10 Simple Ways To Improve WWE SmackDown
Changes are coming to SmackDown but how can WWE make sure that the audience cares?
If Daniel Bryan was a B+ player then calling SmackDown the B show is an insult to his legacy. By that ranking system, SmackDown's recent programming places it more around the F category.
However, change is afoot and WWE has announced that SmackDown will be moving to Tuesday's nights and airing live in the future. They are also reintroducing the brand split, which would see SmackDown retaking its place as a distinct show in its own right.
Yet it will take more than that to get wrestling fans back onside. SmackDown has been irrelevant for so long that to most people it has slipped out of their weekly wrestling diet. Filled with rehashes of matches that happened on Raw and poor chat show segments, it has been a dead zone for a while.
All hope need not be lost, though, as SmackDown could be the show it once was. There are just a few simple changes that have to be made first.
10. Ditch The Raw Replays
If you tune into SmackDown at the moment, it is impossible to get past the feeling that you are seeing something unloved. Rather than it focusing on what is happening on that show, WWE seems to have an obsession with filling it full of Raw replays.
Last week's show recapped Seth Rollins' return on Raw, Miz qualifying for Money In The Bank and Charlotte and Ric Flair's break-up: not to mention shorter recaps of other feuds. That's all over the course of a two-hour show.
If SmackDown is going to be seen as an important part of WWE TV, then it needs to stop focusing on Raw and start focusing on itself - something that the brand split should allow. Video packages are an important part of wrestling - you can't assume that everyone has watched every show - but surely SmackDown should recap what has happened on SmackDown?