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Lambert: A Look At SmackDown’s Downfall in 2017

July 26, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Lambert
Randy Orton SD Image Credit: WWE

Remember when SmackDown was seen as the “A show” amongst most fans? AJ Styles was putting together a…phenomenal…title reign. The Miz brought relevance back to the Intercontinental title. Alexa Bliss transformed into best female performer on the roster. Randy Orton was motivated and feeling fresh alongside Bray Wyatt.

SmackDown was so good at the end of 2016 and the start of 2017. What happened to that SmackDown? Where did all go wrong?

AJ Styles loses to John Cena: John Cena winning his 16th world title without much celebration or fanfare was the start of the downturn. But it wasn’t exactly a killer. The two had another great match, Styles remained in the title picture, and Cena turned out to be nothing more than a transitional champion. Styles losing to Cena wasn’t the problem in this scenario. Cena losing a month later was the real issue.

Bray Wyatt wins Elimination Chamber: Bray was met with a “you deserve it” chant following his WWE World title victory. Fans, for some reason, were still invested in Wyatt despite his purposeless riddles and empty promises. Part of that can be attributed to Randy Orton. Orton joining the Wyatt family, and the ensuing tension with Luke Harper, was a fresh twist. Aside from the two week run with Daniel Bryan, the Wyatt family had never brought in an outsider. Orton was the perfect outsider. He was someone who needed a fresh start following the destruction at the hands of Brock Lesnar.

There was nothing wrong with Bray winning the title. At some point, he needed to win a big match. As a cult leader who gets others to drink his Kool-Aid with words, having the belt should have made him that much more powerful. Instead, he projected bugs on the mat.

Wyatt winning the belt was fine. That WrestleMania match on the other.

Randy Orton’s Title Reign and Pursuit: This is where the real issues start. Randy Orton not only won the title in one of the worst WrestleMania title matches in history, but the follow-up was less than ideal. Another match with Wyatt, this time in a House of Horror match, followed by a feud with Jinder Mahal. You can argue that Orton’s title reign was too short to do any meaningful damage the same way you can argue that Jinder’s title reign is a big problem as well. But there are two constants in both scenarios: Randy Orton.

If you want to blame an unmotivated and poorly contented Randy Orton for the downfall of SmackDown. You’ll get no argument from me.

The Superstar Shake Up: In theory, the Superstar Shake Up was good. Guys needed to switch brands and freshen up feuds. But SmackDown lost to of their all-stars (Miz and Alexa Bliss) and the replacements haven’t been up to par. Kevin Owens has been fine, but he hasn’t elevated the material he’s been given the way Miz did. He just had an average pay-per-view match with AJ Styles. I didn’t know that was possible. And then there’s Charlotte, who is just another woman on the roster thanks to an endless amount of multi-woman matches. Bliss stood out with her mic work. Charlotte isn’t on Alexa’s level on the mic, but her ringwork is better. However, she’s been shackled by an ill-advised face turn and multi-women matches where she spends five minutes on the outside selling a dropkick.

Shinsuke Nakamura’s Debut Nakamura was supposed to inject new life into SmackDown, but entrance aside, his work isn’t connecting. I still maintain that a debut feud with “angry veteran” Dolph Ziggler doing bad comedy killed him upon arrival. The teased feud with Miz made sense and would have been great, but no one cared about Ziggler. Everything since has just been…there. Nakamura hasn’t worked a WWE match at full pace yet, and probably won’t until he’s wrestling John Cena or AJ Styles, and he loses that “special attraction” feel when he’s on television every week. Ok, he’s a rockstar and an artist. Even they go on hiatus.

John Cena’s Return: I love John Cena. He’s one of the best of all-time and you’re wrong if you say otherwise. But “American Hero” John Cena is the absolute worst. Has he kept up with the news? America kinda sucks right now. And “American Hero” vs. “Evil Foreigner” stopped being a worthwhile feud in 1991 when they downgraded the WrestleMania venue. It’s impact is lessened even more when you try it twice on the same show.

The SmackDown roster is just as talented as Raw, but they’ve lost their way throughout 2017.

You know things are bad when the best thing every week are two-minute skits involving a tag team that has wrestled for about 15-minutes total on pay-per-view this year.

I’m on Twitter @jeremylambert88

article topics :

John Cena, Smackdown, WWE, Jeremy Lambert