Highland View: Raw or Smackdown?

Highland View: RAW or Smackdown?

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to yet another exciting edition of Highland View! Today as always I shall be doing something a little bit different, no points just one big question. Which do I prefer Rarely Any Wrestling or Smackdown, and why? So let’s get to it!

NOTE: Now this is kind of crucial before we get into the depths of my mind, the show I have almost ALWAYS watched since I started watching wrestling has been Smackdown. I rarely watch Rarely Any Wrsetling, probably as rarely as there is over 45 minutes of wrestling!

As we know WWE has two MAIN shows (not random shows that nobody cares aboutà NXT, Superstars etc..) Rarely Any Wrsetling (RAW) and Smackdown. As we all know RAW is the ‘flagship’ show, the main event of shows so to speak. Smackdown, supposedly is the ‘worse’ of the two shows, yet I beg to disagree. People can see quite clearly in some regards (TV ratings) that Smackdown is better. Could WWE really have two shows as good as each other?

Well the answer is no, there is no other why of cutting it. However why it that people can say RAW is better? Answer WWE makes it a bigger deal; WWE at almost every Rarely Any Wrestling I have watched always make a point in saying it is the “flagship” show for the WWE. RAW gets some big stars, not going to lie, does Smackdown ever have celebrities from around the world hosting it? No. Do WWE have the big main event PPV matches (Rock vs. Cena) being Smackdown superstars? No. I will say this yes Rarely Any Wrestling is given better superstars because it is on mainstream TV, they bill it as being the best because they expect almost everyone to tune in to watch the show as most of the public, to my belief, get the USA network and at such a prime-time viewers are easy to get

Another big factor is that RAW is on Monday night. You may think, so what it could be on Tuesday and it wouldn’t make a difference? Wrong. RAW is HUGE for adding onto stuff that happened in the PPV the night beofer. Heck, RAW can even help to set up storylines for the next one. If someone buys a PPV and there is a twist to the storyline (someone interefers) they will probably want to watch the next show, RAW, to find out what happens. Smackdown, on the other hand, does the exact opposite. Smackdown builds people up for the PPV by building up the Smackdown as well as the RAW matches. In a sense you can see that Smackdown is in some way helping to make RAW the main attraction. Moreover, does Rarely Any Wrestling have a Smackdown rebound? No. Does Smackdown have a RAW rebound? Yes. Point proven.

Finally, WWE generally likes to put more effort into RAW storylines than they do in Smackdown storylines. RAW storylines have a definitive start and finish.. Moreover RAW storylines are also a little bit more ‘crazy’. Like almost a whole roster ‘walk-out’ leading to the COO being sacked and so on? That is certainly not what you see happening on Smackdown. Smackdown since Edge left hasn’t really been the same, no-one, not even Orton/Henry can replace that gap that Edge left. Despite all of that there is still the pointless “anoyomus RAW GM” which was only somewhat useful as it allowed me to think of even more reasons why I disliked Cole.

However, Smackdown is its own show and needs to be treated with respect. How often is it that Smackdown has bailed Rarely Any Wrestling out of trouble? Let me think is RAW pretty much a super show every week? Yes. Does that mean that Smackdown wrestlers are making RAW a better show? You bet your second dollar it does. Yes Smackdown may not always have the big money attracting wrestlers like The Miz, Cena or Ladberto Del Rio. Smackdown is the home to the development of these stars. Most of the main eventers in Rarely Any Wrestling learnt their ‘trade’ in Smackdown. Cena? Debuted in Smackdown, Ladberto Del Rio also debuted in Smackdown. Yes they may have Botchcara but Smackdown does produce some pretty good superstars.

What we can also see that benefits Smackdown is the fact it isn’t a live show. Yes that means you can edit out Botchcara but is also take some of the pressure off the wrestlers. If they botch a line then it can be re-taped, simple stuff. Plus a botch and a re-tape would probably add to the atmosphere I’d say the crowd would be in a jovial mood. Obvioulsy  botching a line or a move certainly won’t put you in the higher up’s good books but oh well!

Now a finally point which is from me is that I have almost always watched Smackdown since I watched wrestling. Yes this may be a feature of where I live and TV packages but let me say this. Even when I was a 10 year old boy I used to LOVE and I mean LOVE tuning in every Friday from 9pm till 11pm just to watch Smackdown. I’d go to bed a dream up of what if scenarios, what if wrestler X did this to wrestler Y? That love and passion I used to have has slightly diminished since then but it’s impacted me today. I still say I’d prefer to watch Smackdown over Rarely Any Wrestling and it’s cause I know no different.

To conclude, yes I will give you that Rarely Any Wrestling may be a ‘bigger’ show in the eyes of the WWE but it false. For quite a while last year Smackdown got better ratings week in week out than RAW. Yes being on Friday means they avoid things like Monday night Football and so on. However Smackdown just has something that RAW doesn’t have. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it’s there no doubt about it. For me I will always love watching the WWE but Smackdown is always better than RAW, no matter what.

Now that is all ladies and gentlemen thank you once again for stopping by I hope you enjoyed your stay, I hope to see you again next time. Have different opinions to me? Want to ask me something? Comment them below, I always appreciate your feedback :)

Comments

1. Comment #1

   Just like you say that there's something about Smackdown that makes you think that it's better than RAW, I say there's something about RAW that makes me feel it's better than Smackdown. Now I grant you that sometimes the monicker "Rarely Any Wrestling" does hold true for RAW but I'm pretty sure if you take the ratio of the time spent in segments to the ratio of fight time for the two shows it'll be roughly the same. Smackdown does not run for as long as RAW.
   
   I've tried watching Smackdown but for me it never quite delivered the excitement and raw energy (pardon the pun) that RAW provides. And you're right in saying that that's probably because RAW has most of the big stars and to be honest I really don't care. I have always watched wrestling to be entertained and dammit RAW does that! Now whether that is through storylines or matches or whatever, the fact of the matter is it gets the job done (for me atleast).

   Posted by Ragnarok on Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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