WWE News: How Can WWE Revive SmackDown Live Event Attendance?

One of the big stories of the last few weeks has been the anemic attendance at WWE SmackDown brand events, including TV tapings.  One recent taping only drew about 1,500 paid.

To make the buildings look presentable, WWE has been giving away tickets like crazy, covering many seats with curtains and tarps and seating fans only on the side of the arena facing the hard camera and on the floor of the opposite side.  Photos of the setups have been circulating online more and more in recent weeks, and they're incredibly embarrassing.

Honestly, it's not that surprising, though.

Edge, The Undertaker and Rey Mysterio had been the top stars associated with the SmackDown brand for years, even when some of them were on Raw.  Alberto Del Rio had quickly done a good job of moving into the top mix after his debut last year and was right there with them.

After this year's WrestleMania, SmackDown quickly lost its identity:

Edge had to retire due to spinal injuries.

The Undertaker is effectively retired due to a battery of injuries that also retired his wife Michelle McCool so she could care for him around the clock.

The draft was moved up due to Edge's retirement, leading to the loss of Rey Mysterio (who they wanted separated from Sin Cara, who needed to be switched to the pre-taped show) & Alberto Del Rio.

In return, the only established top guy that SmackDown got was Randy Orton.  In the WWE pecking order, he was right around the top and had been a big part of various shows that drew well.  On his own without comparable or higher star power around him, it turned out he couldn't draw flies.

WWE made the move to put SmackDown wrestlers on what's now called "Raw Supershow" with the idea that exposing them to the bigger Raw audience would give a boost to SmackDown.  So far, it hasn't worked, and if anything, it's done the opposite, since attendance has gotten especially embarrassing in recent weeks.

So, just how can WWE fix this mess?

They're not going to end the brand split.  WWE wants two distinct touring crews and not in the way it was during the 1980s when there was an A-show and a B-show defined only by the lineup.

The quickest fix is to send over some wrestlers from Raw, but who are they going to send?  Rey Mysterio would be the best choice, but he's out thanks to his latest knee injury.

There's no way they'd send anyone in the main event mix on Raw over.  Sending over John Morrison, R-Truth and The Miz (one of whom is needed on Raw) would increase the roster depth, and that's a positive that could stop some of the bleeding, but it's not nearly enough.

Miz has the potential to be rebuilt into a main event level wrestler, but his status dropped so much so quickly that I don't think he'd draw well, especially in a rehashed feud with Orton.  Truth badly flopped on top against Cena.  Morrison was catching on earlier in the year, but he has lost a lot of steam between his injury and his various relationship-related punishments.

The only other option is making Friday Night SmackDown a "supershow" as well.  That could at least save attendance at TV tapings and help boost the ratings.

The question is whether or not it could help the house shows/non-televised live events.  Boosting the credibility of the SmackDown brand in general could be of assistance, even if the Raw wrestlers aren't on the SmackDown house shows.

House show business in general went up noticeably after The Rock returned earlier this year, even though there was no reasonable expectation that he'd be appearing at any of those events.  This is different, obviously, but SmackDown comes off so far behind Raw in terms of WWE's priorities nowadays that I'm not sure if there are any other realistic ideas.

There are other things they can do, but I can't think of anything else that they actually would do.