WWE SmackDown Live vs. WWE Raw – Who won in the lead up to Survivor Series?
With Survivor Series just one week away, both shows have a lot to do, to increase ratings and get the fans engrossed for the cross-brand battles that are imminent. SmackDown already has the upper-hand with the excitement as it’s the 900th episode.
If that doesn’t make you feel old, nothing will! With The Undertaker and Edge both promised for the landmark show, it’s already an uphill battle for Raw to pull it out of the bag and break the deadlock.
It’s currently 8-8 in my scoresheet since the brand split. Last week, I controversially named Raw as the winner of the weekly battle. I thought it was more entertaining, had better matches than SmackDown and I tried my best to put my points across cohesively.
Despite this, it went down like a lead balloon and the blue bloods amongst you, could not believe that I’d placed it above the Tuesday night extravaganza. I completely appreciate that, but as they say, the referee’s decision is final.
However, we’re in a new week and once again I will analyse the best bits of each show to see what made me, the crowd and the viewers click. From this I will determine a winner, and we shall see who can sneak ahead before the 30th annual Survivor Series. This was set to be a really fun week of wrestling so without further ado, let the battle begin!
A prestigious title
What. A. Match. You talk about pay-per-view quality matches on weekly shows and this was another one you can add to the list. It was completely worthy of being on such a monumental show.
I can’t remember what happened at SmackDown 800 but I can tell you this: when people ask me what happened at SmackDown 900, I’ll be talking about that Intercontinental Title match.
These guys left everything they had in the ring and the match itself had multiple spots to keep it interesting. It had the failed interference from the Spirit Squad, it had vicious odes to Daniel Bryan from The Miz, and his wife Maryse showed her worth by ultimately helping him claim the victory over his long-time rival Dolph Ziggler.
Not only was the match brilliant, it also allows The Miz to regain the momentum he had as Champion. It was a mistake taking the Championship off him in the first place, so to see him reclaim it last night, was absolutely the right decision.
We’re very lucky as fans that we get to see these quality matches nowadays after the decline the company saw a few years ago. The brand split has been brilliant for both shows and the Intercontinental Championship has never felt more important.
Bravo SmackDown Live, bravo.