5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (May 26)

1. The Production

Bianca Belair Asuka
WWE.com

Poor production is obviously not something anyone could accuse WWE of regularly. Their production staff are wonderful, and they drum up some of the best techniques, video packages and graphics money can buy. However, these pre-taped episodes? A real problem for production.

Something was off on Friday's show.

SmackDown was already on tape, so production went hard on canned crowd noise. The boos, in particular, were very annoying and obvious. Can someone suggest maybe...using more than one sampled sound effect to shake things up a bit? That, "OOOOOWAAAAH" cheering sound has always been irritating too.

Remember how awesome and lively Puerto Rico was for Backlash earlier this month? Yeah, SmackDown in South Carolina didn't have that same sort of buzz. An already-quiet crowd sitting through a marathon taping didn't lead to much natural atmosphere, so WWE went canned.

Pity it always sounds so forced and fake.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.