There’s plenty to like about the SmackDown Live roster and the make-up of the show. With a great blend of fresh faces like Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin alongside veterans like Randy Orton, John Cena and AJ Styles, the potential for a great show is clearly there.
Yet, there’s still plenty that needs to be resolved with the blue brand. In various aspects of the show, the real power behind Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan needs to find ways to make the show better. Here are the five most glaring areas as this time.
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No stakes
There’s plenty of quality talent in the women’s and tag divisions on SmackDown, including Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss and Natalya for the women and American Alpha, the Hype Bros. and the Vaudevillains in the tag division, not to mention The Usos.
What’s the problem with that, you might ask? Those divisions have no stakes right now. It can be assumed that the WWE bosses have a plan to change that, but at this point, the tag-team belts and the women’s title are all on RAW, which leaves nothing for the SmackDown acts to fight for.
No depth
Even though there is talent on the SmackDown roster, the show only got two picks to every three made by Raw because it is the shorter show. While that makes plenty of sense, it left the blue brand rather thin on quality talent.
With regards to the men’s singles, a 14-man battle royal on Tuesday had to include a number of tag teams. In the women’s division, Raw got every woman currently on the roster who’s ever held a main-roster title, and the three top tag teams right now – The Club, Enzo and Cass and New Day – also went to the red brand. The infusion of Rhyno and Shelton Benjamin will help, but SmackDown needs more quality talent.
Lacking quality commentary
First things first: Mauro Ranallo is probably the best member of either commentary team, and he’s on SmackDown. That said, the SmackDown announce team has a lot of work to do if they want to be a positive part of the show.
David Otunga can be cut some slack since he’s relatively new to the game but his commentary feels like Byron Saxton lite. JBL, on the other hand has no excuse. On Tuesday, he called Kalisto by the name of his former partner, Sin Cara. That would normally be bad enough, but Sin Cara isn’t even on SmackDown, and that’s the kind of mistake that’s unforgivable.
Kalisto’s all alone
Kalisto getting drafted to SmackDown might have made sense if the draft was for a mainstream sport that wasn’t scripted. He’s a recent United States Champion, beloved by the fans and, if nothing else, he’d be good trade bait to the show that actually has the Cruiserweight Division.
But the WWE draft is scripted. It makes very little sense to put Kalisto, the only Cruiserweight in the company who’s held a main roster belt before, to be on the show without the Cruiserweight division. To resolve that, the people writing for Tuesdays need to find a logical role for the diminutive superstar.
Crews and Corbin are drifting aimlessly
Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin have both picked up big wins on the main roster. Corbin won the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania, and he’s since knocked off Dolph ZIggler. Crews, meanwhile, won a battle royal on Tuesday to get into a Six-Pack Challenge for the No. 1 Contender slot.
But even that was written in an unconvincing manner, as Crews merely watched as other contenders fell out of the ring in the match’s closing moments. If SmackDown is looking to be incredibly successful, two Superstars as talented as Corbin and Crews need to get into a big feud or perhaps win some gold like the Intercontinental title to cement themselves as stars.
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