WWE: The Major Problems With The New Graphics

Ever since the night after the Royal Rumble, WWE has run both Raw and SmackDown Live with a new set of graphics.

This has included giving Monday Night Raw a complete makeover in terms of their design layout. Since the brand split in 2016, Raw had a more black and red design. But after the Royal Rumble, it changed to Red and White.

And quite frankly, while it was unnecessary, it doesn’t look horrible. It looks fresh and new, and shows Raw going in a new direction. SmackDown Live however did not get a makeover. They still have the same design from when the show was introduced after the brand split.

But the real issue as of late for WWE has not been the design layout necessarily. The issue has been the graphics they’ve been using during their superstar’s promos.

To better clarify, on both Raw and SmackDown Live, superstars will take a video of themselves selfie style, and cut a promo whilst doing so. And while cutting this promo, occasionally words will pop up alongside the superstar. Generally these words are something the superstar said in bright red or blue colors. Most of the time, these can be seen in the promos for the Mixed Match Challenge, or to promote something coming up on one of the shows.

So what’s the problem with this formula?

The simple answer is that it takes away from the promo itself. The selfie style promo is not the problem here. In fact, this isn’t the first time this style of promo has been done, with the Shield being known for doing so back when they debuted.

Credit: WWE.com

The problem itself is the graphics that show up during the promo. For one, there is nothing that appealing about watching watch words appear on the screen during a promo. Not only that, but it takes away from what the superstar is trying to say. They could be giving a completely heartfelt promo, but the viewer is distracted by giant colorful words popping up on the screen.

There is really just no place for it. It makes very little sense for these graphics showing up. For the longest time, something like this hasn’t been a thing in the WWE. And sure, times change and WWE updates their look every now and then. But with something like this that takes away from what is happening it makes no sense.

See also the SmackDown Live after the Royal Rumble with the promo that the Usos cut. In it, they talk about how they’ve put the rest of the tag teams on SmackDown Live on “lockdown”. One by one, they go through each team, and every time they bring up a new team, a graphic plays. The Usos say “locked down”, and a graphic of a jail cell plays.

While it made sense for the promo they were trying to cut, there was no real reason that WWE needed to add that in. The purpose of the promo was to show how dominant and serious the Usos are. But in reality, all it did was make for a really silly moment.

The bottom line is this: yes, WWE is known for changing things up when it comes to their designs and layout. On plenty occasions, it has worked perfectly like with the Raw Is War design or the giant fist for SmackDown.

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But occasionally, some changes WWE makes aren’t as up to standard as some of their others are. And if WWE isn’t careful with the graphic choices they are currently making, it will make things sillier than it needs to be.