WWE Raw vs. Smackdown Live: Which Was Better? (29th, 30th October, 2018)
This week's episodes of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live were bookended by the Evolution pay-per-view, and the upcoming WWE Crown Jewel event, which is set to take place this Friday.
As a result, they had a lot to do, being both the fallout show for the first-ever women's pay-per-view event, while simultaneously acting as the go-home show for the extremely controversial Saudi Arabian pay-per-view.
In this article, as always, we will be looking at which WWE show was the most entertaining between Raw and SmackDown Live, by taking into consideration 7 different segments from both the shows.
To determine the winner of this week, we will look at the best match of the night for both shows, the opening segment, the mid-card, the women's division, the tag-team division, the main event and any surprises or shocks that may have happened on either show. After we are done with this, we will finally be able to tell you who won this week's WWE Raw vs. SmackDown.Live.
#1 The Opening Segment
Raw: This week's episode of Raw, opened with the build to the Universal Championship match set for Crown Jewel. Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar came out and interrupted Baron Corbin, who was there talking trash about Roman Reigns. Heyman delivered his usual promo before any Lesnar match. They were then interrupted by Braun Strowman who delivered a promo of his own. The biggest positive of this segment came next when Strowman hit Corbin with three consecutive Running Powerslams. Lesnar took advantage of the distraction and hit Strowman with an F-5, sending a direct and simple message before Crown Jewel.
SmackDown Live: SmackDown Live opened with AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan confronting each other in the ring. Both let the other know that they would not be taking their match at Crown Jewel lightly (this was when Daniel Bryan was still supposed to go to Crown Jewel). At this point, Styles admitted that he had Daniel Bryan on purpose last week. Shane took the opportunity to come and book a match between the two that very night.
Which was better: While the SmackDown Live's segment between AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan was a good one, it was not really a build to the coming pay-per-view. On the other hand, the Lesnar and Strowman segment, set up the coming Universal Title match really well.
Winner: Raw