[slik]

Good article from Forbes, I agree

https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakeoe.../#2b2740cf67b3 WWE SmackDown has stuck with the same format since last last year's Superstar Shakeup: Too much Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon, an overexposed duo of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and poor use of top stars like Shinsuke Nakamura. The predictable presentation of the blue brand is far from tried and true. It's more like boring and redundant, and it's alienating fans at a rapid pace. Viewership for SmackDown has dropped for all seven episodes in 2018, dipping to 2.449 million viewers last week after averaging 2.72 million viewers on January 2nd. The February 13th episode marked the blue brand's lowest average viewership since October 2017 and further demonstrated why the current structure of SmackDown isn't working for WWE, its superstars or its fans. Perhaps the biggest issue with SmackDown is its over-reliance on the "SmackDown Four" of Owens, Zayn, Bryan and Shane, who often open and close the show in some way, shape or form. It's not uncommon for a typical episode of SmackDown to begin with some combination of those four stars in a promo segment that ultimately leads to that episode's main event but takes far too much time to get there. While Owens and Zayn are great talents who deserve to be featured prominently, WWE has gone way past overexposure with these two into full-blown and unnecessary overuse. Ditto for Bryan and Shane, who have taken up so much TV time that AJ Styles, Nakamura and Rusev were inexplicably left off last week's episode (and the latter two were left off again this week), which is becoming increasingly more commonplace. After all, it wouldn't be an episode of SmackDown if the blue brand didn't leave off a number of top stars, like Bobby Roode, Randy Orton, Baron Corbin or the Bludgeon Brothers, right? The lack of TV time for SmackDown's rising stars, including everyone from Rusev to Nakamura to Corbin, is ultimately a microcosm of the show's biggest problem: Dependence on stars who have already been established. But don't expect that to change anytime soon as WWE will soon be switching to dual-brand PPVs, which will ultimately result in even less TV and pay-per-view time for any star who isn't an upper midcarder or main eventer. Ideally, the opposite would be true, and the return to dual-brand PPVs would force WWE to use its TV time more wisely and do so by featuring its midcard, lower card and female superstars more prominently on a weekly basis. What we've really seen, however, is that WWE seems unwilling to build up legitimate singles rivalries, instead thrusting as many people as possible into a feud, reportedly in order to "keep fans guessing" about what will happen next. But most fans, especially diehard ones, know what's coming and can see through all the smoke and mirrors in order to realize that SmackDown, in particular, has been virtually incapable of creating riveting rivalries. It's almost become expected for SmackDown to throw all of its female superstars into six-woman tag team matches every week, just like it's a safe bet that at least two or three major superstars will be left off the show each week without any rhyme or reason. That, of course, could explain why viewership has plummeted literally every single week this year and/or why the WWE Network subscriber count has completely plateaued, with little signs of that changing, except at WrestleMania time. Not only does SmackDown desperately need another Superstar Shakeup that reestablishes a balance of power between the brands, but it needs a complete overhaul of the way its show is formatted and its superstars are booked. It starts with decreasing the amount of TV time allocated for the "SmackDown Four" and giving more of that time to midcarders, tag teams and female superstars, but there is a multitude of other changes that could be made: Fewer drawn-out promos, more singles rivalries, pushing superstars who get over and sell merchandise (think Rusev), etc. It's not rocket science here. It's simply doing what is best for the brand, and that's moving on from a show dominated by four stars who clearly aren't attracting enough fans. After all, if that's not working, why not try to fix it?