AJ Styles lifted the WWE Championship for the first time last night after he defeated Dean Ambrose in an incredible main event match at Backlash.
This was the first SmackDown exclusive event since the WWE Draft back in July and it seems the event managed to bring much more focus to the Blue brand after being in the shadows of Raw for so long.
AJ Styles made pro wrestling history with his win by becoming the first superstar to win the WWE, TNA, and IWGP World Championships as well as the fifth fastest WWE superstar to win a Championship after it took him just 231 days to reach the heights of the company.
The TNA legend’s fantastic night can only be mirrored by the kind of night that Dean Ambrose was having, with the former WWE Champion rumored to have had a lot of backstage heat heading into the event and was apparently forced to drop the title to Styles as a result.
SmackDown’s ratings over the past few weeks have been much lower that their main rivals on a Monday night and the company seems to think that this is a reflection of who they have as the Champion of the show.
Many accused Ambrose’s inability to lead the company whilst others determined that it was the fact that SmackDown didn’t fair as well as Raw in the draft, and now Stephanie McMahon’s show is set to unveil their Cruiserweight Division whilst SmackDown has nothing to combat this.
The biggest stars to join SmackDown included American Alpha who are currently written off TV because of a storyline injury and John Cena who is currently on hiatus following his loss to AJ Styles at SummerSlam.
The fact that these superstars are now missing TV can’t help the build up of SmackDown when the likes of Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Triple H and Roman Reigns are all over on the opposition’s roster.
The fact the Randy Orton failed to be cleared to compete last night and the only suitable replacement in the entire locker room was Kane tells the horrific story of what the SmackDown roster has actually become in the space of two months.
Many of the WWE Universe do blame Dean Ambrose for the decline in ratings and the fact that he has been ‘a boring champion’ but that is the WWE Creative Team’s fault for failing to pull the trigger on his title run until the last minute.
Ambrose was the last former member of The Shield to be given a World title run and he was forced to then head over the SmackDown alone without Reigns or Rollins there to offer him competition and a way to once again steal the show.
SmackDown is fully aware that it needs to make changes after many of the WWE Universe have condemned last night’s show and the fact that it seemed the booking was all over the place.
There are many former superstars being speculated for a return and hopefully they will be heading over to the SmackDown roster, either that or NXT will once again have to allow their talent to be taken away.
If Dean Ambrose was really the problem then SmackDown should see a surge in their ratings this week now that they have allowed a wrestling legend and veteran to sit on top of the WWE ladder. Whilst this is unlikely, there is also word that John Cena will appear on this week’s SmackDown in order to set up a future showdown between the two for the WWE Championship.
It was always going to be hard for SmackDown to compete with Raw, it had three draft picks to SmackDown’s two, it is on for three hours to SmackDown’s two and now it has some of the most talented and original superstars heading over to the roster to be a part of their Cruiserweight Division.
Ambrose seems to be being used as a scapegoat here for the rating’s problems when in actual fact WWE are the ones that have failed to allow both brands an equal chance to fight it out. Once again Stephanie has been given the advantage over Shane and now the entire SmackDown roster are suffering.
The booking was not all over the place last night. Wtf are you talking about? Smackdown have consistently been a better show than Raw for weeks. Also Ambrose never had any reason to be as chatoic as he was when he was chasing the title because he on the show with two babyface GMs , also the build for Dolph and Dean was fantastic . This article is bullshit to me
Amen! Booking wise Smackdown has been destroying Raw every week (with the exception of Owens winning the Universal title). Less is better in this case as more guys get better programs on SD compared to Raw (Also cause less people on creative end as well)
I agree that Kane being the only choice is sad and that it was always gonna be hard for them to compete, but the rest of the article is questionable to say the least. SD’s booking is getting better every week and anyone that tries to deny that is clearly not watching the show. And like you said, Dean being chaotic even though Shane and Daniel were very behind him is ridiculous.
Like Ernest Cage said: booking was not all over the place last night. It was a lot less predictable than I was expecting it to be. That being said, there are a lot of agreeable points to this article. Kane being the only suitable replacement is extremely scary and it’ll only get worse if the returns fail to live up to the hype. As far as the ratings argument goes, SD is still being seen as the second rate show even though it’s been getting a lot better since the draft. I think Ambrose’s biggest problem is that he took the title from a returning and just as popular as ever Seth Rollins and the fans started turning on him. It was especially obvious last night as the guy was getting booed more then AJ. Maybe the problems were a result of Dean getting boring, maybe it was Creative’s fault for not booking him more like a proper champion, maybe it was all of them. The only way to find out is to wait until the ratings for tomorrow’s show are out.
SmackDown Live was given the short end of the stick. The tops guys on Smackdown are John Cena, Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, A.J Styles, Kane, Dolph Ziggler, and Miz. SmackDown Live lacks the talent in which to create interest. Only Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, and American Alpha make-up SmackDown Live’s young building blocks. There’s not much creative can do with Cena, Orton, Ziggler, and Miz given they’ve been around awhile and fans have seen them in most situations.
Smackdown has been the better show since the draft. Also, Talking Smack is my new favorite show on the Network. Backlash was the best PPV of the year so far.