10 Things That Have Contributed To WWE SmackDown Live's Fall From Grace
6. A String Of Less-Than-Stellar Pay-Per-Views
Even before the Brand Split returned in 2016, there was already a surplus of WWE pay-per-views, but that didn't stop WWE from holding two a month starting in September. Raw's were average at best while SmackDown constantly killed it with three consecutive excellent events in Backlash, No Mercy, and TLC.
So far in 2017, however, SmackDown has yet to deliver a truly exceptional live special. Elimination was largely forgettable up until the main event, Backlash was solid albeit a glorified episode of SmackDown Live, and Money in the Bank was marred with fluky finishes. That said, nothing came close to being as awful as Battleground in July, which was one of the worst shows WWE has produced in many years.
Although the night started out on a hot note with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship match, there wasn't anything else about the event that could be considered redeeming. It was at that point fans started to question where SmackDown went wrong compared to the hopeful state of the show one year earlier.
Fingers crossed the blue brand can bounce back with a strong showing in October when they host Hell in a Cell.