WWE Smackdown: A Change is Needed

I really don’t want to be that guy.

You know, that guy who watches WWE every single week, yet always feels the need to tell everybody how awful it is, how stupid the booking is and how laughably bad the characters are, “Oh, it’s not like back in 90’s, when wrestling was good. Now we have this garbage.” Guys like that just plain suck.

But watching Smackdown last night just left me cold. There were so many matches that I had absolutely no interest in. The main event, especially. And that’s a major problem. If you can’t even create a main that holds mass interest, you’re in trouble. Usually you can get away with a lacklustre show if you have a great main event but the other way around doesn’t really work out.

The main event of Smackdown and the World Heavyweight Championship has 3 men that I couldn’t care less about and 1 man that I was so excited to see return only to have it be a huge letdown. I’ve never liked or cared about Randy Orton or Alberto Del Rio, as I feel they’re both horribly boring both in the ring and on the mic, especially on the mic. Orton is constantly deadpan and monotone and Del Rio has been using the same old schtick since he’s debuted.

Sheamus on the other hand, I used to really like. When he was a heel, he was fantastic, if pushed a little too soon and even as a face at first I liked him, especially with his stories about old Irish lore which would usually involve someone getting their arse kicked. But he’s become the John Cena of Smackdown, a position used to be owned by Randy Orton himself. It’s only been recently that we’ve even seen Sheamus lose a match and it’s never clean. It’s stuff like this that makes people turn on faces. Jericho, on the other hand keeps doing everything right it’s just that while I was one of the people who loved his “trolling” of the audience at first, once he lost the Royal Rumble to Sheamus, his return has been nothing but mediocre. Nothing fantastic, but nothing horrible. I really see no one coming out as the World Heavyweight Champion after Over The Limit and it helping their career. Sheamus most likely will keep the belt. Orton does not in any circumstances need any more championships, nor does Jericho really and even if Del Rio held every single championship in the WWE he would still look weak.

But let’s get away from all this negativity for a second. Even the worst episode of Smackdown had at least one good segment and last night’s episode had more than just one. I still hold onto the opinion that Daniel Bryan is the best thing going on Smackdown. He continues to be the biggest jerk and is so good at making you completely hate him. I thought for a second during the segment with him and A.J. that my prediction was coming true and he was going to use her to his advantage, but he did one better and said that he would move on to Kaitlyn. The look in A.J.’s eyes were actually scary. I’ve seen that look before, Daniel. Get out of the ring while you still have your balls.

Probably the most surprising thing about the show last night was the quality of tag teams I still don’t know how I feel about “R-Boom” or “Air Truth” or whatever stupid name the WWE Universe picked yet, but Kofi and R-Truth are both great wrestlers and with Kofi’s exciting high flying skills plus the charismatic Truth is not the worst pairing ever assembled. I really don’t want Dolph Ziggler teamed up with Jack Swagger anymore as I feel he is better than Swagger in every way imaginable, but a tag match between Kingston/Truth and Ziggler/Swagger is bound to be extremely entertaining. I know a lot, and I mean a lot of people dislike Titus O’Neil and Darren (Black Cena) Young, but there’s something about them I really like. Their goody, annoying promos and dancing always crack me up, though maybe O’Neil should stay away from the mic for a bit. Sure, they are quite sloppy in the ring sometimes but they’re young. I think they could eventually become a really well rounded team. I like the concept of A.W. (who is hilarious, by the way) mentoring Epico and Primo, though I have no idea why Mason Ryan is there. I heard rumours that he’s going to be Ziggler’s new bodyguard and thats probably best for him. Don’t put him in matches, for God’s sakes. It seems like there could be a pretty interesting three way tug of war over the tag belts.

Overall, I was bored throughout most of Smackdown. I have no idea where Cody Rhodes was, but I hear he might be moving to Raw. Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show I mean, come on. We’ve seen it, it didn’t work the first time. Let’s move on. The Divas match, again like always, short but this time not entirely pointless. It actually progressed a storyline, but I would have liked to see A.J. ruthlessly wrestle Kaitlyn instead of just cat fighting her. More squash matches for Ryback, Brodus Clay and Antonio Cesaro against..uggh..Heath Slater, Hunico and Alex Riley.

There needs to be a change on Smackdown. Maybe the draft isn’t so useless after all. Shuffle the roster a bit. Focus more on the young guys. Something. Smackdown is better than this.

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All credit to Blair Lucas. Follow him on Twitter @walrussongs. Check out more of his work on WrestleEnigma.com