Wrestling Discussion Thread II

www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/article/smackdown-live-usa-network-july-19?sf26901739=1

Quote :

A SmackDown shakeup is about to completely reshape all of WWE. Beginning July 19, the second longest-running weekly episodic program in television history, SmackDown, will move from Thursday to Tuesday nights and air LIVE each and every week — for the first time ever — at 8/7 C on USA Network, the exclusive cable home to WWE’s marquee properties.

This bold move will have major ramifications for all of WWE and exemplify the New Era, as both Raw and SmackDown will each feature their own unique rosters and rivalries following an imminent Superstar draft.

"WWE's flagship programs will both leverage the incredible depth of our talent roster, distinct storylines and the unpredictable nature of live TV," WWE Chairman Mr. McMahon said. “This move will undoubtedly build more excitement and deepen engagement with our fans around th­e world.”

With so many explosive competitors emerging from WWE NXT, and top Superstars like John Cena and Seth Rollins returning from injury, WWE’s star-powered roster has never been stronger. Its historic division and the monumental revelation of SmackDown’s shift to a live format each week reflect the excitement and unpredictability of WWE’s New Era.

What awaits SmackDown on its new night, starting this July? Which live shows will claim your favorite Superstars? What will this all mean for the future of sports-entertainment? Stay tuned as WWE prepares to get shaken up like never before.

SmackDown! is going live, but, more importantly, here's confirmation that another brand split is happening. Any thoughts?

I'm not a regular watcher of WWE anymore, and I haven't sat down and watched a full episode of RAW or SmackDown! this decade, so it doesn't mean all that much to me. That said, I can't help but immediately wonder if WWE has a big enough roster to pull this off; WWE already struggle to create new matches within it's full existing roster. I don't doubt that a lot of folk from NXT will be promoted to the main roster, but still...

Anyhting that can change things up a bit and give us actual ongoing stories is a good thing in my book. Like probably a huge amount of the audience, I pretty much just watch Youtube and PPVs now.

About time it went live really but I'm honestly not sure what to make of them doing a brand split again, sure it'll stop them repeating the same matches on Raw & SD over and over again but one will inevitably be the B show (likely SD) since there's only one world title now.

Unless of course they could make it so champions have to wrestle on both shows.

It's interesting and when they did the first time and Heyman was the writer of SD it was the better show, that SD can be good.

My questions are we only have one WWE World Champs, Women's Champ and Tag Champ will they wrestle on both shows like Jas says but who gets the Number 1 contender or does the Raw contender fight the SD contender before hand to find out who the real Number 1 contender is and that's a bit of the the RAW vs SD story or will we split the WWE World back up and what Divas title coming back already and each show having there own champs.

What about PPV's will there be RAW & SD only one's then the big ones like a SummerSlam are cross-brand, or now we have the network is it 2 PPV's a month with month gap in-between the brand ones eg Week 1 August RAW PPV Week 3 August SD PPV then Week 1 of September RAW PPV and so on or will every PPV be cross-brand and we get more network specials which are brand only.

Then there's NXT as the WWE roster is rather small now compared the last time they had a split, could we see a few a NXT guys & gals making the call up but then who's left in NXT also when NXT people make the main card which brand do they go to or is that whole will they sign for RAW or SD stuff again.

Maybe we will get a belt split, then- a good way to have Cena in a champ programme without interrupting the current ongoing feuds.

mas wrote:

It's interesting and when they did the first time and Heyman was the writer of SD it was the better show, that SD can be good.

Pretty much since Mauro Ranallo joined SD I've typically enjoyed it more than Raw as it's usually been more focused & I prefer the 2 hour format also.

drunka wrote:

Maybe we will get a belt split, then- a good way to have Cena in a champ programme without interrupting the current ongoing feuds.

I really don't want the other world title coming back, if champs aren't pulling double duty then they could split it so we have:

Raw

WWE world championship
US title
Woman's championship

Smackdown

Intercontinental championship
WWE Tag team championships
Return of the Cruiserweight championship

In the short term the split sounds good on paper. With a deluge of NXT wrestlers getting called up, and returning guys like Cena, Rollins, and later Orton, this is a good way of getting meaningful TV feuds for the most wrestlers possible. Also, limiting a superstar to 1 show per week makes things easier on the writers and we should see better storylines with fewer repeat matches. We could finally give Apollo Crews something to do, as well as keep the going Vaudevillians after their New Day program winds down. Perhaps Neville will become the man who WWE creative remember from now on.

The long term problem I have is that I don't trust the WWE to not treat Smackdown like the B show, so any smackdown vs raw pay per views aren't something I'm going to be particularly hyped for beyond the first few fresh ones.

With regards to the world title, I sincerely hope they just keep the one title. To me, it just feels a lot better to have a single WWE champ. I'd split the intercontinental and US title between the two brands (they're really the same belt anyway, it's just the WWE forgot about the US title being important for a while), and I'm fine with adding a tag team title to both brands since we're going to have deeper undercards with more tag teams in both.

The only thing with the single WWE championship is that if they alternate between RAW and SMACKDOWN PPVS then things get a little awkward with the world title. Is the champ going to feud with 2 people at once all the time? With that in mind it could be better to have the 2 worldies, but if that happened I'd want them to actually be treated equally and, more importantly, the brands must stay separate. Sure, have the odd cross over PPV - and for the love of god I don't want 2 Money in the Bank matches - but by the end of the past brand split the split between smackdown and raw was pretty blurred. For the silly annual draft to mean anything, they gotta keep em separated.

I'll never say yes to a cruiserweight title though because I feel like that'd just be used to keep lightweight wrestlers in the undercard, feuding over a belt that the big boys couldn't care less about. If there has to be an undercard belt, call it something inclusive - even if it is still primarily used for jobbers and cruiserweights. It just gives it more storyline options and mildly mitigates the whole - Gregory helms is a really good wrestler but he's small so let's just keep him in the cruiser weight picture for ever - mentality.

My TL;DR would be that yeah, this is a good way to sort out TV time for a greater number of wrestlers with better told stories, but I'm worried that over time it'll fizzle into an incoherent mess like the past brand split did. Cautiously optimistic.


Either way, that extreme rules pay per view was good though!

There's an arena Facebook page that's advertising talent scheduled to appear on a taping of SmackDown! that's taking place after Summerslam, and after the draft. Some potential spoilers, perhaps?

I don't remember everyone as I saw it a few days ago, but some of the ones that stuck out were

Spoiler:

If it's your scene, you can fantasy-book the WWE draft on the WWE website at this link.

http://fantasy-draft.wwe.com/#/

Raw: Cena, Bo Dallas, Undertaker.

Smackdown: Everyone else.

Anyone else watched Final Deletion between Matt and Jeff Hardy? I just watched it after seeing a few people talking about, it's so weird.

Far and away the best thing I've seen in wrestling since Zayn vs Nakamura.

An excerpt of brilliance.

The both of them are so fucking mental & I love it maggle!

"It's a dilapidated boat!" is something I'll never forget. Matt Hardy is a genius.

Wut.

There's only one correct choice for Raw's GM.

Spoiler tags guys even if it is just rumours.

I don't think it's worth spoilering: these are just the same assumptions every pair of wrestling fans having this discussion have made. Make sense.

The_Jaster wrote:

Spoiler tags guys even if it is just rumours.

I've only heard one rumour, and I won't post it - my post was just me speculating about Big Bisch.

Fair enough.

I'm bit behind on the wrasslin' at the minute and I've been seeing folk say all sorts about the GMs (without giving it away thankfully/hopefully) the last few days, I feel like I'm the only fan who doesn't actively seek this info out & still likes to be surprised.

I've just seen on social media and stuff about the SDOWN one as WWE leaked something which in turn people talked about it.

Yeah, I've unfortunately been spoiled by a Twitter post about one of the GMs. I've grown out of seeking wrasslin' spoilers - the whole fun of wrestling is the surprise, surely?

I've never been a big fan of GMs anyway... William Regal and Big Bisch were the only two GMs I've enjoyed.

Has everyone had a chance to catch the first episodes of post-draft Raw and Smackdown? I really enjoyed them, actually. It's given WWE a much needed kick up the arse and I was genuinely surprised by the results of some of the matches. Promising start!