Welcome back to Brand Warfare, SLTD Wrestling’s one stop shop for all things Red vs. Blue
Heading into the tenth week of the series, it’s pretty clear to see where each brand falls on the spectrum, with SmackDown Live holding seven out of nine victories over their competition. They picked up their latest victory last week with an astounding 80% of the fan vote on Twitter, and the unanimous vote here from Team SLTD.
As it stands, it doesn’t look like Monday Night Raw stands much of a chance to get back in the game against their blue counterpart, but perhaps the fallout from their first brand-exclusive Pay Per View, Clash of Champions last Sunday night was enough to earn Team Red back some of the dignity they’ve lost over the last two months?
Let’s check in with Team SLTD to see if the flagship show could get the job done after all.
Colin Hebert – @ColinHebert614 – The Curtain Jerker
“This week’s RAW was a bit of a problem for me. After a pay per view, which usually means that all the loose ends from the previous month get all tied up, RAW set us up with some rematches at the top of the card.
We have a new U.S. Champion in Roman Reigns, who defended the belt the next night against Rusev in a rematch. This ended in a no-contest, meaning the feud will continue on for at least another month. Also, I didn’t get the idea of having The New Day beat The Club at Clash of Champions. You’d probably guess that I didn’t get why The Club would get another tag title match the very next night and lose again. There aren’t enough credible tag teams on the RAW brand to justify having The Club continue to job out to The New Day.
The New Day’s newest contenders are Cesaro and Sheamus, who after 7 hellacious battles, fought to a no-contest at Clash of Champions, which meant no winner. But instead of maybe having another match, potentially at Hell In A Cell, they scrapped it altogether and put them in a team, because RAW actually needs a new tag team.
I’ve gone through a whole paragraph on RAW and never even mentioned WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens. While he retained his title over Seth Rollins at Clash of Champions, the next night he was in a comedy skit with Chris Jericho and Enzo & Cass. This led to the main event being him and Jericho against Enzo and Cass, who were last seen jobbing to The Shining Stars. RAW looked as if they didn’t even try this week.
SmackDown Live had possibly its best show of the brand extension. Either that or RAW was just that bad. The show had energy and most importantly passion. While I am not a big fan of Dolph Ziggler going against The Miz for the title again, his promo got me to the point where it’s at least tolerable. SmackDown even makes you care about the undercard with the women’s tag match, and you actually have an interest in a Nikki vs. Carmella feud.
We got a WWE World Championship match between AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. While the match may have been one-sided and Styles snuck out with a victory due to a John Cena interference, it showed everyone that the champ could be vulnerable at No Mercy. It was an absolutely perfect way to sell the pay per view.
In the tag division, The Usos continue on as the hottest team in the WWE. The fans may be behind Slater and Rhyno, but The Usos have been gold since turning heel. Everything about them now just screams champions.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
Tybo Ledson – @Tybo_SLTD – Tybo Talks
“Coming off their first brand-exclusive PPV, Raw should’ve been unmissable with Clash Of Champions fallout. Don’t get me wrong, Clash was better than expected, but was it better than Backlash? I don’t think so.
Raw tried to do something a little different this week and lose the 20 minute promo at the start and dive straight into a U.S Title match. This was a welcome change to the normal format. As a show Raw wasn’t bad, but they still need to work on a lot of issues. I think it would be great if they had a “Cruiserweight Hour” in the middle of the show to mix it up a bit, and the completely different look that they have now is really helping them stand out.
I have to be honest though, my already failing faith fell further when Foley decided to put Cesaro and Sheamus in a Tag Team. What a waste of what could be main event talent.
As for SmackDown, they once again dominated as a competitive show. Despite all the title feuds being unmissable, The Miz has elevated the Intercontinental champion to levels it hasn’t seen in years. There is a clear argument to be made that the Intercontinental is getting just as important as the WWE World Championship.
The only thing I can equate it to is what Cena did with the U.S title last year. Not only are all the title pictures looking great but there are solid feuds throughout the show. Uso’s / Alpha’s and Nikki / Carmella to name a few.
Unsurprisingly, SmackDown is steaming ahead in terms of entertainment, and to be honest, the in-ring work is on a far higher level too. I don’t know what Raw can do to create more buzz but they need to do something soon.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
Rachel Brimble – @Chica_SLTD – Wrestle Chica
“For the RAW after their first brand-exclusive Pay Per View, I was expecting so much more from the red team than I got, and once again, I feel like SmackDown is going in a much better direction.
For the opening match to be that slow I think it set the wrong tone for the rest of the show. I do think there were some good matches on RAW and the rivalry between Owens and Rollins is really good, especially with Jericho in the mix, but I always feel like RAW is just too long and they are filling up the time with pointless matches, and they don’t spend any time building rivalries and everything just feels rushed and put together.
I think the Cruiserweight division is going to bring so much to RAW as both of those matches were great, but I do think RAW needs to invest more in creating good rivalries to get people more invested each week.
For me, SmackDown was once again the front runner and put on another fantastic show. No matter what division you are interested in, there is something going on that keeps you gripped. The Usos/American Alpha rivalry is only just starting, but that looks to be fantastic even without the championships.
For the women’s division you have the championship rivalry going as well as Nikki and Carmella. The Miz and Dolph Ziggler have got one of the best rivalries I’ve seen at the minute and at the same time we still have Orton and Wyatt and the triple threat for the WWE Championship. It’s so good to see so much effort being put in to not only making one rivalry good but this many, and that’s why SmackDown is becoming the unmissable show.
For me, SmackDown is the clear winner yet again and RAW really needs to start looking at what they can do to get people invested again, as each week it’s the same people winning and nothing new or exciting seems to happen. RAW needs a complete mix up and to try something new, as what they have clearly isn’t working.”
Winner: SmackDown Live
Another week, another crippling loss for Monday Night Raw, at least as far as Team SLTD is concerned. The general consensus seems to be that while consistency has been a key element on SmackDown Live every week, Raw is in desperate need of a change if they want to gain back some victories and event the odds once again.
But do you agree that SmackDown Live deserves their eight victory this week, or did Raw deliver with the new United States Champion and the continued use of their brand new cruiserweight division?
Vote below to make your mark and sway the decision for next week’s installment of Brand Warfare!
Follow @SLTDWrestling for more.
Which brand put on the better show this week? #BrandWarfare
— SLTD Wrestling (@SLTDWrestling) October 1, 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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