During the Ruthless Aggression Era, do you think Smackdown! was overrated as a brand show by fans?

[Aztecwarrior480]

People often tell me how Smackdown was better than Raw during the early part of the Ruthless Aggression era but I honestly don't think so. If anything, I found Smackdown not boring but not as adrenaline pumping as Raw was. The only thing I liked about Smackdown during that time was The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle. Raw had so many extreme matches and main events, despite that Triple H was hogging up all of the stardom during that era(which probably may be the reason why people preferred Smackdown). In fact, nearly all of the Elimination Chamber matches were only for the Raw brand wrestlers during the time other than No Way Out 2008(The very end of the Ruthless Aggression Era). Raw was also more edgier with their segments and storylines between wrestlers.

These were the reasons why I preferred Raw over Smackdown during that time.

 

[Roadster]

3 Reasons RAW Sucked
1.) RAW was nearly always just a filler from the Opener to the Main Event.
2.) Very few people broke into the Main Event, and stayed there.
3.) Not very many stars were on the roster.

3 Reason SmackDown was better
1.) WAY better mid-card
2.) Almost every break-out star in the early 2000s got there start on SmackDown
3.) Long running, and intense storylines (i.e JBL and Eddie Guerrero which ran for a good 4 months, and it centered around JBL running off Mexicans from the border and giving Eddie's mom a heart attack)

 

[The GOAT]

Not overrated at all in my book. Whether you think it was better than Raw was at the time or not, it was still an excellent show well worth all the praise that it gets (and I'm mainly referring to Paul Heyman's Smackdown, circa 2002-2003, since you mentioned "near the beginning of the brand extension" in your post.) If you're a fan of pure wrestling, Smackdown was the show to watch during that time. You had Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, etc. tearing it up every night, and look at the great plethora of championship matches that we were treated with during that period - Brock vs Undertaker inside the cell, Brock vs Angle at Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and in an Iron Man match on Smackdown, Angle vs Benoit at the Rumble, Brock vs Benoit on Smackdown, Brock vs Angle vs Big Show in a triple threat at Vengeance, Eddie vs Brock at No Way Out '04, Eddie vs Angle at WMXX, etc. It also wasn't without it's share of memorable "sports-entertainment" moments, such as Brock superplexing Big Show and causing the ring to collapse, or the "gay marriage" between Billy and Chuck that featured Eric Bischoff in a rather impressive make-up job.

That's not to say Raw wasn't a good show, too. If you could get past Triple H hogging the spotlight and putting himself over promising young talents like Booker T. and a red-hot RVD, there was plenty to enjoy in the undercard, but we're talking purely about Smackdown here, and Smackdown had one of it's best periods ever during this time.

 

[Aztecwarrior480]

Not overrated at all in my book. Whether you think it was better than Raw was at the time or not, it was still an excellent show well worth all the praise that it gets (and I'm mainly referring to Paul Heyman's Smackdown, circa 2002-2003, since you mentioned "near the beginning of the brand extension" in your post.) If you're a fan of pure wrestling, Smackdown was the show to watch during that time. You had Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, etc. tearing it up every night, and look at the great plethora of championship matches that we were treated with during that period - Brock vs Undertaker inside the cell, Brock vs Angle at Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and in an Iron Man match on Smackdown, Angle vs Benoit at the Rumble, Brock vs Benoit on Smackdown, Brock vs Angle vs Big Show in a triple threat at Vengeance, Eddie vs Brock at No Way Out '04, Eddie vs Angle at WMXX, etc. It also wasn't without it's share of memorable "sports-entertainment" moments, such as Brock superplexing Big Show and causing the ring to collapse, or the "gay marriage" between Billy and Chuck that featured Eric Bischoff in a rather impressive make-up job.

That's not to say Raw wasn't a good show, too. If you could get past Triple H hogging the spotlight and putting himself over promising young talents like Booker T. and a red-hot RVD, there was plenty to enjoy in the undercard, but we're talking purely about Smackdown here, and Smackdown had one of it's best periods ever during this time.

I mean it's not to say that Smackdown was ever a bad or boring show, just that outside of the pure technical wrestling aspect of Smackdown(which is the one of the few things that I liked about Smackdown), Smackdown hardly ever had much extreme main events in their PPV events during the RA era(Hell in a Cell at No Mercy 2002, Biker Chain match at No Mercy 2003). Raw on the other hand, had a lot of non-regular matches in their PPV events(No Holds Barred, Hell In A Cell, Elimination Chamber, Street Fight matches and so on) and few episodes that you'll almost never see on Smackdown and sometime even a few regular Raw episode.

 

[Aztecwarrior480]

3 Reasons RAW Sucked
1.) RAW was nearly always just a filler from the Opener to the Main Event.
2.) Very few people broke into the Main Event, and stayed there.
3.) Not very many stars were on the roster.

3 Reason SmackDown was better
1.) WAY better mid-card
2.) Almost every break-out star in the early 2000s got there start on SmackDown
3.) Long running, and intense storylines (i.e JBL and Eddie Guerrero which ran for a good 4 months, and it centered around JBL running off Mexicans from the border and giving Eddie's mom a heart attack)

And what about Triple H vs Shawn Michael's intense rivalry(although they're from Raw at the time) that literally lasted for 2 years? Of all the intense Smackdown rivalries that I really felt pumped up for during the Ruthless Agression era, it was between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio.

 

[Roadster]

And what about Triple H vs Shawn Michael's intense rivalry(although they're from Raw at the time) that literally lasted for 2 years? Of all the intense Smackdown rivalries that I really felt pumped up for during the Ruthless Agression era, it was between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio.

Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels was boring. Seeing two 40 year olds fighting for 2 years gets redundant.