What’s the story?
It was announced today that Talking Smack, Smackdown Live’s post coverage show, has been cancelled. The show’s host, Renee Young, commented on the sudden announcement and also revealed another cancellation.
In case you didn’t know...
For almost a year now, Talking Smack has been the place for Smackdown Superstars to show off their mic skills. Between Renee Young and her two changing guest hosts, SD Live’s General Manager Daniel Bryan and its commissioner Shane McMahon, wrestlers have a chance to answer serious questions in a nonscripted fashion.
Some wrestlers have a hard time when delivering pre written promos to live audiences, and have been able to shine when put into the interview scenario that Talking Smack brings. People like Baron Corbin, Alexa Bliss, Jinder Mahal, to name a few, have been able to wow the WWE Universe after an appearance or two on the Blue Brand’s post show.
The heart of the matter
On July 14th, WWE announced that Talking Smack would end its run on Tuesday nights, and will be relegated to post Smackdown PPVs only. The WWE Universe has been extremely vocal about the sudden decision, with some people starting a petition with the hashtag #SaveTalkingSmack that has been trending almost since the announcement earlier today.
Fans of the show have been showing their disapproval of the move all day, and it seems #SaveTalkingSmack won’t be going away any time soon. What was more shocking, however, was how Renee Young found out about her show.
It seems the WWE failed to inform their long time host before the Twitter machine could get to her. After some time to adjust, Young would post tweet her response an hour later, clearly disappointed with how this experiment ended.
However, Talking Smack’s cancellation wasn’t the end of the bad news, as Renee would later, responding to a tweet, announced Unfiltered had been cancelled as well.
Not only has Talking Smack been cancelled, but Renee Young’s other interview show was also canned. Unfiltered was a more casual setting for guests to appear on. Renee would pry into the personal lives of the superstars as opposed to their current position in the business.
It made for some very interesting television. Clearly this is a heavy blow for Renee, and some have to wonder what the reasoning behind these moves are.
What’s next?
As Renee said, it seems her contribution to WWE will go back to backstage interviews for now, along with the pre-shows. Smackdown stars will now have to focus more on getting noticed on Smackdown Live as opposed to getting recognised for their ability to improvise on the spot in Talking Smack’s unique setting.
This also means we will see less of Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon, as their presence was felt more on the post show than Smackdown Live.
Author’s take
This is one of the most disappointing announcements WWE has made in a while. Talking Smack was a great place for talents who haven’t been noticed by fans to take the bull by the horns. The current WWE Champion Jinder Mahal had quite a few impressive segments on Talking Smack, and those appearances helped turn the former jobber into the Modern Day Maharaja.
The same can be said for someone like the Miz. He had been with the company for a little over ten years, but never quite had the reaction from fans that he needed. He only got the recognition he was looking for after his back and forths with SD Live GM Daniel Bryan.
Unfiltered, while not as well received as Talking Smack, was a great way to humanize the wrestlers that appeared. It's hard to see these cancellations happen, especially on the same day. Some would say that interviews haven't seemed as important over the years, with the idea that we haven't had the right person behind the mic to ask the questions we want to be answered.
Over the past few years, Renee Young has proved that she could fill that role, so to see her two shows get tossed to the kerb is quite disappointing.
