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

It seems like this almost every week, but the Raw crowd was way louder again. I don't know why I always hear such a vast difference in the crowds, but it was very noticeable this week again.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 2: COMMENTARY

I think the Raw commentary group had a good night together on Monday night especially in the opening segment. It was good all throughout the show, but the opening was really strong.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 3: MATCHES

The week before a PPV matches are generally "meh" overall, and this week was definitely that. Bayley lost to Ruby Riott, so she can't get too much lower than she is right now. Personally, I would love an entire character remake with Bayley. Roman beat one of the Singh brothers. Thats how bad the card was. Roman beat Sunil Singh. I am really enjoying the team of Ziggler and McIntyre so far too. The Raw main event fatal four way was as good as it should have been.

SmackDown had a couple of fun matches with Daniel Bryan beating Shelton Benjamin, and Rusev beat Samoa Joe. The main event was pretty fun with all the women in a tag match. I think SD Live had the better card!

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 4: PROMOS

We'll start with SmackDown here because Raw has way more to go on. SmackDown only had a couple promos of note, and they both kind of sucked. The women at the beginning sucked so much that they just cut away from it early, and AJ had a promo too short to do much of anything for him vs Shinsuke.

Raw had a really fun and funny opening segment. It started out kind of weird, but got way better. Shaved head Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens making fun of Strowman, and a lot of ladders. Good back and forth led to a strong opening for Raw. Kevin Owens giving Finn and thing of olives was weird and funny, and then Elias and Seth had a good promo too. I didn't mind the contract stuff with Nia and Rousey, but it got bad and real bad really fast. Sami Zayn set up and obstacle course.. Yep.. Obstacle course for Bobby Lashley. Who easily got through and then destroyed him. That made it on WWE TV. Even though this feud keeps getting worse, Raw still had great promos.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 5: STORYLINES

I knew seeing Rousey and Nia together would give me a different feeling about this feud, and now I am a tiny bit more excited to see it go down. Roman and Jinder along with Sami and Lashley are the "meh" feuds going into this. I really couldn't care less about Sami & Lashley. I love Elias vs. Rollins.

I like the last man standing feud, but the match needs to be a classic because the build has been slow. Outside of that, SmackDown doesn't have a ton going for it. Their Women's Championship match is on the pre-show, and the next highest match up is Cass and Daniel Bryan. Even though that's been built well. I think I'll have to go with Raw.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 6: SCHEDULING / PACING

SmackDown always feels like the better show in the category.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 7: VISUAL PRESENTATION

Seeing everyone on the ladders to start the show, and then KO's performance from start to finish this last Monday night gets the W here.

WINNER: Raw

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Sami Zayn and Bobby Lashley get another point taken off for their just purely awful garbage.

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


Raw still wins 4-2 even though they got points taken off for Zayn & Lashley being purely terrible. SmackDown stumbled in the last week building to the PPV, and that gives Raw an edge going forward. However, I think The Miz wins the briefcase and puts SmackDown back on top with some good stuff from him with the title eventually.