Welcome one and all to Brand Warfare, SLTD Wrestling’s one stop shop for all things Red vs. Blue.
Coming off a hellacious Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event and straight into the build towards Survivor Series, this week presented Monday Night Raw with a pivotal opportunity to shine before the first head-to-head clash with SmackDown Live since the brand extension came into full effect.
After yet another whitewash loss to SmackDown last week, with the blue brand picking up all three #TeamSLTD votes and 78% of the public decision, Raw is on its last legs to make any serious dent in the proceedings as we set our sights on November 20th. But did their efforts prove fruitless yet again? Let’s take a look.
Colin Hebert – @ColinHebert614 – The Curtain Jerker
“Coming off a pay-per-view for Raw and gearing up for Survivor Series is what this week was all about.
A pretty good Hell In A Cell PPV saw Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho retain the WWE Universal Championship (Yes, this Owens reign has not been very good without the addition of Chris Jericho), Roman Reigns ending his feud with Rusev for good and Charlotte winning back the Raw Women’s Championship in a historic HIAC main event over Sasha Banks. The undercard was what made this show, the less said about the main event, the better.
Raw started to fill their Survivor Series team with Owens, Jericho, Reigns and Braun Strowman as four of the five. I’m hoping this is the start of an actual push for Strowman, and I’m hoping for a face turn. I think the people could get behind a guy that absolutely destroys the competition. Is there anybody, historically, that has done that?
Hmm… that leads me to…
GOLDBERG!
The opening segment with Goldberg, Paul Heyman and Rusev, of all people, was great. Again, Goldberg comes off as a major babyface, but it’s going to be hard to make Lesnar look like a heel. A complete turn of events from their WrestleMania 20 match when everybody booed both of them.
Over on SmackDown was the continuation of the AJ Styles/Dean Ambrose/James Ellsworth storyline. In the end, after Ellsworth’s distraction – this time in Ambrose’s favour – Dean Ambrose became the #1 contender to Styles’ WWE World Title. There has to be a major match to end this feud. They were also both named to SmackDown Live’s Survivor Series team along with Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt and Baron Corbin.
The newly-turned Randy Orton is very off-putting. Since Bray Wyatt has debuted we’ve seen guys like Kane and Daniel Bryan “join” Bray Wyatt only to turn on him. Recycled angles like this make me want to turn off the TV.
I was intrigued by Dolph Ziggler’s Intercontinental Championship “open challenge”, but was discouraged by Curt Hawkins coming out and getting beat in five seconds. I was hoping for Apollo Crews or Baron Corbin. Hopefully the challenge against a Raw superstar set for Survivor Series will bring out Cesaro, who terribly needs a push.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
Tybo Ledson – @Tybo_SLTD – Tybo Talks
“Ground was broken and history was made on Sunday. The Raw Women’s Championship was defended inside Hell in a Cell on Sunday, and I tip my hat to both women because they brought it. I don’t agree that it should have been the main event, but that is an opinion for another time.
What does this mean for what’s really important; Brand Warfare? There is no denying I was interested to see what happened on Raw after a very solid Hell in a Cell PPV, but did it deliver?
Well, as always there were some great parts of the show, but they unfortunately did not outweigh the bad. I thought the Goldberg/Heyman/Rusev segment was great – Rusev made Goldberg looks like he still had it.
I was not a fan of the long (long) Charlotte promo, or the ‘trick or street fight’, as I think it’s a shame Anderson and Gallows have become a bit of a joke. I will say the finish of the show was interesting with Rollins and Reigns in the ring, but it all depends on what happens next week.
Is it just me who thinks the blue brand is currently overrun with James Ellsworth?! Don’t get me wrong, it was cool three weeks ago but enough is enough now, he has had his 15 minutes of fame and won some matches, but to have an unsigned ‘jobber’ be the glue that’s keeping the World Championship picture together is a bit of a mockery for the whole brand. It’s been fun but it’s time to future-endeavour that kid.
I am, on the other hand, loving the Intercontinental Championship picture and I think Ziggler defending the title against someone from Raw adds something different to an otherwise standard title match.
Honestly, neither show wowed me this week. I’m hoping the rumours are true that the classic Survivor Series matches will be for ‘brand switch picks’ because that could really mix some stuff up. This week, purely because it was the better produced show, I think Smackdown pips it, but both need to up their game going into Survivor Series.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
Matt Rutherford West – @maruwe22 – What Would Matt Do?
“To begin, we’ll look at Hell in a Cell – a pay-per-view that had some lacklustre build and some genuine emotion attached to different matches. Some of the matches were good (Owens-Rollins, Charlotte-Sasha, New Day-Cesaro/Sheamus), but the Cell matches felt the same – similar spots, similar use of weapons/environment.
With this event there was no must see moment, no thing that happened that had people talking the next day about it or generating buzz. I’m extremely proud of Charlotte and Sasha being able to main event – it gives them the credit to show that they are two legit female wrestlers who can put on a decent show given the chance.
Moving onto Raw, which I had mixed emotions about as I was worried from previous weeks. Opening the show with Goldberg was a hell of a good way to kick off Raw, and one of the best starts so far – the mic work with Heyman teasing Lesnar really worked well. Throw into it a cheap heel victory for Kendrick, as well as Strowman and Nia Jax actually getting decent matches started to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Let’s look at SmackDown and see what they had to offer us this week.
We have had more comedy capers with the new face of SmackDown James Ellsworth, even more plot depth given to the Orton-Wyatt Family storyline (I’m waiting for Orton to grow a full-length beard), amazing mic work with Bryan and The Miz and a decent main event. Those 60 words sum up the difference between Raw and SmackDown.
It’s easy to talk about SmackDown and look at the positives because there are so many of them. Yes, there are things that could have changed – the female tag match mostly happening during a commercial break for example, but SmackDown is mastering the basics week in and week out.
It was a stronger showing from the Raw side this week but I’ve got to give my points to SmackDown once again.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
The battle lines have been drawn and the first shots have been fired, with SmackDown Live dominating once again as we close out the first week of build towards Survivor Series. Will Monday Night Raw ever get back into stride, or are they destined to crumble before the blue brand for the remainder of the brand extension?
Let us know in the comments and sway the decision in your favour by voting in the fan poll below!
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Which brand put on the better show this week? #BrandWarfare
— SLTD Wrestling (@SLTDWrestling) November 5, 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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