10 Changes To Make WWE Smackdown's Thursday Move Successful
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 its own show with its 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. Its 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 shouldnt 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 doesnt 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 thats how Smackdown will open, reminding the WWE Universe from the jump that Smackdown isnt Raw.
Matthew J. Douglas is an emerging screenwriter born in Toronto. A lifelong fascination with what makes a compelling story and the Toni Morrison quote "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." led the often opinionated Matthew to the life of writer. Matthew is also a lifelong WWE fan, and a self diagnosed Reality TV Junkie.
