WWE Raw pulled off a victory last week which saw Sasha Banks and Charlotte main event Raw, capping a fantastic women’s revolution. Will we see this revolution continue this week?
Quite frankly, the women in WWE have been much more entertaining than the men of late, and to see them reach the main event was extremely rewarding as a viewer.
If you’re following my series of articles (here every week without fail y’all!) then you know it’s 3-2 to WWE SmackDown Live at the moment. However, with Raw on a roll from last week, it will be interesting to see if they can level it up.
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SmackDown Live is coming off the back of a very impressive pay-per-view and despite having the main event moved due to worries over the Presidential debate, it delivered on nearly every level. They should be able to carry this momentum over into the weekly show and this should make for a very exciting battle this week!
Let’s get into it with the best of Raw and SmackDown this week.
Press Start
It never ceases to amaze me how the cruiserweight division turns the crowd around every single week without fail.
They start off silent, if not bored, and by the end, they’re fully into the match, living every minute having been impressed by the display shown by the athletes. This was evident in the tag team match that kicked off the first of two matches in this division.
Sin Cara and Lince Dorado picked up the win with Sin Cara announcing his entry into the cruiserweight mix.
The cruiserweights even got a little backstage segment where we got a sneak peek into what happened in the early days when The Brian Kendrick and TJ Perkins was on the road performing at small events on the indies. It makes the rivalry between these two a little more personal for those that aren’t in the know.
The second match saw TJ Perkins pull off the win against Ariya Daivari who made his debut on WWE Raw this week. That kneebar could be Brian’s downfall soon…
Passion, pain and sacrifice
The Miz was on fire once again in his promo on SmackDown Live. When this brand split started, I did not expect The Miz to flourish as much as he did. Everything he said about the title was absolutely true. He has made it as prestigious, if not more so than the WWE World Championship and I’m more than happy to watch this feud continue.
This Miz is what was needed and once Dolph Ziggler has beat him again because it’s written in the stars, I think Miz is more than ready to carry the brand and hopefully, this will lead to a little more of a successful WrestleMania title defence than last time!
You know what? Jericho made the list again!
I said last week that Chris Jericho was on his best run yet and it’s no different this week. He’s featured in segments in the ring, backstage and even promotions and in every single one I’m hooked and loving every minute of it.
He’s helping Kevin Owens as he is also putting him over at every turn and hopefully it will result in a pay-per-view meeting between the two. If anything, Jericho deserves another shot at the big time.
He’s earned it by putting over star after star over the years and he seems to be picking up more wins in this run, despite losing to Seth Rollins.
Jericho crossing out Stephanie out from the list after he got a shot at joining the Hell in a Cell match was magic.
Tic tac?
A great segment on SmackDown Live this week saw the return of James Ellsworth and he got a win over WWE World Champion AJ Styles!
Ambrose was given the job of refereeing the match that should have been saved for a PPV and it’s safe to say he called it right down the middle. If only one part of that sentence was true.
Dean spent the time flirting with audience members, signing pictures, eating and drinking instead of concentrating on the action in the ring. When he finally got bored of AJ Styles dominating James Ellsworth he hit him with two dirty deeds to help the jobber get a win.
It was a great bit of comedic relief, something that Dean Ambrose is able to do effectively while still remaining a threat to the title. Emptying his pockets like a grandma emptying her handbag before the match started was a great touch, I just wish AJ Styles would have accepted the popular mint.
One worrying bit of the match was when James Ellsworth tucked his head incorrectly for the Styles Clash which is the reason it was banned in the first place. He should have practiced this before getting in the ring, and that’s not a knock at him, I just don’t want to see any athlete leave the ring with a broken neck.
S.O.S
This might be a bit of a surprising addition for some but I would encourage you to go and watch this match again if you have any doubts about it being a massive positive for Raw. Before you do, let me explain why.
It’s not often on an episode of Raw where I’m watching and I think, that was a good wrestling match. But Kofi Kingston and Cesaro pulled it out of the bag last night and I couldn’t concentrate on anything else but the match that was on my screen at the time.
They were pulling off some brilliant moves, it was really well worked and a joy to watch. It was refreshing to see a good match like this to get the crowd into the show and felt different to what we had seen on Raw in the past. I think it’s a testament to both Kofi and Cesaro that they were able to stand out in a stacked 3 hours from Raw.
It was supported by the outside shenanigans of Sheamus who was on Facebook Live at the time and ended up getting demolished by Big E.
It’s a new day, yes it is.
Well plaid.
It’s nice to see that there’s some actual competition at the forefront of the presentation of the shows. Stephanie McMahon keeps harping on about how she’s trying to outdo SmackDown, embarrass her brother and win in the ratings war. It’s a far cry from when they started and the SmackDown Live Backlash was advertised on Raw!
The competition will be upped at Survivor Series when 3 traditional elimination matches will show who the dominant brand is. Exciting stuff!
Nevertheless, Raw managed to level up this week for me. I was much more entertained by the flagship show this week than the blue brand’s effort which is a shame after the No Mercy pay per view. It just felt like a slog this week.
3-3 is the cumulative result so far as we head toward the end of the year. I may even backdate the scores to include the shows missed. Tune in next week for the updated scoreline!
Were you Red or Blue this week? Leave a comment and let’s discuss!
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