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 = Finn Balor and Sami Zayn had a good match.

SmackDown = The Ali/Ricochet/Black six-man tag was fun and The Hardy Boyz beating The Usos was what nudged a win for the blue brand this week.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 2: PROMOS

Raw = Sami Zayn's promo was good and I didn't dislike the Elias stuff. Dana Brooke's was rough, Becky Lynch's was bog standard, as was Seth Rollins' promo to start the show and Baron Corbin's.

SmackDown = The only promo I enjoyed on SmackDown was the opener with The New Day.

WINNER: Raw ties SmackDown

FACTOR 3: STORYLINES

Raw = The fucking Bar attacked Kofi Kingston and Rollins? Really? That's your go-to storyline heading out of Mania? Lacey Evans has been built up to brawl with Becky Lynch? Alexa Bliss capitalizes on the Raw after Mania by beating Bayley in a do-nothing match? Lars Sullivan beats down Kurt Angle because....just because? Bray Wyatt is going to do the same old shit again? Ambrose is written off in such a lame way. Roode and Gable are heels again, as if anybody would possibly care? This accomplished nothing.

SmackDown = There weren't any advancements, other than a repeat of Lacey Evans and Becky Lynch. Very lame.

WINNER: No points deserved. No winner.

FACTOR 4: SCHEDULING / PACING

Raw = Whoever thought the end of Raw was a good way to end Raw has no idea how to schedule things.

SmackDown = At least SmackDown had an opening contest that was fun and didn't promise anything big for the finale.

WINNER: SmackDown

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Raw gains points for The Undertaker and that's it.

Raw loses points for spoiling Sami Zayn's return with a backstage spoiler shot, Bray Wyatt's stupid pending return, Sullivan attacking Angle, the lackluster Evans/Becky situation, the Ambrose stuff, and 4x point deduction for how bad the main event was (one point for the DQ, one point for it being The Bar, one point for the tag team match being someone's idea of a good enough response to it and another point for just ending the night like that).

SmackDown gains points for the RKO and Stunner out of nowhere and the title change.

SmackDown loses points for repeating the Lacey Evans thing, wasting time with Shane McMahon, and progressing things nowhere.

POINT ADJUSTMENTS: Raw (+1 / -9) / SmackDown (+2 / -3)


Let's not act like these were great shows, though. These were average editions with some very minor surprises. They were thoroughly underwhelming editions of the post-Mania shows and I hope WWE knows how poor they booked them.