10 Changes To Make WWE Smackdown's Thursday Move Successful

By Matthew J. Douglas /

6. Rarely (If Ever) Start The Night With A Promo

This is one of the more important things you can do to make Smackdown feel like it€™s own show with it€™s own tropes and rules. Raw almost always begins with a 20-30 minute in-ring promo. They use that segment to set up matches for later in the evening, progress storylines and hype the rest of the show. It€™s simply the way things are done on Monday nights, and that is absolutely reasonable. Smackdown, in an effort to forge its own identity should start every show with a solid match. No talking, to lengthy set-up, just action once 8pm hit on Thursday nights. Some may say that this is how Raw should be, but honestly who cares about how things should or shouldn€™t be. The only thing that should be of any concern is stylistically making Smackdown as unique and pleasurable a viewing experience as possible. Starting every show in a way that will be different from the way any given Raw starts is literally the easiest stylistic change to make. This doesn€™t mean there will never be in-ring promo segments on Smackdown, nor does it mean you always have to open with a match; but more times than not that€™s how Smackdown will open, reminding the WWE Universe from the jump that Smackdown isn€™t Raw.