Death of Wrestling: Smackdown

Greetings to all… It’s David Davis with my weekly blog: Death of Wrestling. For all of those who read this regularly, you will know that this is not a blog about bashing wrestling; it’s a blog of a frustrated fan, who loves the business and wishes that each week it could be a little better.

The saturation of anything is never a good thing… We all love the World Cup, but if it was every year instead of every four years, it wouldn’t be long before it lost its shine. Does anybody remember how groundbreaking the original Saw movie was, but by the time it got to Saw VI (or whatever number we’re up to) people just stopped talking about it… And I think this also applies to wrestling… or at least it should.

There’s a pretty topical debate right now about whether monthly PPVs are a good thing or not… TNA recently reduced their number of PPVs, but that has been met with mixed reviews – primarily because it seems like they are doing it more out of necessity than creative direction. But I do think they are on to something: too much of anything is a bad thing.

In all the talk of PPVs, I think we are missing a bigger, perhaps more important question… is their too much wrestling on television in general? Competition means wrestling companies have to up their game, so the fact that there are quite a few wrestling outlets on TV is a good thing, but is there too many hours of it..?

In the UK, the main two companies that air are the WWE and TNA (RoH isn’t too hard to find either). TNA has 2 hours of Impact and an hour (I think) of Xplosion a week, and the WWE has a whopping 3 hours of Raw, 2 Hours of Smackdown, an hour of NXT and various other hours dedicated to their B shows. That’s around 10 hours (or more) of wrestling a week!!! Doesn’t that seem like a lot???

I wouldn’t mind so much if it was all must see TV, but we know the problems with the 3 hour raw… I must admit I’ve never watched Xplosion, but I do know that it doesn’t affect the main Impact show, and so therefore pointless… and this, people, is my problem with Smackdown…

I remember when Smackdown started and the WWE gave it everything; it was always the B show, but feuds would be advanced on the show. If you missed it, then you had to play a little bit of catch up whilst watching Raw. Of course, after the WCW and ECW invasion, the brand separation happened and Smackdown was never more important; there were Smackdown only PPVs…

However, in recent times, Smackdown has become nothing more than a filler show that is, quite frankly, becoming a drain on my wrestling watching week. The WWE seems to be concerned about the viewing figures for Smackdown, but they aren’t doing anything to make it must see television. They had that amazing 11 man gauntlet handicapped match that was even referenced on Raw… In fact, it was virtually nullified with the 11 on 3 handicapped match.

It made me realise that what happens on Smackdown, by and large, stays on Smackdown, so what is the point of watching??? In a world where there are so many great dramas (both on TV and on things like Netflix), MMA matches, Reality TV shows (yes I like Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents – shoot me), I just don’t have 10+ hours to devote to wrestling a week, and that’s not including their PPVs… Something’s got to give and I’m starting to think it’s Smackdown.

Of course, anyone thinking of not watching wrestling, especially a pro wrestling blogger, is a bad thing and will ultimately lead to people turning off in their droves, which, yep, you guessed it, will be the DoW…

That’s all folks… As always, post your comments, thoughts and opinions below! Or message me on twitter and let me know what you think the ‘Death of Wrestling’ is and I might just blog about it!!! Peace and I’m out…