WWE SmackDown Discussion II

[jakecronus8]

Welp, that’s the final nail for Chad Gable. You can’t come back from “Shorty G.” That’s change the channel levels of cringe right there.

[tugs]

It's not hard to play off having Kurt Angle as your hero gimmick for Gable. It just writes itself.

Only saving grace perhaps is Jordan coming back, slapping some sense to him saying he's no rapper and he's Chad Gable.

[iMoreland]

What a pointless show tonight, nothing meaningful happened at all

[improper]

What a pointless show tonight, nothing meaningful happened at all

Wonder how long it's going to take Fox to intervene when they realize the crap they paid all that money for.

[Stanford]

Wonder how long it's going to take Fox to intervene when they realize the crap they paid all that money for.

How is this any different than WWE TV over the past decade or more? Did they not watch the show before spending hundreds of million of dollars on it?

[LLJ]

Wonder how long it's going to take Fox to intervene when they realize the crap they paid all that money for.

How is this any different than WWE TV over the past decade or more? Did they not watch the show before spending hundreds of million of dollars on it?

WWE was on a brief upswing when they got these deals (early 2018), so it looked like they were on the up and up.

The minute the ink had barely begun to dry on these TV deals, their numbers tanked again. And even worse than before.

The ratings this week suggest more ugly numbers coming up. I can't imagine Fox is happy.

[Stanford]

Are we talking about numbers or show quality?

[Dr Positivity]

The ratings dropped again this week but still had the highest 18-49 of the night. It probably would've gone up next week for Brock, Cain, Flair and Hogan but it is on FS1

It seems like Fox paid too much (5 year 1 billion) for a slightly above average Friday rating, and they couldn't have expected much more than this. Maybe half their motivation was pushing FS1. With network ratings also declining by the year if SD stays steady it also may look better in time

Edit - Actually now the I think of it, 200 million a year is far more expensive than your average network show, but I forgot to take into account that Smackdown is on 52 weeks a year. So it's only 3.8 million a week, and it eats up 2 hours, so four sitcoms at 950k each on Friday night would cost the same. From that perspective the deal seems more reasonable. Fox also just has to be neutral on it during the network season, and they'll be happy overall since SD is a better option than anything they had on in the summer. This is before considering other benefits like FS1 and spreading Fox brand name to other countries.

[improper]

Are we talking about numbers or show quality?

I mean, both have been tanking pretty consistently for the past decade. Based on the recaps I've read of Raw and Smackdown and the handful of episodes I've watched, I'd say this year is the most creatively bankrupt the company has been since before the Attitude Era. The roster is more talented than ever but the product is as bad as it's ever been, at least in the 2000's.

[Stanford]

I just thought we were talking about the show itself

[LLJ]

The TV ratings for early 2018 were actually UP over 2017 during the same time. After Mania 34, they began a sharp decline, which exacerbated around the fall of 2018 when the bottom almost fell out and both Smackdown and RAW were edging below 2m.

So there's no question that numbers have tanked dramatically since around fall of last year. And their network subscriptions have generally stalled this year. Youtube views are also down from previous years. Attendance is hitting decade lows.

WWE is still making bank, but if you look at their financials, now it's almost mostly from the Saudi and TV deals. The Saudi deal in particular is ridiculously lucrative for them.

Ultimately, I believe the Smackdown ratings on FOX will eventually bottom out at close to the same numbers they were doing on USA. They haven't gained a new audience going to network TV, it's mostly the same audience who watched them on USA watching on Fridays now. Being on more households hasn't made a difference.

[Spens1]

2.4 Million is a joke, they're about to go behind Raw again.

I'm not suprised though, smackdown has somehow gotten worse since going to fox. Before at least it was kind of stagnant and a bit boring, now its just outright terrible TV.

[iMoreland]

God SmackDown sucks, not even worth watching it live anymore

[jakecronus8]

I actually physically wince and shake my head every time I hear “Shorty G” spoken aloud. When I started my recording of Smackdown and saw his ring gear I immediately turned it off and watched more NBA.

[Scott Hall]

I actually liked Smackdown this week first time in awhile more good then bad. My god that F5 to Mysterio
into the wall was awesome had flashbacks of Nash lawn darting him into the trailer on Nitro. Mentioned it
before I believe but when wrestlers get time off or are injured for months they need to take acting lessons
Bayley is at the top of that list don't know how she passed Dusty Rhodes promo class in NXT.

[Dr Positivity]

I actually liked Smackdown this week first time in awhile more good then bad. My god that F5 to Mysterio
into the wall was awesome had flashbacks of Nash lawn darting him into the trailer on Nitro. Mentioned it
before I believe but when wrestlers get time off or are injured for months they need to take acting lessons
Bayley is at the top of that list don't know how she passed Dusty Rhodes promo class in NXT.

I don't think Bayley can talk very well but her facial expression acting is pretty solid I think. She has sold the new nihilistic/I feel sorry for you for having enthusiasm about life attitude. I find her heel turn more interesting than Sasha's which was very by the books in my opinion.

[Flames24Rulz]

God SmackDown sucks, not even worth watching it live anymore

Yeah, I've DVR'ed it the last couple of weeks. Outside of the Firefly Funhouse segment this week (and the Brock angle backstage), it was a whole lot of nothing.

Also, does literally anybody care about this Flair vs Hogan team crap that they're doing? There's absolutely no point to it, with a likelihood of there being zero pay off either.

[Scott Hall]

I actually liked Smackdown this week first time in awhile more good then bad. My god that F5 to Mysterio
into the wall was awesome had flashbacks of Nash lawn darting him into the trailer on Nitro. Mentioned it
before I believe but when wrestlers get time off or are injured for months they need to take acting lessons
Bayley is at the top of that list don't know how she passed Dusty Rhodes promo class in NXT.

I don't think Bayley can talk very well but her facial expression acting is pretty solid I think. She has sold the new nihilistic/I feel sorry for you for having enthusiasm about life attitude. I find her heel turn more interesting than Sasha's which was very by the books in my opinion.

It's funny you mention her facial expressions because that was something I was gonna originally put in my post
but I forgot. Outside of the original heel turn she's been back to giggling and smiley Bayley. When she was doing
commentary it was like she was being herself and not playing a character. I thought for awhile it was because of
WWE's poor booking but I think she just doesn't have "It".

Her acting reminds me of Roman Reigns... It's like whenever Reigns is mad, sad, happy etc he's always talking in
that same monotone style with no change in presentation all his promos sound exactly the same.

[Flames24Rulz]

I actually liked Smackdown this week first time in awhile more good then bad. My god that F5 to Mysterio
into the wall was awesome had flashbacks of Nash lawn darting him into the trailer on Nitro. Mentioned it
before I believe but when wrestlers get time off or are injured for months they need to take acting lessons
Bayley is at the top of that list don't know how she passed Dusty Rhodes promo class in NXT.

I don't think Bayley can talk very well but her facial expression acting is pretty solid I think. She has sold the new nihilistic/I feel sorry for you for having enthusiasm about life attitude. I find her heel turn more interesting than Sasha's which was very by the books in my opinion.

It's funny you mention her facial expressions because that was something I was gonna originally put in my post
but I forgot. Outside of the original heel turn she's been back to giggling and smiley Bayley. When she was doing
commentary it was like she was being herself and not playing a character. I thought for awhile it was because of
WWE's poor booking but I think she just doesn't have "It".

Her acting reminds me of Roman Reigns... It's like whenever Reigns is mad, sad, happy etc he's always talking in
that same monotone style with no change in presentation all his promos sound exactly the same.

Speaking of Reigns, his promos have gone back to cringe status, much like his buddy Rollins. That one on Friday night on Corbin was brutal. Is WWE seriously content with making their biggest faces in the company look like absolute dweebs anytime they actually have to say something on the microphone?

[LLJ]

888k viewers on Friday. Even for FS1, that's a disastrously horrible rating for the so-called 'A' show.