Backstage News on Major Changes to Smackdown Next Year

WWE has begun pushing Smackdown’s move to the USA Network as of this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw. It’s a great move for USA, but especially for WWE.

Smackdown has been underperforming in the eyes of wrestling fans despite being a very consistent show for ratings on SyFy. The move to USA is going to force WWE to take Smackdown more seriously every week and make it must-see for WWE fans.

According to the Wrestling Observer, there is a “significant” change happening to how WWE presents Smackdown. That change isn’t revealed, but it’s clearly the beginning of major changes to allow Smackdown to be more relevant to WWE’s product and a more important show next to Monday Night Raw every week.

According to MLW Radio, the majority of the Smackdown show is being produced and written by backstage producer “Road Dogg” Brian James. He is handling most of Smackdown’s creative writing currently.

It would be beneficial for Smackdown to be a continuation of Raw’s storylines, but more wrestling-centric as opposed to the promo heavy show that Monday Night Raw can sometimes be .

Smackdown is about to have a big spotlight on it, but WWE wouldn’t have moved Smackdown and USA wouldn’t have doubled down on WWE without having a plan.