Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Battle of the Brands from Smark Out Moment, where we compare this week's episodes of Raw and SmackDown and determine which one of the two was the better show.

BATTLE OF THE BRANDS:

RAW vs. SMACKDOWN

FACTOR 1: CROWD

To be honest, I can't remember a distinction.

WINNER: Raw / SmackDown (tie)

FACTOR 2: COMMENTARY

SmackDown takes this, because Raw got annoying with all the plugs for Glass. I want to see the film and I bought my ticket weeks ago, but holy crap, stop repeating the same thing.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 3: MATCHES

Raw had two standout matches in the Triple Threat and Fatal 4-Way with the rest being forgettable. SmackDown had one good match with Andrade vs. Rey Mysterio and the rest were blah. By sheer math, Raw wins out, just barely.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 4: PROMOS

SmackDown had more promos (Becky Lynch/Asuka/IIconics, AJ Styles, The Usos story, Miz/McMahon) but I wasn't thrilled about any of them. Raw had quicker snippets and I think they were more effective.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 5: STORYLINES

SmackDown had a generic Asuka and Becky dick measuring contest, a repeat of some of the same Jimmy Uso and Mandy Rose material (but taken to the next level, of course), a repeat of Almas and Mysterio, etc.

Meanwhile, Raw had a few blunders, but they took Braun Strowman out of the Universal Championship match, established a new No. 1 contender, crowned a new intercontinental champion and revealed the women's tag titles.

WINNER: Raw

FACTOR 6: SCHEDULING / PACING

Surprisingly, Raw was the better structured show this week in my mind, starting with the Strowman angle and carrying that out here and there to revisit it.

WINNER: Raw

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Raw gains a point for Finn Balor's treatment, another for Bobby Lashley's title win, the reveal of the women's tag titles and establishing that Elimination Chamber will be when that happens, allowing Nikki Cross to wrestle a match and another point for the Alexa Bliss topless thing because, well, c'mon.

SmackDown gets a bonus point for subverting expectations by having Jimmy Uso bring Naomi with him, rather than try to make it seem like he was actually interested in having sex with Mandy Rose and cheating on his wife. However, SmackDown loses a point for the name change between Andrade "Cien" Almas and just "Andrade"

POINT ADJUSTMENTS: Raw (+5 / -0) / SmackDown (+1 / -1)


This was an easy pick this week and the total score is overwhelmingly in Raw's favor. It was the first episode of Raw in a while where I felt like I got my time's worth.