The Smackers Thread

[burchybabi]

She put a message on social media with ‘Goodbye for now. This is my farewell address’ so don’t know whether it will play into the storyline somehow or maybe they took the belt off her if she needed time off.

[Arch Stanton]

Damn, I hadn't seen that. It's possible she's taking time away because she's pregnant. I know from things that Matt Cardona had said on his podcasts that that's something they both saw in their future.

[RedTwoster]

That was genuinely one of the most boring episodes of WWE television I’ve seen in some time. The Road Dogg-led era of Smackdown has been absolutely brutal. 

[FLips]

6 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

That was genuinely one of the most boring episodes of WWE television I’ve seen in some time. The Road Dogg-led era of Smackdown has been absolutely brutal. 

Yeah I struggled with it too. The crowd sounded like early 2000s Sky One era piped in too, really distracting.

[Supremo]

This is all I could think about watching Smackdown.

Six to eight hour days! Bah God! BREAKING NEWS. Brave man completes a normal shift. Hero successfully works a full working week.

Presuming he leaked this himself to put over how hard he works for the WWE Universe, unlike Dwayne, it ended up being the ultimate self own.

Hunter, Road Dogg and Lee Fitting pulling a night shift. Working tirelessly on the Smackdown script, through the night until the early morning. Smashing in coffees until the sun rises. Birds chirping outside as the finishes touches are complete.

And what do they have to show for it? Another show filled with impromptu matches and run-in DQ finishes. Art doesn’t sleep.

[RedTwoster]

11 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Presuming he leaked this himself to put over how hard he works for the WWE Universe, unlike Dwayne, it ended up being the ultimate self own.

Hunter, Road Dogg and Lee Fitting pulling a night shift. Working tirelessly on the Smackdown script, through the night until the early morning. Smashing in coffees until the sun rises. Birds chirping outside as the finishes touches are complete.

To be fair, I can absolutely buy this being true. Smackdown certainly has a sense about it right now that suggests it’s being written by a sleep-deprived brain. 

[Vamp]

5 hours ago, Supremo said:

This is all I could think about watching Smackdown.

Six to eight hour days! Bah God! BREAKING NEWS. Brave man completes a normal shift. Hero successfully works a full working week.

 

Fuck me, I wouldn't want to work for you if you call 7 days a week a full working week. I'll stick with my 5. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

5 hours ago, Supremo said:

This is all I could think about watching Smackdown.

Six to eight hour days! Bah God! BREAKING NEWS. Brave man completes a normal shift. Hero successfully works a full working week.

Presuming he leaked this himself to put over how hard he works for the WWE Universe, unlike Dwayne, it ended up being the ultimate self own.

Hunter, Road Dogg and Lee Fitting pulling a night shift. Working tirelessly on the Smackdown script, through the night until the early morning. Smashing in coffees until the sun rises. Birds chirping outside as the finishes touches are complete.

And what do they have to show for it? Another show filled with impromptu matches and run-in DQ finishes. Art doesn’t sleep.

Unless he is chewing coffee beans, walking into a meeting while shaving and messaging writers at all hours of the day and night like his predecessor is he even really trying?

[Supremo]

Forget John Cena counting down the dates to his retirement. This is me counting down the days until Smackdown goes back to two hours. It’s been dreadful ever since they made the switch. Sooner it goes back, the better.

Like an exhausting exercise in just filling time. It’s reached such a point of parody that I genuinely think this one episode of Smackdown featured more impromptu matches than AEW has done in their entire five year existence. Practically every fucking match had the same formula. Promo interrupted. Match announced for later in the night. Rinse and repeat.

Considering Road Dogg was begging Tony Khan for a job a few short years back, I refuse to believe he ever actually watched the product. If he had, his stupid, empty head would have exploded to see a pro-wrestling TV show exist without this tired, rubbish trope.

♬ Oh you didn’t know (that you could announce a full card ahead of time)? Your ass better callllllsomebody!” ♬

Most noteworthy thing on this show was Aleister Black’s gear. What the fuck are these shorts? When you’ve got to wrestle on Netflix at 7, but have a five-a-side kick about booked for 9.

Absolute scruff.

When he was in AEW, sulking his way through the second half of the lucrative contract he’d been unfairly forced to adhere to, I could at least understand why he was getting his gear from Sports Direct. The Muay Thai version of not wearing your wrist tape, innit? But this is what he’s wanted for the last two years. Finally back, “home.” Surely you’d put a bit of fucking effort in again.

Maybe I’m the problem for not understanding THE LORE. It does make sense, if you think about it. Acting like an attention-seeking teenager, crying and moaning online, it is fitting that he gets his gear from the PE Lost Property.

I went back and checked. He actually debuted in proper trunks last week, only to return to the Sulky Shorts here. Is he already throwing a wobbler? Annoyed to be working with The Miz? How many weeks until he does another one of those sad, final glances to the crowd, only to boot off online when people try to understand why he’s being such an overdramatic loser.

The only other thing to mention from this show is Zelina Vega’s Personal Best. Just when you think the pop for her entrance couldn’t get any quieter, she manages to shock you. This was insane. A newly crowned Champion, and it might as well have been a Covid show. Anti-noise. Less than zero fucks given. Like a vacuum. Chelsea Green needs to use this in her lawsuit against Aldis. You can’t be United States Champion when you don’t physically exist on an audible level.

To try and end on some positives, that Fatal Four Way for the US title at Backlash should be brilliant, and this match, for next week, can only be described as can’t miss.

Edited May 3, 2025 by Supremo

[Arch Stanton]

Have to laugh at Aleister Black being booked in a long, highly competitive match with The Miz for his first match back. What a chump!

[Mr_Danger]

On 5/3/2025 at 10:05 AM, Supremo said:

This is all I could think about watching Smackdown.

Six to eight hour days! Bah God! BREAKING NEWS. Brave man completes a normal shift. Hero successfully works a full working week.

Presuming he leaked this himself to put over how hard he works for the WWE Universe, unlike Dwayne, it ended up being the ultimate self own.

Hunter, Road Dogg and Lee Fitting pulling a night shift. Working tirelessly on the Smackdown script, through the night until the early morning. Smashing in coffees until the sun rises. Birds chirping outside as the finishes touches are complete.

And what do they have to show for it? Another show filled with impromptu matches and run-in DQ finishes. Art doesn’t sleep.

Presumably he has many other duties outside of his quest to create something truly average and forgettable. Should probably just let ChatGPT have a go at this point and go see Steph and the kids for a bit.

[Devon Malcolm]

I watched half of it. That was enough. Nothing technically wrong with any of it but a man's got to know his limitations and that is apparently an Aleister Black match.

[Arch Stanton]

As a viewing experience the SmackDown Netflix replay feed is a mess. As long suffering wrestling fans we're well conditioned to the absolutely mental amount of ad breaks that US stations put in, and we're used to having to watch WWE shows with a thumb on the fast forward button because of it. For potential new viewers though, whether they be lapsed casual fans or just curious Netflix subscribers, it must be so off-putting. They won't necessarily know that the show is formatted that way because it's made for USA Network and streams live in the first place, so it's such a jarring viewing experience when you get those three minute long "We'll be right back" breaks and the weird changes in tone and pace of the in-ring action to accommodate the picture-in-picture ad breaks. I feel like we'll put up with that shit (to a point), but there's no way casual viewers will. I just feel it must be hurting their numbers.

[FUM]

1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

As a viewing experience the SmackDown Netflix replay feed is a mess. As long suffering wrestling fans we're well conditioned to the absolutely mental amount of ad breaks that US stations put in, and we're used to having to watch WWE shows with a thumb on the fast forward button because of it. For potential new viewers though, whether they be lapsed casual fans or just curious Netflix subscribers, it must be so off-putting. They won't necessarily know that the show is formatted that way because it's made for USA Network and streams live in the first place, so it's such a jarring viewing experience when you get those three minute long "We'll be right back" breaks and the weird changes in tone and pace of the in-ring action to accommodate the picture-in-picture ad breaks. I feel like we'll put up with that shit (to a point), but there's no way casual viewers will. I just feel it must be hurting their numbers.

Granted I’ve not watched this weeks but my experience of watching these shows back on Netflix is I don’t need my hand on fast forward because the ads sections are edited out.

I do need my hand on it for the show being crap right enough.

Edited May 5, 2025 by FUM
Road Doggs booking

[air_raid]

3 minutes ago, FUM said:

I do need my hand on it for the show being crap right enough.

Here's some walking!

Here's a recap from last week!

Here's some more walking!

Here's a recap from Raw!

Oh go on, here's a match.