Smackdown's possible cancellation

[Promoter 0]

It won't be healthy for the wwe to rejoin right now. We know the writers are lazy and will blow through all of the future blockbuster matches within a year or two. Look how they have rushed Cena and Orton. On the other hand I also do not buy the idea that the split allowed guys like Benoit and Guerrero to get to the top. Guerrero especially was getting very strong heat before they shoestrung the wwe title on the guy out of nowhere.

 

The problem is creative and a thin roster on both brands. I also agree that the format has to change. Now this is not saying that they haven't done some minor changes even in the storytelling because they have with stuff like the Rumble winner getting the chance to choose which champion he wants to face in the main event of Mania. The big problem is that if they want the mainstream back they need to look like a new show with new life. Can an average Joe off the street really tell what the difference between raw and smackdown today compared to 5 years ago with the exception that they are two different rosters(even then some may say it's all the same)?

 

The business was in the same situation in 1993-1994, but little changes started to happen with things like Nitro and by 1996-1997 Bischoff and company had a format that was completely crushing Vince's. Vince had to change his format. The format is tired again. They got a few things they can really turn things up with like the raw and smackdown interaction at the Rumble. They need to have both shows trying to outdo each other or something. There doesn't seem to be anything at stake unlike the 90's.

 

I like the idea of incorporating the house shows into things. That is something new and different, yet they won't do it because of laziness. It will take a lot more work. They did do it in the 80's somewhat as storylines like Orton/Muraco's break-up were taped at house shows and showed in local markets and then it built up the blow-off on superstars or challenge.

 

It's laziness now and the easy way out of trying to do things with hollywood writing. Look how they half-assed the rumble qualification matches on the house show circuit(not to mention the confusion). Another problem it encountered was the thin rosters. I don't know, but smackdown being cancelled might be the kick in the ass Vince needs.

 

Maybe UPN heard the rumours that Vince turned smackdown into the grooming brand for raw. Hell, I read once that Vince does favour raw and would weaken smackdown in spite of it. If you were a tv company president and the talk was that Vince was short-changing you on a major timeslot what would you do? Take into account that the commercial slots get lower buys due to the nature of the business in tv land. Vince should get his weekend shows cancelled as well for laziness as well with all the damn repeats(adding to the over-esxposure of the same matches week in and week out that the split was supposedly created to prevent). The company's greed in the ppv market has also made the shows less anticipated for tv and the ppv schedule.

 

I like the idea of seasons and I think what the wwe can do is create some kind of format where raw and smackdown are competing with each other and can interact with each other without throwing away all the potential matches on a yearly basis. Maybe the rotation of the champions and the general managers trying to keep them is a start. There needs to be some kind of bouncing back and forth without ruining the illusion of two leagues.

 

It's obvious the wwe can't run each brand with its own identity without sucking dry the other brand. They might as well do what they do best on both brands, but have the brands compete with a central figure(such as Vince) that they answer to. Anyways, maybe all these rumours about the future of raw and smackdown will get Vince into kick-ass mode again. I mean he is about due for something great again isn't he? It's been what.....4-5 years?

[spman 0]

As bad as things are, if they combined the two rosters again, it would just be worse. It would take the worst parts of RAW and the worst parts of Smackdown and give us all twice as much of it.

[Promoter 0]

I know I stated that in my first sentence. What I'm saying is create tension between the brands somehow and not give away all the interpromotional matches. In other words have the general managers battling for something like Vince and Eric were in the 90's with Vince Mcmahon being the central figure. Make things seem more like anything can happen.

 

An example would have been raw vs. smackdown battling for rumble spots on house shows. Another example would be WM 21 having a best of series where the winning brand gets the first pick in the draft. Use the strengths that the wwe uses well and put it into both brands instead of deliberately weakening one to strengthen the other for any reason(which has been done imo for contract renewal and whatnot). I'm saying that smackdown getting cancelled should be embarassing to Vince and would make him want to improve the brand split. I'm sure they would get picked up on another channel, but it still doesn't look good that smackdown is rumoured to get cancelled business wise in the televsion industry(hard sell for 24/7 channel). It might be the kick in the ass he needs.

[cawthon777 0]

Smackdown won't be cancelled. Even if it's dropped by UPN - and that's an IF - Vince will find another buyer.

[razazteca 0]

As bad as things are, if they combined the two rosters again, it would just be worse. It would take the worst parts of RAW and the worst parts of Smackdown and give us all twice as much of it.

It would get better because combining the roster could in theory make 2 strong shows instead of making 2 weak products. Now by joining the roster does not mean having HHH and Undertaker on both shows all the time which is what everbody fears. In my opinion the joining of the rosters would stregthen the midcard which is all but ignored on Raw. By joining the rosters the midcard and current IC champion Shelton Benjamin would have something to do besides having 2 minute matches with Maven. Also the tag team division would be more entertaining now that there are more than just 2 teams on the show......it has become boring watching La Resistence fight the flavor of the month tag team.

[tbondrage99 0]

If they do cancel Smackdown, which they wont, then there wont be enough time for anyone and newer guys just debuting will have a near impossible chance of getting over. Raw would have to be at least 3 hours if this were to work, and a 3 hour wrestling show is just to much unless its a PPV.

[razazteca 0]

Make Heat a better show.

[Promoter 0]

I would just like to know how the wwe "made stars" in the first place in regards to not enough room. They have the same amount of hours as they always had during the attitude era and they found ways to make stiffs like Godfather an interesting character to draw. Anyways, it could just be a power play on Vince for shopping raw around.

 

What should happen is all of those crappy B-Shows should be taken off the damn air. That would force Vince to use his roster better in exploiting the "lesser talent" instead of just throwing them on the weekend shows. If anything keep Heat something like Experience(without the repeats) since they multi-task the show for ppv anyways.

[Taker666 0]

"sigh", its already been reported that SD! is not getting cancelled. besides, theres already a thread about it. SmackDown is not going anywhere.

[Promoter 0]

Sorry, didn't see the thread. I know it's not cancelled YET, but isn't the contract up next year?

[Celtic Guardian 0]

"sigh", its already been reported that SD! is not getting cancelled. besides, theres already a thread about it. SmackDown is not going anywhere.

Officially, we don't yet know what will happen to Smackdown beyond the summer of 2006.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

In an absolute worst case scenario, Vince will just move it to WWE 24/7. It would probably hook on to some other cable channel though.

 

What are the chances of it going to Spike and RAW going to USA? Or just Smackdown going to USA? I don't know much about it.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

When Smackdown's contract was up for renewal before, USA were said to be interested. Even after that, USA have still been said to want wrestling back, specifically WWE. I think USA remain a viable option until they flat out state they don't want it back.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

It is just that all the talk about USA has been about RAW specifically. If they were interested in RAW, I don't see why they wouldn't be interested in Smackdown.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The problem with putting SD on USA is that I doubt USA are going to want a product that even WWE's own fans see as being second rate to Raw. USA are going to want SD to be a strong show, and that means better booking and so forth, and I don't think Vince is able/willing to do that.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

The problem with putting SD on USA is that I doubt USA are going to want a product that even WWE's own fans see as being second rate to Raw. USA are going to want SD to be a strong show, and that means better booking and so forth, and I don't think Vince is able/willing to do that.

Why? It was the stronger show from the first draft all the way up until Benoit jumped after last year's Rumble. Why would Vince have a problem with improving it?

 

Also, it is viewed as the lesser show right now, but its ratings are on par or better than RAW's. Why would USA care about the quality as long as the ratings are coming in?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The problem with putting SD on USA is that I doubt USA are going to want a product that even WWE's own fans see as being second rate to Raw. USA are going to want SD to be a strong show, and that means better booking and so forth, and I don't think Vince is able/willing to do that.

Why? It was the stronger show from the first draft all the way up until Benoit jumped after last year's Rumble. Why would Vince have a problem with improving it?

 

Also, it is viewed as the lesser show right now, but its ratings are on par or better than RAW's. Why would USA care about the quality as long as the ratings are coming in?

Why?  It was the stronger show from the first draft all the way up until Benoit jumped after last year's Rumble.  Why would Vince have a problem with improving it?

 

I don't what Vince's problem with SD is, but I've heard on more than one occasion that he has no interest in making SD look comparable to Raw. He's focusing everything he has on Raw, and SD is treated as an afterthought.

 

Also, it is viewed as the lesser show right now, but its ratings are on par or better than RAW's. Why would USA care about the quality as long as the ratings are coming in?

 

I guess they'd care from an image standpoint. They might want the ratings that SD gets, but I don't know that they'd be happy with some of the stuff that has gotten that ratings.

[Guest sek69]

Wasn't the point of stacking RAW at the expense of SD! that RAW's contract with Spike was up first and Vince wanted the show loaded to get a better deal out of it?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Wasn't the point of stacking RAW at the expense of SD! that RAW's contract with Spike was up first and Vince wanted the show loaded to get a better deal out of it?

That was the point. The problem is that, JBL push aside, Vince doesn't really put any effort into SD. It's left to the underlings to use to do whatever they like with.

[Promoter 0]

Maybe Vince should just hand the "promotion" over to Shane Mcmahon to run as was rumoured with the wcw purchase. Of course, we all know if this was anywhere a possibility Stephanie would run the damn thing and we'll get stuff like UT having an affair.

[Guest news_gimmick]

I still think that Smackdown! needs a jolt, and moving to another network would be just the trick, in my opinion. New set, new set, just shake it up.

 

 

Heh, and get rid of Joy Giovanni too. That would make me happy.

[Guest Loss]

Sadly, once you do something like a roster split, there's not really any going back. Combining the rosters would mean releasing all but about 30 wrestlers, which would send WWE shareholders into a panic, which would cause the company to lose money, which would result in lower payoffs for the wrestlers, which would result in even more paranoia among the main eventers, which would result in no new stars getting over, which would result in a worse TV show, which would result in the TV eventually being dropped, which would result in WWE going out of business. Yes, there was a time when they operated perfectly fine without having a split roster, but they had competition at that point. They have a full monopoly on the industry now and they want to keep it that way. Releasing a roster full of wrestlers is just begging for a money mark to come along and create competition, and despite what they say, WWE is quite happy being the only game in town. The brand extension needs to be better executed, and they need to push the idea of RAW v SD *very* hard, but killing the split would kill pro wrestling as we know it in the US. There's too much at stake.

 

There's also the disastrous financial implications, as they'd only be able to run half the house shows they run now with half the crew, and they've added more PPVs to their annual schedule, which has proved to be a financial success. They can't go backwards now -- despite what we'd like to see as fans, the business model couldn't sustain a 30-wrestler roster, one TV show per week, one house show per night and 12 PPVs a year.

[Promoter 0]

I agree with the point that when they had a monster roster during the 80's, the company had some competition which is why long term it didn't create the possibility of a dried up talent pool. However, going with that thinking means that the net is a bit unfair to the wwe when comparing raw's ratings and quality to the attitude era. RAW was once the only "A" show without having Smackdown to produce on another prime time night. I still think one of the biggest problems is over-exposure during the years and how well they exploit the talents.

 

Okay, if Vince Mcmahon really is of the mindset that smackdown is the grooming brand for raw then promote as such to create some kind of new blood vs. established blood angle between the brands. That's what the nWo vs. wcw/wwf angle was about initially somewhat. I guess he doesn't want the masses to realize a heirarchy going on in the wwe which was the excuse many used about why Vince never used the wcw name. That it was inherently secondary to wwf to fans and would flop.

[Twisted Intestine 0]

The problem with pushing RAW vs SD! is, how long can they do it?

 

They'd run out of ideas, and people would lose interest pretty fast, then what? They'd have to have one of the brands win the war, or just forget about it..

[Guest Loss]

They have one developmental territory right now. They really need about five or six more. The fact that they have only one outlet to produce new talent is mind-boggling. It's one area where they can't really afford to budge. I liked Meltzer's suggestion a few months ago of starting a developmental territory in LA, since they'd attract more people with the look WWE likes. They could also place developmental territories in Calgary, Portland, St. Louis, Memphis, Dallas/Ft Worth and the Carolinas -- all hot wrestling areas where the guys could get experience working in front of a crowd. That would certainly alleviate the fear of getting a dried up talent pool. Of course, things are going to get ugly anyway -- unless some newbies come in that study A LOT of tapes or WWE suddenly develops a talent exchange with a foreign company to season their wrestlers in several styles, the days of Harts and Austins and Benoits are behind us, as in the future, wrestlers are only really going to be trained in the WWE style.

 

I know this is sort of sidetracked from the original discussion, but you mentioned a dried up talent pool, and that struck a chord.

 

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

I've always had a pipedream of one starting here in Minnesota.

[justcoz 0]

There is no reason why they can't mix up the talent every few months yet keep the brands seperate. Creative just doesn't have the ability to do so. They've had some interesting things going on with the dueling GM bit but for whatever reason they fail to follow through. They could've went further with GM Vince vs. GM Flair. They had some interesting dynamics going on between GM Bischoff and GM Stephanie. Where was their kiss going??? Most recently, during the draft lottery, the dynamics between Bischoff and Heyman made that episode. As a smart fan (or even a casual) who followed all of the companies during the 90's - it was believable seeing Bischoff and Heyman compete for the better show. It was just an interesting dynamic to have men who were once Vince's competition run each of his brands. Before the show ended however they screwed up that up by having Heyman quit Smackdown to be followed by the weak GM Angle.

 

They could have partially recreated the vibe of the Monday Night Wars by having talent occassionally jump to the other brand (when their contracts expire for example). The GM's could orchestrate trades. They could tap into legitimate sports by having the GM's acknowledge perhaps that someone's contract is up for renewal and contemplate if they are willing to let this particular talent go to open up their pocket books or re-sign them. Angles where the talent and their agents try to push the GM into a larger contract (which would also serve to bring back the role of a wrestling manager). Maybe even have good strong wrestling manager characters serve as a common link between shows by representing talent in each of the brands? Set several trade deadlines througout the year maybe? One after Wrestlemania and maybe another after Summerslam?

 

There is nothing wrong with having a someone from one show make a suprise walk-in on the competing show if it's somehow tied into one show or GM trying to play a power move on their competition. Teddy Long on RAW this past Monday was fine as he was there to disrupt the show and steal one of their top talents. Bischoff showing up during the Chuck/Billy Wedding was alright because he was their to wreak havoc and bring attention to RAW. Remember the pop when he removed his Reverend mask? People ate that shit up as if it was someone from RAW showing up on Nitro.

 

By doing nothing like this, WWE runs into the problem they've come to now with the brand split. One year of the same restrictive matchups and uninteresting repetetive television. They currently try to compensate by bringing in talent that is too green or just bad (Snitsky, Heidenreich, etc.) just to introduce new characters to freshen up the shows. Meanwhile, talent already on their roster is misused or restricted because they don't jump brands to switch off who they are programmed with so their characters get tired and stale.

 

I like the idea of having one Unified World Heavyweight Champion going back and forth between shows.

 

I like the idea of having a Smackdown TV Champion and a RAW TV Champion in addition to the U.S. and Intercontinental Champions.

 

I like the idea of bringing back the territories for new talent to develop. Use OVW. Bring ROH into the fold so TNA doesn't have access to the talent they build. Maybe two more - LA and Calgary. Have them do small-budget television, get them on syndication in their markets or maybe show their shows on WWE 24/7. Hell, if they get back on USA, bring back All American Wrestling spotlighting all of the regional shows.

 

I also believe there should be TWO SEPERATE CREATIVE teams and Vince should capitalize on any tension among creative team members by pitting them against each other to produce the better show. Instead of sending Paul Heyman home because he bugs Stephanie, Gerwitz and HHH - put him in charge of Smackdown's creative department, maybe have Shane work with him and have them try to outperform the RAW team. HHH is Raw's wrestling mind. Heyman is Smackdown's. Stephanie understands the business more by being with HHH and Shane learns from being with Heyman. You are solidifying a future for the company by not just focussing on two people (Steph and HHH) to groom for the future.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Maybe Vince should just hand the "promotion" over to Shane Mcmahon to run as was rumoured with the wcw purchase.

 

Instead of sending Paul Heyman home because he bugs Stephanie, Gerwitz and HHH - put him in charge of Smackdown's creative department, maybe have Shane work with him and have them try to outperform the RAW team.

Shane doesn't want anything to do w/ the creative side of WWE. He's perfectly happy running the new media stuff (I think that's what he does).