WWE Monday Night Raw - February 18, 2019 - Cajundome in Lafayette, LA
WWE SmackDown - February 19, 2019 – Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA
BATTLE OF THE BRANDS:
RAW vs. SMACKDOWN
FACTOR 1: MATCHES
Raw = I enjoyed the tables match, but even though the rest of the matches weren't bad in some regards, I found them falling flat and not being all that interesting to me.
SmackDown = Solid matches on SmackDown. They definitely win this week.
WINNER: SmackDown
FACTOR 2: PROMOS
Raw = That Triple H promo at the start was pretty good, as was the Dean Ambrose and Drew McIntyre stuff backstage. It's a shame the rest sucked. In particular, Heavy Machinery's segment was awful, Paul Heyman's promo bugged me, I wasn't thrilled with Elias's segment and the backstage thing with DIY, Roode/Gable and Revival didn't do much for me.
SmackDown = The opening Miz/Shane/Usos promo was okay. I wasn't so thrilled with the Asuka interview, or the one with The Bar and DIY, or Daniel Bryan's, though. However, they were still all better than the Heavy Machinery thing, so by default, SmackDown wins this.
WINNER: SmackDown
FACTOR 3: STORYLINES
Storylines weren't really advanced on either of these episodes. They really just said "here are some NXT guys in meaningless matches" and gave themselves the week off.
WINNER: Raw ties with SmackDown
FACTOR 4: SCHEDULING / PACING
Raw = This week, Raw felt like they purposely wanted a chaotic feel just for the sake of giving the illusion that more was happening than what actually took place. I wasn't a fan of that at all.
SmackDown = SmackDown had a little more structure to it and wasn't as chaotic.
WINNER: SmackDown
EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!
Raw gains points for Triple H saying the Becky Lynch thing was cool (blurring the lines of his heel/face character), another point for bringing the NXT people into the fold in general even if they came up short in wowing that crowd, and acknowledging Ambrose as a lunatic who might be friends with Seth Rollins again.
Raw loses points for that crowd being so awful, the horrible idea to have the Heavy Machinery and Lacey Evans thing play out the way it did, making The Revival lose again and feeling like a rematch between Ruby Riott and Ronda Rousey was somehow worthy of staying tuned to for the main event.
SmackDown doesn't gain or lose any points this week. Nothing stood out to me as great or horrible.
POINT ADJUSTMENTS: Raw (+3 / -4) / SmackDown (+0 / -0)
THIS WEEK'S WINNER = SmackDown
That's my pick for the better show of the week, but how do YOU stand?
Which was better, Raw or SmackDown?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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