FutureShockReality - SmackDown is surpassing Raw

[FSWWE]

Future Shock Reality​

SmackDown is surpassing Raw​

In the past couple of months, SmackDown is becoming a hell more entertainer than Raw, by a landslide.
SmackDown isn't surpassing Raw in ratings of course, but as far as I see, I look forward to Fridays more than Mondays.
I've read some posters saying the same thing...

Raw brings nostalgia back, about times with Hart, SCSA etc...
But SmackDown is just hated by the IWC because its taped -.-

In Raw RIGHT NOW, we have The Miz vs A-Ri, Nexus vs who they want, Cena waiting for the new contender, Truth and Mysterio hating each other, Alberto Del Rio just ripping Big Shows leg!

In SmackDown, the show has become 5 stars, Great Wrestling matches like Daniel Bryan vs Rhodes, The Corre vs Barret, The Great Khali turning heel with Mahal, Randy Orton having one of his best World Title reign, with WTF matches against Christian.
Next week title match Randy Orton vs Sheamus (> John Cena vs CM Punk)
So what I want to know is:

Is SmackDown better than Raw? Why or Why not?

 

[avb6100]

YES SMACKDOWN IS BETTER THAN RAW IN MY OPINION BUT IT IS TAPED WHY CANT WE HAVE IT LIVE THE MATCHES QUALITY IS OF COURSE GREAT ON THE BLUE BRAND BUT THE ATTENTION OF ALL IS ON RAW AND RATINGS TOO BUT SOME STARS ON RAW NEEDS TO GET ON SMACKDOWN COZ THEY ARE NOT FITTING ON RAW .WHY NOT HAVE DREW TRADED BACK TO SD AND FEUD WITH BARRETT FOR IC TITLE ? HE SURE WILL NOT BE WASTED LIKE HE IS NOW BUT YES TO YOUR QUESTION SD > RAW IMO DUE TO THE QUALITY OF MATCHES I KNOW THAT WWE ARE FOCUSING MORE ON ENTERTAINMENT RATHER THAN WRESTLING BUT I STILL FOLLOW WRESTLING SO MY VOTE FOR SMACKDOWN

 

[superman:)]

I would totally say Smackdown at the moment, but I do wish it was live coz it adds excitement... Raws shocking at the moment..The only person I want to watch on that show is the miz, everyone else is becoming really stale and boring. Smackdown on the other hand is getting better and better, Orton is a really exciting champion and he seems to bring out the best in his opponents.. But to be fair this has only really been for the past month, before during the wrestlemania period I only watched raw..

 

[Kaneanite]

What the hell is a "Future Shock Reality"?

Anyway, it's been stated by many in the IWC (for whatever that's worth...) many times. For story-lines, good feuds, and 'entertainment' watch RAW. For wrestling, watch Smackdown!. That still holds true, in my opinion. I'm sorry but I'm not going to take a show too seriously if it's 2nd and 3rd biggest heels are Mark Henry and the Great Khali. No thanks, not my cup of tea. Am I tired of Cena dominating everyone? Yeah, but I'm more tired of everyone bitching about it. And it's not like the same thing isn't happening on SD! with Randy Orton.

At the end of the day, I'll take RAW because it's live. Has a better feel to it, in my opinion. Though I believe there are a few future big players in the WWE on SD! and they put on some great matches.

 

[Don]

I totally agree with you. SD! has really set the creativity of WWE on fire. The day Christian lost the title to Orton after his feud with Del Rio, the forum was flooded with "I hate Orton" and "Christian not trusted with title by McMahon". I had a feeling it was Edge-Christian story all along, only delayed and Orton replacing Edge. Now look the previous tapping. We are clearly seeing the rise of Christian as a heel, Sheamus as a champion, Henry as a credible heel, Khali and Mahal bringing demons back to Tag Team and The implosion of Corre. I also enjoy Long as a ecstatic and phenomenal manager. Add Riley to the scene and we can see another new face in development.
However, what makes SD! more exciting is the possibility of Orton finally getting away from title-picture. With Christian screwing Orton twice for the title, I have a feeling that their feud will start very soon and will catapult Christian as a top heel - something he's very good at.
RAW has gone stale. Same beeps of laptop, same Cena with the stupid title, same Miz ranting, same Rio and others being forgotten, same Kane switching sides and having emotions as trivial as that of a child, same old storylines recycled. Only thing I am enjoying is resurrection of Nexus and Rey-Truth feud. If WWE removes title from Cena and let him engage with people like Rio, Drew or Swagger (I left out Truth because he deserves better feuds). I'll cross my fingers on Punk winning. As long as he doesn't, I won't be watching RAW.
Underlining statement: with Christian becoming heel, Orton losing title, tag team section becoming stronger and fresh space for breath for other people, SD! is definitely WWE's best outing right now.

 

[mrbrownstone]

It really depends on what you are a fan on. In terms of actual wrestling SD has been better than Raw for a long time. You have guys like Rhodes, Chavo, DBD, Sheamus, Sin Cara etc who go out each and every week and put on great in ring performances. You get longer matches generally with SD and when you put talented guys like those in long matches then you usually get good matches. It isn't all good on the SD side of things though, you also have the likes of Mark Henry and Kahli who both seem to be getting pushes as heels, and you have the Corre being one of the most boring factions ever. So if your focus is on better wrestling and less promos then SD is definitely for you.

 

[laddclan]

If you don't like Smackdown because it's a taped show...

Don't read the results on Wednesday morning.

You think it's good now, it gets even better when you haven't already read the results.

Try it for a week or two, and you'll never want to read the spoilers again.

 

[Karilas]

If you don't like Smackdown because it's a taped show...

Don't read the results on Wednesday morning.

You think it's good now, it gets even better when you haven't already read the results.

Try it for a week or two, and you'll never want to read the spoilers again.

This^

Smackdown is pretty good, especially when you don't know what's coming. More often than not it is a choice to read spoilers, except for the occasions where those *NEW Champ* threads pop up on the main page, or when there's an attention/hit grabbing title on a news item such as "New Champion crowned at SD taping!"

Thing is though, I couldn't say which is the better show at the moment. On Smackdown I'm totally loving the fact that Christian and Sheamus are title contenders, Cody Rhodes is pure gold and I can't wait to see him in a potential feud with Daniel Bryan, because those two could put on some show-stealers in my reckoning. On the other hand there's Raw, where lately even Cena hasn't been completely insufferable, I loved his line a couple of weeks back "I'm The Miz and I have testicles"); add to that the heel turn from Ron Truth and A-Ri's latest turn and you've got some pretty compelling viewing, especially now Cole's had his comeuppance and the show isn't all about him anymore.

 

[nish2231995]

Im basically going to tell you what previous posters have already said. with sd you get more wrestling, wasted talents getting pushes (some good like rhodes some bad like henry) an actual live gm, and my favourite, the knee that rhodes does off the top turnbuckle (It looks so sick yet so simple). the tag team between khali and mahal im interested in, orton and sheamus, rhodes and daniel bryan's works, sin cara and chavo geurrero, mark henry getting a push (we got a taste of an ecw title run for him, everybodies definetely too harsh) and much more.

for raw your getting the nexus' build and riley/miz + r-truths amazing promos.
see the thing is most talents on raw are being wasted, or used in wrong ways, such as the whole del rio and big show angle. too much time not enough mcintyre, another name wasted. your getting cole dominating 20 mins, not even anything payed off for the angle, what a rip...... swagger goes from a potential face turn to kicked in the face by bourne, dude, really?

ima stob blabbing now and finish with sd for sure baby

 

[stilltippin]

IMO.. Smackdown has been better for a few years..

the only year i didn't really like Smackdown was this past year..

half the time, Ill DVR Smackdown! as i can't watch in on Friday nights and ill watch that During Raw mondays and make SD! my Monday Night Prime time Show.

 

[SFC]

I'll admit...about a year ago when WWE did those Smackdown Live! shows, I really really enjoyed them.

If I remember correctly though, those were pre-extension, a period where I thought Smackdown was at the top of its game in terms of entertainment.

The reason we don't see the show live anymore is because the Friday-Saturday-Sunday block is filled for the house shows, promotional appearances, or PPV's. A RAW guy will TYPICALLY get Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off, with Friday being a travel/show day. A Smackdown guy usually gets Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday off. If there is no show on Friday, they'll get that too.

Vince's schedule is grueling enough, I don't think it's asking too much too tape.

But yes, if TNA is looking for real wrestling all the time, Smackdown is where to look. Which it would appear they've done after looking at that set.

 

[Ayatollah]

i loved SmackDown since i started to watch Wrestling even if it is Taping but i love it it's all about "Wrestling" well more than RAW anyway so the matches are excellent at least more entertaining than RAW there are great potentiels , they have good feud , they do WHC matches in the show it has more wrestling time than all the other shows well for me SD is n°1

 

[Yesiamaduck]

Smackdown seldom finds it's show dragging unlike Raw... I think Smackdown is paced a hell of a lot better. I've also noted in the last few weeks Smackdown seems to have moved to more traditional backstage segments with Matt Striker giving interviews several times per show.... as opposed to those really stiff and unnatural looking segments on Raw where you have 2 superstars sharing 'chemistry' on screen & I really like it... it helps move the show long nicely and because the guy is always making eye contact with the viewer they connect with you more & it's more believable then the hammy acting in the backstage segments. I also feel that Smackdowns main event scene changes at a sensible rate so that it doesn't get nearly as stale as Raws.

 

[wrestler36]

This isn't the first time it's been like this. A few years ago, when Smackdown had Guerrero, Benoit, MVP, Matt Hardy, Mysterio, it was consistently better than Raw. I want to say this was around 2005-2007. I guess it comes down to who has better storylines, and for wrestling fans, who has more, well, wrestling

 

[Elementz of Fear]

I've seen a couple people mention the fact that Raw is an entertainment show and SmackDown is a wrestling show which is absolutely 100% true. I don't have much of a problem with SmackDown being taped because you can just choose not to read the spoilers. The HUGE problem I have with it is that fact that it is on Friday nights which, as a college student, has been extremely frustrating. I managed to convince my friends to start watching Raw and they enjoy it but watching SmackDown is a hassle since its right when people are getting ready to go out.

As for which show is better, though, SmackDown is, has been, and always will be the better "WRESTLING" show while Raw takes the variety entertainment approach. Bryan, Rhodes, Christian, Orton, etc. can all put on excellent matches which is what SmackDown has always been about since the brand split really. It wont change, even if it goes live or switches back to Thursdays. You almost can't compare the 2 shows anymore because they really are vastly different.

 

[technicalmaster323]

Its true smackdown is more about wrestling while raw is about entertainment even though their "entertainment" is getting stale their the entertainment show and smackdown is a hellof a lot better especially when you don't read the spoilers for it.they have great matches and great stars with orton,christian,sheamus,rhodes,sin cara,DB and more but the 1 thing I'm wondering is why did the E take away the WRESTLERS of swagger and drew from smackdown a wrestling to raw an entertainment show they're being misused on raw with its crowdidness and cuz of the whole cole/lawler and JR fued that went far longer without a pay off and took up almost the whole show. So SD is better than to raw for me always has and for a wrestling show they had many great fueds some fued of the years actually compared to raw which is an entertainment show.

 

[amazing_blue]

I agree with the opinions stated above; SmackDown is without a doubt the better show at the moment. I like SmackDown's old school feel. As a poster above me said, I like the traditional backstage segments. As goofy as it sounds, I really have always dug the SmackDown set.

My only beef is the the terrible announce team. I really miss Todd Grisham and Matt Striker; they were given a pretty weak year to work with.

 

[akathelaw]

The draft seems to have worked out best for Smackdown. Raw got most of its best picks prior to the draft in Ziggler and CM Punk, but Smackdown is really benefiting from the presence of Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Randy Orton and Sheamus. Mark Henry could be a pleasant surprise, but it's a little too early to say if he will end up sticking around in the main event. There are weeks when Smackdown is positively the best wrestling show that aired, but the past year was eally bad for Smackdown. I think the show is thriving on the new network, and SyFy has definitely thrown some money at the production, we've seen a lot more spectacular lighting and pyro. Above all the wrestling is solid and the booking is a little more classic and enjoyable compared to the entertainment heavy product Raw and Impact offer.

 

[blueskyy]

My only beef is the the terrible announce team. I really miss Todd Grisham and Matt Striker; they were given a pretty weak year to work with.

Voted and commented.

I just wanted to add that I'm one of the few guys here that like Todd Grisham commentaries and interviews. Most people here don't even mention about him when they discuss about the commentary team.

I don't really like Matt Sticker. I can't pinpoint what or why... it's just the way he talks... sounds strange to me.

 

[laddclan]

Might I also point out that if you want to see some good wrestling, do check out Superstars. They might not give you any big names (though can you get much bigger than Zack Ryder?!!? WWWYKIB!) but they do give you 40 minutes of some pretty decent matches with the superstars in the making.