WWE Heat Index: Why is SmackDown so chaotic right now?

Welcome to another edition of WWE Heat Index, where one of the biggest stories from the past week is examined under a microscope and picked apart for analytical purposes.

Right now, there's nothing more that I want to discuss than the mess that is SmackDown Live, as the blue brand seems to be going through some kind of major problem as of late.

While Monday Night Raw has more than its fair share of problems, things don't seem to be as much of a mess as they are on SmackDown at the moment, which is strange as SmackDown had been the better-booked show to many people over the past few months.

There are so many things going wrong lately that I don't even know where to begin, but we might as well start with the tag team division.

By no means is this a shot at The New Day (or The Usos, for that matter) but it looks like the match we're getting at SummerSlam is the third match between these two teams. Is that really something worthy of the second-biggest pay-per-view of the year?

The more you do a match, the less the fans care to see it, and unless you add a fancy gimmick to spice it up, the crowd isn't likely to be excited about The New Day vs. The Usos III after seeing it at Money in the Bank and Battleground.

After having so many matches together, isn't this something like Day Fifty Ish instead of Day One Ish by now?

Of course, there aren't that many other options available to step in, either.

The Hype Bros have teased a split, but we haven't seen much more development there. Does that mean the breakup isn't going to happen, or that WWE doesn't want to focus on that right now, or that they can't figure out a way to find time for it?

One-half of The Colons is injured, so they're out of the running. The Ascension also continues to be a complete joke, which is nothing shocking. The Singh Brothers still have not wrestled a single tag team match since joining the SmackDown roster months ago—how?

Then, there's The Fashion Police who were promoted ahead of Battleground to have some kind of resolution to their mystery at the pay-per-view. Of course, that segment clarified absolutely nothing and was a complete waste of time, as we ended off exactly in the same spot we were beforehand: asking "who are the mystery attackers?"

That in itself is a mistake, as you just don't advertise something to happen at an event and then purposely not do it, but even worse is how there was no follow-up on SmackDown's television show this week.

Now that we've ruled you out as suspects, let's rule you out as suspects again. Now that's progress!

Booking like that screams of the writing team setting themselves up to come up with a solution "somewhere down the line" without an actual plan in mind, realising it's gone on too long and then stalling for an extra week or two in the hopes they can figure out what to write. Then, they can tell us this was all part of the plan from the beginning and hope we buy into it.

At best, it works, the story delivers and people are happy with the outcome, meaning they scrape by unscathed. At worst, they've set up expectations and not lived up to the hype, and then we'll have Road Dogg blocking more people on Twitter who criticise the product, which has happened again this week.

We're also down a tag team when it comes to American Alpha, who lost Jason Jordan in favour of splitting them up into singles stars, yet has seemingly ignored Chad Gable after giving him a two-week push.

You'd think Gable would be factored into the plans for the United States Championship, as he put on two great matches against Kevin Owens and AJ Styles, but the US title is in some kind of weird limbo state, too.

Why did Styles win the belt at Madison Square Garden just to drop it to Owens in such an awkward fashion at Battleground, just to win it back two nights later on SmackDown?

Again, if this is just to stall and set up another rematch for SummerSlam, that's not fulfilling the promise of "the biggest party of the summer" being something we should anticipate as anything more than a rerun of familiar material.

What is the status quo of the United States title now? Is it Owens, Styles, or just the transition between both?

But out of nowhere, Chris Jericho is back months ahead of when we anticipated he would return. This is a huge benefit to the roster, as he always puts on quality work and can be trusted to feud with a wide variety of people in entertaining ways.

However, was this a one-shot deal, a temporary return for a few weeks, or is he back for a longer stretch, and how does he get included in the SummerSlam plans?

For that matter, what is going on with The Great Khali? He is almost the exact antithesis of the Jericho situation, as while Y2J is fantastic in the ring and on the mic, Khali is horrendous in both aspects.

I'm hoping with all my might that we don't find ourselves in a situation where Randy Orton faces The Great Khali at SummerSlam, as that match can't possibly be worth the time it would eat up on the card—particularly when SummerSlam is two hours shorter than it was last year.

Good lord, please don't put the WWE Championship on The Great Khali ever again.

Why is that, by the way? SummerSlam is one of the Big Four events! There are so many people who are going to be missing out on being able to make an appearance because those two hours will be missing.

Since there's no Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal type match to throw in everybody, that means either WWE is going to have an insane amount of multi-man matches like Fatal 4-Ways and Triple Threats to compensate, or we'll see talented individuals across the board not able to make an appearance purely because of time constraints.

But timing isn't the only thing that could get in the way of SmackDown's presence at SummerSlam. Another problem is overlapping feuds with little to no resolution.

John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura are set to face off next week to determine who will get a title shot against Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam.

What about Rusev and Baron Corbin? Where do they fit in the outline?

If Rusev was so angry with Cena to spark what was an underwhelming feud with the Flag Match, are we really supposed to believe he wouldn't interfere to cost Cena his match?

Likewise, Corbin went out of his way to low-blow Nakamura and then lost to him by pinfall—another instance of WWE choosing to do the pay-per-view finish on the following television episode rather than on the event itself, which is frustrating.

Baron Corbin follows in the footsteps of previous Money in the Bank winners with yet another loss.

It seems like both Nakamura and Cena should have people who want to attack them mid-match, but somebody has to fight Jinder Mahal, and no matter which person wins, either Rusev or Corbin will have to find a new dance partner to work with or they'll be left off the SummerSlam card as well!

SmackDown right now has problems going on left and right, almost as if the writing team is in panic mode and causing more issues rather than taking a deep breath to think up solutions.

There are rumours that Mike and Maria Kanellis are losing favour with backstage officials. Dolph Ziggler's been missing for weeks. The crybaby jobber character of Aiden English scored a win over Tye Dillinger, who has been receiving zero love whatsoever since moving up to the main roster. Talking Smack was cancelled and clearly, that's resonated in a negative way with the fan base.

Sometimes, in WWE, there's a method to the madness and we just have to wait long enough to see the bigger picture unfold. However, that isn't the case all the time, and when we find the product in shambles like it is right now with SmackDown, that's never a good sign that in a month, we'll have our "aha!" moment and realise it was all part of the plan.

Chris Jericho's return—however strange it might have been and may play out over the next few weeks—seems to be the only thing on an optimistic note among the sea of troubles the blue brand is drowning in.

For whatever reason, this is the state of SmackDown Live right now, and for the sake of Tuesday nights, half the main roster and the build to SummerSlam, WWE needs to get to work on repairs immediately.

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