Danny Diamond

Founder/Admin

I already know what is going to happen on Smackdown now because of of the standard spoilers that come out somewhere not to far after Tuesday nights.

As you all know, Smackdown is taped on Tuesday in front of a live crowd, then a couple of people list everything that happened.

I don't like spoilers at all and would prefer to just watch it not knowing anything, but here is Smackdowns major problem. Their timeslot. I dont know about you Canadians or Europeans but 8 oclock on Thursday is when tradtionally every network throws out their heavy hitters. Survivor, Friends, CSI etc etc.

Now me personally, I live Survivor alot, so I am most likely going to watch it. Then I decide since I want to watch Survivor I look over the spoilers.

I realize that by reading them that the show is littered with garbage so I end up not putting it on at all.

SMACKDOWN NEEDS TO GO LIVE!!

What's on Tuesday nights? Nada !! I would watch Smackdown if there was nothing else on and it was live.


Here is another thing I would do. Randomly have different brand wrestlers appear on other shows. But do it very few and far between. Undertaker could show up on Raw (since he isnt doing shit on SD) and take out HHH. HHH then retailates on SD and so on and so forth.

Farfetched but I think it would work.

The Phantom

Well here in the UK, RAW is not shown till Friday nights and Smackdown is shown on Saturday morning, and repeated Saturday night, so it's really hard to avoid the spoilers.

I sometimes look at whats going to happen and then make my mind up as to whether or not to watch RAW / SD! If there is a segment that sounds interesting then i'll tune in around that time to see it then switch back to whatever I was originally watching.

I do agree with you that Smackdown! should go live. The element of Live TV gives you that sence of anything could happen. However the costs and the possibility of some weeks where a TV Crew would be on the road 3 night in a row, especially with more and more PPV's would be a real strain on those personel.

I also feel the brand jumping is a good idea. The brand switch overs have proved they can work, just look at Taker v Kane at WM XX and to a lesser extent Goldberg v Brock. These sort of storylines could start at a joint PPV, e.g Summerslam, and then a pay off comes at Survivor Series. It would generate pepole's intrest in both shows and some people may tune into RAW or SD when they otherwise wouldnt.

Papa Shango

So undertaker is doing nothing? I thought he was keeping SD afloat in the ratings!.

But seriously, your right.. A little cross promotion would benefit viewing figures. The self contained shows at the moment means there is no possibility of someone turning up on another brand, unless they are transfered permenantly.. and therefore bringing us back to the self contained issue.

If the odd person was to float.. and especially a fan favourite like the undertaker.. viewers would follow him on each show to see what he is up to next. Hell, even have Benoit or HHH to go over and exchange words with the SD champ or something. At least then a bit of unpredictability will come back into the sport.

Im against ending the roster split.. but im all for people floating between shows for new storylines.

Danny Diamond

Founder/Admin

Spoiler below............................................. ..................































He isnt even on the show in any form this week.......AGAIN. But people will most likely tune in hoping to see him. (those who havent read spoilers)

Papa Shango

Thats a fair assumption.. and by the same token, do you think he SHOULD be on more often? or should his appearances be limited to PPVS?

Danny Diamond

Founder/Admin

Thats a tough call. He is needed at this time. That roster is hurting right now.

Disco Raheem

Geeze, when wrestlers were showing up on the other brand JV and everyone else bitched about how the brand extension would never be taken seriously this way.

Y2J The King Of The World

The TV crew is already on the road three consecutive days with the schedule as-is - they have to be there to tape Smackdown on Tuesdays, don't they? My understanding was that they taped Smackdown on Tuesdays to cut back on the strain of the TV crew (versus having a Thursday live show).

I completely agree with the idea that Smackdown desperately needs to be live. I never read spoilers, because I want to be entertained while watching the show - sometimes it's a stretch, but I at least give WWE a chance to surprise me. Still, there's a magical air around Raw from it being live that Smackdown just doesn't have. Smackdown feels canned, whereas Raw has that unknown factor in it.

I also agree with the idea of moving it to Tuesday nights. Let's face it: WWE isn't a big dog in the TV rating world any more. All the big dogs come out on Thursday nights, and Smackdown takes a beating for it. At least they could get a few more of the casual fans on Tuesdays that they wouldn't get otherwise on Thursdays when Friends, Survivor, ER, etc. are on (OK, I know Friends is over - but I'm not over it yet).

The one idea I disagree with is "one night only" type of switches and cameos. I like the separate brand concept. It hasn't always been handled well, but I like the fact that a once commonplace match like HHH vs. the Undertaker seems like it'd be a big deal now. Or Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho. Or John Cena vs. Batista. Those match-ups sound wierd to me now, because they couldn't "just happen". Something big would have to happen to trigger those matches, and I like that. It makes the matches seem important - which wasn't the case before the brands split. I say, keep the brands separate except for an annual trade/draft to freshen things up, or for an occasional PPV-only interpromotional match. Make brand cross-overs a very rare, very big occasion. Otherwise, why bother?

Blitzkrieg

WC Hall Of Famer

I like the idea of being able to have Benoit vs. Guerrero or whatever match you would like to see at a huge ppv.

However, I don't want WWE to then try to tell us that RAW and Smackdown! are competing against one another.

I've seen that bullshit already....If Smackdown! is in such bad shape where they can't get it back on track then fuck it. Can the whole brand extension concept for good and have wrestlers show up show to show.

Just don't insult me any longer with the "Competition" shit.

AudioSavior

I thought SD! was really good this week.