5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (30 Aug)

2. Losers: Technical Wrestling Fans

As mentioned earlier, this week’s SmackDown was characterised primarily by its lack of high-quality wrestling matches. Only the Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin main event broke the 10-minute mark, and while the women and AJ Styles vs. Apollo Crews were given time, both matches were mediocre at best. The two Tag Team Tournament matches clocked-in with single digit run times, and both were almost completely devoid of heat and crowd interest.

It was often said that SmackDown would struggle to deliver consistently entertaining matches after the Draft. The bulk of WWE’s high-workrate wrestlers (Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Seth Rollins, etc.) were sent to Raw, and while SD boasted AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler among their ranks, the blue roster was shockingly thin. Last night exposed said rosters weaknesses very clearly, and left viewers who tune-in to WWE shows for the actual wrestling disappointed.

SmackDown was known as the more wrestling-centric show during the previous Brand Split. It was a competitive island away from Raw’s garish sports entertainment, where athletes like Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle could prosper on their talent and work ethic alone. There were whispers that a similar situation would arise prior to the current Split, but it hasn’t worked-out that way. Raw isn’t always delivering knock-down matches every week, but the in-ring content has been decidedly more exciting that SmackDown’s, particularly this week.

Wholesale roster changes aside, there are no obvious solutions to this problem. SmackDown are largely stuck with what they have, and while their roster is flush with “okay” wrestlers, there aren’t enough standouts to keep-up with Raw.