WWE SmackDown clearly won the Superstar Shakeup, can they keep it up?
The recent upheaval of the both show’s rosters gave WWE SmackDown a much-needed reset. Can they take advantage of it?
After a dismal 2017, WWE SmackDown Live began to right the ship creatively as the calendar flipped to the new year. They gave up on the Jinder Mahal experiment and made A.J. Styles WWE Champion. They put the SmackDown Women’s Title on Charlotte Flair after Natalya’s listless reign.
They delivered two big-time dream matches at WrestleMania. The writers even paid off that convoluted Shane McMahon/Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn storyline with the in-ring return of Daniel Bryan. Combine that with Carmella’s Money in the Bank cash-in and Shinsuke Nakamura’s heel turn, and the show slowly started to find its groove again.
After the Superstar Shakeup, it’s clear that SmackDown will be more than fine. It might become one of the best wrestling programs on TV. While RAW took in most of SmackDown’s failed mid-card acts, the blue brand brought in top talent after top talent.
They brought in the likes of Asuka, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, and The Bar to fill up the roster. That list doesn’t even include NXT call-ups SAnitY and Andrade “Cien” Almas (along with valet Zelina Vega). With these changes, SmackDown’s well-rounded roster should contrast nicely with RAW’s top-heavy crew, if the booking is strong.
Addition by Subtraction
One could argue that SmackDown did better during the shakeup on the basis of what they “lost”. Most of the wrestlers that moved to RAW–outside of Owens and Zayn–weren’t getting big pushes anyway. Is SmackDown less interesting without Jinder Mahal? Given his swift plummet down the card, I would say the answer is no. How about the Riott Squad? Or Breezango? Or Zack Ryder? Will anyone miss seeing Mike Kanellis or The Ascension on Tuesday nights? Are any of those wrestlers going to get pushed any better on RAW?
Once again, the answer is a resounding no. Without going through the list, the wrestlers SmackDown got back are better performers and are seen as bigger stars in the eyes of the fans. Heck, they even replaced one tall guy with stringy hair (Baron Corbin) with another (Big Cass).
All of that talent will join a roster that already features the likes of Styles, Bryan, Nakamura, Flair, Randy Orton, Becky Lynch, and the criminally underpushed Rusev. With all that talent, Brian “Road Dogg” James and the rest of the SmackDown creative team have a bevy of fresh and exciting matches at their disposal.
Will the talent get used properly?
This seems like an impossible situation to mess up. However, WWE has a LONG history of botching up near certainties. The roster they had last year looked promising, but the creative team quickly snuffed out that hope by misusing almost every wrestler they had in favor of promoting another overdone authority figure storyline.
I could easily see the writers shoving Big Cass down the fans’ throats (because he’s tall). I could also see them giving Carmella a Women’s Title reign that lasts WAY too long. Worse yet, I could see them shoehorning Shane McMahon into months worth of storylines again so he can dive off of something really high (oh God, he’s going to feud with Samoa Joe, isn’t he?)
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If the booking holds up, this should be a great year for SmackDown Live. They have more than enough talent to consistently fill two hours of programming every week. The Superstar Shakeup was a great start. Hopefully, they can keep it up.