WWE: Smackdown 7 vs. Raw 7: 2017 Edition

[M.C.G. 31]

Little poll I thought of while watching Smackdown and commenting how the top of SD's card is so much better than Raw's, at least of full-time guys.

Back in 2002/2003 Smackdown had the "Smackdown Six" of the top guys and/or guys relied upon to have great matches on a weekly basis. Originally, it started in late 2002 with three tag teams: Angle & Benoit, Edge & Mysterio and Los Guerreros and by 2003 it changed a bit if people still tabbed it as such, except Lesnar was included in it and Edge was out with injury. No mistake about it, though, the legitimate and original "Smackdown Six" was Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Edge and Rey Mysterio.

For this poll, I added one to each brand and making it the "top guys" of the brand rather than best in-ring workers -- that may be an idea for another poll eventually.

So, top of the card, which brand has the better top-7? Smackdown or Raw?

MONDAY NIGHT RAW - Braun Strowman, Chris Jericho, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Samoa Joe.

SMACKDOWN LIVE - AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, John Cena, Luke Harper & Randy Orton.

Click to read more...

 

[Emperoreddy]

Honestly it is pretty even. Those are two really solid top 7 guys. If you book both shows equally, both shows should be a fan's dream.

I'd switch Miz with Harper though. Miz has been doing more, and been higher on the card longer and he is getting the bigger feature Mania match too.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Honestly it is pretty even. Those are two really solid top 7 guys.

I'd switch Miz with Harper though. Miz has been doing more, and been higher on the card longer and he is getting the bigger feature Mania match too.

With the Smackdown main event for next week, that may not be the case...

Me, I had to vote for the brand that has the best wrestler in the world.

 

[tp71]

I chose Smackdown. Reigns just craters it for me. Stroman made me think about it for a bit. But I'm way more interested in the Smackdown side + Miz than I am about Raw. It doesn't help two of the Raw guys are currently hurt.

 

[Paris in Flames]

I don't know how fair this poll can be...at least in my mind.

I'm 100% going to vote Smackdown because the show is so, so, so much better. In every conceivable way but that's a deeper issue than overall talent...

I did try and create a list from most favourite to least (from the 14 listed) and it mostly alternated between Smackdown and Raw...However it went Styles, Rollins, Wyatt...sooo...2 out of the top 3 go to Smackdown.

tl;dr Smackdown.

 

[Emperoreddy]

IDK AJ is my favorite guy in the company right now, but I think I prefer five of the RAW guys over their SD counterparts.

Braun has been good, love Finn, Joe is amazing, KO is great, Jericho is doing the best work of his career, Seth is GOAT, **** Roman

AJ is GOAT, Wyatt is great, love Dean, Corbin is good, Harper is fine, **** Cena, meh Orton.

Actually ya it is RAW. Roman is the only guy I'm tired of on RAW, but I'm tired of both Orton and Cena on SD.

 

[The Lunatic Fridge]

Lets be real here.

If you take away AJ from smackdown, it's a landslide.

RAW side just has too many good overall talents. (i wouldn't even include braun btw i'd slot cesaro in his place instead)

Besides AJ and randy to an extent, most of those smackdown guys are great on the stick but not as good in the ring as the raw guys (while guys like KO and rollins are still good on the stick while being great in ring) Lets not pretend that cena wasn't a 5 moves of doom guy for the better part of a decade.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Nakamura heavily tips the scales one way or the other once he goes on a show.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I have Strowman in there because I'm basing this off "top of the card" guys. In-ring guys, Cesaro would have been in there and even Sheamus over Jericho at this point.

Later on I'll make a poll of strictly in-ring talent to mimic the idea of the original Smackdown Six and the idea of them not having bad matches. I'll probably do that one after Wrestlemania and the next round of NXT call-ups.

 

[Kimi]

I'm voting for Raw.


In a vacuum, with freedom to create any show I'd like, I'd take the Raw guys over the Smackdown ones. (So I'm free to ignore the Reigns problem.)

Raw has more star power then Smackdown. Corbin and Harper are big handicaps and the lowest on Raw, Strowman, is easily above both of them as he's a giant. Talent wise it also goes to Raw on the whole, Corbin being a weak link again. Promos are also better on the Raw side. The Raw team is just slightly better in every aspect for me, so I have to go with them.


If you switch out Harper and add Miz (Miz has been a bigger part of the show, opposed to Harper who has mostly just been an lackey), then cut each down to six, I think it's much closer. Corbin is clearly the weakest of everyone it drags the side down too much. While Styles is easily ahead of everyone else, Rollins is close enough that it's not a big deal if you had to pick between them. Once you hit the 'excellent talent' level it doesn't really matter how much you exceed that. Failing to hit the minimum level is a far bigger issue.



But in reality, the biggest factor is really the writing. Smackdown is the superior show in every way when you watch, and I don't think it would be a bad show given any combination of guys. Raw also has the Reigns problem, given freedom to fix his character and booking you'll have a massively improved show. It's a very unfair contest, but I do wonder how different it would be if Reigns was on Smackdown.

 

[Kimi]

Nakamura heavily tips the scales one way or the other once he goes on a show.

Very much agree.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Hard choice for me. Favorite of the bunch is Styles, but RAW has the better all-around group. Picked RAW, but barely.

 

[Blainer114*]

Smackdown by an AJ Styles

 

[JDinkalage Morgoone]

Raw has better talent, Smackdown has better booking. Jericho is the best in the business on the mic for me, with Miz a close second in terms of how much of a great heel he has been.

 

[bruins309]

It shouldn't even be close because it's clear they stack RAW far more. Everyone freaks out because RAW was apparently good this week....but we all know Stephanie will need to slap Samoa Joe in a week or two so it won't last.

With all the disadvantages like not having Cena for months, the fact that Smackdown is the better show is kind of a miracle.

BTW: You KNOW they are going to put Nakamura on RAW. Vince is going to say "the guy wears red, pal! He's going on RAW, pal!" And then they'll do something like ask him to cut a 22 minute narrative promo and Stephanie will come out and slap him for not speaking the King's English.

Edit: Oh, and Miz over Harper in that 7.

 

[bruins309]

To put it another way, remember how the draft went for each round:

RAW, SD, RAW, SD, RAW

So by the time RAW had 7 people, SD only had 4. And when SD got to their 7th pick, RAW had 10 already.

And then RAW got the best "free agents" too. Joe and Bayley vs. Mickie James and Heath Slater.

I know it's insane to complain as much as I do about a fake, rigged draft. So don't bother pointing that out.

 

[These Are The Days]

Raw should blow SD! out of the water but the problem is that Raw is so poorly written that it almost doesn't matter.

 

[These Are The Days]

And give me Paul Heyman's Smackdown roster just before Mania 20 over anything today

Angle
Lesnar
Big Show
Guerrero
Undertaker
Cena- He wasn't a top guy yet but he might as well have been despite his booking.

That might've been the best roster in WWE history but by God it might have been one of the worst booked rosters I've ever seen. By the time 2004 rolled around that show was SO heel heavy that some nights it became borderline unwatchable. At it wasn't helped by the fact that Heyman succeeded Vince McMahon in the typical heel manager favors heel wrestler dynamic. Then we got the constant focus on Lesnar's awful feud with Goldberg and Austin. Sometimes I had to actually turn it off because I just couldn't take it anymore. Unless Undertaker was fighting that night, your best chance at cheering a top babyface was Eddie getting ****ed over by Angle and Chavo week after week. Dont get me wrong it was great stuff but it was simply too much. It was WCW level "off the deep end" stuff.

Then after that you had Angle succeed Heyman in management and the reign of JBL. Fortunately Teddy Long came after.

2004 should have been the best year in Smackdown! history (that honor goes to 2003 in my book) but by then the heel burnout was so real that I couldn't enjoy it the way I should have. But having Teddy Long helped A LOT.

 

[Acallabeth]

That's a great poll. I'll try to dissect it a bit so it's easier for me to choose.

The frontline: Reigns/Owens/Rollins vs Styles/Cena/Wyatt.
At this point, I choose Smackdown in all of in-ring, character and promo work. Styles is the greatest wrestler on the planet who has given us some awesome matches. Cena is mostly a second violin, but he's had a great run for a while. Rollins has slowed down since his big injury a bit, KO is an absolute beast in ring, but I just can't get invested in those move galleries (at least with Cena-Styles kickout fests, you really expect a finish on those moments). Wyatt is definitely better than Reigns.
On promo, it's not close, Wyatt and Cena are both better than Owens (who's great himself), both Rollins and AJ are adequate, then we have Roman.
Character wise, Smackdown wins again. Wyatt is the best character they have created in years, Owens is only returning to his cool prizefighter persona. Injured Rollins is really not that great of a gimmick, while AJ plays 'the phenomenal' perfectly. And even Super Cena is better than Super Roman.

The Supporting cast: Jericho vs Orton and Ambrose.
Smackdown wins again. Ambrose is a perfect depth champion who can occasionally hold his own in the main event, Jericho is great, but that list thing has got old, he's absent somewhere often and isn't nearly as fresh as Dean. And I'm a much bigger fan of Orton than most here, especially with this Servant Orton putting Bray over.

The monster: Strowman vs Corbin
This is an easy win for RAW. I like Corbin, but he just can't win a legit strongman giant who's a bit better at everything.

The wild card: Joe/Balor vs Harper
RAW wins again. I still don't see WWE coming up with anything for Harper after his Bray feud because he's such a limited character rightt now, while Joe is a bulletproof beast who could main event a PPV tomorrow, and Balor is going to be a giant part of RAW when he comes back. These guys are what's going to really tip the scales in favor of RAW once Joe's more estabilished and Finn's healthy again, but as this hasn't happened yet, I'm giving the overall victory to Smackdown. At least their top 7 are all healthy lol.
And I would choose RAW if there was Charlotte instead of Reigns in the poll.

 

[Diamondillium]

The Smackdown poll option has a red bar and the RAW poll option has a blue bar.

Way to **** that one up.

 

[The Gongshow]

SD has better writing and makes better use with what its got.

AJ & Wyatt being my top 2 favourites automatically get my vote

 

[Emperoreddy]

I think the poll is who has the better 7 wrestlers.

Not who is booked better

 

[The Gongshow]

I think the poll is who has the better 7 wrestlers.

Not who is booked better

Are you kidding? The SD roster is being booked way better than RAW.

RAW

Braun = Fantastic, unstoppable monster. Well done
Joe = Also great, but its only been 2 weeks. He didn't get a clean win in his first match as well so...
Jericho = Pretty good, the best friends angle has been fantastic
KO = Terrible chicken s*** heel champion. Terrible champion, but the best friends angle has been good
Rollins = they completely screwed up his face turn.
Balor = had some solid booking, is now hurt so voided.
Reigns = LOL

SD

Wyatt = Has been booked awesome since the brand split, also hasn't eaten a pin since september, won tag team gold, has now pinned Cena and Styles a few times in the span of a few days and is WWE champ. The Wyatts storyline has been great
Cena = LOL although his fued with Styles was amazing and his stuff with ambrose was also amazing so really he's been booked quite awesome
Orton = meh, his stuff with he Wyatts has been cool but I still don't like him winning the rumble.
Ambrose = Also meh, The ellsworth stuff was bad...
Styles = Amazing heel work, defending his championship MUCH better champion than KO.
Corbin = He's been getting some strong showings over the past while, he's on the right track
Harper or Miz (depending on how you see things) = Both have been booked great, Miz had an amazing IC run on SD. Harper is showing he can be a singles guy and the Wyatt storyline has been great for Harper.

 

[OmniSens]

Stretch it to 10 automatically adding the GMs

Cena, Styles, Bryan, Miz, Corbin, Ambrose, Wyatt, Orton, Harper and Ziggler (hm Shane)

Owens, Jericho, Rollins, Reigns, Balor, Joe, Strowman, Foley, New Day (count them as one?) and Charlotte (hm Triple H?)

 

[MAHJ71]

Ask me a month ago and I probably would have said RAW. Never gave Smackdown the chance it deserved. Now SD seems so much better than RAW - though a big part of it for me is the 2 hour time window.