Welcome back to Brand Warfare, SLTD Wrestling’s own personal insight into which brand, Raw or SmackDown Live, is leading the pack as we kick off the first few months of the WWE brand extension. Last week, you let us know that with a whopping 92% of votes, Monday Night Raw fired the first shots with the superior first instalment of their show under the umbrella of the “new era”. Will this week be a different story, however?
Before you make your decision in the poll down below, you may want to take a look at what our panel of SLTD regulars has to say about this week’s episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live, as they give their take on which brand prevailed during round two of the competition between Stephanie and Shane McMahon.
Colin Hebert – @ColinHebert614 – The Curtain Jerker
“This week’s shows had a lot to live up to as both Raw and Smackdown Live put their best foot forward to start off the “New Era” brand extensions. Some things got hot-shotted, which could be the main reason the shows didn’t reach the level of excitement they reached last week.
Raw didn’t have many “news-worthy” events. The opening segment featuring WWE Woman’s Champ Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Chris Jericho and Enzo Amore had some entertaining mic work, but lasted way too long. I loved the Rusev-Roman Reigns segment. Rusev, after winning his match against Mark Henry, blaming the Americans for Russian athletes who tested positive for doping not being allowed to compete in the Olympics, and the guy who just got off a Wellness Policy suspension comes out defending the red, white and blue. I had to laugh at that.
The Finn Balor-Seth Rollins in-ring segment advanced their WWE Universal title match at SummerSlam, but it didn’t excite me more to see that match. The match between Rollins and Sami Zayn made me excited to see them wrestle again at some point. The final segment with Randy Orton coming out of nowhere to RKO Brock Lesnar drove the point home that Orton can shock “The Beast” and give him a legitimate shot at winning at SummerSlam.
Smackdown Live focused primarily on the WWE World title picture, with Dolph Ziggler being goaded into putting his title shot at SummerSlam on the line after being attacked by Bray Wyatt. It seems like WWE is giving Ziggler a shot at being the plucky underdog, a role he could really be great at.
Ziggler beat Wyatt to keep his spot, but was attacked after the match by Erick Rowan, and it was Wyatt who was reigning supreme at the end of Smackdown Live even without winning the title shot. AJ Styles and John Cena set up their SummerSlam match with 2 epic promos that must be seen. Cena’s been putting on the best work of his career the last 18 months and Styles is great in the ring, so this could be a classic. Brock Lesnar also returned the favor to Randy Orton, attacking him in his match with Fandango. So much happened in the 2 hours on Smackdown.”
Winner – SmackDown Live
Tybo Ledson – @Tybo_SLTD – Tybo Talks
“So this is where I think it begins to get difficult for both the Raw and Smackdown brand. There is no doubt that everyone would have been watching last week to see all the new goings on with both brands, but now they both have to keep that momentum rolling and keep fans interested.
Last week I think it was clear that Raw dominated over Smackdown, but this week I’m not so sure. I think the main issue with Raw is that it is just so long, watching 3hours of almost anything is a hard watch and probably even harder to produce. Raw without a doubt should be the best show this week, on paper anyway.
The return of The Beast, Randy Orton invading, what should be a five-star match between Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn, but it all felt a little… lacklustre for want of a better word.
Whereas Smackdown, in my eyes, delivered. From the solid promos from both Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler and AJ Styles and John Cena. Bray Wyatt stepping up, which will hopefully lead to a future WWE Championship match after a great match between him and Ziggler. Obviously not forgetting Lesnar’s retaliation on Orton.
Also, an honourable mention for the new superstar entrance side graphics, which look great and are a bit of an early 2000s Smackdown throwback.
It’s for these reasons (not the graphics), I think I’m going to shock some people (including myself) and say I think Smackdown was the superior show this week.”
Winner – SmackDown Live
Tom Robinson – @TomRobinson5199 – Armbar Analysis
“Momentum was key for both RAW and SmackDown Live with SummerSlam fast approaching.
Both world title matches for the biggest party of the summer were established with big segments on both shows last week, as well as establishing the new stars in the “new era” of WWE. However, could the shows keep the ball rolling in their quest for superiority?
RAW was a strange show, in that it seemed like a lot of things were out of place. Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Chris Jericho and Enzo Amore all being a part of the opening segment seemed like a total mismatch to me in terms of characters, with it almost looking like WWE simply drew names out of a hat to see who would be in the opening segment. There were a lot of interesting new developments, with feuds like Roman Reigns vs Rusev for the US title being established. Along with this though, there were a lot of questionable booking decisions.
The New Day beating Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson cleanly before suffering a two on three beat down seemed like a mind-blowingly detrimental concept for everyone involved. With all of that said, the show ended with a big bang as Randy Orton “invaded” SmackDown! by giving a good old fashioned RKO to Brock Lesnar.
SmackDown Live, on the other hand, flowed much more smoothly than RAW did. The show was much better structured as a whole than RAW, with SmackDown Live being able to manage the pace well for their show. They established the two main angles of the show right off the bat, mentioning the possibility of Brock Lesnar “invading” and Dolph Ziggler having to prove himself. Brock and Dolph did both deliver in their respective segments, but I still think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done for Dolph.
Dolph Ziggler defeated Bray Wyatt cleanly but was jumped and laid out right after his victory, which would put a huge damper on the WWE world title scene at SummerSlam unless Bray Wyatt is somehow added to the match. SmackDown Live also had its fair share of questionable booking, especially considering that both their women’s matches were ruled no contests before they even began. Not exactly helpful in trying to promote the women as stars. Despite this, SmackDown Live was still very enjoyable to sit through.
In order to settle this, I asked the question of which show I’d much rather watch again if given the choice. My answer was simple… SmackDown Live! RAW did have some good stuff in their show and I also think that they did a much better job in preparing for SummerSlam this week, but SmackDown Live did a much better job in keeping me invested in their product throughout the show.
It doesn’t help that RAW has one extra hour, but this week proved that sometimes more isn’t always better. As long as you’ve got a simple and easy to watch the show, you’ll have no problem at all in beating the competition. SmackDown Live won this week’s Brand Warfare for me.”
Winner – SmackDown Live
Wow! After a clean sweep by Raw last week, SmackDown Live follows suit this time around with three out of three votes from Team SLTD! But will the blue brand maintain the lead in the community vote? Choose who you thought reigned supreme in the poll below, and next week we’ll let you know if Raw was able to snatch a second straight victory, or if SmackDown Live was able to even the odds in Brand Warfare. 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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