- Cancelling Talking Smack. It was a niche thing, but it was a vehicle for talent to cut loose and get over. Hell, the show ushered in one person hitting the prime of their career (The Miz).
- It's going to be said a lot, but Road Dogg taking over Ryan Ward's position caused the writing to take a nose dive. Which makes sense, given that Ryan is a writer by trade, and Road Dogg is the 90's version of Enzo Amore.
- Deep sixing the Smackdown women's division. Like it or not, the women's division was a big part of what made Smackdown so great this time last year and arguably where they did some of their best booking. Becky Lynch was over as fukk. Alexa Bliss was made into a star. Naomi's career was revitalized. Eva Marie was funny for the short time they had her. For the first time, people actually, genuinely cared about Nikki Bella, even. Look at it now, and it's a shell of it's former self. In fact, we're pretty much back to it being a vehicle to push Total Divas.
- Losing The Miz and Dean Ambrose. You can argue that Smackdown made out okay in the shakeup, but losing these two was a huge blow. Kevin Owens is great, but he really has not been able to fill the void left by The Miz as a heel. Same with Dean on the babyface side, though I think Styles and Nak have softened the blow a bit more than Owens has for the heels. Point is, those two really were cornerstones of the show.
- Jinder Mahaal. I really want to believe in the Maharajah. I really do. But I think we gotta call the Jinder experiment a failure at this point. He simply has not stepped up enough to overcome the terrible writing he's given.
- Still don't know what to do with their midcard or tag division. They got AJ Styles as US Champion. That should have ushered in a new age of dope matches and feuds for cats in the midcard to start getting over. Instead, we got a months long feud of mostly ehh matches with Owens and now Baron Corbin. At least Tye Dillinger managed to get back on TV, I guess. But you still got Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Mike Kanellis, and Sin Cara around doing nothing. And let's not even get into how they've squandered Bobby Roode.
As for the tags, it's a two team division. Which I guess is better than the no team division it used to be, but still. Like the singles midcard, they have the talent and refuse to utilize it. New Day and The Usos can't feud forever.
On the plus side, they finally got JBL the fukk outta here. I actually like Graves, Phillips, and Saxton as a team. Having three younger cats who clearly are friends and enjoy working together brings a different kind of energy that's appreciated.
