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 = Unfortunately, Raw was riddled with boring and uninteresting matches. One of the biggest offenders was Chelsea Green's Raw debut against Charlotte Flair, which was very lethargic and boring. To say this was Green's Raw debut, it was presented as a throwaway bout with little to no fanfare.

Squash matches featured heavily on Raw this week, and this was in part because of the holiday season. Squash matches are best used to get the winner over, however Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Rusev and Ricochet didn't feel more over as a result of their squash victories.

SmackDown = The match quality on SmackDown was significantly better than Raw, mainly because the show didn't feel like a seasonal holiday episode that was phoning it in. Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz and King Corbin to become the number 1 contender to Bray Wyatt's WWE Universal Championship, which was the result fans were clamouring for. The match was an exciting display of the talent on offer on SmackDown, and thoroughly deserved to be the main event of the show.

Carmella continued her revival with another victory, this time over Mandy Rose. The match was nothing to write home about, but Carmella put in a good performance. The New Day also put in a good performance as they teamed with Braun Strowman to defeat Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn in a great encounter. Strowman put in a strong shift, but it was The New Day that shone the most.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 2: PROMOS

Raw = Promos were light in quality this week, however Samoa Joe's commentary during the show ending angle with Seth Rollins and The Authors of Pain was well thought out. Joe looked incredibly strong, whilst also getting the point of the angle over through his commentary. This most likely will spark his return to in ring competition, but he has been gold on commentary.

SmackDown = Lacey Evans defended her daughter on A Moment of Bliss, which was a heartfelt performance from Evans. She put across the importance of her relationship with her daughter, and this successfully presented her as a face the fans can get behind. It was a simple yet effective way to highlight how far Evans has come over the past few weeks.

Dolph Ziggler played up to his slimy heel role by hitting on Mandy Rose. Everything he said was creepy and disgusting, whilst Rose allowed herself to be won over by his so called charm. This was an effective segment, albeit a creepy one.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 3: STORYLINES

Raw = Storylines were pushed to the side this week as a result of the holiday season. Seth Rollins managed to ramp up his heelish character by taking Samoa Joe out, which was an effective way to get heat, especially as Rey Mysterio was also taken out by Rollins and The Authors of Pain. With Brock Lesnar on his annual hiatus, it is great to see Rollins feature as the premier heel on Raw in such an effective way.

SmackDown = Daniel Bryan will resume his feud with Bray Wyatt, however The Fiend will be the one to compete against Bryan at the Royal Rumble. Both wrestlers are over with fans, which means the build to their match will be unmissable television.

Lacey Evans continued her feud with Bayley and Sasha Banks, and despite being defeated by Bayley and Banks, Evans looked strong in defeat. Evans has surprisingly gotten over with the fans in her new face persona, which appears to be bringing out the best in Evans. Dana Brooke is also benefitting from this feud as she too looked strong in defeat.

WINNER: SmackDown

FACTOR 4: SCHEDULING / PACING

Raw = This show felt like a holiday season special, which is exactly what it was. The show was lethargic and uninteresting, with the 3 hour runtime unfortunately dragging.

SmackDown = SmackDown felt much more vibrant as it included great matches and interesting storylines. It was also much appreciated that the show only took up 2 hours viewing time.

WINNER: SmackDown

EXTRA CREDIT BONUS ROUND!!!

Raw gains points for the exciting show ending angle between Seth Rollins, The Authors of Pain, Samoa Joe and Rey Mysterio. It was a great way to end the show considering the sheer lack of quality in the rest of the show, whilst also confirming that Seth Rollins and The Authors of Pain are the premier heels on Raw.

Raw loses points for the sheer amount of squash matches on offer. They added nothing to the show, and none of the winners truly benefitted from their victory.

SmackDown gains points for putting on a proper episode of SmackDown, rather than going down the admittedly easy route of putting on a holiday special episode.

SmackDown also gains points for the strong manner in which Daniel Bryan won, which sets him up well to compete against The Fiend.

SmackDown loses points for once again hinting at an extended storyline between Mandy Rose and Otis. It had an Adam Sandler in Waterboy feel to it this week, and unfortunately for me, I did not find it funny.

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


With a score of 5 to 0, SmackDown wins this week's Battle of the Brands. Raw was once again a poor show, whilst SmackDown put on what was essentially a standard episode. SmackDown felt vibrant and interesting, whilst Raw was lacklustre and boring.