Ladies and gentlemen, here we go. A new era of wrestling is upon us. Let’s be grateful for what is the new path taken just to please the people in charge at the USA network. Is there anything in it for us? Well, yes. We get a kayfabe sibling rivalry mayonnaise spread out over two separate pieces of bread called Raw, white bread, and Smackdown Live, whole grain (I’m working on my metaphors). The idea is that the audience will choose one, because they like that one more than the other, but in reality, they’ll stuff us with as much bread as possible. White bread (how you doin’?), brown bread (how you doin’?), corn bread (how you doin’?), baguettes (comment allez-vous?). Why am I writing about bread? I guess, because I’m hungry…
So let’s play this little game the McMahons are playing. Let’s say Raw and Smackdown are each others’ competition. Let’s say the WWE isn’t playing real life monopoly. Let’s say every week it’s Raw versus Smackdown. Then the question is who won Raw vs Smackdown July 25th & 26th 2016?
In this piece I’ll write about my thoughts, memorable moments, annoyances and confusions. I’ll score each show based on my opinion. My opinion. Me. I’ll pick my show of the week, which will get 1 point. You guys can share your thoughts in the comments. Depending on which show you guys liked best that show will be granted 1 point as well. Next week they’ll be a new round and 2 more points will be handed out. So on and so forth.
So, who won this week?
First of all I have to mention the semi makeover both shows have received. The intros have changed and the overall look and feel has been redesigned. And the camera angles… Smackdown’s camera angles… Lucha Underground anyone? So here’s where I have to give points to Raw. The intro was better and the overall feel had more “attitude”. SD was too much too soon for me. I couldn’t get used to the camera angles. Specially during the battle royal where one corner of the ring was predominantly on screen whilst the others (where the action was happening) weren’t. Maybe it’ll grow on me. Maybe.
Then Raw started off with a great Fatal-4-Way to determine who would battle in the main event for the opportunity to fight Seth Rollins at Summerslam. The match was great, but predictable. Finn Balor was not going to lose his debut match. Later on Raw another Fatal-4-Way determined that Roman “I incorporate 16 superman punches in a singles match” Reigns would face Finn Balor in the main event. Smackdown kicked off with an obligatory YES-chant, which Daniel and Shane use to jedi-mind trick everyone into cheering, followed by a battle royal to determine who would be the 6th person to fight in the six pack main event match which would determine who’d fight Dean Ambrose at Summerslam… So many things were determined on these two shows…The six men competing in the SD main event were selected one by one, in a tedious opening segment, resulting into me being bored out of my socks. And I mean completely out. No socks were to be found. I had to go shopping for new socks because of Smackdown Live. Black socks by the way (my girlfriend doesn’t allow white socks into the house… the urban legends are true, guys).
Another thing that was determined was that Raw will have it’s own championship title. Two things bothered me. First, the name. Raw’s title will be called the WWE Universal Championship. Universal? Does this mean the WWE will be scouting for wrestlers in distant galaxies? And what are the odds that Seth Rollins, once he wins the title sooner or later, is going to call himself Mr. Universe? “Not only am I the best in the world, I’m the best in the entire universe (insert fake evil laugh)!”. The other thing that bothered me is the credibility of the championship. Dean Ambrose is the champion, technically. So, whoever wins the Universal championship (sigh…) is still going to be second best to Dean Ambrose, or any other Smackdown champion.
Anyway, let’s talk Summerslam. So Raw and Smackdown gave us two Summerslam matches. Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler. Finn Balor is going to get a big push, but will they put the title on him so quickly after his debut? Against Seth Rollins? At Summerslam? This one’s too hard to predict. It would be huge if they did, but they might have to consider that the mainstream viewer still has to get to know Finn Balor. I’m going with Seth Rollins winning the title, but there’s a big twist written all over it. Will the Club interfere?
The other match is far more predictable. Ambrose is going to win his match against Ziggler. His run won’t be sacrificed just to show that Smackdown doesn’t have a glass ceiling. Talking about glass ceilings, It seems to me that Raw’s superstars had for more opportunities this week than SD’s. Shane is losing me on his “we give the wrestlers all the opportunities there are” thing.
Other things I disliked were Braun Strowman on Raw and the women’s segment on Smackdown. Braun Strowman came out to have a match against an unknown wrestler who was 1/8th the man Strowman is. He was basically destroyed and it didn’t seem like Strowman held back any punches. If I wanted to see an unfair match I would watch Mike Tyson riding his hoverboard. Then the Smackdown women’s segment… A collection of awkward debuts. This part was too awkward to describe. The wrestlers making a debut kept interrupting each other's beforementioned debuts, resulting in all of them being irrelevant before they even had a single match. There… I described it. I shouldn’t underestimate myself. Also, afterwards nothing happened with these women. There was no match, no promo segment, no closure. Horrible, horrible segment.
To wrap this up, this week my pick would have to be Raw. Raw had so many great matches, two Fatal-4-Ways, a great match for the Women's title and many more. Smackdown had very little to offer except for Dolph Ziggler becoming the nr. 1 contender. There were too many other things to mention that were good or bad, like Neville’s return. It’s great that he’s back, but the WWE did absolutely nothing to make his return a surprise or anything special. He himself made it special by doing his flippy floppy move set and his brand new “injury beard” (everyone coming back from injury or otherwise seems to have a full or fuller beard, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and now Neville). I know that Raw has 3 hours to impress and Smackdown has only 2, but even so, the worst 2 hours of Raw were still better than Smackdown.
So Raw gets one point from me. Please let me know whether you agree or disagree and why? The show that the majority of you guys pick gets another point. Next week I’ll be back with a new “who won Raw vs Smackdown”. Let me know if I missed anything, and any other feedback will also be appreciated.
Here is a cheap plug for my youtube channel called “Wrestling Shorts”. I make WWE cartoons about upcoming pay-per-views or animated dream matches. I would appreciate it if you guys would support me by subscribing to my channel. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook @wrestlingshorts.
Thanks, guys, for reading. I hope you enjoyed!
Kind regards,
Ash
Wrestling Shorts
So let’s play this little game the McMahons are playing. Let’s say Raw and Smackdown are each others’ competition. Let’s say the WWE isn’t playing real life monopoly. Let’s say every week it’s Raw versus Smackdown. Then the question is who won Raw vs Smackdown July 25th & 26th 2016?
In this piece I’ll write about my thoughts, memorable moments, annoyances and confusions. I’ll score each show based on my opinion. My opinion. Me. I’ll pick my show of the week, which will get 1 point. You guys can share your thoughts in the comments. Depending on which show you guys liked best that show will be granted 1 point as well. Next week they’ll be a new round and 2 more points will be handed out. So on and so forth.
So, who won this week?
First of all I have to mention the semi makeover both shows have received. The intros have changed and the overall look and feel has been redesigned. And the camera angles… Smackdown’s camera angles… Lucha Underground anyone? So here’s where I have to give points to Raw. The intro was better and the overall feel had more “attitude”. SD was too much too soon for me. I couldn’t get used to the camera angles. Specially during the battle royal where one corner of the ring was predominantly on screen whilst the others (where the action was happening) weren’t. Maybe it’ll grow on me. Maybe.
Then Raw started off with a great Fatal-4-Way to determine who would battle in the main event for the opportunity to fight Seth Rollins at Summerslam. The match was great, but predictable. Finn Balor was not going to lose his debut match. Later on Raw another Fatal-4-Way determined that Roman “I incorporate 16 superman punches in a singles match” Reigns would face Finn Balor in the main event. Smackdown kicked off with an obligatory YES-chant, which Daniel and Shane use to jedi-mind trick everyone into cheering, followed by a battle royal to determine who would be the 6th person to fight in the six pack main event match which would determine who’d fight Dean Ambrose at Summerslam… So many things were determined on these two shows…The six men competing in the SD main event were selected one by one, in a tedious opening segment, resulting into me being bored out of my socks. And I mean completely out. No socks were to be found. I had to go shopping for new socks because of Smackdown Live. Black socks by the way (my girlfriend doesn’t allow white socks into the house… the urban legends are true, guys).
Another thing that was determined was that Raw will have it’s own championship title. Two things bothered me. First, the name. Raw’s title will be called the WWE Universal Championship. Universal? Does this mean the WWE will be scouting for wrestlers in distant galaxies? And what are the odds that Seth Rollins, once he wins the title sooner or later, is going to call himself Mr. Universe? “Not only am I the best in the world, I’m the best in the entire universe (insert fake evil laugh)!”. The other thing that bothered me is the credibility of the championship. Dean Ambrose is the champion, technically. So, whoever wins the Universal championship (sigh…) is still going to be second best to Dean Ambrose, or any other Smackdown champion.
Anyway, let’s talk Summerslam. So Raw and Smackdown gave us two Summerslam matches. Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler. Finn Balor is going to get a big push, but will they put the title on him so quickly after his debut? Against Seth Rollins? At Summerslam? This one’s too hard to predict. It would be huge if they did, but they might have to consider that the mainstream viewer still has to get to know Finn Balor. I’m going with Seth Rollins winning the title, but there’s a big twist written all over it. Will the Club interfere?
The other match is far more predictable. Ambrose is going to win his match against Ziggler. His run won’t be sacrificed just to show that Smackdown doesn’t have a glass ceiling. Talking about glass ceilings, It seems to me that Raw’s superstars had for more opportunities this week than SD’s. Shane is losing me on his “we give the wrestlers all the opportunities there are” thing.
Other things I disliked were Braun Strowman on Raw and the women’s segment on Smackdown. Braun Strowman came out to have a match against an unknown wrestler who was 1/8th the man Strowman is. He was basically destroyed and it didn’t seem like Strowman held back any punches. If I wanted to see an unfair match I would watch Mike Tyson riding his hoverboard. Then the Smackdown women’s segment… A collection of awkward debuts. This part was too awkward to describe. The wrestlers making a debut kept interrupting each other's beforementioned debuts, resulting in all of them being irrelevant before they even had a single match. There… I described it. I shouldn’t underestimate myself. Also, afterwards nothing happened with these women. There was no match, no promo segment, no closure. Horrible, horrible segment.
To wrap this up, this week my pick would have to be Raw. Raw had so many great matches, two Fatal-4-Ways, a great match for the Women's title and many more. Smackdown had very little to offer except for Dolph Ziggler becoming the nr. 1 contender. There were too many other things to mention that were good or bad, like Neville’s return. It’s great that he’s back, but the WWE did absolutely nothing to make his return a surprise or anything special. He himself made it special by doing his flippy floppy move set and his brand new “injury beard” (everyone coming back from injury or otherwise seems to have a full or fuller beard, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and now Neville). I know that Raw has 3 hours to impress and Smackdown has only 2, but even so, the worst 2 hours of Raw were still better than Smackdown.
So Raw gets one point from me. Please let me know whether you agree or disagree and why? The show that the majority of you guys pick gets another point. Next week I’ll be back with a new “who won Raw vs Smackdown”. Let me know if I missed anything, and any other feedback will also be appreciated.
Here is a cheap plug for my youtube channel called “Wrestling Shorts”. I make WWE cartoons about upcoming pay-per-views or animated dream matches. I would appreciate it if you guys would support me by subscribing to my channel. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook @wrestlingshorts.
Thanks, guys, for reading. I hope you enjoyed!
Kind regards,
Ash
Wrestling Shorts
