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: MATCHES

Raw = Squashes and things that didn't matter all that much. Really moving the needle in this regard this week.

SmackDown = The Kofi Kingston gauntlet match wins for the blue brand.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 2: PROMOS

Raw = Kurt Angle announces his WrestleMania opponent in a dud segment. A Moment of Bliss is kind of a dud. Mojo Rawley talks to a mirror again. Beth Phoenix says they awoke the dragon instead of the phoenix and that promo is kind of a blah segment. Batista's pre-recorded thing was just okay but had some glitches. I don't even remember what Drew McIntyre said.

SmackDown = The Miz's promo was the best one of these two shows, so SmackDown wins this.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 3: STORYLINES

Raw = Baron Corbin is going to fight Kurt Angle? Elias is still with No Way Jose? So on and so forth. This was so meh.

SmackDown = No real advancements other than Rey Mysterio just announcing that he has a United States title match and The IIconics getting a win so they can insert themselves into the women's tag title hunt. I guess that's good enough to give SmackDown the win this week, though, if not just out of spite of the Baron Corbin announcement.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 4: SCHEDULING / PACING

Raw = Rather than the way Raw has been going lately, this felt more like a regular episode of Raw. I don't mean that as a compliment.

SmackDown = You'd think a gauntlet match that took up an hour and 15 minutes of the show would make the pacing seem weird, but nope.

WINNER: SmackDown

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

No extra or negative points this week for either show. Everything was factored in above.

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