Ever since the brand split, Smackdown has been regarded as the better show by a lot of the WWE Universe. Like everything when it comes to wrestling, it is completely subjective. Everybody has their favorite show and wrestler. There are certainly those that feel Raw is the better show and that people are overrating Smackdown. I don’t feel that way and I’ve become frustrated with Monday Night Raw. Every week I’m left with the same complaints. Before we get into the negatives, here are some of the things Monday Night Raw has going for it over Smackdown.
The Roster
On paper, Raw’s roster is superior to the talent on Smackdown. That is not a knock on the Superstars that perform on Smackdown, I’m just pointing out that Raw has more wrestlers on their show. Raw is a three hour program so they have more Superstars on their roster. They also have bigger names on their show as well. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Bayley, Finn Balor, New Day, Cesaro, Sheamus, Sami Zayn etc. Raw has a ton of recognizable names on their roster. Raw has also done a great job of slowly building a new star in Braun Strowman. Smackdown will most likely be trying to do the same thing with Baron Corbin in the next few months. However, Braun Strowman is already becoming a star on Raw. Last night’s episode of Raw ended with Strowman destroying Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Baron Corbin has looked dominant on Smackdown at times but he has defeated Superstars like Apollo Crews and Kalisto. Crews and Kalisto are great performers but they aren’t at the level or Rollins and Reigns when it comes to name recognition.
More Time
It is easy to also consider this a negative but Raw is one hour longer than Smackdown. That means they have more time to showcase their talent. That extra time could be devoted to vignettes, promos and matches.
Those are the two main advantages Monday Night Raw has over Smackdown. Those are two pretty big advantages if you think about it. Raw has the bigger roster and has more time each week to showcase them. The problem is that Raw has not been doing that nearly enough. Here are a few of the problems I’ve noticed each week on Monday Night Raw.
Reliance On Humor
Smackdown suffers from this problem as well, but it is much more noticeable on Raw. Kevin Owens is the Universal Champion but his entire character is tied to Chris Jericho. Every single week there is at least one segment on Raw in which Jericho and Owens are talking about a list or cracking jokes. Gallows and Anderson came into the WWE along with AJ Styles and were billed as “The Club”. They were supposed to be this dominant team but have been relegated to a comedy team now. Instead of being dominant, Gallows and Anderson now call people nerds and consistently lose matches. Enzo and Cass are not even in the Tag Team Championship picture. Instead, Enzo is walking around nude backstage on Raw and essentially cutting the same promo every week. Everything is portrayed in such a goofy matter it feels out of place when things get serious. One week Seth Rollins is calling Jericho “sparkle crotch” and then the next week he is attacking Jericho in a parking lot and Pedigreeing him on the top of a car.
The Cruiserweight Division
This should be a positive for Raw but it hasn’t been. The Cruiserweight division has generated very little reaction from the WWE Universe on Raw. Even though Raw has an additional hour, they have not found a way to integrate the Cruiserweights on the show. Last night was a great example of that. Cedric Alexander and Noam Dar had a match but if you blinked you would have missed it. Before the match started, there was a commercial break. When Raw came back, the match was over within two minutes. It comes off as a chore for Raw to have a Cruiserweight match on the show. It was built up as this big thing that Raw was the place for Cruiserweight wrestling but it feels like an afterthought every Monday night.
Time Management
As stated above, the additional hour Raw has can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage. Raw has an extra hour to build up new stars and create more in depth storylines. Instead, the time is often allotted to overly long promos instead of actual wrestling matches. A good example of that would be the promo that kicked off last night’s Raw. It was obvious that Chris Jericho was going to wind up being locked in the shark cage. Instead of just getting to that moment, Mick Foley spent several minutes pulling random objects out of a fanny pack. The crowd wasn’t laughing during this segment. The vast majority of them were wondering why it was taking 15 minutes for Jericho to get stuck in the cage.
All of these issues are fixable but it doesn’t seem like Raw will change. In my opinion, Raw would be a substantially better show if just these few changes were made.
- Add a few minutes to the matches.
- Cut back on the scripted promos that are written to be humorous. Allow the performers to be themselves instead of relying on someone else to write everything for them.
- Showcase more talent. Instead of having Sasha Banks wrestle Charlotte over and over again, why not mix it up? This is not just limited to the Women’s division. There are plenty of Superstars on Raw that are barely featured on television.
How would you change Monday Night Raw or do you believe that it is fine the way it is? Share your thoughts in the comments below.