Since WWE’s hottest rivalry today seems to be Red vs. Blue, we here at SLTD Wrestling wanted to take advantage and really get a look at which brand, Raw or SmackDown Live, is superior as the weeks go by!
So from now on, every week we’re going to be taking a look at each episode of Raw and SmackDown Live, with some of SLTD’s finest weighing in on which brand put on the best show. Most importantly, however, we’re going to be giving you a voice too! You’ll be able to vote down below on whichever brand you felt had the better week, and we’ll all be able to see which roster has been doing a better job in the eyes of the fans as time progresses.
This week’s episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live were pivotal in setting the bar for the future.
With Sasha Banks winning the WWE Women’s Championship and Finn Bálor cementing himself as the man to face Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam, Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon must be very pleased with their first night under the umbrella of the brand extension.
Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon fired back with their first edition of SmackDown Live, proving that the blue brand is about opportunity, with everyone on the roster getting the chance to secure themselves as the #1 contender to Dean Ambrose’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship, culminating in Dolph Ziggler finally getting the chance to become the face of the WWE with a big win in the main event.
But which brand do some of SLTD’s regulars feel reigned supreme this week?
Colin Hebert – @ColinHebert614 – The Curtain Jerker
“The “new era” in WWE started this week and started with a bang! Two live shows with two distinct rosters and feels are battling it out for sports entertainment supremacy.
RAW started the week without a champion and still won’t have a brand champion until SummerSlam. However, they came up with the WWE Universal Championship, which I think is a great name. They put Seth Rollins in that championship match and his challenger, the debuting Finn Bálor, won not only a Fatal 4-Way at the beginning of the show, but cleanly pinned 3-time WWE Champion Roman Reigns in the middle of the ring.
Also, the show has a new WWE Women’s Champion as “The Boss” Sasha Banks submitted Charlotte, which is a huge plus. The new RAW graphic leaves a lot to be desired, but the commentary crew, Michael Cole, Byron Saxton and Corey Graves seemed to work well together. RAW got off to a hot start, let’s see if they can keep it up.
SmackDown Live currently has the WWE Champion Dean Ambrose and only one other belt so far, the Intercontinental Title. They picked their #1 contender through a 6-Pack Challenge, featuring Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Bray Wyatt, AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, and the winner of a battle royal at the top of the show, Apollo Crews.
A battle royal isn’t really the best way of picking out contenders, as anything is liable to happen and it got kind of sloppy, but they are at least trying to get new guys over. Ziggler won the 6-Pack challenge and now goes to SummerSlam for the WWE Championship to try to recreate the glory he had in the spring of 2013.
The rest of the show really only built around the return of Randy Orton and his first match back in WWE in nine months, cleanly beating the only other champion on SmackDown Live, the Intercontinental Champion, The Miz. I was expecting maybe a couple of announcements regarding tag team titles or a woman’s championship exclusively to SmackDown Live, but we did not get that this week.”
Winner – Raw
Tybo Ledson – @Tybo_SLTD – Tybo Talks
“We all knew that with this being the first week of the brand split, both Raw and SmackDown Live would try to pull out all the stops. Wrestling fans can’t complain – it’s been a great week for both shows, making huge main event matches at Summer Slam for their World Championships, and Raw even naming a new championship.
So, which was the stronger show? Well, as much as I want to say that Dolph Ziggler becoming the number one contender for Dean Ambrose’s WWE Championship could carry SmackDown over Raw, team blue just fell short for me. I think SmackDown would have benefited from naming a new challenger for The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship as this is their only secondary title, and they may need to look at a new Women’s Title for the amount of ‘Divas’ they have on Tuesday nights.
Raw felt like the far more solid show, two great fatal-four way matches, a great main event match from both Finn Balor and Roman Reigns. Sasha Banks with the shocking Women’s Championship win, and more shocking than anything else the whole show didn’t feel 3 hours long. Raw was not without its faults, I think it could be a little too much too soon for Balor, but time will tell on that. Finally, let’s be honest is there a worse name for the new Raw WWE Championship?”
Winner – Raw
Tom Robinson – @TomRobinson5199 – Armbar Analysis
“RAW and SmackDown Live clearly had two vastly different approaches to their shows this week. RAW’s goal was essentially to re-boot itself, with new production and formatting styles while also showcasing new booking styles as well. New stars like Finn Bálor were made as the spotlight shone brightly on the younger stars of the company, even giving Nia Jax and Braun Strowman short squash matches to show off their dominance.
Meanwhile, SmackDown Live had the goal to also re-boot itself. Their issue however is that they lacked the roster depth or fresh stars to really present itself as new. We still had the same old stars dominating battle royals and getting big wins. We had the likes of Rhyno and Shelton Benjamin make (or announced to make) their return to WWE. Even Dolph Ziggler was given another push. There’s nothing really wrong with that, especially with someone like Shelton coming back into the mix.
However, it didn’t leave the feeling that this show is new or different. It left me with the feeling that this is a work in progress. That may hurt the show in the short-term, as a lot of fans might not be invested, but I fully expect the show to improve eventually. With a number of new and old wrestlers probably making their way to SmackDown Live, they could eventually find their groove. Right now though, RAW was the truly dominant show in the first week of brand warfare in this new era.”
Winner – Raw
It looks like Monday Night Raw put on the better show as far as we’re concerned, but what do you think?
Vote down below, and in next week’s installment we’ll announce which brand the SLTD Wrestling community thought did a better job in the opening days of the WWE brand extension.
Be sure to comment down below why you think your chosen brand was superior, and don’t forget to share this post across your social media to kick off the series with a bang! Follow @SLTDWrestling for more!
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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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