Of late, it seems like SmackDown Live is following the footsteps of Monday Night RAW during the Attitude Era. A quick look at the recent SmackDown Live bookings would suggest the same. A post on Reddit.com recently also spoke of the similarities in the show’s bookings.
If you look at the trend, there is a Championship match every 2-3 weeks, the recent one being the WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and James Ellsworth on Tuesday on SmackDown Live. This is very much like the good old Attitude Era days, where Monday Night RAW always hosted Championship matches once every 2-3 weeks.
It can also observed that mid carders are getting bumped into the Championship matches. Consider Daniel Bryan’s announcement to include Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler in a match against AJ Styles next week.
The matches were booked short so as to cater to the attention span of the WWE Universe except for the main event that lasts for around 10-15 minutes. Also, the short matches often end with screwy finishes in the form of external interferences. Have a look at the main event of SD Live:
Two more parallels were drawn between today’s version of SmackDown Live and the erstwhile Monday Night RAW. A random Superstar striking a conversation with a diva backstage and some chemistry between the two is one thing that could be observed.
Take the backstage segment between James Ellsworth and Carmella yesterday after being beaten down by AJ Styles:
A random match every week, where two low-tier guys compete, and the result doesn’t have any impact on the proceedings of the business or existing storylines. But as long as the WWE Universe is happy, all of this doesn’t really matter.
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