Welcome back to Brand Warfare! Before we get to this week’s Raw and SmackDown Live, last week was the deciding factor as to who would pull ahead and break the tie between the two shows from the opening fortnight of the brand extension. We can happily announce that the SLTD Community, with three out of three votes from our panel of judges and 77% of the fan vote, has declared that SmackDown now leads with two points to one!
Moving along, this week’s programming in WWE was pivotal in building the final bit of momentum before the company hits Brooklyn for SummerSlam tomorrow night. Raw and SmackDown both pulled off very interesting shows with non-stop action that any fan would be content with. But who did the better job at selling their half of SummerSlam this week? Let’s see what Team SLTD have to say!
Colin Hebert – @ColinHebert614 – The Curtain Jerker
“I thought this week’s RAW was much better than last week’s. We got Brock Lesnar making an appearance, and for the first time in three weeks, a face-to-face meeting between the men who will face each other for the WWE Universal Championship, Finn Balor and Seth Rollins. Even the furthering of the Rusev-Roman Reigns program for their U.S. Title match at SummerSlam was intriguing. The only downside I had was the fact that we are going to get Sheamus and Cesaro in a Best of Seven series with nothing on the line at this point (no offense to Cesaro, he’s great), and some of the promos went quite long, which can be boring.
On SmackDown Live, we got another heated and intense Dean Ambrose-Dolph Ziggler promo to further intrigue us into their WWE World Heavyweight Title match. Also, a great ending as we thought AJ Styles would attack John Cena before their match at SummerSlam, but Cena was able to turn the tables and put Styles through one. SmackDown Live’s tag-team division is heating up, as well as their women’s division. It’s amazing to see SmackDown Live do more with two hours and a smaller roster than RAW in three hours with a bigger one.”
Winner – SmackDown Live
Tybo Ledson – @Tybo_SLTD – Tybo Talks
“I think both Raw and SmackDown Live were more important than most this week, as it was the go home of each show before SummerSlam, and they both pulled out some stops.
Now, if you have been reading the last few weeks, you will know I have mentioned the fact that Raw feels far too long. Although I still think this is the case, this week’s Raw was a much easier watch. But it wasn’t without its issues. In my opinion, two of what seemed to be the best things were actually what annoyed me the most. Firstly, having Balor come out painted up as the ‘Demon King’ should not have happened, they should have held off ’til SummerSlam. Secondly, and similarly, Reigns vs. Rusev (although an amazing match, best of the show) should not have happened on Raw. What are they going to bring to SummerSlam that we didn’t see on Monday?
SmackDown, once again felt like the perfect-sized show. Miz TV with Ambrose and Ziggler was great, again with amazing promo work from them both. I think the main reason why SmackDown seems to be the show to watch is because they are always developing the storylines and something significant happens every week.
There was the progression of Eva Marie’s, Heath Slater’s and Bray Wyatt’s storylines to name a few. Then there is the growing tag and women’s division, whereas Raw just feels the same every week and nothing has really changed since the split. It’s for these reasons that I once again have to go with team blue. I’m hoping the addition of the new Universal Championship will help Raw next week.”
Winner – SmackDown Live
Tom Robinson – @TomRobinson5199 – Armbar Analysis
“While SmackDown continued to deliver, RAW also pulled a lot more out of the bag heading into SummerSlam.
Unsettling from a ratings standpoint was RAW being unable to crack the three million viewership mark for a second week in a row, mostly due to the Olympics. Three hour shows are hard to sit through and stay invested in throughout. Despite this, RAW did a great job this week. The Roman Reigns and Rusev stuff was good. The Finn Balor and Seth Rollins stuff was good. The Brock Lesnar and Heath Slater segment was a great angle. In terms of promoting the three most important SummerSlam matches for their brand, RAW hit all the right notes.
On the other hand, SmackDown continued down the same path that they’ve been on in the last few weeks.
Ziggler super-kicking Ambrose after a pretty darn good promo did an excellent job in making the viewers care more about the match. To SmackDown’s credit, they did the best job they could at promoting the idea that this match is a lot more important to both men then it seems. It’s more than just another match on the card.
Along with this, we got strong work from John Cena and AJ Styles, as well as the next page in the Heath Slater story involving Randy Orton destroying the man.
This was a hard one to decide as both shows were very good. RAW’s main event programs were well executed but was it enough to give them the edge over SmackDown? Personally, I don’t think so.
I feel kind of bad for punishing RAW for having a third hour again, but there was a lot of “filler” content that wasn’t exciting enough to me. On SmackDown however, every segment on the show had a legitimate purpose. RAW delivered but SmackDown only just won this Brand Warfare.”
Winner – SmackDown Live
For the third straight week, SmackDown Live captures Team SLTD’s vote in a clean sweep! If the last two instalments of Brand Warfare are anything to go by, that means the blue brand is in with a serious chance to go 3-1 next week! But can Raw somehow overcome the odds and even things up as we speed past SummerSlam and into autumn? That’s completely up to you! Leave your vote right down below, and let us know in the comments why you feel the brand you chose put on the better show this week. 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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