What’s the story?
While it hasn’t been that long since Smackdown Live GM Daniel Bryan stepped away from the show on paternity leave, a lot has happened on the blue brand. Of course, that makes sense considering the last time he was on WWE TV was during the Superstar Shake-up on April 10th and 11th.
Since then, Jinder Mahal has won the WWE Championship, there was the first ever women’s Money In The Bank match, and now John Cena is returning from hiatus – and with an interesting caveat: he’s a free agent.
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Cena has been off television, as well, since WrestleMania 33. The aforementioned Superstar Shake-up came and went while Cena was away from the WWE, but that didn’t make him immune to its effect. While Cena is making his 4th of July return on the blue brand, technically he could decide to appear on either show.
The heart of the matter
This very subject was brought up during Bryan’s recent chat with Fox Sports, and the former 4-time WWE World Champion didn’t hesitate to explain WWE’s reasoning behind the Cena free agency.
“Traditionally, this is what happens: Nothing is spared for SmackDown. And that’s part of what makes us the underdog, and the underdog brand, right? The WWE, as a corporate entity, puts Raw first. They’re the flagship show, and SmackDown Live is always kind of playing second fiddle when you’re talking about the executives and how they look at the two shows.”
That being said, Bryan still thinks he and Shane McMahon have a pretty awesome team on Smackdown.
“And sometimes, that actually makes SmackDown better. So yeah, I’ll be interested to see how it plays out, but I think the crew that we have for SmackDown Live right now is really good. And if we can optimize the men and women that we have right now, I think we can put out a product that is much better than Raw.”
What’s next?
John Cena will make his return to the blue brand and his status is bound to be clarified once he does.
Author’s take
Bryan’s not really wrong about WWE having a preference for Raw – it’s the longer running show and has more name recognition – but he doesn’t seem bitter about it, either.
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