Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Battle of the Brands from Smark Out Moment, where we compare this week's episodes of Raw and SmackDown and determine which one of the two was the better show.

BATTLE OF THE BRANDS:

RAW vs. SMACKDOWN

FACTOR 1: CROWD

I love that they're hitting smaller towns for TV's now with the separated rosters. Grand Rapids showed up big for Monday Night Raw, and they help them pick up the W.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 2: COMMENTARY

So, one thing is for sure after I watched NXT Takeover: Chicago this weekend.. Any commentator, even Byron Saxton, is better than Nigel McGuinness and Percy Jackson. Wow are they awful. Tom Phillips not only has to deal with that on NXT, but also Byron (who is getting better on SD Live). Yet Tom continues to prove that he is the future of WWE commentary alongside Corey Graves who is over on Raw. However, no one worked harder than Phillips did this week to make a bad situation good with NXT & SmackDown. For that reason, he carries his crew to the win.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 3: MATCHES

Both shows were headlined by major tag team matches. Both of those, in my opinion, were equally as good as the other. So, to determine who gets the point here I'm going to go by the other matches on the card. None of which, on either show, were too overly outstanding. Raw had a decent showing with Roman vs. Bray & Finn vs. Karl Anderson. SmackDown really didn't have anything else that had my interest at all. So this is another win for the red brand.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 4: PROMOS

Both opening promo's were pretty good involving the GM's and the main events of their next PPV's. After that, SmackDown had a weird couple of promo's between the Fashion Files and the Punjabi Celebration, but none of them were as bad as the promo on Raw that featured Sasha Banks, Alicia Fox, and Noam Dar. It was awkward, clunky, and just bad. Oh, and Elias Sampson tried some sort of song that just didn't work at all. It was also terrible. Goldust had a classic heel Goldust promo, but not even that could save it from the other awful showings.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 5: STORYLINES

I am so excited to see more of heel Goldust. There is so much they can do with him, and he is so vastly underrated in the ring and I hope they give him a real chance. Seeing Shinsuke and AJ on WWE tv together just got me excited for what could be. But man, the two main events for the upcoming PPV's in the fatal five way extreme rules match and the Money in the Banks ladder match are just stacked loaded with the biggest names. Raw has the edge on SmackDown when it comes to the women so far as Alexa has taken her best shot at Charlottes throne and she is inching closer. If we see a women's Money in the Bank match then this might be a little different, but right now thats all just rumor. Both the United States Championship and Intercontinental Championship are in good hands, but the US Title scene has me much more excited. As for the main titles, I for one love Jinder as the champ. Let him have it for a few months until Cena comes back from hiatus. Right now, I'm all in on SmackDown Live. They're taking risks and doing things different. They have me intrigued, and I'm hoping they take another big jump at Money in the Bank.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 6: SCHEDULING / PACING

The two hours is better than the three hours, and I wish both shows were two hours.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 7: VISUAL PRESENTATION

I actually noticed that Raw had a different stage and set-up. So I'm hoping that the smaller shows will have different looks.

WINNER: Raw

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Nothing.

POINT ADJUSTMENTS: Raw (+0 / -0) / SmackDown (+0 / -0)


I really enjoyed both shows this week, and their builds to their respective PPV's have already been very good. Raw without Strowman is missing something big, but thankfully they have Finn back. SmackDown adds Shinsuke with him finally being in the ring, Kevin Owens is doing some great things, and of course AJ Styles. Baron Corbin will be a big player soon, and adding Rusev will only help. SmackDown is doing some awesome stuff with taking big risks, and I think it'll only get better.