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

No difference.

WINNER: Raw / SmackDown (tie)

FACTOR 2: COMMENTARY

No difference.

WINNER: Raw / SmackDown (tie)

FACTOR 3: MATCHES

Mysterio vs. Andrade and Ali vs. Joe trump anything on Raw, particularly The Revival crapping out.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 4: PROMOS

Raw has a good in the Alexa Bliss segment, a bad in Ronda Rousey, an okay in Crews/Lashley, and everything else just got lost in the shuffle for me as pointless.

SmackDown had the Becky Lynch promo, which was just okay, the McMahon/Bryan/Styles thing that was just okay, but The New Day thing I liked.

WINNER: Raw / SmackDown (tie)

FACTOR 5: STORYLINES

Raw was just carrying on things that were previously established, as was SmackDown. None of them had any big advancements. This was such a meh set of go-home shows.

WINNER: Raw / SmackDown (tie)

FACTOR 6: SCHEDULING / PACING

To be honest, I think both had some issues this week, and I don't know if I can really pick which one is better. They still rely too much on starting with a 15-20 minute promo and whatnot.

WINNER: Raw / SmackDown (tie)

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Raw's positives are reforming Ryder/Hawkins as a tag team and Alexa Bliss joining the Royal Rumble.

Raw's negatives are having Seth Rollins interrupt Bobby Lashley to immediately talk about Martin Luther King and somehow tie that into him winning the Royal Rumble, as well as a painfully generic Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar segment, and not giving the tag titles to The Revival.

SmackDown gets a point for Tony Chimel and another for Randy Orton's surprise at the end, but loses a point for an overall sense of "well that was pointless" for the whole thing.

POINT ADJUSTMENTS: Raw (+2 / -3) / SmackDown (+2 / -1)


Woof. This wasn't a good week. These two shows were supposed to be awesome to lead into Royal Rumble and I feel like they were very mediocre. When easily the best things you have going for you are The Major Bros reforming and Tony Chimel, you're kind of just coasting.