10 Ways WWE SmackDown Has Declined In 2017
Departed stars, bad champions, and sloppy booking have dimmed SmackDown's shine.
Though WWE's main goal when reviving the brand split was to restore parity between Raw and SmackDown, history shows that one show inevitably feels second rate when the roster is divided. Long considered WWE's B-show, many assumed SD would once again fall into this position, and those fears were compounded by a lopsided draft that saw the bulk of WWE's biggest stars head to Raw, leaving the blue brand looking threadbare in comparison.
SmackDown defied expectations, however, and soon became WWE's most consistently enjoyable weekly show. The brand's sharper writing saw its ragtag bunch of misfits produce a show far greater than the sum of its parts, and with wrestlers like AJ Styles and The Miz flourishing on Tuesday nights, Raw was left in the dust.
Unfortunately, things haven't gone quite so well in 2017, and SmackDown has lost much of what made it special. Viewership hit a new low for 2017 last week, and while the show isn't necessarily bad, the spark is gone, and WWE's "must see" brand is becoming disposable. This has manifested in a number of different ways, with the company directly responsible for most of them...
10. Abandoning Luke Harper
The Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton feud had an adverse effect on everyone and everything embroiled within its far-reaching web, from the WWE Championship, all the way down to the supporting cast.
It seemed like Luke Harper was set for a big push following his split from Wyatt. He saw Orton’s treachery coming a mile off, and when he turned his back on his former master, Harper started receiving some of the show’s biggest crowd reactions. He had a good singles match with ‘The Viper’ at Elimination Chamber and stayed prominent on television, but it lasted just a couple of weeks, and Harper has since become SmackDown’s forgotten man.
He defeated Erick Rowan at Backlash, but the match did little to generate excitement for his future. Ultimately, the company failed to capitalise while Harper was hot, and he has gone from a potential title challenger to a guy who’s lucky if he gets on television more than once a month.
It’s a real shame, as Harper is one of the best big men in the business, and somebody capable of getting over on the strength of his ring work alone. Now 37 years old, it looks like Harper’s moment will never come.