Raw vs. Smackdown: The War Rages On

The war continues, or at least that’s what the WWE wants you to believe. This week marked Week Two in the “war” between the WWE’s two branded television shows; Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live. In week one, the WWE presented a blow away show that the SmackDown team could not touch. However, in the follow up week, Monday Night RAW was closer to the type of show that fans became used to ever since RAW moved to a three-hour format. SmackDown, on the other hand, flowed nicely and was much easier to watch than it’s Monday night “competition.”

THE “A” SHOW

There were three highlights to the RAW telecast. Randy Orton attacking Brock Lesnar out of nowhere was fantastically presented. For once, Michael Cole was able to use the line “RKO out of nowhere!” where it actually made sense. One of the mistakes the WWE seems to make is when a wrestler comes down to ringside, they have the need to play that person’s music. It’s especially true when someone like John Cena is saving a wrestler from an attack. “I know my buddy is getting attacked by three other wrestlers, but PA guy, can you hit my music so I can save him from this beat down?” Nothing is more infuriating. Having Orton come through the crowd, and get into the ring without the camera picking it up made the RKO even more shocking. The addition of Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon crying foul helped to remind people that there is a brand split, and that Randy Orton was not a welcome visitor. This inter-promotional feud needed a physical interaction between Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar to really give their upcoming SummerSlam match a little juice (no pun intended, Brock). It was a great way to end the show.

The match of the night was the Sami Zayn vs. Seth Rollins match. These two men never wrestled against each other in any promotion, so it was interesting to see Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn lock up for the first time. Although, since this was a first time match, the WWE should have built it up for a week and promoted it. Maybe they would have been able to pop a rating. The match did not disappoint. For a twelve-minute television match, it was very good. They proved that, if given twenty plus minutes on a pay per view, Seth Rollins vs. Sami Zayn would probably tear down the house.

The performer of the night had to be Chris Jericho. Right now, Jericho is doing incredible work as a heel. Chris Jericho should be taking time off soon to concentrate on his non-WWE activities. When he does eventually come back, he should remain a heel. As a matter of fact, Chris Jericho should never, ever be a baby face again. Jericho is a tremendous heel. The thing that separates Chris Jericho from all of the other wrestlers in the WWE is that he constantly reinvents himself. When The Rock leaves and comes back, he’s still giving the fans the same old “Finally, The Rock has…” shtick that he’s been spewing since 1997. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but Chris Jericho knows that for him not to get stale, he needs to change with the times. While my favorite incarnation of Jericho was the Nick Bonkwinkle inspired heel that he played when he feuded with Shawn Michaels, his current heel character is tremendous. This Jericho is the most douchey heel character in wrestling. He’s funny, but in a heel way that gets him heat inside of turning him into the “cool” heel to cheer. Monday night gave the fans a perfect example of why he’s so great. He single-handedly saved the opening segment of RAW that was dying a slow death. Charlotte and Sasha Banks are not fully to blame. It had to be very nerve wrecking for the two to open the RAW television show for the first time. Chris Jericho’s backstage interview was also very entertaining as he talked about his $700 scarf and made up the name Jimmarvin Luetter as the name of the person watching his back. When Kevin Owens told Jericho that he had Jericho’s back, Chris talked like it was Owens all along that he had to watch out for him. This upcoming Enzo and Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens feud may not be a wrestling clinic. However, the promos and build up should feature a lot of great promos. This should be fun.

SMACKDOWN

Like RAW, this week’s SmackDown telecast was highlighted by three segments. The Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose confrontation really added a big time feel to their upcoming SummerSlam WWE championship bout. Last week, many fans were disappointed that Dolph Ziggler was named the #1 contender. After so many stop and start pushes for the Shawn Michaels clone, a lot of fans have given up on the former World Heavyweight champion. However, his promo on SmackDown was probably the best of his career. It came off like a worked shoot promo. Although, what sold the promo was Dolph Ziggler’s delivery. The best promos are the ones in which it appears that the wrestler truly believes in what he is saying. Ziggler’s delivery of the promo was filled with a passion and presentation that he never presented before. There were no jokes or cute catch phrases. He didn’t smile at the camera or pander to the fans. He was deadly serious, and it really made the promo seem like an old school promo. Dean Ambrose did a great job as well. I expected the usual Ambrose style promo, but instead, he kept it just as serious. While the Ambrose/Ziggler match didn’t have a big fight feel just a week ago, the WWE’s first attempt at building their SummerSlam match helped make it seem like their match was a major match on the upcoming pay per view. All championship matches should be built this way.

The second highlight of the night included the two week wait for the debut of American Alpha to the main WWE roster. They didn’t deliver a match of the year, but it was good for a debut match. It’s been heavily rumored that SmackDown would be getting their own tag team championships. After only one match, the American Alpha are already the brand’s top tag team. They should become the brand’s first tag team champions. However, the WWE, if they really are going to have another tag team championship, needs to beef up the division in a hurry. Sorry, but the Vaudevillians, Breezango, the Usos, the Major Brothers, the Ascension, and American Alpha does not make people long for the glory days of tag team wrestling from the mid-eighties and late-nineties. The WWE needs to either go into places like Ring of Honor and sign teams like the Briscos or they need to develop some new teams internally. Otherwise, having one great team on SmackDown will be a waste of Jason Jordan and Chad Gable’s tremendous talents.

The final major act on the show featured Brock Lesnar showing up on SmackDown, and hitting Randy Orton with his patented F5 finisher. Unlike Randy Orton, you saw Brock coming. This made perfect sense from a character perspective, as Lesnar doesn’t need to sneak attack anyone. He’ll just bull rush any obstacles in his way, and eliminate his target. When he was being asked to leave by Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan, Lesnar didn’t put up a fuss and mentioned that the only reason he was there was because Orton attacked him first. He was returning the favor. Lesnar was very justified in his actions, and it made storyline sense as to why a RAW wrestler would show up on SmackDown.

THE END RESULT

SmackDown also featured a fourth major segment. AJ Styles had an in-ring confrontation with John Cena where AJ challenged Cena to a one on one match at SummerSlam. The angle was well done. However, that’s not surprising as every mic battle the two have had since this rivalry started has been great. Even though RAW had three great segments to counter SmackDown’s three big segments, the AJ Styles/John Cena promo puts SmackDown over the top as the show to watch this week. Having four key segments in a two-hour block instead of 3-4 segments in a three-hour time frame gives SmackDown the leg up on RAW for this week. If you are keeping score regarding who is winning the war, based on quality, it’s a dead heat at one week to one week. As far as ratings, RAW is up 2-0. However, the rivalry is just beginning.