Smackdown VS Raw: July 2017

[Dagger Dias]

Haven't done one of these in a while but after the two major shows from each brand this month, I thought it was time to bring this thread series back. Both Raw and Smackdown have now put on a brand exclusive event in the month of July. Raw had the Great Balls Of Fire event a couple of weeks ago and Smackdown had the Battleground 2017 event tonight. We've seen a brand new (yet very silly) PPV name, new champions, ambulance crashes, the return of the Punjabi Prison, and more. The real question though is, which brand had the better show this month?





Raw - Great Balls Of Fire

0. Akira Tozawa (with Titus O'Neil) VS Neville [Cruiserweight Championship]

1. Bray Wyatt VS Seth Rollins

2. Big Cass VS Enzo Amore

3. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) VS The Hardy Boyz [Iron Man Tag Team match for the Raw Tag Team Championship]

4. Alexa Bliss (c) VS Sasha Banks [Raw Women's Championship]

5. Dean Ambrose VS The Miz (c) (with Maryse, Curtis Axel, and Bo Dallas) [Intercontinental Championship]

6. Braun Strowman VS Roman Reigns [Ambulance match]

7. Curt Hawkins VS Heath Slater

8. Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) VS Samoa Joe [Universal Championship]




Smackdown - Battleground 2017


0. Aiden English VS Tye Dillinger

1. The New Day VS The Usos (c) [Smackdown Tag Team Championship]

2. Baron Corbin VS Shinsuke Nakamura

3. Becky Lynch VS Charlotte Flair VS Lana VS Natalya VS Tamina [Five-Way Elimination Match for Smackdown Women's Championship #1 Contendership]

4. AJ Styles VS Kevin Owens [United States Championship]

5. John Cena VS Rusev [Flag Match]

6. Mike Kanellis (with Maria Kanellis) VS Sami Zayn

7. Jinder Mahal (c) (with The Singh Brothers) VS Randy Orton [Punjabi Prison Match for the World Heavyweight Championship]





Here are the discussion questions for this topic:



Did the red brand or the blue brand have the best event out of these two shows, and why?

What was the worst match between these two shows?

What was the best match out of what took place on these two shows?



Please keep the forum rules in mind and do NOT spam. Also, remember that this discussion is about just these two PPV events. Not Raw/Smackdown television content from July 2017.



Discuss!

 

[DaleBryan]

This is an easy one for me.

Great Balls of Fire was much better than Battle Ground. The stories heading into the event were better than Smackdowns. The matches were more intense and felt like they meant more.

As for the worst match between the two shows, I'm not really going to count Slater vs. Hawkins since it was only going on in the ring as the cameras were focusing on what was going on with Strowman/Reigns situation.
For me I think I have to go with the Flag Match between Rusev and Cena.
1. I hate the idea of a flag match. Does nothing for either of the guys.
2. After the match was over JBL actually said "this may be the biggest win of Cenas career."
------- Are you kidding me JBL? This flag match was bigger than him beating Styles at the Rumble to tie Ric Flairs record of 16 world championships? Or bigger than beating The Rock at Wrestlemania 29? That statement alone made me hate the match 10x more.
3. This is a feud that made ZERO sense. It's never a good idea really to put two guys who return to tv the same night after being gone for awhile in a match against each other. They both needed a win. - the only good thing is that Rusev wasn't pinned by Cena. But he did tap out at one point.
4. The idea that Cena did this for his country? No he didn't. That's so stupid. They had nothing better for these guys. So they rehashed a feud from 2 years ago that didn't need to be done at all. All Americans are better than Bulgarians too btw..... but not as good Canadians and Indians.

Also wasn't there a report saying that Vince had AJ win the title from KO at the live event because Smackdown had two anti-American champions? After KO won the the title tonight I thought for sure Orton would win and then possibly a Corbin cash in.... but now we're back to the two anti-American champions? Strange.
Another thing that bothered me about Battle Ground was that we got no answer on the Fashion Files. I GET IT, They want us to tune in on Tuesday. But when you say we'll find who it is at Battle Ground, then we should find out at Battle Ground.
Last thing that really bothered me about BG, the choice to give Natalya the win. Don't get me wrong, she ABSOLUTELY deserves a shot and even a reign with the belt. But the time is not right. She would be a good 1 on 1 challenger for the next Smackdown exclusive ppv. Because now what are Charlotte and Becky doing at Summerslam? The right call, IMO for Summerslam is Naomi (c) vs. Charlotte. That's where this all started when they had their one on one on SDL after the shakeup and it was a no contest due to interference. We need to see the end of that match, and it should have been at Summerslam.

The Best match between the two shows.. I think I have to go with Joe vs. Lesnar (c)
The intensity was head and shoulders above everything on Battle Ground and was only comparably matched by The Ambulance match.
- Joe/Lesnar was a match I thought, and I think a bunch of others though as well, to be a dream match before Joe was even in WWE. So it was just cool to be able to see it.
- It put Joe on the map. This feud did WONDERS for Joes career on the main roster. His feud with Seth lost all steam once Seth got injured. Their match should have happened at the ppv before Mania (Fastlane?) and it would have meant so much more heading into Mania. But due to injury Seths first match back had to be at Mania where he beat HHH. He conquered his real goal, but was almost obligated To go back and fight Joe. Ultimately it ended up doing nothing for either of them. Joe vs. Brock was great, and you really got to see Joe shine which I think could quite possibly be the biggest take away from the entire month of July.

In short;
Better show: Great Balls of Fire
Worst Match: Flag Match - Rusev vs. John Cena
Best Match: Universal Championship Match - Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar (c)

 

[Navi]

Did the red brand or the blue brand have the best event out of these two shows, and why?

Definitely RAW won the PPV battle this month. Even though Great Balls of Fire was a ridiculous name, for some reason it worked. I must admit excellent graphics from the WWE helped.

Even though we have seen these feuds on RAW and SD almost on a weekly basis, RAW just brought them up to a PPV level without all the bells and whistles. Battleground had the gimmicks with the flags and the Punjabi Prison, but they fell flat.

The women's match on GBOF was much better then a fatal five way elimination match, I mean come on that could have been a co main event on Smackdown Live not PPV worthy. Also some of the women in there really don't deserve any shot, Lana and Tamina come to mind. Lana might look good coming down the ramp but it ends there. Tamina is just a waste of space.

The tag match on Battleground was way more entertaining, Probably because New Day and the Uso's have some sort of chemistry thing happening that Shesaro and the Hardy's don't.

Anyway I could sit through GBOF, had a hard time making it to the end of Battleground last night.

What was the worst match between these two shows?

The flag match between Cena and Rusev just dragged on and on and I wanted to scream by the end of it. For two great wrestlers this was nothing short of a disaster. You could almost choreograph the steps as they went along, no surprises, no nothing. Expected better out of the pair of them really, but I guess they have to work with what they are given.

So disappointed that Rusev has come back the way he went out when he was injured. They could do so much with him, but refuse it would appear. I think the fans want to cheer him, but not unlike Bray Wyatt they are forced to boo the character. Face Rusev would be great.

Honorable mention to the The Punjabi Prison match it was just awful and please never do another one. Sincerely thought that one of the Singh brothers bought the farm after that bump from the top, glad to hear he's okay. But yea, horrible from the get go.

What was the best match out of what took place on these two shows?

I would have to be Joe against Lesnar. Since Lesnar came back all his matches have pretty much been the same, and they are getting boring. Sure he was squashed by Goldberg, but there were times that I legit though Joe would win. Easily Joe got the best match out of Lesnar in the last three years and would love to see Joe win the title at Summerslam.

 

[The Perfect Max]

What I'm finding very interesting is how the pendulum has swung so hard in the favourable direction of Raw in recent months. In late 2016, it was apparent that SmackDown was delivering much better special events than Raw, but that appears to have changed. In fact, I think Raw has been consistently better on pay-per-view than SmackDown since WrestleMania (because Fastlane before it was awful). That is even more interesting considering that SmackDown is consistently better than Raw on a weekly basis, at least in my opinion.

Great Balls of Fire delivered quite a fun event from start to finish. Bray vs. Seth has been seemingly thrown together last minute to give them something to do, but the match itself was fun, the finish was executed well and Bray got a much needed singles victory on pay-per-view. Unsurprisingly, the tag team Iron man match was fantastic too. Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks had one of Alexa's best matches yet which is a plus, and the two main event bouts were great. The Ambulance match ended with the right, yet surprising outcome and was brutal, while Samoa Joe actually came out of this period with a much bigger role to play on Raw. Many guys benefited from this event leading into SummerSlam and suddenly, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman look like very strong main event talent. That's not to say that this was a flawless show. Cass vs. Enzo could have and should have been better and they deserved a better end to their story. The Intercontinental Championship match was a complete dud too.

But when you compare all of that to Battleground, it's apples and oranges in the sense that the apple is ripe and the orange is sour. Corbin and Nakamura had a decent match with the right outcome to serve both guys well moving fotward, and the tag team title match was also really sweet. But, I don't feel as if AJ and Kevin Owens lived up to the admittedly high expectations, but perhaps that's due to the pretty poor ending. The women's fatal five way match was far too short and needed much more time to feel important, especially after the Money in the Bank ladder match a few weeks ago which went down really well. The flag match meant absolutely nothing moving forward and the Punjabi Prison match was just not fun. It was overly long and the biggest pop was the return of The Great Khali. Sad. Very sad.

I don't know what the best match of these two shows was, but the one I had most fun with was Braun vs. Roman. It was a hard struggle and the feud as a whole has been the highlight of 2017 in my opinion. The iron man match comes in close second I would say. Pure entertainment as these two teams continue to mesh so well. I guess the worst match has to be Curt Hawkins vs. Heath Slater by default, but in seriousness, I'd say the Punjabi Prison was poor. Some matches just fall into the "who cares" category on the Battleground show I guess.

 

[Wildcat66]

I'm going to state the obvious: GBOF was better than Battleground. Amazing seeing as back in January, or even before WrestleMania for that matter; SmackDown was considered to be the better show. And maybe for some, it still is.

Every single match for GBOF delivered and did what was expected of them. Even the ones we worried were not going to be as good (Joe vs Lesnar, Enzo vs Cass) turned out to be watchable.

With Battleground, i'm going to be honest; i'm actually a little more positive on the show than others. The New Day vs Usos match was fantastic, Shinsuke and Corbin had a decent match with the perfect ending to set up a SummerSlam match, and I surprisingly really got in to the women's match. (Probably because Becky Lynch is my personal favorite women on the roster)

But the flag match was very slow, felt like something you'd see back in the 80s, Styles and Owens was disappointing considering their reputations, (though I did hear from an article that Owens doesn't really like working with Styles anyway, so it might have something to do with it) and the Punjabi Prison match...well, there's a reason it's only happened three times. (I did kind of like The Great Khali's return though, interesting addition to the character)

I've actually heard people are starting to say SmackDown is horrible again, mostly from the people on Cageside Seats. I don't think we're at that level yet, but I will admit; this was not exactly a great PPV and may wind up being my least favorite PPV of the year.

Best Match: Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns: These two worked a fantastic story that was hard hitting, well-paced, and fun as hell. Especially what came after it. Hot damn, that belonged somewhere in the Attitude Era; that was epic.

Worst Match: (Shrug) I guess if I had to choose, i'd say Cena vs Rusev. They've had much better matches, WrestleMania 31 and Payback 2015 are examples. I guess it was just the bad stipulation that screwed them over.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Did the red brand or the blue brand have the best event out of these two shows, and why?

I think it's fair to say that an overwhelming majority feel that Great Balls of Fire was the much better show. Over the past 5 or 6 weeks, there's been a slump in SmackDown, to some degree, and being the suspicious natured fella that I am, I do wonder if Vince has genuinely made some decisions to bring SmackDown Live down so that Raw can overtake it and be seen as the "A show" in the eyes of fans again. Raw has always drawn more viewers but the quality has definitely been with SmackDown since the brand split, though that's not been as consistent the past month and a half as it has been. There was a lot of energy for Great Balls of Fire from start to finish and the only low point on the entire show was Enzo & Cass. I don't even count Slater vs. Hawkins as it was ultimately done as part of selling the aftermath of the Reigns/Strowman incident. For Battleground, I thought the first half of the show was pretty good but I was just taken out of it with the whacky finish for Styles vs. Owens. For one thing, I hate seeing hot potato title runs, I just hate it and it never stops irking me. For another, it was obvious that AJ Styles' shoulder was off the mat, you couldn't help but see it if you were looking at your screen, and the commentators didn't say boo about it. It struck me that it's the latest in a number of such finishes in which someone has their shoulder clearly up and it's used as an excuse to do a rematch. If the intent was to just give the impression that a pin can really happen at anytime, the execution just wasn't there as it made Styles look weak and the ref incompetent.

What was the worst match between these two shows?

For Great Balls of Fire, Enzo vs. Big Cass was easily the low point. For Battleground, I have to go with the Punjabi Prison match. The effort was there and this was a better outing than the previous two Punjabi Prison matches, but here's hoping the concept is retired because the match was still a dud overall.

What was the best match out of what took place on these two shows?

The single best match...hmmm, I'd probably have to go with Reigns vs. Strowman. It was a chaotic brawl that ended in an old fashioned, over the top manner that we haven't really seen in a long while. Lesnar vs. Joe was fantastic for what it was; the match itself was only about 7 minutes but there was the brawl prior to that so that made the entire scenario abound 10 minutes or so and the length is what knocked it out of the top spot for me. Still, it was a fantastic 10 minutes.

 

[OYDK]

Did the red brand or the blue brand have the best event out of these two shows, and why?

I actually didn't hate Battleground and, up until the Flag match, I think they were putting on a completely passable show. Of course, that could have been because I was rocking some Skyrim while I was watching so my attention wasn't completely on the wrestling. Still, GBoF was obviously the better event and I would argue it was one of the better events of the year, which is kind of sad considering it wasn't that great. Unlike others, I thought the Battleground card had potential so I was going in with relatively high expectations, but every match except the Tag Title match was pretty disappointing. Corbin/Nak was, if I'm being nice, average, and the Cena/Rusev, Orton/Jinder matches were coma-inducing levels of boring. Even AJ/Owens was missing a step and was completely hindered by the finish, which I completely missed originally. Top it off with the return of one of the most useless and boring in-ring wrestlers in history and what could have been a good show went down the shitter pretty hard in the last hour. On the other hand, I didn't have high hopes for GBoF and almost every match except the Iron Man either lived up to or surpassed my expectations.

What was the worst match between these two shows?

Jinder/Orton for me. I still can't believe they were in there for almost half an hour and I can't remember anything of the match except a hanging DDT, a kendo stick, the table bump, and Khali. That was pretty much all the action that happened in 30 minutes. It was extremely dull, the wrestlers looked unmotivated, and the crowd was completely dead. At least Cena/Rusev looked like they were trying.


What was the best match out of what took place on these two shows?

I'd say it's between New Day/Usos and Roman/Strowman. Although I do think Brock/Joe was the funnest match of the bunch. If I had to pick, I'd say New Day and the Usos. That was a really good match all things considered.