SmackDown Live Live SmackDown Discussion thread, August 11th 2023: Austin Theory defends the US Championship

[Samoa Looch]

Unless they’re using this to turn Santos heel. But the LwO is over so why split them.

 

[Samoa Looch]

the reverse hogan

"That works for me, brother"

 

[BSE]

So I’m summation, I think Uncle Dave was full of shit

Wouldn't be the first time or the last lol

 

[ETE]

Nice to see they've finally taken the US Title off of Theory who just does not have 'IT' and still cant get over even as a cocky heel Champion.

Should have put the Title on Knight though, but I think we all know they wont really get behind LA Knight no matter what, he's not one of 'their' guys so WWE wont push him.

 

[BSE]

but I think we all know they wont really get behind LA Knight no matter what, he's not one of 'their' guys so WWE wont push him.

What does this mean

 

[ETE]

What does this mean

That for the last 2 decades in WWE when someone gets organically over they tend not to get pushed, rather almost punished for getting over without permission. WWE picks who they want to be over with the fans and pushes them accordingly.

 

[bradatar]

LA knight has to get passed the Miz test and if he passes he's skipping the US and moving to the main title scene.

 

[bradatar]

They're definitely pushing him and this old "not a WWE guy" thing is so played out

 

[bradatar]

I love LA Knight right now but let's see if he can pass the Miz test and stay as over as he is with more in ring time. He's barely been in matches on the main roster. I think he'll be fine and there's a chance he's involved in the RAW title scene by the Rumble.

 

[Dale]

The guy not only survived but came out better than he went in to the feud with Bray Wyatt, any other test is light work for him.

 

[Deezy]

That whole "not a WWE guy" stigma is silly......no the people in charge didn't like using guys who didn't work their style and had bad in ring habits they don't like.

Use common sense, "we only hired so and so and don't want them getting over".......like wtf?!?!?!

Rasslin fans make themselves look so goofy sometimes.

"what about Ryder?" He sucked ass and Zack Ryder was a silly comedic character and good luck making that a top guy who should beat Undertaker or whatever, he isn't as derpy now on the indie scene and look what happened.

 

[Cwalker]

Like Dale said, he’s the only guy to come out better after working with Bray Wyatt. He’s getting pushed. Wrestling fans are just impatient and want instant gratification.

 

[Chris]

Friday's episode of WWE SmackDown averaged 2.097 million viewers on Fox, down 6.7 percent from the previous week. It's the lowest viewership total for the show since May 5.

SmackDown was preempted in several markets due to local Fox stations carrying NFL preseason football. In those markets, the show either aired on tape delay or on an alternate station.

The show drew a 0.55 rating in the 18-49 demo, down 11.3 percent from last week. It topped all network television, more than doubling the closest competition, but it was the lowest rating for a Fox broadcast of the show since May 26.

As compared to the same week in 2022, SmackDown was up 8.8 percent in overall viewers and up 25 percent in the 18-49 demo. The show had similar NFL preemptions at this point last year, so the week-to-week drops were expected and the year-over-year gains are similar to what the show has been doing of late.

Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership and 18-49 demo ratings for Fox airings of SmackDown, along with the 10-week averages in both categories. This week's show was down 11.6 percent in overall viewers and down 14.1 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/wwe-smackdown-ratings-down-with-nfl-preemptions

 

[ETE]

That whole "not a WWE guy" stigma is silly......no the people in charge didn't like using guys who didn't work their style and had bad in ring habits they don't like.

Use common sense, "we only hired so and so and don't want them getting over".......like wtf?!?!?!

Rasslin fans make themselves look so goofy sometimes.

"what about Ryder?" He sucked ass and Zack Ryder was a silly comedic character and good luck making that a top guy who should beat Undertaker or whatever, he isn't as derpy now on the indie scene and look what happened.

When I say not a WWE guy I dont mean WWE style or WWE original I mean a hand picked WWE guy. Rollins is a WWE guy for example because he was hand picked to be successful. LA Knight isn't because he was meant to be a go nowhere time filler feud for Bray but got over and lets be honest here despite being the most over guy in WWE right now they've done nothing with him. Squashing irrelevant jobbers like Hit Row and Miz doesn't mean anything.

WWE has a long history of refusing to get behind the vast majority of people who have gotten organically over in the last 2 decades in favour of just pushing the status quo.

And its not just Ryder. But Rusev, Sandow, Barrett, Ziggler just to name a few. They dragged their feet in getting behind Bryan and Becky. Sami Zayns overness went nowhere.

I dont get how people can watch WWE, see the likes of Reigns, Rollins, Charlotte, McIntyre, etc who are clearly picked for success from day one and pushed accordingly and pretend that WWE doesn't play favourites. Even now we've got the likes of Austin Theory who are featured prominently and pushed hard despite struggling to garner any kind of reaction from the audience while with LA Knight we constantly have HHH saying "Knights time will come" as he loses every big opportunity

 

[Cwalker]

McIntyre was picked for success? You mean the guy that was in an air guitar rock band, and got fired?