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: MATCHES

Raw = Effectively three squash matches and a no-contest due to crotch cream negates any positive things Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre (which naturally had to end in a DQ) and Ricochet and Robert Roode did.

SmackDown = The Usos got a decent match out of Daniel Bryan and Rowan, the triple threat in the main event was better than the stuff on Raw, and the rest of it was a wash.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 2: PROMOS

Raw = 25 minutes for the first set of promos. Lacey Evans struggling with her promo. A backstage segment with Natalya, Naomi and Dana Brooke that wasn't great. The Usos doing their shtick. Even Sami Zayn didn't get a chance to really shine this week.

SmackDown = At least they didn't botch things like what happened on Raw.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 3: STORYLINES

Raw = The one and only thing that I felt was a positive step forward in a feud for the Raw side of things this week was Ricochet having to defend his Money in the Bank spot against Robert Roode.

SmackDown = Kevin Owens and Kofi Kingston didn't have too much advancement, the MITB competitors were stripped down to some basics, The Miz attacked Shane McMahon again in nothing that is all that different from before and Lars Sullivan keeps beating people up. This was a nothing episode.

WINNER: No winner

FACTOR 4: SCHEDULING / PACING

Raw = The content of this week's Raw wasn't great, but at least the flow of it wasn't bad. Thumbs up on this one.

SmackDown = I was fine with the pacing of SmackDown, too. Content could have been better, but the scheduling wasn't bad.

WINNER: Raw ties SmackDown

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Raw gains a point for Charly Caruso feeling like a more natural backstage interviewer by talking to the production crew to follow her and keep rolling on the story. (That should be a natural thing and yet, it's so rare that it gets a bonus point for being different).

Raw loses points for the stupid bit between The Usos and The Revival, because it's just that bad, as well as the booking of saying this was going to be an unforgettable Raw and then doing nothing all that much different from what a regular episode was. WWE's response to low ratings was "let's do nothing different, but maybe put some of the SmackDown people on here and undo the brand split, sort of."

SmackDown gains a point for actually having the tag titles on the line in a match instead of just being awarded to Daniel Bryan and Rowan, but loses a point for advertising a match that was changed yet again (is it really that hard to plan this out a day in advance?) and another point for Matt Hardy's poor acting on the "it's him!" Lars Sullivan segment.

POINT ADJUSTMENTS: Raw (+1 / -2) / SmackDown (+1 / -2)