10 Things That Have Contributed To WWE SmackDown Live's Fall From Grace
4. No Individual Stories In The Women's Division
SummerSlam will see Naomi defend her SmackDown Women's Championship against Natalya one-on-one, but it's going to take much more than that to get SmackDown's women's division back on track.
Leading into SummerSlam 2016, SmackDown did a great job of using all of its women in a meaningful manner and not relegating them to pointless tag team matches every week. Throughout the fall, there were several women's rivalries happening at one time and most of them didn't revolve around the SmackDown Women's Championship.
This was a total contrast compared to Raw, which featured an endless series of matches between Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks and no one else. SmackDown soon fell victim to this as well with Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch, and after WrestleMania 33, the dreaded faction wars became the focus of the blue brand's women's scene.
There is so much talent in the division at the moment, but because none of them are ever given any significant television time, they are easily lost in the shuffle. Look no further than Charlotte Flair, who was touted as SmackDown's biggest acquisition in the Superstar Shake-up, but she likely wont be a part of SummerSlam next weekend.
Bringing back individual stories with the women will help them escape this rut they have found themselves in lately.