Smackdown OWNED Raw (Spoilers...kinda)

[Nark Order]

Everyone still think RAW got the better of the exchanges? SD! is really starting to come into it's own here. Smackdown was fucking awesome this week. bWo, Hassan/Taker, Eddie/Rey, Benoit/Booker, JBL, Batista/Christian...

I say RAW may not be able to be identified as the undisputible "flagship" show in a couple months

[tucsonspeed6]

To play the devil's advocate here, my breakfast cereal owned Raw this week. And it was Raisin Bran!!!

[Volchok]

My Lucky Charms owned Raw.

[Savio]

Hpwever smackdown was still awesome.

[PureHatred]

Yes. Based on just the talent that changed shows, Raw got the better end of the deal. That's actually fairly obvious. But it doesn't matter how much talent you have if the shows are going to be written that poorly. The fact that the show was centered around Hogan, Hogan's daughter, and an HBK heel turn which will pay off in a HBK/Hogan match that will serve no purpose whatsoever instead of John Cena shows you just how bad Raw was.

And actually, I think I read in the main news page that Raw just added 3 new writers who don't know all that much about wrestling in and of itself, so the shows are going to struggle for a while.

Its almost as if this is part of Triple H's plan to squash Raw while he's away and then he'll come back and claim they needed him all along and that Cena is responsible for the piss-poor ratings.

Someone get me an aluminum hat.

[tucsonspeed6]

Ironically, HHH is pulling a Hogan on a show that starred Hogan himself.

[snakeboss]

Let's compare them:

Eddie V.S. Rey OWNS Cena V.S. Jericho: Eddie and Rey have been friends for ages, and have had plenty of good matches together. Their story is great, and I can see what's coming, Eddie can't beat Rey so he blackmails him. Cena V.S. Jericho is really just two singers arguing who is better. Though they are very talented, the feud is weak.

CHAMPIONS:

Batista OWNS John Cena: Batista is limited on the mic, but is much better in the ring.

And I prefer Smackdown feuds as Triple H is far away.

[#1-norm-fan]

Raw is still better. I thought Raw was better live but after watching them on TV, SD may have had a slight edge.

Cena is the future though.

[Nark Order]

WHAT!?! I was there at the tapings as well and thought RAW was death. Nothing was even mildly etertaining. Smackdown kicked ass.

[PureHatred]

You're basically off topic in a topic you created. Your question was whether or not SD got the better end of the deal considering the show was much better this week.

Based on the trade alone, no.

Don't get me wrong. SD was incredible. But basically, the staff on Raw is doing less with more. And Smackdown is doing more with less.

[Nark Order]

IMO, SD! will overshadow RAW eventually...

[JTB31]

Smackdown will never be as good as Raw until it becomes a live show.I don't know why they can't make it live like Raw.

[Just John]

The problem is that if Chavo was still on Smackdown he wouldn't of got away with this Kerwin Write (or whatever) in the Cruiserweight scene.



Its nice to see christian over though

[PureHatred]

IMO, SD! will overshadow RAW eventually...

Raw is the more prestigious show because its live and its been around longer.

But as for quality: been there, done that. There was a period of time there when Lesnar was the champ and there was the whole Angle/Edge/Benoit/Rey/Los Guerreros thing going on that it was easily the more entertaining show. It seems to swing back and forth with the quality of the writers. Hmmmm...wonder if there's a secret "writer's draft" that no one talks about.

[PureHatred]

Smackdown will never be as good as Raw until it becomes a live show.I don't know why they can't make it live like Raw.

Smackdown is taped because UPN has stricter standards about content and they can't run over 7 minutes every week the way Raw does. Its possible to have live editions, but it would require the segments to be timed exactly and be very pussified. So tape & edit is the best solution.

[Just John]

What was the neg rep and the 'Idiot' for PureHatred? the Kerwin White or the Christian bit?

[LK]

lol at the JBL making a reference to Montreal saying that "it was like a parking ticket compared to how he was screwed"

[PureHatred]

What was the neg rep and the 'Idiot' for PureHatred? the Kerwin White or the Christian bit?

White. Plus I think you're an idiot in general.

[Just John]

Okay fair enough

[#1-norm-fan]

WHAT!?! I was there at the tapings as well and thought RAW was death. Nothing was even mildly etertaining. Smackdown kicked ass.

Raw was better live I thought. Could have just been because by the time Smackdown came along, I was drained but Raw was more entertaining for me. Smackdown had the BWO and the Hassan/Davari/'Taker thing but Raw was just fun. The end was awesome, the Cabana was a great start. Even the Diva segment was fun live. But I digress.

After experiencing first hand how heavily edited Smackdown really is, I appreciate Raw all that much more. Raw has a genuine feel to it because all the crowd reaction is right there, as it happens. Meanwhile, seeing something like Christian popping up on the Titan-Tron and getting "booed" on Smackdown despite the fact that the live crowd went crazy just annoyed me. And during the Eddie/Rey segment when there was just silence but live, the crowd was laughing at Eddie's comments and just having a good time. It just hceepens Smackdown for me. Puts it in it's own little world that the writers want it to be in as opposed to Raw where you get the real feel of the show.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I personally liked SmackDown! better this week. I disagree with snakeboss' analysis, though. Cena is better than Batista both promo-wise and ring-wise if you want to get technical. Batista seems the more "real" to me, though, and I like the way Tazz put him over on SD!.

Michael Cole: What would you do if you had to get into a match with Batista?

Tazz: Retire. I'm serious.

That was awesome. I wish they spent more time putting over the fact Batista holds the belt that has been defended in the main event of WrestleMania for the past two years over the WWE Championship, and the fact Batista eliminated John Cena from the Royal Rumble earlier this year.

Jericho/Cena is shaping up to be a good feud. As soon as Cena came to RAW, I lost interest in the Cena/Christian potential feud. I became enthralled with the prospect of a Jericho/Cena feud, though. I loved the way Cena seemed a little bit more "disrespectful" around Jericho this time, but he wasn't all thuggish looking for a fight around him. It was almost as if Cena understood why Jericho turned against him, which makes a lot of sense since he's WWE Champion.

I'm often seen saying negative things about Cena on these boards, and it's not because I don't like the guy. I am personally entertained by most of his matches, and his promos are excellent. I just disagree with the "if Cena loses the WWE Title or switches brands, the company will die!" arguement.

The promo between Jericho and Cena on RAW was fantastic, but for some reason there's still something I can't place about Cena's charatcer. He feels to "marketed" to me. I dunno, but when he goes "Real recognising real!" I just scoff. No doubt he's talented, but it doesn't feel like anything in his career has ever been "real". It feels to me like the WWE said "hey this guy is funny, let's give him the title". Maybe it's because I missed out on SD! for about a year when Cena was just starting up his character, but when Cena said "Real recognising real!" I was hoping for Jericho to just snap and tell Cena he isn't real, he's a entity of marketing and flavour of the month music, and that Jericho is real, and has been for most of his career when he has be held back, held down, won titles, been stripped of them and replaced with a dog leading up to his only WrestleMania main event. I would have marked out of Jericho has come out and said that Cena is cheap, and if the fans get behind HIM, they are stupid, because Cena hasn't had a tough career at all.

But yeah, I like the way Jericho sort of snapped into reality in the promo, and one way or another it will be good for Y2J and his character.

SmackDown!'s got Eddie vs. Rey, which is an awesome feud, but I just hope it doesn't go the way of Katie Vick. It makes sense Eddie knows some of Rey's secrets, and I can easily see him using them for some kind of professional blackmail against Rey Mysterio, leading to Eddie getting a free pin over Mysterio at The Great American Bash, but I think they should let the true story be the matches between the two. At Summerslam, Eddie vs. Rey in a Steel Cage Match or something is a must, and I can easily see it being one of the greatest ends to a blood-feud ever. The loser of the match would really seem lost, as they wouldn't have any other programs established on the roster, so that stigma will follow them for a while. It's been a while since the loser of a feud actually seems like a loser, and that could really be a good thing.

The one beef I have with SD! is that they keep editting crowd reactions. It makes me sad to see a face come out to no reaction, then have fake cheers come over the top while you cans ee the crowd sitting in their hands. Let the crowd cheer who they want. I wish the best to Funaki, but if he comes out to zero reaction, it makes me feel better than having Funaki come out to ghost cheers.

[Batsu]

The one beef I have with SD! is that they keep editting crowd reactions. It makes me sad to see a face come out to no reaction, then have fake cheers come over the top while you cans ee the crowd sitting in their hands. Let the crowd cheer who they want. I wish the best to Funaki, but if he comes out to zero reaction, it makes me feel better than having Funaki come out to ghost cheers.


This is true. That's the one reason I want to see SD! go live.

What is also true, is that Smackdown OWNED Raw.

From the bWo, all the way to the end match with Batista and Christian, I was thoroughly entertained.

Raw SUCKED all the way UNTIL HBK gave Hogan that much-needed Sweet Chin Music. Wardrobe malfunctions and all.

That's kind of funny. SmackDown got screwed over in the draft (they lost their best wrestler, their most over wrestler, and an up and coming superstar), but they still put on a better show. Tazz and Cole are definitely the premier announcing team in WWE. JBL versus the bWo was hilarious. Tazz and Cole put Batista over pretty well... Hassan is really moving to be a hated heel (cheap heat, but hey, I like that "ALEEEEYEEEELEEAHHHLEYLEEAHHHH" music of his), and Eddie/Rey is awesome. Hopefully, there won't be any Katie Vick crap coming out of this feud.

If only SmackDown could escape the fact that it's edited to hell, it would have smoked Raw even more than it did in the form it was presented.

Oh yeah, about Cena...

Allenoid06, what happened with Cena was...his push was a lot like The Rock's road to being a babyface, EXCEPT WWE waited too long to push him the right way. Cena got over as a heel because, while many of the fans took his "rap" gimmick as a joke, he cut compelling promos with it. He stood up to Brock Lesnar, and The Undertaker (there was one promo he cut while pissing on a grave marked for the Undertaker once), mocking them at every turn, and even in defeat, refused to look weak. Cena's road to the top was definitely earned, but it just took way too long; the timing was off balance.

A lot of fans were laughing at Cena more than they were cheering him, when he started the "rap" gimmick on that infamous Halloween 2002 SmackDown (where he dressed as Vanilla Ice). Eventually, Cena got to the point where he had the fans finishing his promos, even though he was a heel. My favorite one of his was against The Undertaker (who was in his "tweener leading face" run following his "Respect Me?" days)...when he said "stick your head up your own ass, so you can eat your own..." (and the crowd finished it with "SHIT", but it was edited). Eventually, Cena's promos got so funny, that he was the most over guy on SmackDown. My favorite moment was when he and Chris Benoit formed an alliance, and Chris Benoit uttered these timeless words:

"I'm sick of Paul Heyman's crap
And tonight, I'm gonna make these two bitches (bleeped) tap
Word, Life."

Benoit then did the John Cena "Word, Life" taunt...

Next to Benoit's implied "Jerichoff" commentary, and the time he put Kurt Angle's medals down his pants, this was the funniest Benoit moment ever.

It just took WWE way too long to recognize, "Well, crap. This Cena kid is over as hell. Let's give him the push he deserves", so it looks like his run is very generic and predictable.