What a pay-per-view we had on our hands this Sunday! It has easily been the best one since the brand split. It had everything you want from a pay-per-view - excitement, unpredictability and shocks that only WWE can produce. Yet, I would say that there were no clear winners between the brands, as each had their own share of success.
Raw won the Women’s and Tag Team division matches and SmackDown kept the Intercontinental title and won the 53-minute epic that was the male traditional Survivor Series match.
Last week, in the build-up to the 30th annual extravaganza, SmackDown went ahead 9-8 in my series as they had a much better show than Raw. However, we’re now looking at a new week, so will the ramifications of the results from the pay-per-view motivate Raw to give us a better show this week, or will SmackDown take a two-point lead?
SmackDown has more to lose here, as they have just two weeks to build to their next pay-per-view TLC. This is probably one of the reasons WWE is reportedly looking to remove some of the PPV events from next year’s schedule. Having too many pay-per-views ruin the magic and is ultimately detrimental to the weekly broadcasts.
Nevertheless, if anyone can deal with this pressure, SmackDown Live can. So, without further ado, let’s analyse the best bits of each show and see who won this week’s battle of the brands!
The first entrant in the Royal Rumble
By damn, Goldberg is entering the Royal Rumble match! And by damn, did he regret that slight botch in his promo. Stephanie and Mick used it to their advantage in a backstage skit regarding the surprise entrant in next year’s Royal Rumble event.
For a lot of people, Goldberg being back in WWE was seen as a one-time deal, and nobody expected him to remain as an in-ring competitor through to 2017. However, with the excellent positive reaction from the crowd and the success of his match at Survivor Series, it would seem that he will be in a programme all the way up to WrestleMania 33.
It is most likely we will see Goldberg vs. Lesnar III at the granddaddy of them all.
This was a great way to start off Raw. Since Goldberg has come back from a 12-year hiatus, I have been mightily impressed by his promos and the amount of intensity he conveys in any TV time he gets. I was never a massive fan of Goldberg during his first run but I have to say, this is turning me into a Goldberg mark!
They’ve booked him perfectly so far and I cannot wait to see him in the 30-man main event in January!
It’s the Ambrose Asylum
Dean Ambrose had the whole night to play around with the comedic aspect of his character and give SmackDown the sort of light relief the tag teams bring to Raw. He interrupted Shane McMahon’s little victory speech and was asked to leave the building. Of course, this didn’t happen as he popped up multiple times throughout the night.
At one point, he turned up with what looked like the worst pizza ever. I mean I know this is a bit of a strange tangent, but it looked awful. It actually put me off my little midnight snack I was enjoying whilst watching the action. Anyway, I digress…
Ambrose randomly dressed up as The Mountie in one backstage skit. You have to have been a fan for a long time to get the reference, so I think it was actually lost on the audience a little bit, which was a shame. I enjoyed the nostalgia trip and the fact it was the thing that finally pushed Shane McMahon over the edge.
Daniel Bryan sent Shane home and set Ambrose up for an easy pop with The Mountie’s catchphrase; “The Mountie always gets his man”.
Dean came back in full hockey gear (again, a bit random) during the main event to make sure Ellsworth got his contract. As much as I love Ambrose, the fact he sticks up for that jobber annoys me, but I can still take a positive from it, as we got to see Ambrose and AJ Styles go at it once again and it made me look forward to their TLC match in two weeks.
Best friends forever?
The Highlight Reel still remains my favourite talk show on WWE TV. And Monday night’s edition was no different. Jericho began the segment in a despondent manner, having seen The List of Jericho get strewn across the ring the night before. It looked as though he was about to place all the blame on Kevin Owens when his best friend came out to play.
As Kevin went through the events of last night, the two began to troll the audience by teasing a break up of their friendship. Personally, I think it’s a little early to end this relationship as I feel their feud should start when Kevin Owens loses the Universal Championship. Luckily, it was revealed they both blame Roman Reigns for the whole debacle.
It was an awesome segment once again from Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. They are both brilliant on the microphone, and they have been carrying the main event of Raw now for the latter half of 2016. They have also forced a mini-Shield reunion, so I certainly can’t complain, with the way their segments are being handled.
It could be argued that they were using this segment to see how the crowd would react when they eventually do split up and if you ask me, it’s going to be explosive. There was an awesome buzz as we thought the two best friends were going to come to blows. It was a nice little trailer for what is inevitable.
SmackDown is losing control!
What’s making SmackDown Live exciting at the moment is the number of interferences in matches that are causing controversy. I like to think the WWE creative team are doing this on purpose, to lead to a bigger storyline on the brand, where management starts to struggle to control and contain their Superstars.
This would pave the way for a new General Manager, and it would be a pretty awesome storyline if done right.
We had Ziggler and Baron Corbin interfere in Miz’s Intercontinental title match, we had Kalisto getting his own back later in the show, by kicking Corbin into oblivion and of course, we had Ambrose shaping the main event. We also had the fallout of the backstage attack on Nicki Bella from the Survivor Series.
I think this will turn out to have been Natalya, but only time will tell.
The point is, SmackDown is losing control, slowly but surely and it’s only a matter of time before the management lays down the law…or the Superstars do. If we had a mutiny on SmackDown Live would it affect Raw? There are many different possibilities here, and it’s things like this that keep me tuning in to see what happens next.
The new Attitude Era?
I miss the days where you could use the WWE app to watch the action through the commercials. The first set saw a table spot, a barrier spot and general awesomeness that comes along with a No Disqualification match.
I understand giving the live crowd something a little extra but to have to show some of the most exciting action in replays for two minutes when we’ve come back from a seemingly endless break just takes the shine off things a little bit.
Nevertheless, this match was the best part of Raw. It was a fantastic main event match, and it was really well worked. It reminded me of what No Disqualification matches used to be like. When the two men went into the crowd, and Seth Rollins climbed that balcony, it took me on such a nostalgia trip.
It reminded me a lot of Jeff Hardy at Royal Rumble 2000. It was a great dive and throwing caution to the wind like that, is what gets the crowd going.
The match was good enough to stand on its own, and I would have liked to see Kevin Owens pick up the clean win over Seth Rollins, but Jericho got involved despite being banned from ringside. He wore a Sin Cara mask and attacked Rollins giving KO the advantage and allowing him to capitalise on the distracted Architect.
This was a shot at the smart marks on the Internet, who believe there was beef between Jericho and Sin Cara, since the real life altercation. It has since been revealed Sin Cara lent Jericho the mask and it was actually a sign of respect from the first ever undisputed champion.
This was one of the best main events on Raw since the brand split.
Raw wins…
There is no defending SmackDown Live this week.
I don’t care if you’re a staunch believer of the blue brand, you can’t say it was a better show than Raw. Tag team turmoil was tedious, Kane faced Baron Corbin and left him in a pile, which has to be a joke, and James Ellsworth now has a hat-trick of victories over the WWE World Champion, despite the fact he should be nowhere near the main event.
Raw had some more great bits that weren’t mentioned in this article, such as Enzo’s naked escapade, a Cruiserweight triple threat match and Sami Zayn getting destroyed by the brute that is, Braun Strowman.
It was better for entertainment, matches and overall value. It was one of those episodes I would actually watch again on the WWE Network, and it’s not often you can say that about the weekly broadcasts nowadays.
Nevertheless, this makes it 9-9, so it’s neck and neck once again. SmackDown needs to do something drastic next week to make up for the tosh that they showed this week. Ellsworth now has a SmackDown contract, which doesn’t bode well at all really. Raw is cooking on gas, and I predict they’ll keep going next week.
Were you Red or Blue this week? Leave a comment and let’s discuss!
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