Randy Orton, Rusev and The Usos to make way for some of the most impressive match posibilites in years for WWE. Smackdown now boast an incredible line-up of stars from ROH, TNA, CMLL, NJPW and beyond mixed with some of their best homegrown. There are no excuses anymore for Road Dogg.

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  3. #2
    Currently Between Feds smarkmouth's Avatar

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    Well put, but there weren't any excuses for Road Dogg to begin with. While the roster on Smackdown wasn't the virtual dream team that it is now, Smackdown was firing on all creative cylinders while Ryan Ward was in charge. Hell, Ward's direction got me invested in a Baron Corbin/Kalisto feud, and if you didn't like the feud, that match at TLC was a sleeper hit.

    I have very little faith in Road Dogg. I think he's about to prove that you can have all the best parts, but if the machine is poorly designed then it's going to fail. Smackdown "won" the shakeup on paper. We shouldn't have such fundamental concerns about it's critical success.

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    Senior Member FunKay's Avatar

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    Why was Ward replaced? Does anyone know. It seemed like such an odd move: the ratings were fine, the product was good etc...

    Anyway, the booking under the D-O-Double-G has been far from stellar though he has been at least somewhat shackled by external forces; the Jinder experiment monopolising the title picture for the better part of the post-Mania year, having to create a long term storyline that focused heavily on how much of a fighter Shane McMahon is (I have no doubt that Vince sees Shane as a draw simply based on the business he did as a side-attraction versus Taker at Mania 32), Styles/Owens operating below its potential etc... That doesn't excuse the mistakes, inconsistencies or issues mentioned already, but it certainly exacerbated them.

    With the roster he has available, he should be able to run the best product in town - there's diversity, a deep talent pool and a lot of first time (in WWE) match-ups available to him, not to mention the ready made Bryan/Miz feud which will no doubt deliver on one level or another (hopefully the highest). I'm really looking forward to 2018-19 SmackDown, and I pray it is, in Mr. James' own words, the shiznit.

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    Senior Member DNA 2.0's Avatar

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    Lol, they just poulated Smackdown with star power because they know that the writing won't change so now at least the show and the matches can get interesting due to star power alone.

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    I'd argue that if the Jinder super push came from Vince then a better booker would have built him up slowly, via the US title to see if he was worthy of more.

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    Senior Member A11's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by a0161613 View Post
    I'd argue that if the Jinder super push came from Vince then a better booker would have built him up slowly, via the US title to see if he was worthy of more.
    Flip side to that is Vince didnt give him a choice because they didnt have time to have him go through the midcard

  9. #7
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    Fair point but wouldn't that give everyone a chance to accept him or to see if he could pull it off.

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