Welcome one and all to Brand Warfare, SLTD Wrestling’s one stop shop for all things Red vs. Blue.
Last week’s festivities drove yet another nail in the coffin for Monday Night Raw, with 80% of the fan vote and a unanimous decision from Team SLTD to take SmackDown to its eighth victory over the flagship show. A fitting percentage, seeing as the blue brand now sits comfortably with 80% of all Brand Warfare victories to date.
That said, Raw delivered the goods in a big way this week with the crowning of Sasha Banks as WWE Women’s Champion, a distinction which helped earn Raw the first point in this series way back in July. Will it be able to do the same this week, however, or has SmackDown once again proven too solid of a show to be thwarted?
Colin Hebert – @ColinHebert614 – The Curtain Jerker
“RAW continued their march to Hell in a Cell right off the top of the show with another opening segment with Roman Reigns, Lana and Rusev. Amazingly on the RAW side, this – not Kevin Owens/Seth Rollins – is the most important feud on the show. After both men beat up on one another, Reigns challenged Rusev to a United States Championship match inside Hell in a Cell, and we have our first match for the RAW PPV.
Now, the man who should be the main event of the brand, WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens, has been involved in the tag team division with Chris Jericho for the past few weeks. Jeri-KO are an entertaining group, but Owens is the face of RAW and is moving down the card to be involved in the tag division against The New Day.
Hopefully this is only going to be the case for a couple of weeks until Cesaro and Sheamus build some steam towards the WWE Tag Team Titles and Owens can be paired with Rollins in the main event at Hell in a Cell.
For the first time in forever, the women main-evented Raw. Another match in the storied history of Charlotte and Sasha Banks was a pretty good one. I’m not a fan of Sasha’s outside dives or her using her knees a lot, but she does give it her all. Charlotte stepped up her game and it was a very passable main event. The rumor of them doing their next match inside Hell in a Cell scares me, only for Sasha’s willingness to do anything to her body.
SmackDown Live this week was short on match length, but had enough passion in its promos to more than make up for it. We saw the final face-off before No Mercy for WWE World Champion AJ Styles and his challengers, Dean Ambrose and John Cena. These men have stepped up their promo game and are delivering the best of their careers. Unlike RAW, SmackDown seems to bring out the all-around game of their competitors. Each of these performers bring something different to the table and the main event at No Mercy should be fantastic.
As great as the very top of the SmackDown Live card has been, the rung right below has been off the charts. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler in a title vs. career match at No Mercy has both men doing the best work of their career. Over the past 10 years or so we have seen both of these men fight each other in a variety of matches.
That alone would make you think that some of us may be tiring of these two. However, the way they have gone about their business in the ring and in promos has this as the #1 feud in WWE right now.
The lower part of the card even presents its credible challengers for titles. When I heard Alexa Bliss got drafted to SmackDown, I had my reservations. Out of all the NXT call-ups and women on both shows, I thought she’d be at the bottom. Boy was I wrong! And this is what great booking and great storytelling can do for a wrestler. Alexa Bliss has gotten the better of SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch over and over again, to the point where you really think Bliss has a chance of pulling this off. That is Booking 101 and it never gets used anymore.
The Usos also continue to be WWE’s hottest tag team. I cannot wait for them to get the straps. They deserve it.”
Winner: Raw (Barely)
Tybo Ledson – @Tybo_SLTD – Tybo Talks
“This week it was clear that Raw was really trying to bring its ‘A’ game.
All rivalries seem to be heating up and having a Women’s Championship main event is a clear move to push for something special, but was it enough to pull it out of the slump it’s been in?
There was no doubt that Raw was a better show this week – the Rusev and Reigns feud is getting stronger every week. Whether or not it’s strong enough to warrant a Hell in a Cell match is a different story.
The addition of Cesaro and Sheamus to the tag division is strange, but I’m happy to see more teams in there. The cruiserweights are improving too. I like how they’re getting more of a gimmick, and a heel Kendrick is a good idea.
Then the women’s division – this is where I’m meant to say great things because these women are ‘changing the game’, but honestly, the match was good, but Charlotte is really not as good as she is made out to be. There seemed to be a lot of moments when I was waiting, or at least felt like she was going to mess up or hurt Banks. The corkscrew moonsault from the top rope to the outside looked amazing, but the landing was awful.
SmackDown is very quickly becoming the standard bearer for great wrestling and great storytelling. Now don’t get me wrong, no matter what happened on Raw, this week’s SmackDown should be the better show because it was the go-home show for No Mercy, but even without that, SmackDown is absolutely killing it right now.
The world title picture is looking great, and honestly any of the three guys in the match at No Mercy could walk out the champ. Putting everything else to the side for a minute, the Intercontinental Championship has never looked so good, and never looked like a more important championship. The Miz has quite honestly raised the bar with his career and completely raised the stock of the Intercontinental Championship.
Unfortunately, it seems SmackDown is going to be the superior brand for the foreseeable future, although I watch and enjoy parts of Raw I am far more invested in the SmackDown storylines. So until something happens where I feel like a storyline on Raw is unmissable, I can’t see them pulling this back any time soon.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
Matt Rutherford West – @maruwe22 – What Would Matt Do?
“After the disaster that was Raw last week, nothing could make the show worse, and thankfully WWE delivered the goods, both in terms of better wrestling and better storytelling.
The main event was awesome and was better than their match on July 25th when Banks won the title for the first time. It ticked all the boxes – awesome spots, great psychology and the usage of the Bank Statement at the end to show it as a dominant move. The rest of the show had strong points – more time for the cruiserweight division, great storytelling with Owens, Rollins and Jericho and a good opening segment to start the show up.
For me SmackDown started fantastically with a win for Demon Kane, a Teddy Long style set up for a tag-team match, the (partial) return of the Spirit Squad and some great work from Styles, Ambrose and Cena in the final segment. Throw in the crazy antics of Bray Wyatt and SmackDown produces more entertainment in less time.
Therefore, I have to give the win to SmackDown – yes there were some moments on Raw which excelled more than SmackDown but SmackDown was more memorable; the only lasting memory from Raw was the main event. Can Raw be fixed? Who knows, there is a lot to fix. Only time will tell.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
For only the second time since we kicked this column off, Team SLTD has come undone with two votes in favour of SmackDown Live while the other lies with Monday Night Raw. It seems that despite the consistently incredible display we continue to witness on Tuesday nights, “The Boss” reclaiming the gold in the main event gave Raw a chance to get back in the game, at least for this week. But will Raw be able to secure the fan vote?
That’s for you to decide! Vote below on the @SLTDWrestling poll and make your mark on the scoreboard for next week. It’s a pivotal moment for Raw, because one more loss could take them out of the question altogether.
Which brand put on a better show this week? #BrandWarfare
— SLTD Wrestling (@SLTDWrestling) October 6, 2016
Self-Professed Conversational Wizard.
Admin, Editor and Writer for SLTD Wrestling.
Creator of 'Under the Spotlight'.
Studying Computing in Games Development.
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