The Smackdown Problem

Smackdown is the B show and that is OK. How does FOX feel about that? Does that even matter? No. It doesn’t. Certainly, having a TV partner that feels good about what content being provided to them is worth the value they are paying you for it, but does that mean that Smackdown needs to be the WWE’s #1 show from now on?

For the life of me, I have never been able to understand why there are so many people that have an issue with this idea. It’s not uncommon to lurk around on the IWC to see someone lamenting about what a terrible job WWE does positioning Smackdown as the #1(b) show. It’s almost a given that when it comes to “brand superiority” or “bragging rights”-type attractions, Smackdown is likely to win with the knowledge that, internally, RAW is the true top dog and putting Smackdown over is usually lip-service or a tongue in cheek reference to what the REAL pecking order is.

This seems to bother people. It has never bothered me personally, and I have never been able to understand how it is supposed to be any other way. If you go back as far as the historical eye can see, Vince almost always puts his best foot forward when it comes to debuting a new television project. The first episode of WWE Main Event on Ion Television features a 16-minute Champion vs. Champion match that featured CM Punk and Sheamus (back when Sheamus was a “top guy” type of project). There was also Smackdown’s big debut on the CW network when they moved to Friday nights that featured a Champion/Champion/Champion triangle match.

The thing about that is: you can’t sustain that level of hot-shot booking on the no. 1, “A-Show” week after week, let alone running a show like Monday Night Raw every week AND a 2nd show that is supposedly going to equal it. How often can you book and promote a World Title match on just the one show? If you fail to match that promotion at the same level on Smackdown, does that not already reduce its importance?

To give some context, I think it might help to compare what the output was when SD was launched and compare it to what RAW was offering at the same time.

April 26, 1999

RAW

Commentary Jim Ross and Jim Cornette (temporary sub for Lawler)

• Non-Title Match: Kane & X-Pac vs. Edge/Gangrel

• D-Lo Brown vs. Val Venis

• Billy Gunn vs. Triple H

(Fresh heel turn HHH had some amazingly bad entrance music prior to “My Time”.)

• Mankind & The Big Show vs. Test & The Big Bossman

(ahem…)

• WWF Intercontinental Title Match: The Godfather(c) vs. Jeff Jarrett

(I keep forgetting Godfather had the IC Title. They worked for approximately 90 seconds.)

• Bradshaw vs. Ken Shamrock

(I feel like this was JO material for Bruce Pritchard. The match never even happened.)

• Shane McMahon vs. The Rock

(This would be Vince’s 2020 WM Main Event if he could get Rock to do it. This nonsense went 180 seconds)

April 27, 1999

Smackdown Network Special Debut

Commentary: Michael Cole and Jim Cornette

(Cornette was very firmly the B and C show Color guy by this point. That isn’t an opinion of mine, it was literally his position as a performer with the Company at this time.)

• The Blue Blazer vs. Val Venis

(oh god…)

• Test vs. The Big Show

(well flat by this point and Show, was the original advertised Main Event, squashed him handily)

• D-Lo Brown vs. Droz

(yep!)

• WWF World Tag Team Title Match: Kane & X-Pac (c) vs. NAO

(Ok, this is a legitimate attraction but they still only put in about 7 minutes of ring time. Also, it wasn’t particularly positioned as an important match until the night before on RAW)

• No Holds Barred Street Fight: Bradshaw vs. Ken Shamrock

(Shamrock was completely adrift on the program. They managed to put on a 4-minute marathon)

• Mankind vs. The Big Bossman

(Bossman… in 1999 was a thing. Another 90-second fiasco)

• Tag Team Match: Steve Austin & The Rock vs. The Undertaker & Triple H

(This wasn’t even the initially advertised Main Event on the promotions leading up to the show. It’s important to understand that, in context, HHH heel turn is still raw and isn’t going particularly well. In many ways, the previous Tag Title match was more significant to the promotion than this match on this night.)

I must say, despite my taste and contrary to what the presiding opinion of Vince Russo’s “Crash TV” style of presentation around this time, it’s important to understand that the WWF was running TV tapings for these weekly shows that had as many as 15 matches on top of whatever television segments that were necessary to facilitate some of the storylines. That’s a tough nut to crack man. I can understand why Russo and Ferrara wanted to bail on this situation.

So Smackdown basically had a WCW style “top babyface mishmash” vs. “top heel and a sidekick” as their best foot forward whereas Raw featured The Rock being turned on by the Corporation, Shane McMahon versus The Rock in the Main Event, and Stephanie McMahon (on a God-Damned Cross for Christ’s sake) being rescued from The Undertaker’s abduction by Steve Austin. Which show was the “B” show here?

I won’t bother going through a segment by segment break down of the 1st proper Smackdown because it’s not necessary to my point and because that show was very much just a single main attraction program. The very 1st Main Event on SD was HHH/Rock for the belt with Shawn Michaels as the Ref. To quote JR, “It don’t get no bigger than that.” While that is true, there wasn’t much of anything else on the show at all. Unless you count the 2-minute Title change when Bossman won the Hardcore title or Taker/Big Show defending the Tag Belts in their triple threat, 3-minute barn burner.

Now, You could argue that RAW the night before was somewhat of a one-match show as well, but I feel like there was JUST A LITTLE more going on Monday Night Raw. The Show opens with HHH, cutting a promo on JR, saying “bullshit” on live TV, breaking Jim Ross’ arm, and demanding a WWF Title match. Somehow, the segment is so hot, that Foley actually gets the crowd to cheer when he refuses to put the Title on the line. In the Main Event, Triple H gets the belt transitioned to him by Mankind for good and the rest is history. The Smackdown Title match was fun and a nice thing to have, but I would have a hard time concluding that Smackdown was always designed to be the 2nd “A” show even with a cameo by Shawn Michaels. Can I also say on another side note, that, when called upon to be the “driver” as a broadcaster in the opening segments of this Raw, Jerry Lawler was AWESOME!

In my opinion, Smackdown is the B show, it always has been, it was always designed to be as such, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. The Brand Split (and ideas like it) provide opportunities to feature talent that may not have been featured otherwise, but that doesn’t mean that being featured as the top guy on the CW network or MyTV is the same as being watched by 7 million people on Monday Night Raw during the Attitude era.

I wrote the other day about the 383 major metropolitan area in the United States. Some of those cities are considered “B Towns”. They have always been “B Towns” and they always will be. In 2016, the SD Live Main Events were usually for a secondary Title between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles. Sometimes, all you need to sell 5000 tickets in Mobile, Alabama is a top guy and a mid-card heel. To reference something else I brought up last time, people forget that Steve Austin was signed and brought in ON TOP in the WWF in 1996. That was because the houses and shows they were running were so small in 1996, that a WCW mid-card castoff like Austin could work on top if Shawn Michaels was the other name on the marquee that night.

This is why Undertaker was the top guy on Smackdown for such a long stretch. He played a key role in developing, featuring, and putting over heels that would have not been able to fit in with the other top guys on Monday Night Raw. Taker put over Angle, Lesnar, Batista, Edge, Big Show, and Mark Henry. If someone like Mark Henry was really ready and able to get over on Monday Night Raw, he would have already done it prior to his SD Main event runs with Angle and Taker. Some people need the opportunity to be a big fish in a smaller pond to be able to move on to being featured more prominently. This isn’t a bad thing and it always has been this way.

Prior to the creation of Thunder, Smackdown, and prior to the onset of Nitro as major competition, WCW was the B show. Austin, HHH, Mick Foley, Vader, Diesel, Razor, Brian Pillman, Faarooq, Lex Luger, Marc Mero, Goldust, Steven Regal, mother-fucking Undertaker, all came from WCW. The narrative has always been, “Eric Bischoff was a buffoon and didn’t know what to do with all these budding stars and let them go.” That isn’t true and isn’t a fair way to look at what was really happening in the industry at the time. It should also be noted that some of those talents put in their notice and voluntarily made the switch despite Eric Bischoff’s attempts to retain them. If you take a professional viewpoint, does it really make sense to continue trying to keep someone like Ron Simmons when they have put in their notice and already rejected your counteroffer? What exactly would you be keeping by then?

Bischoff was in the middle of rebranding the whole territory and re-evaluating/optimizing the entire roster to fit within the parameters of what that re-brand would look like. So yes, loose cannons like Vader, and bitter, injury prone mid-carders like Austin were out. People like Jim Cornette, Bruce Pritchard, and Pat Patterson have openly admitted WCW as a primary source for up and coming talent to be inserted into the WWF. The reality never was Main-Eventers jumping ship from one territory to another. WCW was the B show and it was best for everyone for Hogan to be the main guy on the B show than be the 3rd or 4th guy in the WWF. The same is true for Ric Flair.

In any case, WCW Nitro takes off and things get weird for a while. Once WCW closes, Smackdown, for all intents and purposes takes over the same role for the next 20 years. In today’s market, this whole idea that moving Roman Reigns or ending the Brand Split would somehow position Smackdown Live as on par with RAW is nothing more than a shell game. It’s not possible to deliver a big, monthly show that’s worth watching, a 3-hour weekly primetime show, and then another 2-hour weekly primetime show and have them all be equal. In my opinion, having a strict Brand Split might help make something like Smackdown more viable and worthwhile, but that is different than being the other “A” show.

With the move to FOX, there will be (and there already is) pressure to add more and more to feature Smackdown as a valuable TV property to them. That is all well and fine, but within a single promotion, there can be only one premier Television property. The answer isn’t to level the playing field between the 2 brands or TV properties. It never was the goal and it shouldn’t be the goal moving forward. The way to solve this dilemma is to have a product that is so good and attractive that even your secondary stuff is good enough for FOX, USA, or any other prospective TV deal. Good luck doing that without The Shield as a unit while you put Baron Corbin and Shane McMahon in all of the Main Events.