Does anyone still watch SmackDown?

[MasterSnit]

SmackDown has become such a pointless show. Nothing ever happens. It's constantly filled with re-matches from RAW or the last PPV, tag matches that achieve nothing, and matches that further a midcard angle about an inch further forward. Other than that, they show numerous clips from RAW.

There were times when SmackDown was really good, much better than RAW at times. Right now though, it's in Thunder mode.

[Velkontés]

Aug 30, 2014 17:44:13 GMT -5 MasterSnit said:

It's constantly filled with re-matches from RAW

Or in some cases pre-matches. I.E., matches that you know they're going to do on Raw the next week so why bother catching it the first time?

I agree, very pointless. It's essentially a 2-hour Velocity now. With Roman Reigns main events every week. Obviously the end of the Brand Split was the beginning of the end. There were a good couple of years (maybe more? Hard to keep track of time these days) where I watched Smackdown nearly every week. Drew Mcintyre, Vladimir Kozlov, Straight Edge Society, La Familia, LayCool, all that good stuff. Fuck, even WWE Champion Triple H was somewhat tolerable on SD.

I don't know why they don't scale it back and run Smackdown in smaller venues and create a different vibe, (or do shows on beaches in the summer, or minor league baseball stadiums, or abandoned warehouses - just anything that looks a bit different) rather than being Raw painted blue.

[Champ]

Raw painted blue lol

I agree smackdown has turned into total garbage. SM pointed out to me that last weeks smackdown was exactly raw done all over again with roman reigns playing the part of cena. They had the same thing where the one on one match with bray turned into a 6 man with the Wyatts and the retard giants, plus the same rematches and interferences from Raw. It's like, why bother watching this shit?

[Snitskyman2016]

I don't watch it, they literally just re-do Raw lately but with Roman replacing Cena or vice versa in the matches.

[MasterSnit]

Yeah, I'm not saying bring back the brand split or anything, but they need to give people a reason to watch the show and give it a separate identity again. There were times when if you wanted to see Finlay bash somebodies head in with a shillelagh, or see Eddie Guerrero wipe away a tear from his eye, or watch a silly crackah go one on one with the Undatakah, then you had to watch SmackDown. Now if you want to see SmackDown, you can watch it on a Monday night before it even happens.

One thing they could do is when they elevate someone from NXT, have them go to SmackDown first and be a regular on SmackDown for a while. It would give us an incentive to watch SmackDown as we could get a glimpse of some newer guys as they start to interact with some of the established wrestlers.

[Velkontés]

Raw being 3hrs doesn't help. There's only so much you can do in a week, even with their huge roster. I would say turn Smackdown into NXT and do a soft brand split, but then you've losing a big selling point of the Network.

[Naitch]

I only watch Raw for wrestling these days, unless we got a PPV, than I'll watch that to. I'm a busy guy, I'm not normally finished with Raw until Thursdayish. Than I feel no need for more wrestling until Monday, and I'm even finding myself fast forwarding through more of that now.

[Velkontés]

Oh totally, I think they were stretching it with 2 2-hour shows. 5 hours of programming a week is too much for nearly anyone to keep up with. You've only got so much free time in a week.

[Champ]

Yeah raw is really the only show I religiously watch. I tape every smackdown but don't watch them all. Sometimes I put them on and literally just do other shit while it plays in the background. I've been TRYING to watch impact only because it's different. That's the only reason though. Impact has gotten mildly better lately though. I feel like they're delivering more action again and not as much talking. It's still a poor show. But it was definitely way worse a few months ago

[Velkontés]

Smackdown had its 15th Anniversary show this week:



And a funny backstage bit:




I've said before, I wouldn't mind another Rock vs Triple H match at Wrestlemania for nostalgia's sake. As long they don't seriously try to bill it as the "main event". It would have to be a Magnus Special though, with tons of run-ins from familiar faces (Outlaws, Foley, Undertaker etc) and just when it looks like Rock is being overwhelmed, glass shatters, everyone shits their pants, stunners for everyone and Rock wins.

[MasterSnit]

I liked that bit with Rock and Triple H, and yeah I could go for a match if it means we get a WrestleMania stunnerfest.

Teddy Long and Big Johnny were on that show and it was the best SmackDown in ages. Teddy made a 15-man tag team match, playah!