WWE Rumors: SmackDown Going Live in 2016?

In an interview with Scott Yager, Jerry “The King” Lawler hinted that SmackDown may being going live after moving from Syfy to USA Network in early 2016.

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Scott Yager mentioned to Jerry Lawler that when Yager was growing up, Lawler was one of the voices of his youth. Yager went on to mention that Lawler has done much commentating lately. Lawler was quick to remark that he was moved to SmackDown, and has still been doing the pay-per-views, which brought up the topic of SmackDown moving to the USA Network in early 2016.

Lawler mentioned that the reason he thinks that he was moved to SmackDown is to make SmackDown better, more of an equal to the main show, Monday Night Raw.After noting that, Lawler continued to saw, with the move to the USA Network, there will be the possibility of SmackDown being a live show, alongside Raw.

See full interview here:

With Raw struggling currently with the ratings, and fans almost having no reason to watch SmackDown, thanks to the spoilers, WWE could get a huge boost from running both shows live. There is a number of possibilities of having the company could do with running two live shows; first, make SmackDown relevant, with expanded storylines, or a brand split.

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One of the main problems with SmackDown today, in the Internet age, the show is taped on a Tuesday and we all get the spoilers the same day. By the time the spoilers come out, the fans can decide for themselves whether or not the show is even worth watching, and by already knowing the outcomes, people are going to struggle to be surprised by the outcomes of the matches. With a live SmackDown, no WWE fan will have that struggle, instead be enamored with live matches and results that they would never get with a taped SmackDown.

With a live SmackDown, WWE could run expanded storylines and make the fans feel that there is a reason to watch the blue brand. Currently with both shows, all SmackDown feels like is a bunch of repeat matches and video packages from the week’s Raw. With two live shows, WWE could run some storylines on Monday, and then on Thursday run other storylines to keep the show fresh, not just a repeat from Raw.

With SmackDown going live, the WWE could go back to a brand split to boost the ratings of both shows. With a brand split, you would have half the roster only competing on one show, with the other half of the roster competing on the other show. With the brand split, you would have fans drawn into watch Raw or SmackDown, gaining both a bigger draw to both shows and potentially a bigger draw to the pay per views.

With SmackDown moving to the USA Network, there is the potential of SmackDown becoming a live show. With SmackDown potentially going live, would that bring a bigger draw to the show and the WWE as a whole? Lets us know what you think of this down below in the comment section.

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