When it comes to comparing WWE’s signature shows, we need to look at a few different categories. Sometimes it’s not so easy to argue that one show did a better job than the other. It comes down to numerous factors including match quality, promo segments, storyline development and the number of memorable moments. Here is the first instalment of the ‘Battle of the Brands’ article series where we take a look at which WWE episode stood out against its rival.
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#1 Match Quality: Winner – Raw
The match of the night for Raw was, of course, the triple threat between Bray Wyatt, Finn Balor, and eventual winner Samoa Joe. This match was far too low down on the card, but don’t let that take away from the thoroughly enjoyable, captivating action between three of the five competitors in Sunday’s main event.
The dynamics of this match worked very well. It took a little while for the two heels to team up on the babyface, which is usually what happens almost straight away in these kinds of affairs. The fact that this was delayed really complemented the Bray and Joe characters well, as neither are supposed to be the cowardly heels that take shortcuts (at least in theory). Both wanted to show their dominance leading into Sunday, no matter who they had to beat down to do it.
The match also allowed Finn some time to show what he could do against two larger opponents. Being the smallest guy in the fatal five-way match on Sunday means he will have to rely on moves he pulled from his arsenal here. There was one noticeable botch when Finn attempted a sling blade on Bray Wyatt, leading up to the finish, where he couldn’t execute it exactly right. Nevertheless, this was a very strong contender, not only for match of the night but of the week as well.
The main event of the show, which saw former Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns go head to head, was a fairly strong runner-up as well. These two have had plenty of time together throughout their careers and know each other very well. The bout was probably just a little too evenly matched.
Considering Roman Reign’s victory over The Undertaker is still fresh in our memories, I would like to see Roman dominate more matches and make it feel like a bigger deal when somebody comes close to beating him. The right guy did win, however, and it set things up very nicely for Sunday.
There certainly weren’t any terrible matches on Raw, and the main featured bouts were all entertaining enough to make the match quality more than passable. SmackDown had a fairly decent outing as well, but there weren’t any standout matches that we’ll be taking away from last night. The main event between AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler was perhaps the match of the night overall, but it’s safe to say Raw put on the better in-ring action.
Also read: 5 mistakes committed by WWE this week: 30th May 2017
#2 Promo Quality: Winner – SmackDown
When it came to the ‘This is your life’ segment, perhaps it’s best to place this under the ‘at least they tried’ file. But Alexa Bliss’s promo segment was relevant to the match on Sunday. The story they are currently going with here is that Bayley might not have it in her to ‘get extreme’. Alexa, therefore, portrayed Bayley as an innocent daddy’s girl, talking to people from her past who were able to clarify as much.
The content might have been a little cringeworthy, and it’s never good when the crowd start shouting ‘boring’, but I think it’s to Alexa’s credit that she kept her composure and made it through to the end without too much trouble. Anyone who is criticising this segment too harshly needs to remember that anything lasting five minutes is better than we usually get from the women’s division when it comes to promos.
This was a week in which Raw relied more on the wrestling than promo work, which is strange considering this is the go home show for Extreme Rules. I would have preferred at least one talking segment where all five competitors for Sunday’s main event were in the ring at the same time, and we also didn’t really get much dialogue between The Miz and Ambrose on Miz TV. Go home shows are traditionally more about building up the suspense on the microphone than giving away too much of the PPV action for free.
SmackDown, on the other hand, did a much better job of building up their Money in the Bank PPV, despite it still being three weeks away. The show started with Kevin Owens’ Highlight Reel, which is a nice placeholder for them until Jericho comes back. Kevin is one of the company’s best talkers right now, and it is good for him to have his own show like this. He managed to keep the opening segment entertaining despite having two much weaker talkers in the ring with him.
The highlight probably came during the New Day and Usos segment. The Usos are showing a side to them we always knew they had right. All it took was a strategic heel turn for the brothers to showcase their real talking talents. The New Day are all very accomplished in that area in their own rights, especially Xavier Woods. I'm looking forward to seeing more promo segments between these two teams in the next few weeks.
Randy Orton also delivered a response to Jinder Mahal after losing his WWE Championship at Backlash. It was a typical Orton promo, nothing special but very to the point. Randy isn’t someone who can show much diversity with his mic skills which let the second half of the show down a little, but at least it was short.
#3 Storyline Advancement: Winner - Raw
Raw’s main strength this week was in its storyline advancement. Several different threads were running through the episode, like the mysterious revelations involving Kurt Angle, and the fact that Cory Graves was the one to bring it up to him. It’s said that Stephanie McMahon could be the one behind the texting scandal, setting up a return to RAW in order to ‘ruin’ the RAW GM, according to the Wrestling Observer. Angle and Stephanie have a lot of history, thus it makes sense for such an angle to play out.
You also had the Enzo Amore angle, leaving us all guessing as to who has been attacking him this past couple of weeks. It was a nice touch to see Big Cass come out to the commentator's booth and stare down Cory Graves after the colour commentator made some comments about him.
You also had the continuation of the story between Alexa Bliss and Bayley. While the execution wasn’t perfect, we know more about the dynamics of the match on Sunday, which has made it feel like more than just another WWE women’s wrestling match.
It would have been nice to see Paul Heyman again this week, as the back and forth between him and Balor last time left many people anticipating some kind of progression in the Finn Balor character. Perhaps we will know more about this next week. Overall, however, Raw certainly kept us interested in all the backstage, storyline plots, which is what WWE is supposed to be doing.
SmackDown is finding itself caught in a bit of a ruck at the moment. It’s next PPV is not for another three weeks, and considering we’ve known who the competitors for the MITB match are, the best the show can do is give us some kind of variation between the six of them. This week Dolph and AJ were split off to do their own thing while the other four competed in tag team action. Last week it was Zayn and Corbin who took centre stage. Expect a lot more of this until the PPV.
The WWE Championship picture wasn’t really added to either. Orton’s promo was pretty mediocre and said pretty much what we’d expect him to say. Other than the main title matches, there’s not a lot happening on SmackDown at the moment. The Fashion Police are still providing some good comic relief; however, it’s just a shame not many people are going to care about their new feud with the Colons.
#4 Shocking Moments: Winner – SmackDown
SmackDown arguably had the more shocking moments of the week, but that’s not really saying a whole lot. The first such moment came with the long-anticipated SmackDown debut of The New Day. In the weeks leading up to Wrestlemania 33, New Day felt as if they were on the decline, and a split between them felt like the best option for a while.
However, bursting onto Tuesday nights, interrupting The Usos in the process, the three men reminded us all that they really can bring the entertainment factor to a sports entertainment show. This is the perfect feud for both New Day and The Usos at the moment, and it felt like last night we got just a little taste of what is to come. At least four of the five guys involved in this makeup SmackDown’s best talkers right now, so we should all be very excited to see where this goes.
The second moment of the night came when Shane McMahon announced the very first women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. It’s a privilege to be living through the days of the women’s revolution because we have become used to seeing many ‘firsts’, the first ever Ironwoman match, first ever women’s Hell in a Cell match, and now this. And the build up to the announcement was brilliantly done as well.
Initially, it was a shock to see this match not main event the show, but once you realised what they were doing, it all made perfect sense. The match didn’t even get started, as all of the women just began beating on each other before the bell. This showed the levels of intricate detail SmackDown still puts into its female division, and the show was a whole lot better for this.
Raw feels like it is building up to a few revelations, but nothing really happened this week to make us double take. The Kurt story is interesting, but we don’t know enough about it yet, and the Enzo beat down angle is also yet to come to its conclusion.
#5 Overall Enjoyment: Winner – Raw
It was a relatively close call in terms of enjoyment factor this week. SmackDown didn’t really do anything wrong, but Raw just had a bit more to it. The women’s segment on Tuesday night was entertaining enough, but the opening segment and main event were nothing special. Raw had some great in-ring quality and tried its best to deliver an out of the ordinary promo between Alexa and Bayley.
SmackDown always has the advantage of being a two-hour show, as opposed to three hours, making it feel like less of a chore to sit through. However, Raw did manage to pass through its three hours without much of a need to skip forward.
Overall Winner: Raw 3-2
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