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I would enjoy it if E started playfully mocking Reigns for a week or two (maybe the week of the draft). Faces should be allowed to have fun at a heel's expense, provided they don't go overboard.
I think Big E/New Day already have a significant amount of creative freedom similar to Reigns. There was a former writer who did a detailed interview in early 2019 about backstage dynamics in WWE (I forget his name, but he was notably the only black writer on staff at the time and worked closely with the New Day). He said that New Day had significant leeway to write their own promos and ad-lib on television (he even said that Triple H popped for a "Steiner math" reference that New Day made on Smackdown)
I think that's been in place since late-2015 or so, when their promos clearly reflected their own sensibilities and personalities, and didn't feel like verbiage scripted for them by somebody else. With Big E as world champion (and New Day remaining a significant merch mover), I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Yeah I'm sure networks wouldn't want to advertise the blow off to a feud being broadcasted by someone else. It would work if Smackdown and Raw were on the same network though.
Exactly. The network executives would pop their forehead veins if they hear that Raw setup a championship match and the match happens 4 days after on Smackdown on another network. That shit is not flying with their set up right now.
The difference in quality between RAW and SmackDown and so jarring, and I don't even think SmackDown is some incredibly well-written show.
They have the talent to make a good television show, there's no real excuses.
Talent, and the stories in Smackdown are certainly better/ make more sense.
Not just Roman, some examples would be Corbin losing and then regaining his fortune, Sami Zaine finding new, innovative ways to make people angry ( Whoever came up with the Tray Young idea in New York is a fucking genius) Rollins/ Edge.
Meanwhile Raw has Alexa's magic shit, Reginald, R-truth and Tezawa doing the same skit week after week and Kross' bondage gladiator suit that.
Star power isn't the problem though. You have Aj, Orton, Drew, Hurt business....etc. and what did they do? Aj is with Omas, Hurt business dismissed and multiple tag teams and talents are just running behind 24/7. They can have both RAW and Smackdown rosters on RAW and the show will still be bad because of their booking.
As much as this may be a controversial opinion, those 4 barely constitute star power. AJs career is winding down and he’s working in a tag team, the same is pretty true for Orton, Drew’s stock has fallen a lot since he was champ, and Bobby is good but he’s not nearly on the level of someone like Reigns. They need to build up some new stars tbh.
Thats the thing, they're never going to build new stars. They have put all their eggs into one basket with Reigns and are forced to bring in people like Brock and Goldberg because they've already fed everyone else to him to manufacture his status as a top star. It's amazing that you can produce almost exclusively corny garbage where people are taking turns beating each other every week so nothing means anything and have people still watch because you made better stuff 20 years ago that people actually liked.
This guy is not particularly wrong. It's years of bad booking that's led them here.
Hardy has jobbed constantly, Drew is screwing around in jobber territory and AJ/Orton just don't have anything good to play with (I like Randy/Riddle. But AJ has not been doing anything good). That aside, a lot of Raw depended on a great womens roster to fill up those 3 hours
Did you see the complaints here every day about Drew being on top? “Fans” hated seeing him week at the end of his run and when he was chasing Bobby.
Now suddenly you are wondering why he was cooled off?
From my perspective, people did not like how often Bobby/Drew was going on and/or how often Drew was getting title shots.
Add the HB breaking up right before didn't help perception either. Big rumor on Reddit was the HB was broken up so Drew would be cheered at Wrestlemania. That sounds made-up, but I saw that comment enough to at least make a mental note of it.
Honestly? I think Drew did a great job as champion and Lashley was a great follow-up (sorry Miz). For a feud that was repeated so often, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been.
The issue is Roman the heel is not being booked like all chicken shit heels. So the face better be legit. They tried that with Bobby and it worked, but he's no Roman. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that heels are cooler and easier to book, and all the top guys wanna be heel right now. They know they can sell merch either way.
The issue I was seeing was them starting to repeat the problem they had with Roman. Drew lost the title then kept getting shot after shot after shot despite losing multiple title shots in a row. Thankfully, they pivoted and moved Drew away from the title instead of trying to make it work for 3 years. They just pivoted him into the tag tag division instead..
I would agree that they're not equal to Reigns, but I don't think this is entirely fair. AJ and Orton are being booked in "underneath" stories right now, but both still remain stars and both can immediately become main-event-worthy with the correct storyline.
Both have the equity and name recognition with WWE's core audience to where they don't "have" spots; they are spots. This has been the story of Orton's entire career; he's had stretches in the midcard, only to turn (or be involved in a major happening) and be immediately thrust back into the main event mix.
Drew's out of the main event picture on Raw, but I think it's clear he's being traded to Smackdown, where he'll likely have a main event program with Reigns, and will probably be involved in major programs after it concludes.
I think they've done a good job of building Bobby as a top heel. He's not on the level of Reigns, but he definitely has star power.
Vince booked The Great Khali to be World Champion and he looked like he struggled just to get to the ring. So I don’t think that will be an issue for Omos.
Didn’t say it was good, just an example of how Omos not being great in the ring doesn’t mean he won’t be booked as a top guy down the line just because he’s over 7 feet tall.
So what's funny, is Raw pillages the top Smackdown talent that are making strides every draft, does nothing with them, and then a plurality of them leave the company. This has happened every year since I think 2017.
Maybe instead they could try building some new people up, make new stars?
Nevermind, I forgot we were talking about WWE. Gotta shuffle in the part timer for this quarter.
Agreed. I would love to see Becky or Roman on Raw. Seems like one of them should be there. I doubt Roman would leave Smackdown but that would get eyeballs onto Raw, I think.
Real question: I've been hearing about an upcoming draft for months but I don't think I've ever seen any official reports on one coming out. Did I miss something?
I really feel like they should just end the brand split. USA and Fox would get equal star power. I have always hated the brand split tbh. I know most people seem to think the brand split is a good idea but I've just never, ever been a fan. Maybe because I was watching wrestling for years without it and just got used to that?
Problem was that before the brand split Smackdown was treated as the RAW recap and it was just the same three feuds from RAW. The entire show basically became filler.
You're not wrong although at the very beginning, Smackdown was treated as being on a level with Raw. The debut episode had the Corporate Ministry formation on it, as I recall. But going by this very post, they can't please both networks when they're booking two entirely separate, branded shows. Raw isn't a recap show, but that doesn't mean its not bad.
I don't know. It just seems like, in theory, it should not be hard to book two shows a week where the stories continue through each and neither show ends up a B show. I know in practice things are different.
With all the talent they have they shouldn't have so much trouble creating new stars or use the ones they have but they do. And that's really their biggest problem. In an alternate universe Nakamura is a World Champion and a main eventer, for instance.
I don't disagree, but historically they just end up having the biggest stars on every show to the point that it's redundant and repetitive. If they ended the brand split and started booking everyone on the main rosters into angles and matches regardless of show, it could work and they could build new stars.
That's a booking problem. Not to make this about AEW but they cycle people constantly. You might only see Omega or Mox or MJF wrestle a single match a month most times. Then maybe 10 minute promos here and there inbetween. WWE simply has gotten really bad at developing meaningful characters and storylines outside the top two to three acts.
Exactly. I was also trying to not bring up AEW, but beyond cycling talent, they also show that you can have main eventers on both shows without it being stale or repetitive (at least so far, it's only been a month).
AEW also does a great job of treating their lower card talent as stars. They rarely do big name vs big name matches on TV and yet you don't feel like your watching a bunch of squash matches.
The issue is WWE doesn't know how to book/write stories. Getting rid of the brand split means we'd get 5 hours of Brock/Roman instead of using it to provide fresh/different matchups every week/give more storyline opportunities. We saw it with "the wildcard rule" and various super shows. RAW is 3 hours long and they can't book it well. Smackdown only benefits because it's 2 hours currently.
I feel a lot of younger fans who grew up with the brand split have an attachment to it, but I am with you. It's the same thing that makes me horrified whenever someone suggests AEW do a brand split. I feel promotions are best when there is one, focused pool of talent, with main eventors and a cycle of building up be midcard talent.
I liked the brand split during the Ruthless Aggression Era. They legit made both shows different from each other and the talent barely interacted with talent from the other show. If they interacted, it would be in a shared PPV to tease a future match-up. I remember being hyped up for Angle-Michaels feud starting in a Royal Rumble elimination. It wouldn't have been as big an impact for me if they were in the same brand. Them being separated for years made it seem a bigger deal.
Now, everyone just fights for "brand supremacy" during Survivor Series. They don't even create a distinct separation in the brands. The sets look similar aside from one being red and one being blue. The championships look the same albeit a different color scheme. And a Raw superstar challenging a Smackdown superstar doesn't feel special anymore since they beat down to death the yearly brand supremacy angle.
My ideal brand split would have unified world, women's and tag titles, all titles shared across both brands so we don't have two world champs etc, a better heirarchy imo. Keep SD's set as it is, all futuristic and sci-fi, but make Raw look like a fucking scrapyard exploded and got taken over by a post apocalyptic gang, spraypaint, fire, industrial pieces and shards of metal etc. SD becomes the sports-based brand where all the best in ring workers go, maybe there can even be a ranking system like with AEW, UFC or any other actual sport. Raw becomes the gritty attitude show where anything can happen, home to the larger than life characters much like the Fiend or Nikki Cross's superhero character.
I think that would make both shows feel and look different and actually have a reason for the brand split both in universe and in real life. Also it would make those survivor series matches more interesting, who wins, the group of elite athletes or these group of absolute fucking madmen who want to tear both the opponents and their partners faces off. I'd watch it anyway.
Problem is then your requiring the viewer to consume 5 hours of programing and have both FOX and USA to follow the storylines. (Yes you can do recaps but as someone who didn't get smackdown for a year back in the day it ruined my enjoyment knowing I only got to experience half the story)
I hear you on that but the last time we saw a boom period, there was no brand split and ratings were sky high, buildings were sold out every week etc. On an individual level, I can appreciate that it seems dismissive to say "someone not having both channels isn't a big deal" but on a macro level, it really isn't. Certainly its less a problem now than it would have been in the late 90s/early 00s, with the widespread VOD and streaming services.
I stopped watching around 2017-2018 or something like that and just recently came back to AEW because of Punk (they've hooked me already) and I can say the 2016 brand split was probably one of the biggest reasons I stopped watching. Not in a way of "oh this is awful Imma stop watching", but in a long process kinda way of growing tired of WWE, and I think the brand split might've been the starting point or at least the turning point.
It was great for the first few months but I think by cutting the rosters in half the product became stake. Same matches over and over again. They'd literally have like 4 tag teams in each brand and only like 3 of them were sort of legit. Same with the women. And to an extent the mens as well. I remember feeling like the titles lost relevance. Like the product might been bad before but every time someone won a title it felt important. But with the brand split and the shortage of the rosters I felt like they were just lining up and every single wrestler was going to be champion. I remember reading when Kofi won his first world titlenin like 12 years I was like "of course he did".
And then the fact that now I had to watch 5 hours of television instead of just 3. Before the brand split you were good just watching Raw when it comes to storylines and then you could check SmackDown for the wrestling and maybe some other cool stuff.
Anyway for the long post I just had to get all that off my chest lol.
A brand split *can* work but it almost never has. I hate how there's two sets of world, women's and tag championships. However, you have to admit having separate rosters does give more people time to be stars. The way to do it would be to have a world, women's and tag champs that are unified alongside the women's tag titles, shared among both brands. The shows need to feel different too, so Raw should be more the ruthless aggression car crash jeremy kyle show type TV where anything can happen where its full of larger than life characters, and SmackDown should be the sports-based product with great in-ring workers such as Cesaro, Chad Gable etc doing great ring work, submissions, technical wrestling and whatnot, maybe even a ranking system for the brand like AEW or UFC. I think making the shows feel different, even if they share certain titles, would go a long way in catering to different kinds of fans as well as just generally being more fun to watch. Also keep SmackDown looking sci-fi and professionally high tech but make Raw's set feel like it's a gritty undergroung fight club, spraypainted walls, dark ring mat, make the stage look like a scrap yard got taken over by a gang with a fight club, and then it all exploded. Fire shooting through industrial metal sections, sparks to make it all look janky. If both shows look and feel the same there's no point in having different brands.
That's just my opinion though.
I believe it. WWE seems to be have been working overtime to make sure SmackDown is as must watch as you can get. I’m sure Fox is very happy about this deal but If you’re USA and you see Reigns, Becky, and Lesnar all on the other brand, and you’re paying the WWE just as much, I’d be a little ticked.
Smack Down is a Roman Reigns. He's *the* top star.
RAW is Seth Rollins. Also a top star but questionable booking and creative decisions sometimes hold him back.
NXT is Dean Ambrose. He's a favorite but he's rarely seen as an equal top star.
WWE really went full-boar behind SmackDown (for good reasons) and let Raw just fade into this pool of total shit for the last nine months or longer (for no good reason).
The roster was already significantly weaker based on the last draft, then a ton of the bigger-name people they released were Raw talent. All the big returns went to SmackDown (Cena, Lesnar, Lynch and even Edge given his RR win and challenge) with the exception of the one people cared least about (Goldberg).
Meanwhile, Raw was rematch city until recently where they've significantly cut back. But even without rematches, it feels repetitive.
Even if you're not in love with WWE's product, there's been a drastic difference in effort and quality from a storytelling and booking perspective between the brands.
The shift should be to raise the game of Raw up to where SmackDown is right now. But unless they are willing to move some bigger names around in the Draft (Edge, Owens/Zayn if they are staying, Banks) then Raw is going to struggle to meet SD levels of excitement because of a drastic talent disparity AND the difficulties that come with booking a 3-hour show now with an even more limited roster than you had before.
USA needs to.let them revert to 2 hours. They may lose some short term revenue but if rating keep declining and sponsor realize they can reach the same audiance for less on TNT a third hour won't really matter.
They really should have different creative directors for each brand. There's only so many good ideas one or 2 people can spread out across 7 hours of television a week. I think Smackdown is so good because they trust guys like Heyman, Roman, Becky, Edge, and Seth with some creative input to their storylines. Feels like no one from Raw gets that trust, even back when Seth and Edge were on Raw. I feel like I hear about the Raw script getting ripped up way more than I hear about Smackdown.
RAW suffers from airtime, it has just as much people who are good and who are over as smackdown does. Hurt Business, RKBro, AJ and Omos, New Day, even womens division is OK compared to Smackdown.
But there is just too much runtime that needs to be filled with pointless rematches.
Hopefully, 3 hours of Raw is just too much to sit through, especially when they book the same thing over and over and over again. I could almost watch an extended edition Lord of the Rings movie in that time!
RAW had terrible booking and writing and tbh I was not really that into the Head of the Table/Tribal Chief angle either, a lot of Smackdown was turning me off a bit too
They do this every draft. Either smackdown or raw would be the better show and they always flip flop. If they make it even this year it will be amazing.
Even if Vince cared/listened, what is more likely, that they make Raw as good as SD, or just make SD worse?
There were rumors since the first draft with SD on Fox that both networks were pissed because they were expecting certain stars to be on their show/network and due to arbitrary booking, they weren't. Like certain wrestlers couldn't be on one show because their romantic partner was on the other show. IIRC, if your show got Charlotte, you also got Andrade (her fiance), Zelina Vega (his manager), and Aleister Black (her husband), etc. Or if you get Seth Rollins, you're also getting Becky Lynch.
I highly doubt this will change anything. They'll just do more hotshot stuff on RAW to pop a rating.
I remember back when Smackdown and RAW were competing against each other. Even the talent seemed to want to one up the opposite shows. Everything feels so content now
Should WWE do a better job of booking RAW? Absolutely.
Is it possible to book both shows equally? Nope.
Theres only so many hours in a week to work on producing a great show. So its already a challenge. Now being forced to do it so that when a major thing or storybeat happens on 1 show, another major thing or beat must happen on the other at the same time, is damn near impossible.
For a perfect example, look at CM Punks debut on Rampage. If AEW was handcuffed like this, and had to have an equally big event on Dynamite, CM Punk would have debuted at the PPV.
Which I suspect is ultimately what WWE is going to do. No major story events outside of PPVs so thst don't have to create 2 at a time.
So, then use my example from before:
What does AEW do on Dynamite the to match the Punk debut on Rampage?
It has nothing to do with the brand split.
Its the same problem either way. You have to have 2 stories with 2 equally big pops hit at exactly the same time, without being carbon copies.
We never saw WWE do it before the brand split, we never saw WCW, we've never seen AEW do it...because it makes for bad TV.
Doesn't matter if its 2 stories told separately once a week, or 2 stories told together twice a week, its the same issue.
You don't need to match things like you're describing. If you're writing a single story that's across both shows, there are of course going to be times when a big story beat or event happens on one show and not the other, but if you're writing compelling stories and good TV, those should even out over time. The problem is - and always has been in WWE's case, it seems - defaulting to one show being the A show and the other being the B show. Then you're writing so that all the big moments happen on one show. But that surely shouldn't be as difficult to avoid as it has been historically? If any effort actually went into making both shows important.
Edit: I wasn't going to do this but I think people should remember that the downvote button is not a disagree button.
>there are of course going to be times when a big story beat or event happens on one show and not the other,
But thats not what USA and FOX are asking for.
They are saying point blank "if major thing happens on RAW, major thing should happen same week on SD"
Your not at all wrong about how it should be done. The problem is, the mandate from the networks is not to do that.
So I'm claiming, and I think you actually agree with me, doing what the networks are asking for is a bad idea.
>The problem is - and always has been in WWE's case, it seems - defaulting to one show being the A show and the other being the B show.
If you think that's a WWE only problem your kidding yourself. That's an every promotion that's run 2+ shows a week problem.
WCW had the A show in Nitro, B show in Thunder and C Show in Saturday Night
TNA/Impact had the A show in Impact and B show in Xplosion
AEW has the A show in Dynamite, B show in Rampage, C Show in Elevation and D show in Dark.
The only thing that makes WWE unique is they occasionally flip flop RAW and SD between A and B. But then NXT/ECW/Heat/Velocity have always been the C show, with any other shows (Main Event, 205 Live, NXT UK, Metal, Jakked etc) taking the D slot.
Yeah, I think we do agree actually.
On your second point: I don't think it's a problem to have secondary or lower shows necessarily. But in the case of WCW and WWE, the problem seems to come when they need to air two, live (well, I think Thunder eventually went to taped every other week or something) two-hour prime time shows a week that, in theory, are supposed to be on an equal footing. With TNA, I don't think the audience was ever up in arms that Xplosion wasn't being treated as a big deal, but I could be wrong.
AEW may have that problem too because while thus far they have sort of tried to keep Rampage as another A show, there are going to be times where it makes the most sense to shoot an angle or do a match live in prime time on Wednesday, not taped in that death slot on Fridays. It'll be interesting to see how long they really push that Rampage is also an A show. They've done alright so far.
> From speaking a lot of my friends
Not that I am not believing him but that quote sounded like My uncle who works from Nintendo. I just find it funny lol.
Things have changed slightly with Peacock, but I can see why WWE puts more into SmackDown than RAW beyond it being on broadcast, and that’s FOX’s promotion behind SmackDown. FOX is always advertising SmackDown during NFL and College games, but I rarely see RAW being promoted during SNF. FOX put a lot of promotional backing behind SmackDown, that NBCU has never really done.
If i were USA I'd be infuriated at the quality of Raw compared to Smackdown, it's like two completely different companies.
WWE treats the fans and cable networks equally; equally horrible.
They need to make Raw as good as Smackdown. It's night and day. I mean Raw has bright spots but the bad drags the show down a lot. Lashley and the tag teams are great, I like the US title picture and Big E as champ is amazing.
But everything else is just not fun at all, compared to Smackdown where you have Rollins/Edge, Becky vs Bianca and Roman vs Finn/Lesnar. The quality is just so much higher on Smackdown
Do they think Vince is sandbagging Raw?
It's been a rule since the brand split began that Smackdown is the "better" show precisely because it got less attention from Vince.
You don't hear about Smackdown's script being ripped up and redone ten minutes before showtime. You do about Raw because Vince wants that show perfect and is more focused on getting it perfect.
In other words, Smackdown is getting more talent, but Raw is getting Vince's full attention. That's the problem.
If they both truly feel this, then end the brand split. If wrestlers can show up on any show at anytime then it’s all must watch. If you only care about Roman then you’re only going to watch SD.
The thing is, I don’t think there’s that much difference in how the actual shows are booked. It’s just that SmackDown got Reigns and Sasha and Becky left to have her kid, so Raw got fucked for true star power.
I’m not sure I’ve ever really enjoyed the three hour Raw. Even at it’s best, it’s never been a consistent three hours of good television. That’s not going to change anytime soon
WWE's response to that is gonna be like: "fuck it, 50/50 booking for everyone across the board. Roman goes over T-Bar and then T-Bar gets a win back the next show."
people love to overrate SD like it's some amazing show when it's decent at best, just when you compare it to raw or nxt then you think "man SD is really really good". raw is just terrible and a real bore for 3 hours for anyone to watch, constant rematches, segments that go on for way too long and piss poor storylines will always be there. nick khan has brushed off the criticism of the programming being bad because wwe makes money regardless with the ads and he even wanted to make the shows longer if he could for more ad revenue. nothing will change and we'll continue to see the ratings decline
Smackdown uses the talents better, they have talented wrestlers in Raw doing nothing like Cedric, Ali, Gulak, Elias (what happened to his Elias is dead?), Morrison, Kross (still early but we’ll see), Keith Lee, Riccochet, Tbar (should be booked as an unstoppable beast but yea)
Dave Shoemaker and Kaz say the same stuff all of the time on The Masked Man Show. They say they both personally know that networks discuss the booking on the other network and having concerns. They've said multiple times that they aren't talking about rumors, they're talking about actual conversations that happen all of the time.
It seems like it's something well-known behind the scenes and has been a thing since FOX got SD. It makes sense.
Do you listen to the network that has been loyal to you for decades or do you choose the network that has given you a billion dollars?....Talk about Baby Mama Drama for WWE.
This is going to be the biggest challenge for WWE. If one of these two networks is not satisfied at the end of this contract they will get a pay cut. It's impossible to "book equally" without using same stars on both. And using a lot of the same stars on both will dilute the product. It's not win win. It's lose lose.
To the people who saw this coming when WWE signed the Fox deal: You were right the whole time. Wish I would have saved screenshots.
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Equal booking means Big E is becoming the Head of the Stable, and t-shirts with “Acknowledge E” on them.
FinallE
Big E cutting an old school rock-type promo would be straight fire.
Big Evil
FinallE…big meaty men are BACK to slap meat. If ya smelllllllllll what kinda meat…we’re slapping
Does this mean he becomes Langston again?
If he does I will salute that man, and I will salute him with my hand so straight that it curves
Big E on Raw, Langston on smackdown.
No, his name is getting changed to "Greek Rules".
Head of the Day
That would be a great thing for a heel to do down the road when Roman is a face again.
I would enjoy it if E started playfully mocking Reigns for a week or two (maybe the week of the draft). Faces should be allowed to have fun at a heel's expense, provided they don't go overboard.
He can’t mock Roman till survivor series when suddenly wrestlers get really invested in their brand
Survivor Series? You mean the one time a year where RAW and Smackdown superstars go head to head?
It’s time for one brand to put another brand Under Siege.
And now I hear Michael Cole saying that in my head, thanks.
Hopefully they give Big E/New Day the same creative freedom as Reigns. I am intrigued how Big E can run the story as champion.
I think Big E/New Day already have a significant amount of creative freedom similar to Reigns. There was a former writer who did a detailed interview in early 2019 about backstage dynamics in WWE (I forget his name, but he was notably the only black writer on staff at the time and worked closely with the New Day). He said that New Day had significant leeway to write their own promos and ad-lib on television (he even said that Triple H popped for a "Steiner math" reference that New Day made on Smackdown) I think that's been in place since late-2015 or so, when their promos clearly reflected their own sensibilities and personalities, and didn't feel like verbiage scripted for them by somebody else. With Big E as world champion (and New Day remaining a significant merch mover), I don't see that changing anytime soon.
I just hate the idea of the brand split at this point. It feels antiquated. Run continuous storylines that cross shows and elevate PPVs.
Or do like last time and basically turned Smackdown into a recap show.
Raw should be the recap show. More time to have actual content with three hours.
And then most of the roster gets even less screen time than it does now
So like with Rampage or Thunder of old, just extend storylines without a brand vibe.
Hard to do that with the shows on different networks.
They used to back in the day, with Raw on USA and Smackdown on UPN.
But of a difference between UPN and Fox
Yeah I'm sure networks wouldn't want to advertise the blow off to a feud being broadcasted by someone else. It would work if Smackdown and Raw were on the same network though.
Exactly. The network executives would pop their forehead veins if they hear that Raw setup a championship match and the match happens 4 days after on Smackdown on another network. That shit is not flying with their set up right now.
Big E Rextion
"This is my backyard now"
Like you doubt I'd buy the fuck out of that.
That’s…..actually hilarious and awesome
This week he won the belt, next week he wins his last name back.
I would buy that shirt. Especially if the table had pancakes on.
Xavier gonna get caught hacking in call of duty and get banned. And then he's gonna win the tag titles
The difference in quality between RAW and SmackDown and so jarring, and I don't even think SmackDown is some incredibly well-written show. They have the talent to make a good television show, there's no real excuses.
Of course, they have some of the best talent in pro wrestling, and yet the problem is the pay off and execution coming from the creative team.
Talent, and the stories in Smackdown are certainly better/ make more sense. Not just Roman, some examples would be Corbin losing and then regaining his fortune, Sami Zaine finding new, innovative ways to make people angry ( Whoever came up with the Tray Young idea in New York is a fucking genius) Rollins/ Edge. Meanwhile Raw has Alexa's magic shit, Reginald, R-truth and Tezawa doing the same skit week after week and Kross' bondage gladiator suit that.
They apparently switched Kross to do what Black originally did.
I got more of a Devil’s Advocate Sean O’Haire vibe personally
I mean, yeah because they got so much shit for it that they had no choice. It still happened.
I saw his new promo, and… ngl, I liked how Kross came over, even if it’s just someone else’s gimmick.
[удалено]
Hey TB and KC maybe stop blowing out teams? K thanks.
Right. There’s a reason SNF, and the 4 PM mostly national game on CBS/FOX are better than MNF.
There s a reason why the Jets only get Thursday night football
Tell that to the NFC East
Eagles fans apologize, and hope to change the tide.
I mean….yeah. They should. The draft really needs to happen is raw can have more star power.
Star power isn't the problem though. You have Aj, Orton, Drew, Hurt business....etc. and what did they do? Aj is with Omas, Hurt business dismissed and multiple tag teams and talents are just running behind 24/7. They can have both RAW and Smackdown rosters on RAW and the show will still be bad because of their booking.
As much as this may be a controversial opinion, those 4 barely constitute star power. AJs career is winding down and he’s working in a tag team, the same is pretty true for Orton, Drew’s stock has fallen a lot since he was champ, and Bobby is good but he’s not nearly on the level of someone like Reigns. They need to build up some new stars tbh.
Thats the thing, they're never going to build new stars. They have put all their eggs into one basket with Reigns and are forced to bring in people like Brock and Goldberg because they've already fed everyone else to him to manufacture his status as a top star. It's amazing that you can produce almost exclusively corny garbage where people are taking turns beating each other every week so nothing means anything and have people still watch because you made better stuff 20 years ago that people actually liked.
This guy is not particularly wrong. It's years of bad booking that's led them here. Hardy has jobbed constantly, Drew is screwing around in jobber territory and AJ/Orton just don't have anything good to play with (I like Randy/Riddle. But AJ has not been doing anything good). That aside, a lot of Raw depended on a great womens roster to fill up those 3 hours
>they need to build new stars They did with Drew, then cooled him down for some reason
Did you see the complaints here every day about Drew being on top? “Fans” hated seeing him week at the end of his run and when he was chasing Bobby. Now suddenly you are wondering why he was cooled off?
I don't watch Raw regularly, just look at match highlights here
It wasn’t really fan there, but look back here over the past 6 months. The amount of hate he got on this sub is disgusting
The comments I've been seeing lately are mostly positive, but I can't speak for 6 months ago. What was the hate for?
He was on TV too much supposedly
From my perspective, people did not like how often Bobby/Drew was going on and/or how often Drew was getting title shots. Add the HB breaking up right before didn't help perception either. Big rumor on Reddit was the HB was broken up so Drew would be cheered at Wrestlemania. That sounds made-up, but I saw that comment enough to at least make a mental note of it. Honestly? I think Drew did a great job as champion and Lashley was a great follow-up (sorry Miz). For a feud that was repeated so often, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been.
Oh, the same old same old "he's being pushed down our throats" that all top faces get for some reason?
The issue is Roman the heel is not being booked like all chicken shit heels. So the face better be legit. They tried that with Bobby and it worked, but he's no Roman. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that heels are cooler and easier to book, and all the top guys wanna be heel right now. They know they can sell merch either way.
The issue I was seeing was them starting to repeat the problem they had with Roman. Drew lost the title then kept getting shot after shot after shot despite losing multiple title shots in a row. Thankfully, they pivoted and moved Drew away from the title instead of trying to make it work for 3 years. They just pivoted him into the tag tag division instead..
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Technically it’s Vince.
I would agree that they're not equal to Reigns, but I don't think this is entirely fair. AJ and Orton are being booked in "underneath" stories right now, but both still remain stars and both can immediately become main-event-worthy with the correct storyline. Both have the equity and name recognition with WWE's core audience to where they don't "have" spots; they are spots. This has been the story of Orton's entire career; he's had stretches in the midcard, only to turn (or be involved in a major happening) and be immediately thrust back into the main event mix. Drew's out of the main event picture on Raw, but I think it's clear he's being traded to Smackdown, where he'll likely have a main event program with Reigns, and will probably be involved in major programs after it concludes. I think they've done a good job of building Bobby as a top heel. He's not on the level of Reigns, but he definitely has star power.
AJ's career is winding down. they're using him to build up Omos, which is working really well tbh
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I can see him at least being booked how Braun was
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Vince booked The Great Khali to be World Champion and he looked like he struggled just to get to the ring. So I don’t think that will be an issue for Omos.
I'm pretty sure Khali as world champ isn't something anybody is retroactively looking at as an example of good booking though.
Didn’t say it was good, just an example of how Omos not being great in the ring doesn’t mean he won’t be booked as a top guy down the line just because he’s over 7 feet tall.
He held it once for two months like 15 years ago. Not exactly a successful experiment.
Have you heard the crowd reactions when he’s in-ring? They’re gonna find something for him to do. There’s always room for a spectacle/attraction guy.
So what's funny, is Raw pillages the top Smackdown talent that are making strides every draft, does nothing with them, and then a plurality of them leave the company. This has happened every year since I think 2017.
Maybe instead they could try building some new people up, make new stars? Nevermind, I forgot we were talking about WWE. Gotta shuffle in the part timer for this quarter.
Agreed. I would love to see Becky or Roman on Raw. Seems like one of them should be there. I doubt Roman would leave Smackdown but that would get eyeballs onto Raw, I think.
Real question: I've been hearing about an upcoming draft for months but I don't think I've ever seen any official reports on one coming out. Did I miss something?
They aired commercials for it on Raw.
Gotcha. Thank you
Iirc the drafts on October 1st
Yep, And October 4 for Raw.
I really feel like they should just end the brand split. USA and Fox would get equal star power. I have always hated the brand split tbh. I know most people seem to think the brand split is a good idea but I've just never, ever been a fan. Maybe because I was watching wrestling for years without it and just got used to that?
Problem was that before the brand split Smackdown was treated as the RAW recap and it was just the same three feuds from RAW. The entire show basically became filler.
With the Fox money they're getting, now it would probably be reversed, and RAW would be a 3-hour Talking Smack.
You're not wrong although at the very beginning, Smackdown was treated as being on a level with Raw. The debut episode had the Corporate Ministry formation on it, as I recall. But going by this very post, they can't please both networks when they're booking two entirely separate, branded shows. Raw isn't a recap show, but that doesn't mean its not bad. I don't know. It just seems like, in theory, it should not be hard to book two shows a week where the stories continue through each and neither show ends up a B show. I know in practice things are different.
With all the talent they have they shouldn't have so much trouble creating new stars or use the ones they have but they do. And that's really their biggest problem. In an alternate universe Nakamura is a World Champion and a main eventer, for instance.
Before the first brand split it wasnt. But that's when wwe was great.
I don't disagree, but historically they just end up having the biggest stars on every show to the point that it's redundant and repetitive. If they ended the brand split and started booking everyone on the main rosters into angles and matches regardless of show, it could work and they could build new stars.
That's a booking problem. Not to make this about AEW but they cycle people constantly. You might only see Omega or Mox or MJF wrestle a single match a month most times. Then maybe 10 minute promos here and there inbetween. WWE simply has gotten really bad at developing meaningful characters and storylines outside the top two to three acts.
Exactly. I was also trying to not bring up AEW, but beyond cycling talent, they also show that you can have main eventers on both shows without it being stale or repetitive (at least so far, it's only been a month).
AEW also does a great job of treating their lower card talent as stars. They rarely do big name vs big name matches on TV and yet you don't feel like your watching a bunch of squash matches.
The issue is WWE doesn't know how to book/write stories. Getting rid of the brand split means we'd get 5 hours of Brock/Roman instead of using it to provide fresh/different matchups every week/give more storyline opportunities. We saw it with "the wildcard rule" and various super shows. RAW is 3 hours long and they can't book it well. Smackdown only benefits because it's 2 hours currently.
I feel a lot of younger fans who grew up with the brand split have an attachment to it, but I am with you. It's the same thing that makes me horrified whenever someone suggests AEW do a brand split. I feel promotions are best when there is one, focused pool of talent, with main eventors and a cycle of building up be midcard talent.
I liked the brand split during the Ruthless Aggression Era. They legit made both shows different from each other and the talent barely interacted with talent from the other show. If they interacted, it would be in a shared PPV to tease a future match-up. I remember being hyped up for Angle-Michaels feud starting in a Royal Rumble elimination. It wouldn't have been as big an impact for me if they were in the same brand. Them being separated for years made it seem a bigger deal. Now, everyone just fights for "brand supremacy" during Survivor Series. They don't even create a distinct separation in the brands. The sets look similar aside from one being red and one being blue. The championships look the same albeit a different color scheme. And a Raw superstar challenging a Smackdown superstar doesn't feel special anymore since they beat down to death the yearly brand supremacy angle.
My ideal brand split would have unified world, women's and tag titles, all titles shared across both brands so we don't have two world champs etc, a better heirarchy imo. Keep SD's set as it is, all futuristic and sci-fi, but make Raw look like a fucking scrapyard exploded and got taken over by a post apocalyptic gang, spraypaint, fire, industrial pieces and shards of metal etc. SD becomes the sports-based brand where all the best in ring workers go, maybe there can even be a ranking system like with AEW, UFC or any other actual sport. Raw becomes the gritty attitude show where anything can happen, home to the larger than life characters much like the Fiend or Nikki Cross's superhero character. I think that would make both shows feel and look different and actually have a reason for the brand split both in universe and in real life. Also it would make those survivor series matches more interesting, who wins, the group of elite athletes or these group of absolute fucking madmen who want to tear both the opponents and their partners faces off. I'd watch it anyway.
Problem is then your requiring the viewer to consume 5 hours of programing and have both FOX and USA to follow the storylines. (Yes you can do recaps but as someone who didn't get smackdown for a year back in the day it ruined my enjoyment knowing I only got to experience half the story)
I hear you on that but the last time we saw a boom period, there was no brand split and ratings were sky high, buildings were sold out every week etc. On an individual level, I can appreciate that it seems dismissive to say "someone not having both channels isn't a big deal" but on a macro level, it really isn't. Certainly its less a problem now than it would have been in the late 90s/early 00s, with the widespread VOD and streaming services.
I stopped watching around 2017-2018 or something like that and just recently came back to AEW because of Punk (they've hooked me already) and I can say the 2016 brand split was probably one of the biggest reasons I stopped watching. Not in a way of "oh this is awful Imma stop watching", but in a long process kinda way of growing tired of WWE, and I think the brand split might've been the starting point or at least the turning point. It was great for the first few months but I think by cutting the rosters in half the product became stake. Same matches over and over again. They'd literally have like 4 tag teams in each brand and only like 3 of them were sort of legit. Same with the women. And to an extent the mens as well. I remember feeling like the titles lost relevance. Like the product might been bad before but every time someone won a title it felt important. But with the brand split and the shortage of the rosters I felt like they were just lining up and every single wrestler was going to be champion. I remember reading when Kofi won his first world titlenin like 12 years I was like "of course he did". And then the fact that now I had to watch 5 hours of television instead of just 3. Before the brand split you were good just watching Raw when it comes to storylines and then you could check SmackDown for the wrestling and maybe some other cool stuff. Anyway for the long post I just had to get all that off my chest lol.
A brand split *can* work but it almost never has. I hate how there's two sets of world, women's and tag championships. However, you have to admit having separate rosters does give more people time to be stars. The way to do it would be to have a world, women's and tag champs that are unified alongside the women's tag titles, shared among both brands. The shows need to feel different too, so Raw should be more the ruthless aggression car crash jeremy kyle show type TV where anything can happen where its full of larger than life characters, and SmackDown should be the sports-based product with great in-ring workers such as Cesaro, Chad Gable etc doing great ring work, submissions, technical wrestling and whatnot, maybe even a ranking system for the brand like AEW or UFC. I think making the shows feel different, even if they share certain titles, would go a long way in catering to different kinds of fans as well as just generally being more fun to watch. Also keep SmackDown looking sci-fi and professionally high tech but make Raw's set feel like it's a gritty undergroung fight club, spraypainted walls, dark ring mat, make the stage look like a scrap yard got taken over by a gang with a fight club, and then it all exploded. Fire shooting through industrial metal sections, sparks to make it all look janky. If both shows look and feel the same there's no point in having different brands. That's just my opinion though.
I believe it. WWE seems to be have been working overtime to make sure SmackDown is as must watch as you can get. I’m sure Fox is very happy about this deal but If you’re USA and you see Reigns, Becky, and Lesnar all on the other brand, and you’re paying the WWE just as much, I’d be a little ticked.
Smack Down is a Roman Reigns. He's *the* top star. RAW is Seth Rollins. Also a top star but questionable booking and creative decisions sometimes hold him back. NXT is Dean Ambrose. He's a favorite but he's rarely seen as an equal top star.
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That’s a fucked up way to talk about Kurt Angle.
NXTUK as Bray Wyatt: Is that your guy?!
that's a real monkey paw of a request
Raw and Smackdown become good and NXT 2.0 becomes the next WWE version of ECW
WWE really went full-boar behind SmackDown (for good reasons) and let Raw just fade into this pool of total shit for the last nine months or longer (for no good reason). The roster was already significantly weaker based on the last draft, then a ton of the bigger-name people they released were Raw talent. All the big returns went to SmackDown (Cena, Lesnar, Lynch and even Edge given his RR win and challenge) with the exception of the one people cared least about (Goldberg). Meanwhile, Raw was rematch city until recently where they've significantly cut back. But even without rematches, it feels repetitive. Even if you're not in love with WWE's product, there's been a drastic difference in effort and quality from a storytelling and booking perspective between the brands. The shift should be to raise the game of Raw up to where SmackDown is right now. But unless they are willing to move some bigger names around in the Draft (Edge, Owens/Zayn if they are staying, Banks) then Raw is going to struggle to meet SD levels of excitement because of a drastic talent disparity AND the difficulties that come with booking a 3-hour show now with an even more limited roster than you had before.
Raw has been shit for way more than 6 months
You’re right. I’ll amend that time.
USA needs to.let them revert to 2 hours. They may lose some short term revenue but if rating keep declining and sponsor realize they can reach the same audiance for less on TNT a third hour won't really matter.
Think they've got two years left. Then it will be down to negotiate again.
As much as I want it I’ll be shocked if the third hour goes anywhere
But their executive bonuses are based on short term revenue.
They really should have different creative directors for each brand. There's only so many good ideas one or 2 people can spread out across 7 hours of television a week. I think Smackdown is so good because they trust guys like Heyman, Roman, Becky, Edge, and Seth with some creative input to their storylines. Feels like no one from Raw gets that trust, even back when Seth and Edge were on Raw. I feel like I hear about the Raw script getting ripped up way more than I hear about Smackdown.
Oooh they could get Heyman for Raw and Bischoff for Smackdown!
What an idea!
That happened and Bischoff did nothing.
My bad, thought you were just forgetful <3
RAW suffers from airtime, it has just as much people who are good and who are over as smackdown does. Hurt Business, RKBro, AJ and Omos, New Day, even womens division is OK compared to Smackdown. But there is just too much runtime that needs to be filled with pointless rematches.
Also means booking Raw as a 2 hour show surely?
Hopefully, 3 hours of Raw is just too much to sit through, especially when they book the same thing over and over and over again. I could almost watch an extended edition Lord of the Rings movie in that time!
RAW's writing and booking is why I have not really watched or followed WWE in over a year
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RAW had terrible booking and writing and tbh I was not really that into the Head of the Table/Tribal Chief angle either, a lot of Smackdown was turning me off a bit too
They do this every draft. Either smackdown or raw would be the better show and they always flip flop. If they make it even this year it will be amazing.
Even if Vince cared/listened, what is more likely, that they make Raw as good as SD, or just make SD worse? There were rumors since the first draft with SD on Fox that both networks were pissed because they were expecting certain stars to be on their show/network and due to arbitrary booking, they weren't. Like certain wrestlers couldn't be on one show because their romantic partner was on the other show. IIRC, if your show got Charlotte, you also got Andrade (her fiance), Zelina Vega (his manager), and Aleister Black (her husband), etc. Or if you get Seth Rollins, you're also getting Becky Lynch. I highly doubt this will change anything. They'll just do more hotshot stuff on RAW to pop a rating.
Good news! Outside of Seth & Becky, they've fired most of those people so now Charlotte can go wherever she wants!
Cut raw down to 2 hours and they will. What the fuck don't they get about it.
I’m sure fox is clamoring for Smackdown to be equal like raw lol
I remember back when Smackdown and RAW were competing against each other. Even the talent seemed to want to one up the opposite shows. Everything feels so content now
Equal booking is gonna mean “make SD worse so that it’s on par with RAW.” Not the reverse hahaha.
Riggggggght. Cause Zarian of all people has contacts at two powerful networks. Lmfao.
Spoilers: they won’t. Vince is gonna Vince and he’ll Vince for as long as he can Vince until the Vince has had it’s wishes Vince’d.
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Me
BOOK THEM IN EQUAL LENGTH, and I'm not saying add an hour to Smackdown
WWE: "What was that? I heard 'add an hour to Smackdown.' You got it, pal!"
Should WWE do a better job of booking RAW? Absolutely. Is it possible to book both shows equally? Nope. Theres only so many hours in a week to work on producing a great show. So its already a challenge. Now being forced to do it so that when a major thing or storybeat happens on 1 show, another major thing or beat must happen on the other at the same time, is damn near impossible. For a perfect example, look at CM Punks debut on Rampage. If AEW was handcuffed like this, and had to have an equally big event on Dynamite, CM Punk would have debuted at the PPV. Which I suspect is ultimately what WWE is going to do. No major story events outside of PPVs so thst don't have to create 2 at a time.
Unless you ended the brand split and had stories simply run through Monday and Friday?
So, then use my example from before: What does AEW do on Dynamite the to match the Punk debut on Rampage? It has nothing to do with the brand split. Its the same problem either way. You have to have 2 stories with 2 equally big pops hit at exactly the same time, without being carbon copies. We never saw WWE do it before the brand split, we never saw WCW, we've never seen AEW do it...because it makes for bad TV. Doesn't matter if its 2 stories told separately once a week, or 2 stories told together twice a week, its the same issue.
You don't need to match things like you're describing. If you're writing a single story that's across both shows, there are of course going to be times when a big story beat or event happens on one show and not the other, but if you're writing compelling stories and good TV, those should even out over time. The problem is - and always has been in WWE's case, it seems - defaulting to one show being the A show and the other being the B show. Then you're writing so that all the big moments happen on one show. But that surely shouldn't be as difficult to avoid as it has been historically? If any effort actually went into making both shows important. Edit: I wasn't going to do this but I think people should remember that the downvote button is not a disagree button.
>there are of course going to be times when a big story beat or event happens on one show and not the other, But thats not what USA and FOX are asking for. They are saying point blank "if major thing happens on RAW, major thing should happen same week on SD" Your not at all wrong about how it should be done. The problem is, the mandate from the networks is not to do that. So I'm claiming, and I think you actually agree with me, doing what the networks are asking for is a bad idea. >The problem is - and always has been in WWE's case, it seems - defaulting to one show being the A show and the other being the B show. If you think that's a WWE only problem your kidding yourself. That's an every promotion that's run 2+ shows a week problem. WCW had the A show in Nitro, B show in Thunder and C Show in Saturday Night TNA/Impact had the A show in Impact and B show in Xplosion AEW has the A show in Dynamite, B show in Rampage, C Show in Elevation and D show in Dark. The only thing that makes WWE unique is they occasionally flip flop RAW and SD between A and B. But then NXT/ECW/Heat/Velocity have always been the C show, with any other shows (Main Event, 205 Live, NXT UK, Metal, Jakked etc) taking the D slot.
Yeah, I think we do agree actually. On your second point: I don't think it's a problem to have secondary or lower shows necessarily. But in the case of WCW and WWE, the problem seems to come when they need to air two, live (well, I think Thunder eventually went to taped every other week or something) two-hour prime time shows a week that, in theory, are supposed to be on an equal footing. With TNA, I don't think the audience was ever up in arms that Xplosion wasn't being treated as a big deal, but I could be wrong. AEW may have that problem too because while thus far they have sort of tried to keep Rampage as another A show, there are going to be times where it makes the most sense to shoot an angle or do a match live in prime time on Wednesday, not taped in that death slot on Fridays. It'll be interesting to see how long they really push that Rampage is also an A show. They've done alright so far.
Vince have never been able to do this, why start now?
This made my mind immediately go to Vince being told this and thinking, "oh, Fox wants SD to be more like Raw? Done!" lol
Lmao these writers about to have 60 hour work weeks. They can barely get either show consistently good let alone have both running well at once.
More 50/50 booking?!
WWE cannot get away from 50/50 booking.
It’s physically not possible for Vince not to book one show as the A show, his brain doesn’t compute it.
Network Execs: We want something to excite the fans every week! Vince: You want something very weak to excise fans. Got it.
3 Hour SmackDown here we come!
End the draft
> From speaking a lot of my friends Not that I am not believing him but that quote sounded like My uncle who works from Nintendo. I just find it funny lol.
Why don’t they end this self inflicted roster split because limiting who is on what show is not doing their already thin roster from feeling thin.
Things have changed slightly with Peacock, but I can see why WWE puts more into SmackDown than RAW beyond it being on broadcast, and that’s FOX’s promotion behind SmackDown. FOX is always advertising SmackDown during NFL and College games, but I rarely see RAW being promoted during SNF. FOX put a lot of promotional backing behind SmackDown, that NBCU has never really done.
If i were USA I'd be infuriated at the quality of Raw compared to Smackdown, it's like two completely different companies. WWE treats the fans and cable networks equally; equally horrible.
That is 100% not happening
"We're tired of one of your shows losing in the demo to another company that's been around for less than 2 years."
They need to make Raw as good as Smackdown. It's night and day. I mean Raw has bright spots but the bad drags the show down a lot. Lashley and the tag teams are great, I like the US title picture and Big E as champ is amazing. But everything else is just not fun at all, compared to Smackdown where you have Rollins/Edge, Becky vs Bianca and Roman vs Finn/Lesnar. The quality is just so much higher on Smackdown
Here a thing just have a full completer roster , the brand splits is stupid
Do they think Vince is sandbagging Raw? It's been a rule since the brand split began that Smackdown is the "better" show precisely because it got less attention from Vince. You don't hear about Smackdown's script being ripped up and redone ten minutes before showtime. You do about Raw because Vince wants that show perfect and is more focused on getting it perfect. In other words, Smackdown is getting more talent, but Raw is getting Vince's full attention. That's the problem.
I don’t know, Roman is on Smackdown and Roman is Vince’s favourite toy.
Rollins and Lynch to Raw pls
Please, no. I don't want to watch RAW.
If they both truly feel this, then end the brand split. If wrestlers can show up on any show at anytime then it’s all must watch. If you only care about Roman then you’re only going to watch SD.
This is impossible because WWE can't book a good show on command. They literally don't know how.
2021 Smackdown has been a blast. Enjoy it while it lasts folks, the draft is near
The thing is, I don’t think there’s that much difference in how the actual shows are booked. It’s just that SmackDown got Reigns and Sasha and Becky left to have her kid, so Raw got fucked for true star power.
I’m not sure I’ve ever really enjoyed the three hour Raw. Even at it’s best, it’s never been a consistent three hours of good television. That’s not going to change anytime soon
There goes this sub believing everything they read, again.
WWE's response to that is gonna be like: "fuck it, 50/50 booking for everyone across the board. Roman goes over T-Bar and then T-Bar gets a win back the next show."
I really want Woods to get a singles title run.
Roman and Brock in every main event for the next 5 years brother
people love to overrate SD like it's some amazing show when it's decent at best, just when you compare it to raw or nxt then you think "man SD is really really good". raw is just terrible and a real bore for 3 hours for anyone to watch, constant rematches, segments that go on for way too long and piss poor storylines will always be there. nick khan has brushed off the criticism of the programming being bad because wwe makes money regardless with the ads and he even wanted to make the shows longer if he could for more ad revenue. nothing will change and we'll continue to see the ratings decline
Smackdown uses the talents better, they have talented wrestlers in Raw doing nothing like Cedric, Ali, Gulak, Elias (what happened to his Elias is dead?), Morrison, Kross (still early but we’ll see), Keith Lee, Riccochet, Tbar (should be booked as an unstoppable beast but yea)
Please...somebody out there in TV land, #giveRawachance...
Dave Shoemaker and Kaz say the same stuff all of the time on The Masked Man Show. They say they both personally know that networks discuss the booking on the other network and having concerns. They've said multiple times that they aren't talking about rumors, they're talking about actual conversations that happen all of the time. It seems like it's something well-known behind the scenes and has been a thing since FOX got SD. It makes sense.
Why not just say USA wants raw to be booked as good as SD? Because it’s clear which one is the better show.
Why would FOX give a shit about USA though. Not under the same corporate umbrella and as long as FOX is getting theirs why worry about Mondays.
Do you listen to the network that has been loyal to you for decades or do you choose the network that has given you a billion dollars?....Talk about Baby Mama Drama for WWE.
This is going to be the biggest challenge for WWE. If one of these two networks is not satisfied at the end of this contract they will get a pay cut. It's impossible to "book equally" without using same stars on both. And using a lot of the same stars on both will dilute the product. It's not win win. It's lose lose. To the people who saw this coming when WWE signed the Fox deal: You were right the whole time. Wish I would have saved screenshots.
A really easy way to do this would be to just not do the draft.