WWE 2011: Brand Split v. 2.0 - Smackdown 8/19!

WWE SummerSlam: Sunday 15th August 2011...Daniel Bryan and Wade Barrett would have been a pretty fair opening contest; I honestly don't see much chemistry between the two if I'm honest though. Bryan needed the win in his first feud since winning Money in the Bank. Beth Phoenix winning the WWE Divas Championship was a good move; will be interesting to see if they actually take the title from Kelly Kelly next Sunday. R-Truth beating John Morrison was acceptable, but I am bored of their feud. I hope they end it at Hell in a Cell (avoid using that match for this, though), and Morrison definitely needs the win; it's been all R-Truth since the beginning. Not fond at all of Alex Riley winning the WWE United States Championship. It's too soon for him, and Dolph Ziggler needed a longer title reign. If Riley keeps the title, let Ziggler zoom up the card, by all means. Riley's finisher is the Implant DDT, by the way. Sheamus and Mark Henry going to a no contest...I guess Sheamus AND Big Show are gonna be rivals of Mark then. Would rather Sheamus intervene with the World Heavyweight Championship picture honestly. Christian retaining the World Heavyweight Championship was good in No Holds Barred...but how would he beat Randy Orton on the announce table? You realize that with No Holds Barred, the only way to win is being in the ring and getting the fall. CM Punk beating John Cena is another thing I'm mixed on. Punk has basically bettered Cena in the past Summer, and now Cena has lost TWICE to Punk...Cena needs to look strong, should have had a win here. That way, he would look somewhat still credible to The Rock this coming WrestleMania season. Also not sure why Triple H would get involved. All in a all, a mixed bag show booking wise. Had the show been in greater detail, it could have caught my eye a little more.

Releases: Good move to let go of Conor O'Brien and Tyler Reks. Lucky Cannon should have been something more. Brodus Clay also had potential, he only resurfaced on WWE Superstars last Thursday. Not sure why Goldust has been released; he was doing a good job training the divas properly. Hornswoggle, while he has nothing much to do anymore, I doubt WWE would let go of him now. The Great Khali getting released was a baffling move; he was a part of a storyline with Jinder Mahal, and they had potential. Let's see who's next to go.

WWE RAW: Monday 15th August 2011...I think you need the newer RAW logo to header this. That and the logo's massive, too big. Not fond of the noted writing style, either. It makes things look slightly messy. I don't think that Triple H would reveal the pay-per-views in the next twelve months on RAW, it's not quite something they'd do. They'd either officially reveal the name of the next pay-per-view after the previous pay-per-view casually, or just simply let it be known via dirtsheet/WWE.com calendar. I wouldn't count Survivor Series as a Big pay-per-view either, anymore. Unforgiven? RAW exclusive? Oh God. I'm preparing for a weak pay-per-view. It just strikes me as though you're trying to live the younger days of the brand split, which isn't good in terms of expanding the product. The reason the brand exclusive PPVs ended was because they weren't bringing in good buyrates, and at this stage, a brand exclusive show with not a whole lot of star power will get low buys. A slight brand tweaking could be good, as long as it's only minor and doesn't change the main event scene on RAW and SmackDown a lot. Edge returning as RAW General Manager could be good, a lot less of Triple H on-screen so soon is a disappointment, too. Alex Riley and Dolph Ziggler was a good way to start off the show, a rematch for the WWE United States Championship. Vickie Guerrero costing Ziggler the match? I hope we see a Ziggler face turn/split away from Vickie coming up. She's ruining his potential of getting his own heat, and I'm bored of that power couple stereotype. I could imagine Ziggler and Riley facing off at Unforgiven. Good, finally ending NXT Redemption. Gonna be intrigued by who is coming in for Season 6. Ugh, a third CM Punk and John Cena match at Unforgiven, or a rematch from three of 2010's pay-per-views and Capitol Punishment. I'd rather we got a triple threat match at Unforgiven, it'd mix things up in a good way. There hasn't been a multi-man WWE Championship match in so long. Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger had a decent match I suppose, Swagger winning was for the better, hopefully it's not too late for you to minorly push him. Kofi however, I couldn't care less for him. Strange position for CM Punk to be on the show. I'd rather it was after the third match, but I suppose this is cool. Punk and R-Truth's confrontation was amusing; you can't catch Punk's dialogue that well. I'd rather you just described what they were saying to each other than having quotes. Not sure about Punk facing Truth, as Punk's still sort've playing a heel role whilst so is R-Truth. And heel vs heel matches never work. Expected the WWE Champion to win. R-Truth to SmackDown is great; there he could actually make for a credible World Heavyweight Champion. Alberto Del Rio and Curt Hawkins? Why? They're both heel, Hawkins has a good cocky gimmick working for him, this made no sense. There are plenty of other guys on the RAW roster that would have benefitted from not being on Superstars, but rather RAW, and still lost. Hawkins is not one of those guys; he should be brought up good. I suppose it's too late to say that now. Also, Del Rio is Mr Money in the Bank, yet he is in a squash match? I hope you have a plan for him going into Unforgiven. Three weeks to build, could be a tight squeeze. John Cena and Rey Mysterio had a fantastic main event a few weeks back; good match, Cena winning was pretty obvious, really. Wade Barrett back from a ten month serve on SmackDown? He's not going to get far on his own on RAW, I'll say that now. A feud with Rey Mysterio could be good, hope there's some reason to why Barrett attacked Rey though. Overall, a weak fallout show. It had all of the generic stylings of a fallout from a pay-per-view, but there are so many booking faults you need to work on. And layout, as well as writing style. Lacked a lot of star power and roster names (Evan Bourne, the divas, etc). I'd also put in a few more backstage segments. This has got potential, but it's looking really bland at the moment.

WWE NXT Redemption: Tuesday 16th August 2011...I don't know what possessed you to have the orange background. It looks atrocious if anything. RAW was in black; what happened to that? I'd rather you only use color on the match headers, too. More layout styles to work on. Titus O'Neill losing to Darren Young was an odd way to kick off the show. Would have rather had Matt Striker discuss the season finalé to kick off the show, as it seems like a principal that the Host and Hostess of NXT kick off the show. Striker's announcements for NXT Season 6 was nice, I like your original ideas, but I feel you need the Pros, really. If the Rookie can't talk at all on the mic, he needs backup. Also makes for a lot more variety in matches, too. Matt Striker in action after that announcement was a confusing move. NXT 6 is only lasting two months? Such a strange move, after this season has had about 20-25; more than any previous season. Wish we had more backstory to this, like Derrick Bateman interrupting Striker's speech would have been fantastic. Bateman beating Striker was a wise move, you're doing a good job in somewhat creating tension between previous associates, Bateman and Young. Season 6 is looking fair. I noticed you have Seth Rollins (Tyler Black), Richie Steamboat (Ricky's son), Xavier Woods (Consequences Creed) and Peter Orlov (Alex Koslov) in the next season, which makes it the most independent-crazed season yet. Not sure if I'm a fan of that; would have put in a few FCW produced names really, like Bo Rotundo (who seems like he's going to be on WWE television soon anyway) and Aaron Stevens (the guy who has been in WWE's developmental on and off for ten years). These Rookies will not get enough character in the space of six-eight weeks of NXT Season 6 though; there's a reason why NXT is several months long, to progress Rookie characters. If they're out week after week after week with barely any character or personality, nobody's going to care. Titus O'Neill winning NXT Season 6 is my great guess, not sure why he won though, he lost to Darren Young earlier tonight. Also, with Hornswoggle previously released, I'd think he should have been employed to see his Rookie win, and then leave. With Young and O'Neill without Rookies in the past month or two, it's made the Pro concept look pointless. NXT Season 6 starting off tonight is a bit rushed. I'd have waited for next week, where you could get more views for the premiere, as opposed to the views this show will get, alone for the Redemption finalé. Ambrose winning was a smooth move, glad that he defeated Titus O'Neill, could set up some good for Season 6 and sets the stage. Again, not a bad show by any means, just a lot of booking flaws. Should have waited for the battle royal to go on next week. Also lack of Tyson Kidd, Yoshi Tatsu and JTG makes this seem pretty out of the ordinary. A lot to work on. Also, more backstage stuff could have involved the previously mentioned uninvolved Pros on the show.

WWE Superstars: Thursday 18th August 2011...Johnny Curtis with a win is a solid way to kick off SmackDown's portion of the show, he should have faced another SmackDown superstar though. A squash match to start the show would indeed be a weak move. Liked his aftermath promo, though. Jinder Mahal and Yoshi Tatsu have had more matches this Spring than I can count. Mahal with a win was best, he has a future in the company. Drew McIntyre and Evan Bourne on Superstars is a fair main event. Bourne winning was the right decision. Overall, this was the best show of the week so far. Should have fit in another match though, and once again, you're lacking divas on television, which is a terrible move since you just crowned a new WWE Divas Champion; Zack Ryder, as well as the WWE Tag Team Champions, Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga are also missing in action. Work on the layout.

WWE News: I hope you don't use former independent talent for all enhancement talents you use on WWE television; just use locals, or FCW workers. Nice to see Chuck Taylor with a chance though. Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero being confirmed is good. Not a fan of Night of Champions being dumped. Do not dump Tables, Ladders and Chairs and Elimination Chamber. Chamber if anything, is the sixth 'Big Five' pay-per-view you have. It should remain joint-branded. If Hell in a Cell was still around (which I wish it was), you should have carried Randy Orton and Christian into it for one last match. CM Punk and John Cena doesn't fit the HIAC stipulation at all. You'd only need one Hell in a Cell match to promote; that one match alone would sell the pay-per-view. Good to see Jack Swagger, Jinder Mahal and Justin Gabriel perhaps getting pushes, wish Heath Slater would too, though. Mason Ryan? Dump him. Kofi Kingston to SmackDown is for greater good, the dude isn't good for RAW anymore. Theodore Long made a weak draft choice, there. Kofi and Christian would be a dire feud to carry the SmackDown brand though. No matches announced for SmackDown? What. SmackDown is taped with NXT and their Superstars portion...that doesn't add up at all.


Has potential, needs a VAST improvement.

This is good. I was actually just talking to my roommate about how I hate that the brand split doesn't mean anything anymore. I love Edge being the Raw GM and I like the setup of the show. I also would have liked to see Orton vs. Christian in a Hell in a Cell to finish their rivalry. Really the only other thing I didn't like was the Uso going over Sheamus, hopefully the tag division gets a little rebirth.

The blue is used too much. Makes my eyes ache. I don't understand the reason behind swapping championships really, Riley was doing fine on RAW, and Ezekiel is nowhere near ready to be there. Miz on SmackDown! I really don't like, because there is more than enough top heels with Henry and Christian. As well, 'Thunderous roar' for The Miz sounds so wrong. The brackets all look really predictable, apart from Orton vs Henry. Which is never good. The Miz shouldn't be a face at all, let alone on Smackdown, such a bad move. The promo from Miz was about the only good bit of this show so far. Not really enthralling backstage segments, Mahal is quite boring so far, give him some character, and Phoenix wouldn't really act like that, she never did before. Seems too out of character. I like Barretta getting a chance to shine, though losing out to Cody was the only way it should've ever gone, so thats good. As well, it just seems like Cody has no direction now, he had a feud with Ezekiel who I presume is on RAW now, so thats done. As well, where is Ted DiBiase? He's always with Cody. I like that Regal came out to try and beat Mahal, but he seems settled in the role he has on NXT in all honesty, so I doubt it'd pan out like that in reality. i get you may be trying to change things up, but it feels like too much too soon. I do like that your acknowledging the problem with the Tag division, 'bringing the fight' is very Nexus-like, and matches the two's personality's that were developed in that group. Jey Uso over Sheamus, I wish you hadn't done that really for Jey Uso, someone else yes, but Jey isn't going to benefit from it stuck in a tag team. It put over Henry more than him, which I suppose was the point, so well done there. Don't know what you intend on doing with Christian, a world champion with no direction making promo's like that? Eh, I don't like it. Henry being Brogue Kick'd and RKO'd before losing keeps him strong, and helps Orton get through against a credible opponent in an entertaining main event. Good end to what wwas a pretty poor show. You've tried to change too much too quickly, and it just feels so forced, almost not like the actual real life product is, and you always need to retain that even if you're changing the product around. Stick with it!