Who is Failing?
Man, Smackdown Live. I love Shinsuke Nakamura and will always appreciate what he brings to the ring each week. He is currently failing, even though I blame the writers and directors much more than the performer. When arrived, he was thrown in with Dolph Ziggler. A former World Champion, but Kevin Owens took on John Cena and Finn Balor became Universal Champion. Nakamura could be more marketable and successful than both men, if booked and written appropriately for. I wanted this to happen and wanted WWE to really understand that he is a rare breed. Unfortunately, that is not happening.
How can this easily be fixed? John Cena on the 4th of July. SummerSlam between the two would excite me and bring Nakamura to a level that we need him to operate at.
Where is Tye Dillinger at? A guy that has the crowd behind him each week is someone that has been in dark matches over the past month. Why? What in the world is WWE doing? Why Tye Dillinger is relegated to this role is beyond me. I feel crowd reaction, mic work and talent in the ring should be the top three criteria when getting time on Smackdown Live. Dillinger has all three.
Smackdown Live has been consistently better than WWE RAW. Here comes the heat from the IWC: As much as I enjoy the women on the show and them getting the most to work with, I do not want them to take up 40-45 minutes of a 2 hour show consistently. Every once in a while is fine with me, but when you do not have Nakamura, Ziggler, Styles and Owens in a ring for a segment, there is a problem.
Sometimes, booking them in one big segment is better than spreading them out over the course of two hours. There is just so much talent on the roster that needs to find new directions and new focus, but Smackdown only cares about the women’s storyline over the past month.