We're now officially on the path to Money in the Bank, our first post-Mania PPV, and what should be happening on the big two shows are setting up good storylines and rivalries for our champs and setting up solid competition between the participants in the respective briefcase matches. Did we get that? In the WWE sense, yes. As far as good TV? Well, not so much. In fact, this isn't really even going to be a massive deep dive into this week's episodes, but rather an exploration of why people are starting to change the channel.
Both shows had some bad times this week in regards to ratings this week, in that this was one of the worst non-holiday ratings in Raw history, and with Smackdown, which is making the move to Fox later this year if everything still goes according to plan, they had the worst ratings they've ever had on USA. To put things in perspective, more people watched fucking Tucker Carlson than they watched Smackdown. That's bad.
So the question is why are people not tuning in? The prevailing theory is that the people that would normally be watching WWE are watching real sports instead in regards to basketball playoff season. But unless I see Lebron James RKO Steph Curry on his way to a game-winning 3-pointer, I'm not one of those people.
But as far as the actual product, one reason is the lack of star power. Yes, Kofi Kingston and Becky Lynch are still huge, but that's really it. This is sometimes the problem with getting everything we want at Wrestlemania. And even those two aren't immune to poor booking. While I happen to think that KO turning on New Day last week and continuing his heel ways to end up challenging for the WWE Championship is a terrific storyline, seeing The Man ending up in two relatively underwhelming rivalries for her two belts is pretty problematic. Charlotte is a repeat customer for the Smackdown Women's title, and Lacey Evans is just not the person that management should be terribly high on right now. She's green and she's only had one match on the main roster. Her "Sassy Southern Belle" shtick is not going over the way that Vince clearly hoped it would. So when you have one of your biggest draws in two sub-par title defenses, that's going to cause people to start to tune out.
Other stars are also floundering as well. What should be a kind of dream match between A.J. Styles and champ Seth Rollins for the Universal title is just not gelling together the way it should. Roman Reigns having a feud with Elias as well as the McMahons is not a draw.
Their newer acquisitions and some returning stars are also being thrown around leaving them somewhat directionless. Ricochet is going to be in the Men's MITB ladder match, but that's still on its way.
And I hate to call it like this, but all of the women are taking a backseat to Becky right now. She is the planet and everyone else is just a satellite staying firmly in their orbit. Even what will eventually be a Women's Tag title match between The IIconics vs Asuka and Kairi Sane doesn't seem to be picking up any real steam. Finn Balor is IC champ, and his rivalry with Andrade should be generating off-the-charts levels of excitement between two competitors of this caliber, but it's not. The booking is just not there because Andrade hasn't had the wins he should be having. US champ Samoa Joe looked like a total chump this week losing to Rey Mysterio in a ridiculous stack-up win.
Another thing that's really going wrong for them is injuries. Daniel Bryan has been out with an unknown injury (but is apparently on his way back), Jeff Hardy had to have Matt and himself relinquish the Smackdown Tag titles on Tuesday because he's injured, Big E is injured, Nia Jax is injured, and Sheamus is injured. These are big names on the roster, and having these people out is likely forcing some storylines to happen sooner rather than later.
Also a very unusual source for why people are tuning out has to be factored in, and that's the Last Week Tonight segment about WWE. It was brilliant because it was both a smart look into the behind-the-scenes of Vince's shady AF business practices, but it was also celebratory of how great wrestling is. This might have newer viewers a little gun-shy from tuning in, and it might even have some more woke viewers tuning out.
Or the least-desirable scenario is that this is what happens when Vince decides to give us everything we want at Wrestlemania. The Universal title is off Brock Lesnar and on Seth Rollins. Becky Lynch is officially Becky Two-Belts. Kofi is WWE Champion. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder went from zeroes to heroes beating The Revival for the Raw Tag titles. Finn Balor had his epic Mania entrance and won the IC title. And because the time between Mania and MITB is so short, Creative hasn't had the opportunity to build up much in the way of solid rivalries. Does this mean having one less PPV per year? Should the PPVs become brand-specific again? Should they hold off on MITB for at least one PPV? Also the Superstar Shake-Up hasn't helped either, particularly since they still don't know what the hell to do with a lot of these people.
All I really know is that I don't have all the answers on how best WWE can get their viewers back. As far as activity on the shows this week, we learned who our briefcase ladder match competitors would be: on the Women's side, there's Alexa Bliss, Naomi, Natalya and Dana Brooke (I wouldn't have thought that she'd be the one to get a push here, but she's filling in the role left by Nia Jax) on the Raw side, and Bayley, Ember Moon, Carmella and Mandy Rose from Smackdown. On the Men's side, we have Baron Corbin (who really seems to be getting X-Pac heat lately instead of just good heel heat), Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman and Ricochet from Raw, andMustafa Ali, Andrade, Randy Orton and Finn Balor from Smackdown. These should both be pretty fun matches, particularly the Men's match since we're going to have super agile competitors like Ricochet, Finn, Andrade and Ali and power players like Strowman and McIntyre. And of course, all these guys were put in tag matches with faces vs heels on both shows. It was copy/paste stuff, and both of them had the same ending with the babyfaces hitting flippy finishers on the heels.
There's no real interest in Becky fighting Charlotte again, although Becky and Bayley had a really good match on Smackdown. Frankly, I'm glad that they're doing this now rather than building to another big confrontation between the two because that means that Becky and Charlotte will be done for a while and Becky can move on to different competitors. Lacey Evans and Becky also got into a brawl on Raw, and it was broken up. And can we talk about the sexism within WWE for a minute?
Here's my hot take on this: every single time you see a brawl break out between two men, they continue fighting until one of them gets the upper hand. Every time you see two women brawl, officials and refs race out to the ring like their asses were on fire to separate the two of them. I hate that. In the immortal words of Ken Watanabe in GODZILLA, "Let them fight". Or at least wait until one of them gets the upper hand. And can Lacey's promos start getting less gross about her femininity? She's the antithesis of what we want to see in the Women's Evolution era, but Vince is gonna Vince.
A.J. and Seth are doing their level best to try to heat up this main event-level bout at MITB, but I'm just not feeling it. And I don't think a lot of other people are either. Face vs Face matches aren't that difficult to book and contract signings don't need to end in a brawl. In fact, I think they should get rid of contract signings altogether. They don't really work to hype up the match.
And then there's Shane McMahon, who is becoming the bane of everyone's existence. He's having a steel cage match against The Miz at MITB for Raw, but he's also inserting himself into Roman's storyline on Smackdown. The whole Smackdown angle would have been stronger (or at least less repetitive) if Stephanie was the one to admonish Roman, because this is just too much Shane. I really enjoyed Shane turning heel, but once it started to become about how Mr. Mizanin is a less-than-attractive middle-aged man, it started becoming really old. And it's only going to become more stale over time, because Shane is not what you would call a magnetic personality.
It's hard to say that Raw had much in the way of solid TV this week. Yes, the Firefly Fun House is still weird and funny, but I can already feel that it's going to be diminishing returns within a few weeks, and the fact that they played it on both Raw and Smackdown didn't help. And as much as I love Sami Zayn coming out to the ring every week and yelling at us, the reality of this is starting to become clearer. I've been upset that he's lacking a rivalry, but we now know what the plan was: Sami was supposed to be in a program with Luke Harper, but since Harper wanted out of his contract and Vince refused to release him, they're literally not doing anything with him, and that's just shitty. In an era where there are more eyes than ever on the business end of pro wrestling, and WWE in particular, it seems like just more bad publicity for them to keep someone in their contract and not have them perform. It sounds like the old Hollywood studio system that lasted through the 60's when they had contract players, and it was decided a long time ago that that was wrong to do.
There were definitely more bright spots on Smackdown this week than Raw, particularly with the Becky/Bayley match, Lars Sullivan punching the chair out of R-Truth's hands, and KO and Kofi have the only feud with any real heat on it, and a lot of that is due to KO. KO is so good with promos and in-ring ability that he can bring that good heat any time he needs it. Having the Big E action figure (call it a doll at your fucking peril) with gauze around its leg was beyond awesome. These are the kinds of things that KO brings to the table and it's why we love him. As far as the pre-taped promos from Aleister Black, I'm still not sure what they're waiting for, but it better be something huge. If he came out after MITB and started fighting jobbers for a few episodes just to familiarize fans with how he looks as a solo competitor, I'd be perfectly fine with that as long as it was leading to a series of really cool rivalries.
I know that I've spent most of this recap not recapping things because I think there are larger issues at work here and they need to be addressed. I know that I'm pointing out a lot of potential flaws and not a lot of solutions. The simplest solution, of course, is to get back to Booking 101 and not add a lot of bells and whistles. Aside from that, it's really a matter of giving the right people the right push at the right time. I know that this is a business that is pretty heavily in a state of flux. Some people will get hot at a time that management is unprepared for (see Becky and Kofi), and some people will get heated up and it doesn't work (see Roman).
Anyway, all anyone's talking about this week is Jon Moxley, so maybe it's all moot.
That ends this kind of afterschool special edition of my Raw and Smackdown recap for this week! I know that I promise these on Wednesdays, but again, I'm still getting my shit together with my schedule change and pro wrestling can't dominate all moments of my free time! I'll have my recap of NXT and Worlds Collide within the next few days, so keep an eye out for that, and my weekly recaps of all the WWE product that I consume as they come!
Until next time, kids...
Both shows had some bad times this week in regards to ratings this week, in that this was one of the worst non-holiday ratings in Raw history, and with Smackdown, which is making the move to Fox later this year if everything still goes according to plan, they had the worst ratings they've ever had on USA. To put things in perspective, more people watched fucking Tucker Carlson than they watched Smackdown. That's bad.
So the question is why are people not tuning in? The prevailing theory is that the people that would normally be watching WWE are watching real sports instead in regards to basketball playoff season. But unless I see Lebron James RKO Steph Curry on his way to a game-winning 3-pointer, I'm not one of those people.
But as far as the actual product, one reason is the lack of star power. Yes, Kofi Kingston and Becky Lynch are still huge, but that's really it. This is sometimes the problem with getting everything we want at Wrestlemania. And even those two aren't immune to poor booking. While I happen to think that KO turning on New Day last week and continuing his heel ways to end up challenging for the WWE Championship is a terrific storyline, seeing The Man ending up in two relatively underwhelming rivalries for her two belts is pretty problematic. Charlotte is a repeat customer for the Smackdown Women's title, and Lacey Evans is just not the person that management should be terribly high on right now. She's green and she's only had one match on the main roster. Her "Sassy Southern Belle" shtick is not going over the way that Vince clearly hoped it would. So when you have one of your biggest draws in two sub-par title defenses, that's going to cause people to start to tune out.
Other stars are also floundering as well. What should be a kind of dream match between A.J. Styles and champ Seth Rollins for the Universal title is just not gelling together the way it should. Roman Reigns having a feud with Elias as well as the McMahons is not a draw.
Their newer acquisitions and some returning stars are also being thrown around leaving them somewhat directionless. Ricochet is going to be in the Men's MITB ladder match, but that's still on its way.
And I hate to call it like this, but all of the women are taking a backseat to Becky right now. She is the planet and everyone else is just a satellite staying firmly in their orbit. Even what will eventually be a Women's Tag title match between The IIconics vs Asuka and Kairi Sane doesn't seem to be picking up any real steam. Finn Balor is IC champ, and his rivalry with Andrade should be generating off-the-charts levels of excitement between two competitors of this caliber, but it's not. The booking is just not there because Andrade hasn't had the wins he should be having. US champ Samoa Joe looked like a total chump this week losing to Rey Mysterio in a ridiculous stack-up win.
Another thing that's really going wrong for them is injuries. Daniel Bryan has been out with an unknown injury (but is apparently on his way back), Jeff Hardy had to have Matt and himself relinquish the Smackdown Tag titles on Tuesday because he's injured, Big E is injured, Nia Jax is injured, and Sheamus is injured. These are big names on the roster, and having these people out is likely forcing some storylines to happen sooner rather than later.
Also a very unusual source for why people are tuning out has to be factored in, and that's the Last Week Tonight segment about WWE. It was brilliant because it was both a smart look into the behind-the-scenes of Vince's shady AF business practices, but it was also celebratory of how great wrestling is. This might have newer viewers a little gun-shy from tuning in, and it might even have some more woke viewers tuning out.
Or the least-desirable scenario is that this is what happens when Vince decides to give us everything we want at Wrestlemania. The Universal title is off Brock Lesnar and on Seth Rollins. Becky Lynch is officially Becky Two-Belts. Kofi is WWE Champion. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder went from zeroes to heroes beating The Revival for the Raw Tag titles. Finn Balor had his epic Mania entrance and won the IC title. And because the time between Mania and MITB is so short, Creative hasn't had the opportunity to build up much in the way of solid rivalries. Does this mean having one less PPV per year? Should the PPVs become brand-specific again? Should they hold off on MITB for at least one PPV? Also the Superstar Shake-Up hasn't helped either, particularly since they still don't know what the hell to do with a lot of these people.
All I really know is that I don't have all the answers on how best WWE can get their viewers back. As far as activity on the shows this week, we learned who our briefcase ladder match competitors would be: on the Women's side, there's Alexa Bliss, Naomi, Natalya and Dana Brooke (I wouldn't have thought that she'd be the one to get a push here, but she's filling in the role left by Nia Jax) on the Raw side, and Bayley, Ember Moon, Carmella and Mandy Rose from Smackdown. On the Men's side, we have Baron Corbin (who really seems to be getting X-Pac heat lately instead of just good heel heat), Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman and Ricochet from Raw, and
There's no real interest in Becky fighting Charlotte again, although Becky and Bayley had a really good match on Smackdown. Frankly, I'm glad that they're doing this now rather than building to another big confrontation between the two because that means that Becky and Charlotte will be done for a while and Becky can move on to different competitors. Lacey Evans and Becky also got into a brawl on Raw, and it was broken up. And can we talk about the sexism within WWE for a minute?
Here's my hot take on this: every single time you see a brawl break out between two men, they continue fighting until one of them gets the upper hand. Every time you see two women brawl, officials and refs race out to the ring like their asses were on fire to separate the two of them. I hate that. In the immortal words of Ken Watanabe in GODZILLA, "Let them fight". Or at least wait until one of them gets the upper hand. And can Lacey's promos start getting less gross about her femininity? She's the antithesis of what we want to see in the Women's Evolution era, but Vince is gonna Vince.
A.J. and Seth are doing their level best to try to heat up this main event-level bout at MITB, but I'm just not feeling it. And I don't think a lot of other people are either. Face vs Face matches aren't that difficult to book and contract signings don't need to end in a brawl. In fact, I think they should get rid of contract signings altogether. They don't really work to hype up the match.
And then there's Shane McMahon, who is becoming the bane of everyone's existence. He's having a steel cage match against The Miz at MITB for Raw, but he's also inserting himself into Roman's storyline on Smackdown. The whole Smackdown angle would have been stronger (or at least less repetitive) if Stephanie was the one to admonish Roman, because this is just too much Shane. I really enjoyed Shane turning heel, but once it started to become about how Mr. Mizanin is a less-than-attractive middle-aged man, it started becoming really old. And it's only going to become more stale over time, because Shane is not what you would call a magnetic personality.
It's hard to say that Raw had much in the way of solid TV this week. Yes, the Firefly Fun House is still weird and funny, but I can already feel that it's going to be diminishing returns within a few weeks, and the fact that they played it on both Raw and Smackdown didn't help. And as much as I love Sami Zayn coming out to the ring every week and yelling at us, the reality of this is starting to become clearer. I've been upset that he's lacking a rivalry, but we now know what the plan was: Sami was supposed to be in a program with Luke Harper, but since Harper wanted out of his contract and Vince refused to release him, they're literally not doing anything with him, and that's just shitty. In an era where there are more eyes than ever on the business end of pro wrestling, and WWE in particular, it seems like just more bad publicity for them to keep someone in their contract and not have them perform. It sounds like the old Hollywood studio system that lasted through the 60's when they had contract players, and it was decided a long time ago that that was wrong to do.
There were definitely more bright spots on Smackdown this week than Raw, particularly with the Becky/Bayley match, Lars Sullivan punching the chair out of R-Truth's hands, and KO and Kofi have the only feud with any real heat on it, and a lot of that is due to KO. KO is so good with promos and in-ring ability that he can bring that good heat any time he needs it. Having the Big E action figure (call it a doll at your fucking peril) with gauze around its leg was beyond awesome. These are the kinds of things that KO brings to the table and it's why we love him. As far as the pre-taped promos from Aleister Black, I'm still not sure what they're waiting for, but it better be something huge. If he came out after MITB and started fighting jobbers for a few episodes just to familiarize fans with how he looks as a solo competitor, I'd be perfectly fine with that as long as it was leading to a series of really cool rivalries.
I know that I've spent most of this recap not recapping things because I think there are larger issues at work here and they need to be addressed. I know that I'm pointing out a lot of potential flaws and not a lot of solutions. The simplest solution, of course, is to get back to Booking 101 and not add a lot of bells and whistles. Aside from that, it's really a matter of giving the right people the right push at the right time. I know that this is a business that is pretty heavily in a state of flux. Some people will get hot at a time that management is unprepared for (see Becky and Kofi), and some people will get heated up and it doesn't work (see Roman).
Anyway, all anyone's talking about this week is Jon Moxley, so maybe it's all moot.
That ends this kind of afterschool special edition of my Raw and Smackdown recap for this week! I know that I promise these on Wednesdays, but again, I'm still getting my shit together with my schedule change and pro wrestling can't dominate all moments of my free time! I'll have my recap of NXT and Worlds Collide within the next few days, so keep an eye out for that, and my weekly recaps of all the WWE product that I consume as they come!
Until next time, kids...
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