WWE News: Backstage Update On The Morale In The ‘Smackdown’ Locker Room
In the past few weeks, WWE began to bring Smackdown back to where it once was. There was a point in time when Smackdown put out a better product than WWE’s primary show, Monday Night Raw. It wasn’t only the superstars who WWE placed on Smackdown, but rather the storylines and management behind WWE’s no.2 wrestling show.
Chris Benoit, Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesnar, and Kurt Angle are only a few names that helped Smackdown become a better show than Raw. Making the decisions on that show was Paul Heyman, who is arguably the best wrestling mind the WWE has ever seen. Eventually, Vince McMahon didn’t like how Smackdown was out-performing Raw. Everything changed after that.
Smackdown’s move to Thursday night will help ratings rise, so will a rumored-brand split that might take place soon. On top of the potential split of the brands, Daniel Bryan wants to bring Smackdown back into prominence. According to Reddit user metsfan4ever, the backstage feelings of Smackdown couldn’t be better.
“According to his recent Reddit post, morale backstage at Smackdown was said to be at ‘an all-time high.’
“The post added that WWE Superstars were happy about the show moving back to Thursday nights. Superstars feel the move could lead to more exposure and more subscriptions for the WWE Network.”
It won’t be easy for the WWE to make Smackdown a top-tier show again. There are a few reasons why it went away in the first place. The number one reason has to do with the brand split ending. WWE invested most of their time with Raw when it was dubbed the “WWE Super Show.” Every superstar started to appear on Raw, thus ending the brand extension.
Another reason was the loss of a few legends to the Smackdown roster. Edge, Jeff Hardy, and the Undertaker helped make Smackdown famous in the 2000s. When they retired, or left in Hardy’s case, there wasn’t anyone of that caliber carrying the blue flag.
This is where Daniel Bryan comes into play. He is popular enough to make the blue brand big again.
“I’ve been very open about that with management, and told them, ‘Let me be the face of Smackdown, give me the opportunity to show what I can do and by the end of the year Smackdown will be getting just as many viewers as Raw if not more.'”
Of all the elements discussed so far, is it possible Smackdown can become the primary show in WWE? It doesn’t seem like Vince McMahon or Triple H wants that to happen, but if they ride the momentum-train in Daniel Bryan, anything is possible. Before the WWE realizes it, NXT could become the top program in WWE.
[Image via littlerock.com]
