Smackdown Needs to Rediscover Itself

Smackdown Live was supposed to be competitive and a direct rival to Monday Night Raw but it still feels like the sister show and it's not being helped by Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan.

It doesn't help that both shows have opened with them when it's supposed to be about the superstars. Take a leaf out of Raw's book and let your biggest stars open the show.

Also can I add that the opening theme doesn't look or sound anywhere near as good as Raw, which is disappointing.

The opening segment continued to make The Miz look really weak. He's a heel that's fine but constantly undermining him to gain heat doesn't work. He seems to be champion only because of the fact he's in movies right now.

The unveiling of Smackdown Live

The same went for them lecturing Randy Orton on his appearance on Raw, Both of them seem desperate for the airtime and trying to cement their status as faces isn't fair on the rest of the roster.

As much as I respect them both, Shane has done the same thing ever since he's returned. And Bryan has been underwhelming to say the least. 

My favourite part of the night was the confrontation between Dolph Ziggler and WWE champion Dean Ambrose. I'm a huge DZ fan and always thought he deserved a big push, he's a pheunomenal worker and showed his impressive mic skills as well which built this feud up even more. 

The misuse of Bray Wyatt is one of the most frustrating things to watch. Ever since his debut with the Wyatt Family he's always been over with the fans but booked terribly. No serious victories and nowhere near a serious main title shot either. 

Ziggler beating Bray Wyatt in the main event with the Superkick

The main event was a good idea. Aside from Cena and AJ Styles, these two provide the most pulling power on the card and are fairly over with the crowd too.

The execution however was just awful, Ziggler won the match clean, Eric Rowan attacked him from behind to boost his own push and Ambrose tried to help but got taken out as well. Bray Wyatt was made to look weak again and The Show Off got leveled despite winning. There wasn't a real winner from it all.

American Alpha debuted and looked predictably strong against forgotten men, The Vaudevillains. It wasn't as exciting or impactful as they would have hoped especially with the tag division looking bare on the show. They've got a catchy theme and gimmick but without competition and a possible heel turn it could go stale very soon.

In other news, Apollo Crews became the number one contender for the Miz's championship defeating Baron Corbin and Kalisto which showed the lack of real stars in the Smackdown roster. 

John Cena and Styles delivered an in-ring promo which seemed to last forever and did little to propel both. A lot of the stuff said just got oversaid and repeated and even with Styles insulting the Cenation it still felt a little dull and unimaginative. It's going to be a great clash at Summerslam but there needs to be more creativity in their feud.

Carmella's debut was ruined again this time by Natalya, It was a bad idea to not have her be with Enzo and Cass on Raw especially when most of the crowd don't get her gimmick. She's been awfully booked regardless and is already at the bottom of the pile, Smackdown again.

We all saw through Eva Marie's fake injury especially when Fandango did the same before he debuted. It's not clever now and it wasn't clever then. I get that it's to get her more heat but it just felt pointless and another kick in Becky Lynch's momentum. 

I'm struggling to find many positives for Smackdown, if any at all. The new era feels exactly like the old era, almost forced and without conviction.

I'm glad Ziggler is getting a push, everything he said on the mic is true and he deserves it more than most. Bray Wyatt needs some sort of push as well but not at the expense of Ziggler.

The Women's division is an absolute mess right now and lacks credibility without Sasha and Charlotte. This needs to be addressed soon as possible. 

Lastly if i'm honest there needs to be more star power and perhaps possible returns on Smackdown because there's a few stars but the draft really didn't help make the brand competitive.

Thanks for Reading, See you in the next one.

Daniel