In the recap I wrote for a recent episode of SmackDown, I mentioned how WWE had loaded up the main-event scene on the blue brand to the point where they could be on the verge of creating another SmackDown Six. For those newer wrestling fans, the SmackDown Six consisted of Edge, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, the Guerreros (Eddie & Chavo Jr.), and REDACTED, and refers to a stretch of time in the early part of the century, post-brand split, when Paul Heyman was in charge of SmackDown’s creative team. 5
of the 6 members of the Six would win World Championships, and legendary stars like John Cena and Randy Orton would make their first splashes in the business during this time.
Coming out of this year’s SummerSlam, the main event scene on Friday nights suddenly became very crowded. Randy Orton returned at the end of Night 1, costing Cody Rhodes his WWE Title match against CM Punk, and then, to kick off Night 2, Kevin Owens made his return and immediately earned his own shot at Punk’s championship.
Including Owens and Orton, the SmackDown roster now boasts 9 former men’s World champions, and that doesn’t even count Drew McIntyre, who’s been inactive since WrestleMania but last appeared on Friday Night SmackDown. The Raw roster, on the other hand, only currently holds four.
Looking at the rest of the roster, though, SmackDown’s has a few other things going for it right now when compared to it’s Monday night counterpart.
SmackDown’s women’s division is DEEP
It struck me while watching last night’s episode of SmackDown that the women’s division on Friday nights has quietly become absolutely loaded in its own right. No less than 16 women were featured on the show in some way, either in matches or backstage segments. That doesn’t even include Nikki Bella, who is in the midst of a vignette battle with Paige, and Rhea Ripley, who is technically still the brand’s women’s champion, despite being on the shelf with an injury.
If you ever check out coverage of NXT here on Cageside, you know how we are typically waxing poetic about the women’s division being far and away the best part of those Tuesday night shows. With the amount of talented ladies currently on the SmackDown roster, there is a ton of potential there for the division to be spotlighted just as much as the men’s. At the very least, it should make it easy to build teams for a War Games match at the end of November!
Compare this to Raw’s women’s division, and it’s clear Friday nights are just better for women’s wrestling right now. The Judgment Day trio is featured prominently on Mondays, and Becky Lynch and Stephanie Vaquer both recently returned to inject some new life into the division. While there is still a fair amount of star power among the women currently getting screen time on Raw, they just don’t have the same depth as SmackDown.
SmackDown’s tag team division is starting to pick up
There was a stretch of time about a year and a half ago when the tag team division on SmackDown was carrying the show every week. #DIY, the Motor City Machine Guns, and the Street Profits were just a few of the top teams that were a huge focus of the show every week, resulting in several weekly shows headlined by exciting tag team matches. When the Wyatt Sicks eventually won the WWE Tag Team Titles, it seemed to take a lot of the division’s momentum away, and it really hasn’t returned since. The same can be said for pretty much the entire company when it comes to tag team wrestling.
In Rumor Roundups as recently as this morning, we’ve aggregated reports about how the WWE was looking to revitalize its tag team division on both shows in the coming months. While it’s not much, we need to look no further than SmackDown this week to see proof of that.
Tama and Talla Tonga defeated Damian Priest and R-Truth with tag gold on the line, just a week after winning the titles in a triple threat tag team match. The on-screen return of the legendary, legitimate badass Haku in the MFT corner has made Tama and Talla much more intriguing than they were just a few short weeks ago. During the match, the AAA Tag Team Champions, the War Raiders, were seen intently watching the action on a monitor backstage. Again, only about 15 seconds of airtime, but it’s still something. Then, following the match, we saw another vignette from Shinsuke Nakamura, who introduced the WWE audience to his new tag team partner, Kyoki, formerly New Japan’s Hiromu Takahashi.
In addition, Fraxiom and the comedy duo of The Miz and Kit Wilson once again appeared in WWE online exclusives that didn’t air on the broadcast, but were at least considered important enough to post on the interwebs.
As a whole, we are still far from the tag team wrestling booms we had with the Hardys, Dudleys, and Edge & Christian, or a more recent example with the Usos, New Day, and The Bar. But any period where tag team wrestling really thrived needed to start somewhere, and this isn’t a bad place for the blue brand to start if tag team wrestling is going to become a priority again.
Now, Raw, on the other hand, is not showing quite the same potential. You really have to look no further than one of the current tag champs to see how valuable those belts are considered to be on Raw.
Bron Breakker stepped in as one half of the tag champs when Logan Paul was injured, and bro couldn’t seem more indifferent about that fact than he does on TV every week. He’s set for a collision with Oba Femi on Labor Day weekend, leaving the World Tag Team Championships firmly on the back burner. The Street Profits were The Vision’s main challengers for a while, but seem to be taking some time off so Montez Ford can spend time with his new baby at home. The Judgment Day, I guess, can still be considered a tag team, and Alpha Academy is there too, but all in all, Monday nights are not a great spot for tag team wrestling at the moment.
Raw still holds a mid-card advantage
Outside of the Bloodline, which is the main focus of Raw every week, the other place where the red brand currently has a leg up on SmackDown is their mid-card. Penta is coming off a solid run with the Intercontinental Title, where he blossomed into one of the best babyfaces in the entire company. Chad Gable parlayed his run as El Grande Americano into that same IC Title, and there are a ton of guys hovering in that title scene right now, including Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, Ethan Page, and the recently returned Big Cass. Toss in the Judgment Day boys, Rusev, and Rey Mysterio, and you have a pretty solid mid-card scene.
On the flip side, the mid-card scene on SmackDown isn’t quite as plentiful right now. It’s clear Trick Williams is destined to make it to the main event level eventually, but he might be blocked for a bit if he stays on Friday nights, due to the crowded main event scene I discussed above. Carmelo Hayes and Baron Corbin are there too, and so are Ricky Saints and Matt Cardona, but outside of that, contenders in that US Title range of the roster just aren’t there.
Could we see Gunther or Finn Balor slide down the card a bit and get in the US Title scene in the coming months? Maybe. But right now, the SmackDown roster is pretty top-heavy.
How SmackDown can get its groove back
While there are still plenty of people enjoying WWE programming in recent months, it’s undeniable that the criticisms and complaints about the writing have been growing louder. From this writer and fan’s perspective, there have been a fair number of shows this summer that didn’t really hit for me. There are still characters that I think have been booked well and provide highlights on every Raw and Smackdown and the PLEs are still top-notch when it comes to in-ring action and theatrics.
But if the WWE wants to get some of the magic back that they had just a few years ago, they need to find a way to harness the immense amount of talent they have right now. While everyone’s individual mileage with the Bloodline story varies, Roman Reigns and his family drama is still the clear ‘main story’ on Monday nights. With the amount of talent on the SmackDown roster, there’s no reason Friday nights can’t be must-see television again, but they need to find their ‘main story’. Maybe it’s Cody Rhodes, who once again dropped a Paul Heyman-sized Easter egg in his promo this week on SmackDown, trying his hand with a heel turn. Maybe the Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens heats up once again and becomes the focal point.
The cynical side of me says they’ll find a way to blow the momentum that SmackDown has been picking up since SummerSlam, and the show will be a complete slog to get through when they go back to three hours in a few months.
But if the WWE creative team can come up with some ways to, you know, be creative, all the pieces are in place for SmackDown to become appointment viewing once again.
What do you think, Cagesiders? Do you think SmackDown has eclipsed Raw as the ‘A’ show? If not, do you think it’s heading that way? Let us know in the comments below!
