8 Ups & 11 Downs For WWE In 2018 (So Far)
7. SmackDown's Resurgence
SmackDown soared in 2016. Its post-Draft roster was little more than an AJ Styles-led gang of misfit toys, but the show experienced a colossal upsurge, with former NXT writer Ryan Ward taking the lemons he was handed and painting them gold. A sharp decline followed throughout 2017 and early 2018. Ward's power waned, Brian 'Road Dogg' James' increased, and the show became a rote, formulaic slog, but then the Superstar Shake-Up came along, and after trading their most tedious performers for some of Raw's brightest, SmackDown recovered.
The blue brand isn't quite what it was 24 months ago, but it's rarely anything worse than "good." Jinder Mahal and Dolph Ziggler are gone, replaced by the likes of Jeff Hardy and The Miz. AJ Styles remains 'Phenomenal.' No WWE character is as menacing as Samoa Joe, whose fire-breathing promos are a regular highlight. Daniel Bryan is pulling out fun weekly matches like it's nothing. Even Becky Lynch, after over a year of steady depreciation, is enjoying a mini-resurgence.
Problems remain (Carmella's trash output between the ropes, Andrade Almas' non-debut), but the difference between Raw and SmackDown is huge. One is a bloated three-hour corpse of a show, the other a light, breezy watch that rarely wastes its audience's time.