4 reasons why RAW is a better show than SmackDown

RAW was always treated as the main show and SmackDown was always the second show in the WWE. Both of them worked as two different flagships but then they planned to unite the two brands in 2011. Yet again in 2016, they decided to split and RAW was given to Stephanie McMahon and SmackDown was given to Shane McMahon. They were the commissioners of their respective flagship program.

During the superstar draft, there was equal star power in both the franchises but later due to some minor shake-ups, RAW had all the powerful franchise wrestlers while SmackDown was left behind with the new talents and few star powers. Initially, SmackDown Live was the favorite show and RAW was dull and boring. SmackDown Live gave opportunities to young stars and even promoted them to build themselves. At one point, it had more viewership than RAW.

That's not the case in recent times, as RAW has become a much bigger show, and much better than SmackDown and here are 4 reasons why

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#1 RAW is allowed to be better

Vince wants RAW to be better

RAW is a significantly better product than SmackDown at this point because it is allowed to be. RAW is the 3- hour long show and SmackDown is the 2- hour show. Everyone thought in 2016 when they decided to split the brand for the second time, there will be equality and both the shows will get equal importance. All the big, franchise stars are in RAW while SmackDown has to deal with all the new talents.

Vince clearly supports RAW more than SmackDown because RAW is the longer and more famous brand and SmackDown Live is the shorter less famous brand.

#2 Imbalance of star power

RAW roster has more star power

In 2016 when the draft happened, both the brands were balanced. They had an equal amount of star balance. RAW had Roman Reigns, Brock Lesner, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Goldberg and Chris Jericho to name a few and SmackDown Live had John Cena, AJ Styles, The Miz, Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, Dolph Ziggler etc. The Rosters were very balanced. But, then there were many minor superstar shake-ups and in that course, SmackDown lost all its good stars. John Cena, The Miz, Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt moved to RAW.

Currently, SmackDown Live has very few stars like AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Orton, and Nakamura. 2017 was doomed to SmackDown Live. Jinder Mahal’s lackluster run as the WWE Champion, Ziggler relinquishing the US Title and Randy Orton as a babyface, all of them have proved to be grave-diggers for SmackDown Live viewership.

#3 Too many fresh talents

Too many fresh talents are becoming an issue

Smackdown Live is also known as the ‘Land of opportunities’. But, that doesn’t mean that all fresh talents who are not that well-known have to debut in Smackdown Live. Smackdown Live is a two- hour show, accommodating all the fresh talents is digging a grave for Smackdown Live’s viewership.

Smackdown Live has so many new talents like Tye Dillinger, Bobby Roode, Mojo Rawley, Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable to name a few. They are not equally balanced. Few of them could have debuted in RAW but all of them are in Smackdown Live which creates a lot of issues for them because they can’t give equal importance to all of them in one go which creates a lack of storylines.

#4 Lack of storylines

Smackdown Live lacks storylines

Initially, there were many storylines going on in SmackDown Live. Currently, there are very few storylines going on. The Ziggler storyline is very vague and it is just going on in the background, there is the Shinsuke- Styles storyline which will take off very soon and Zayn- Owens storyline. SmackDown Live's storylines lack punch. It is not as fresh and consistent as RAW. But, we can’t deny the fact that SmackDown Live hosts good matches but storylines are also required to run a show.

Storylines are very important to run a show. Already SmackDown Live lacks star players, if it doesn’t have good storylines then it is gone for a toss. This is one of the main reasons why Smackdown Live is the ‘B’ show and RAW is the ‘A’ show