With Survivor Series this Sunday, Raw and SmackDown are set to go head to head in three traditional Survivor Series elimination style matches. We can ultimately discuss to the end of time who will win and enter our predictions in the SLTD Predictions League, but the bigger question is, who should win? Which brand actually deserves to come out on top in these matches and what makes the most storyline sense? So let’s go through each match.
The Tag Team Match
The tag team elimination match is a strange one because you’ll effectively have 10 superstars on each side of the ring, which visibly won’t be a great match to follow – at least until some teams get eliminated. The Raw team definitely have the bigger superstars, with the New Day, Enzo & Cass, The Club and Sheamus & Cesaro (note I left out The Shining Stars). This would lead me to think that SmackDown Live definitely need the win here.
SmackDown Live have a mixture of talents on their team, from up and coming talents like American Alpha, to more established talents like The Usos. It feels like the SmackDown superstars like Breezango and even the SmackDown Live tag team champions Heath & Rhyno would benefit more from a victory. This would mainly legitimise their tag team division as the perception is that Raw currently have the better tag teams.
The Women’s Match
Similarly to the tag team match, the women’s division on Raw has the bigger names, with Charlotte, Sasha and Bayley. Having said that, SmackDown do have names such as Becky Lynch and Nikki Bella, meaning this could go either way. Ultimately, between the tag team match and the women’s match, the victories are going to be divided one a piece between brands, setting up the men’s match as the decider.
My personal view is again that SmackDown Live should walk away with the win, and need it more than Raw. The Raw women’s division has had a couple of main events in the last few months and the first ever Women’s HIAC match. They have definitely been shown precedent. A women’s win for SmackDown Live would solidify their division and show as a whole, and come away from the misconception that Raw is the flagship show.
The Men’s Match
This match is probably most difficult to decide. With both brands having a great lineup full of established and upcoming superstars, the teams are almost on a level playing field. Looking at each brands men’s division, Raw obviously has the slightly bigger roster, being the three hour show, whereas SmackDown has the more established superstars overall, with Orton, Cena, Styles, Ambrose and now The Undertaker.
SmackDown Live probably does deserve the win here, more as a reward for being the better show. Obviously this is helped by the show being 2 hours so is easier to sit through, but SmackDown have had the better product with actual stories developing feuds. While the red team do need the victory more, the win for Raw would just be wasted. Saying that, I definitely expect Raw to win this match on Sunday.
So it’s a clean sweep for SmackDown then, mostly to solidify and reward their dominance since the brand split. With Raw being a three hour advert, wins for the brand would not have as big an impact as the wins would for SmackDown Live.
What do you think? Who deserves and needs the victories more?
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