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SmackDown Live will always be seen as WWE's B-Show, whether this is because the show only runs for two hours and lacks some of the company's biggest stars still remains to be seen, but WWE has never really tried to push their Blue Brand into the spotlight.
Eric Bischoff is yet to take the reins on SmackDown Live, but it's hoped that when he does the company will be able to push the brand back into the spotlight that it possessed when Shane McMahon first took over as Commissioner and SmackDown became "The Land of Opportunity."
SmackDown was much better this week than it has been in a long time but there were still a number of mistakes that the company made once again when it comes to storyline continuation.
#5. Why did Dolph Ziggler save Kevin Owens?
The Kevin Owens show kicked off SmackDown Live and it was made clear throughout that Kevin Owens didn't give a damn about the fact that Shane McMahon's match at Extreme Rules was now No Holds Barred. This led to issues between Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens after the two men stepped up to one another when Owens questioned how it felt for Shane McMahon to lose to The Undertaker at WrestleMania a few years ago.
Despite their recent issues surrounding the WWE Championship, Dolph Ziggler then came out and saved Owens and the duo was made into a tag team even though both wanted to be part of the WWE Championship picture. It was an odd thing for them to accept since they aren't friends and there was no reason for Ziggler to be out at that point.
#4. No continuation from Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose
It made sense for Mandy Rose to take on Ember Moon this week since she was the reason that Sonya Deville was able to defeat The War Goddess last week as part of the show. There was then a hint that WWE could be turning this storyline into a lesbian angle between Deville and Rose, but this week on SmackDown there was no continuation.
Deville didn't return the favor or even try to help Rose win the match since she went on to lose after an Eclipse and the two women then left the ring together in their usual way, which means that the company has either scrapped the storyline all together or they are delaying it until Eric Bischoff takes over and is able to point the two women in the right direction.
#3. Why was the match restarted?
The main event match between Heavy Machinery, Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler was a strange match, to begin with since it was obvious that Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler were not going to co-exist throughout. Heavy Machinery were defeated back at Stomping Grounds, which means that they should be at the back of the queue rather than being pushed back into the title picture.
One of the strangest parts of the match came following the ad break where the decision was made to restart the match after The New Day, Erick Rowan and Daniel Bryan brawled on the outside. None of the men got involved in the match and were then ejected from ringside without causing an issue in the match so it appears that this was another way for WWE to prevent wrestling happening in an ad break.
#2. Is swearing acceptable or not?
In the PG era, swearing wasn't allowed on WWE TV so the company would bleep it out since the show was aimed at a much younger demographic. Over the past few years, the company has slowly started to allow more swearing as part of their show since Stephanie McMahon famously swore live on Raw a few years ago and it wasn't bleeped out.
This week on Raw, Corey Graves swore as a reaction to the carnage that Braun Strowman left behind when he went through the stage with Bobby Lashley and WWE made no attempt to mute him. The word b*tch has been used on WWE TV a number of times in recent weeks as well which showed that the company was becoming much more lenient. Despite this, when Kofi Kingston gave Samoa Joe the middle finger on SmackDown Live, WWE was cut off the air since this was seen as unacceptable.
#1. Just four SmackDown Live women were on the show this week
The women of SmackDown Live are rarely allowed to take advantage of the Wild Card Rule and make their way over to Raw, but it appears that Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross have become main staples on SmackDown over the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, the likes of Lana, Mickie James, Charlotte, Asuka, Kairi Sane, The IIconics, Liv Morgan and Carmella have all been overlooked in favor of pushing the Raw team into their own place on SmackDown Live.
Whilst there is an interesting storyline between Bliss and Cross going on at present, it shouldn't be filtering through on both shows because it's taking the spotlight from the SmackDown Live women as part of their own show. Hopefully, Extreme Rules will be the end of Bayley vs Alexa Bliss so that the two women can return to Monday Night Raw exclusively.
