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

Houston, Texas was hot for wrestling this weekend. NXT: Takeover, Survivor Series, Raw, SmackDown, and NXT taping. Classic WWE weekend for a city that certainly deserves every bit of it. Clearly, the crowd blew the roof off for NXT: Takeover as usual, and they were by far the best crowd. But, that doesn't fit here.

For our choices, Paige got a good pop on Raw and that may be mostly for.. Ya know.. The stuff online. Regardless, she got some love. But so did AJ Styles and rightfully so as he Lesnar put on what some could argue is the match of the weekend.

If I had to choose, which I do as that is the entire premise of this, I'm taking Raw. They had a solid crowd throughout that popped at some good stuff.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 2: COMMENTARY

I really am having a hard time distinguishing between the two teams anymore with how Michael Cole & Tom Phillips are so interchangeable and Corey Graves is on both squads.

Michael Cole did have a slip up on SmackDown where he called Harper & Rowan "Harpran" and it cracked me up. So, I'll give SmackDown the petty W for that since neither squad was really that different.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 3: MATCHES

This is Raw easily. SmackDown had a cool lumberjack match with KO & Sami and The New Day but outside of that they had nothing I enjoyed.

Raw had Finn vs. Samoa Joe, Braun vs. Jason Jordan, and a great Intercontinental Championship match with The Miz & Roman where the wrong man won. Regardless, Raw takes this category with ease.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 4: PROMOS

The promos this week were all similar with each brand being happy and proud of their respective sides. I loved seeing Stephanie and Hunter back(I know that sounds crazy to some but I actually love them as heels) and to see Hunter cower to Braun when he came out was a genius little addition. Oh yeah, and Paige is back to her ways on the mic and I'm a huge fan of that.

On SmackDown seeing KO & Sami suck up to people backstage was fun. Seeing all of them and Daniel Bryan "feud" is kinda fun. Outside of that, AJ Styles had a nice spot about his match with Lesnar that was ruined by Jinder.

All in all, Raw had the better promos too.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 5: STORYLINES

We are in the post Survivor Series storyline build ups where it is no longer inter-brand stories. We'll see more and more where these stories are going like Sami & KO for example. The only one I'm ready to see end is AJ Styles & Jinder Mahal because all hints we've seen so far seem to point to AJ & Shinsuke at WrestleMania. I'm not up on all the NXT women that debuted since it wasn't Nikki Cross, Ember Moon, or Sane.

On the Raw side I think we're gonna see Braun and Hunter at WrestleMania and the build for that was seeded at Survivor Series. I'm very eager to see what happens with Brock Lesnar and the Universal Championship going into the future with guys like Finn & Joe who could put on some brilliant matches with Lesnar.

I like Raws storylines more than SmackDowns right now as The Shield and The Miz have such a fun rivalry, Braun & Hunter will be awesome, the return of Paige(WOW), Brock Lesnar and the Universal Championship and his next fight, and when The Revival returns they will have a loaded tag scene. Raw wins.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 6: SCHEDULING / PACING

You know how I feel here.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 7: VISUAL PRESENTATION

Paige is back!! What a sight that was to see a lady with so much controversy come back. I love it.

WINNER: Raw

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Paige is back! With the women having such strong workers and talkers in the group right now, Paige only going to make it better.

POINT ADJUSTMENTS: Raw (+1 / -0) / SmackDown (+0 / -0)


Raw wins 6-2 with a strong showing with promos and matches. Giving us matches like Finn & Joe and Roman & Miz is nice for episodic TV and not PPV. SmackDown held back. Not showing us AJ in a match nor their other champ Baron Corbin. They missed a chance to follow up with that match AJ had with Lesnar, but regardless Raw was so much better I'm not sure how much of a difference that would have made. Fun episode of Raw gets the win.