A WWE press conference today brought the unexpected announcement that WWE “B Show” Smackdown, currently on SyFy, would be moving to USA Network. The news also came with the return of Tough Enough to USA and the WWE Network. The word is that the Smackdown move will happen sometime in the first quarter of 2016. Should they move Smackdown back to Friday, they could debut January 1, 2016 at the earliest.
The announcement brings a wealth of possibility. It’s possible that the WWE could go with several different options in improving the show with Smackdown moving to USA Network. While it still draws the base two million on SyFy Network, nobody really seems excited to ever watch Smackdown. Ever since the Brand Split was turned into a funnel for Raw, nobody has really shown much care or desire for the Smackdown show. Nothing shocking really happens and if it progresses a storyline, it’s only to pad Raw’s three hours. I think this could be a great time to speculate on what WWE could do when Smackdown supplies WWE action on Thursday or Friday on USA.
Option One: Cut Raw back to two hours
Raw is too long. It’s too long for the writers and it’s too long for the fans. Three hour Monday Nitro’s were a slog that WWE used to mock and ridicule. Now they do it every week and wonder why they can’t keep the audience engaged for all three hours. Word is that it was USA Network who wanted three hours and not the WWE. It’s possible USA Network gets Smackdown and says, “We want Smackdown to be three hours!” but let’s try to avoid nightmare scenarios. USA Network could consider five hours to be the limit for the WWE, fifth hour when adding Tough Enough. With four hours instead of three spread over two shows with time in between, WWE can plan and execute with better precision than they do today.
Option Two: Smackdown/NXT Hybrid
WWE Network fans have been loving NXT. It’s a one hour show that gives you the future of the WWE. There was a time when WWE had three brands in Raw, Smackdown and ECW. The truth was that the ECW roster was actually touring with the Smackdown brand and both shows were taped at the same time. This led to ECW talents showing up on Smackdown and vice versa with ease. Now I’m not suggesting WWE go ahead and make one hour “The Smackdown Hour” and the other “The NXT Hour”. That could alienate WWE fans who don’t care for all of these unknown former independent talents. But having Smackdown be the proving ground for NXT talents and bringing them on the road, maybe even for some road NXT shows to tape with Smackdown would be a great way to get them experience in working in front of WWE fans. Think of it like their call up before getting a main spot on the roster. NXT should stay in Florida for the most part, but adding the excitement of NXT to Smackdown once a month could be a great way to get more hardcore fan eyes on the Smackdown brand.
Option Three: Renew the Brand Split
Here’s the title in action. WWE flopped the brand split miserably. They had good intentions at first but couldn’t deliver because Vince McMahon was too focused on making Raw strong for the USA Network. Now he has two shows to keep strong on the USA Network. Not only that, but the WWE is in a perfect position currently to take a brand split and finally add new elements to make it exciting.
First off, the World Heavyweight Title situation. One might suggest splitting the belts but I say keep it how it is. When the brand split first occurred, the champion worked both shows. This should continue, especially if a guy like Seth Rollins is champion. Next, you have Daniel Bryan and John Cena bringing credibility back to the secondary championships. Having the US Champion on one show and the Intercontinental champion on the other gives the belts a status of being the belt you more often see defended on television. Cena is doing a great job turning the United States championship into a fighting title, and one could turn it instead of representing the country, represent the TV Network. Make it the USA Championship (no need to say USA Network).
I do think it would be time to split the other divisions. Have a storyline where the tag team champions don’t like each other and split between the different brands, allowing both to get new partners and continue the reigns. Next, have Alundra Blayze show up on the brand that doesn’t have a Divas championship, take the Women’s championship out of the trash and put it on the line in a “Queen of the Ring” tournament.
So what about the talent? Do you do the usual draft or do you go another direction? Start off with a draft. You got your Raw GM and your Smackdown GM. They coin flip to see who chooses the USA or Intercontinental champion first then go back and forth on five selections. After that? Everyone is a free agent. Free agents can work either show but they cannot receive title shots as a free agent (there are exceptions as I’ll get to later). You have guys like Rusev being courted to Raw and Smackdown trying to pick a show to sign with. Even better, you announce the signing on WWE Network with someone like Todd Phillips announcing their contract length with the brand.
Why set contract length? Because wrestling is missing the excitement of a talent having their contract almost expire. It adds the feel of sports to the product. WWE teased a sports feel with a few trades they made (Big Show and Triple H were known examples) but they did it so sparingly. Now you have the WWE Network to do a 30 minute show where panel analysts discuss who could be traded, who could be signed and who could be jumping brands. Make it exciting! Make people care about more than just the product they see on TV. Make them care about wondering if Sheamus’ expiring contract with Raw means Smackdown might trade for him early and promise him a title shot. Maybe William Regal is the GM of Smackdown and really wants fellow Brit Paige on his brand. The Raw GM can show up and tell Regal who he wants in return and Regal now has to struggle with losing a major tag team like Cesaro, Kidd and Natalya just to bring over Paige. This is excitement that doesn’t need a new team of writers. It just needs people to pay attention.
What about pay per views? Once upon a time you worried about individual buyrates. Now in the WWE Network era, you just worry they don’t unsubscribe due to a bad show. You can either split the brands up per month or, just have all brands on the PPV and change the video apron screen to display RAW or SMACKDOWN for whichever match it is. This isn’t about taking anything away from the fans. This is about giving them more.
And NXT? Oh my, NXT gets more exciting. Now when the Raw or Smackdown GM show up, they are doing it to scout. After a year, you don’t just bring guys up. You run the NXT Draft. This is where Raw and Smackdown with three draft picks each choose the next superstars for their brand. They don’t have to bring them up immediately and can even trade their draft picks around. The Raw GM could even send their first NXT pick to Smackdown for Ryback if they wanted to. You could have Sami Zayn selected by Raw and Kevin Owens selected to Smackdown so they have to finish their feud in NXT before they both get their call ups. There’s a whole new layer of intrigue added to the WWE. One might feel this could defeat the excitement of a random call-up, but once again, they could still come up as a free agent and sign later. You know my Owens/Zayn example? Imagine delaying the final match because the Raw GM called up Kevin Owens early. Talk about heat.
What if the WWE World Heavyweight champion drops the title? Free agent. What if the new WWE World Heavyweight champion is connected to a brand? They go back to that brand once they drop the title but they can still work and defend on both shows. What about part-timers like Brock Lesnar? Free agent that gets title shots. Why? Because he’s Brock Lesnar. You don’t say no to Brock Lesnar. How do you explain the fairness of that if other free agents cannot get title shots? Just have Paul Heyman explain that his client had built in title shot opportunities in his contract with the WWE that Raw and Smackdown must abide by. Paul Heyman explains everything.
Option Four: Status Quo
The final possibility, and most likely, is status quo. Smackdown continues to be a two hour block to mostly advertise Monday Night Raw and try out matches that will eventually be shown on Raw. Talent works between the two shows, Smackdown stays the “B Show” and nothing really changes. WWE and USA will likely prefer to have the top stars on both shows. It’d be nice if that means they treat it like pre-WCW purchase and run several storylines at the same time at all levels of the card, but the only change we know of is Smackdown going from a lesser network to the same network as Raw. It remains to be seen if WWE is committed to radical change, even in the WWE Network era.
With four options, and one being not much of an option, the only thing I can say is that this is a good thing.
