WWE Smackdown/YMMV

• Dork Age: While SmackDown is usually praised for its wrestling-focused show, the show's roster, and thus, quality, was decimated in 2004. The show lost most of its main players from the previous two years: Brock Lesnar left the company, Chris Benoit went to RAW during his angle, Edge (who missed a year due to neck surgery) returned on RAW rather than SmackDown, The Undertaker began to cut his schedule, and Kurt Angle was injured for most of the summer, shuttling him into a GM role. Their once-vaunted tag team division was now reduced to the Dudley Boyz (with one foot out the door in the company), Rico & Charlie Haas, and Billy Gunn & Hardcore Holly. The Cruiserweight Division, one of the unique staples of the Blue Brand, was phased out due to Vince's concerns over their frequent injuries due to the heavy schedule, and ended up going into the hands of Jacqueline, Chavo Guerrero Senior, and Chavo Jr. winning it back from Jacky with one hand behind his back (on PPV). Their newcomers mostly flamed out in that time span; while they hit a home run with rookies like Brock Lesnar and John Cena in 2002, new faces like Mordecai, Rene Dupree, Kenzo Suzuki, and Nathan Jones all failed to make an impact. And finally, you had Tough Enough 4, which played out like a male version of the Diva Search rather than the well-received reality show of before. The show got so bad that Scott Keith ended his run of doing reviews of the show and the show's fall arguably helped the company fall out of favor with the IWC for several years.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Both its midcard and the show as a whole. SmackDown offers more in-ring wrestling than promo-heavy Raw, meaning some of the company's underlooked talent get a lot of time to shine by putting on some stellar 10-15 minute matches, and the emphasis on matches over promos tend to be a reason why the IWC usually favors it over Raw. The tag-team division in 2002, dubbed the "SmackDown Six" by the IWC, also gained notoriety for putting on some incredible matches with each other in either singles or team competition, consisting of a murderer's row of talent including Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge (breaking through as a singles star), Rey Mysterio (back when his knees were healthy and could fly around the ring), Eddie Guerrero and his nephew Chavo.
  • With the reintroduction of the brand extension in 2016, SD got back on this position. It helps that the widely hated Roman Reigns was drafted to Raw, the booking is a lot better and the show is now headlined by AJ Styles, one of the best wrestlers of the world in the ring and not a bad talker. That despite the draft leaving Smackdown with arguably a worse roster than Raw with worn out veterans, young wrestlers that had yet to find their place on the roster and a part-timer John Cena. The only exceptions to that group are exactly AJ and Dean Ambrose, and one or both of the two were in all WWE Championship matches since the beginning of the 2016 brand extension.