Were you more for RAW or Smackdown?

[CM Steel]

As everybody well knows the WWE had the brand split in April of 2002. The split lasted for 9 years ending in 2011. But for those 9 years, which brand were you more of a fan of RAW or Smackdown? We've seen epic battles between the two brands going back to when Eric Bischoff was the General Manager of RAW and Stephanie McMahon was the GM of Smackdown.

And how can anyone forget about the now defunct pay per-view "WWE Bragging Rights"? Which was a good format for decent battle ground. If I had to choose I'd say...Smackdown! Because SD was the underdog between the two brands and I'm always a sucker for the underdog. When I had WWE Smackdown "Shut your mouth" the video game for PS2 I would always create a wrestler for the Smackdown brand who would lead the brand against the RAW brand. I miss those days!

So which brand were you mostly for during that period? Were you more for RAW or Smackdown? The ECW brand doesn't count since it's only been around for like four years 2006-2010. R.I.P?

 

[The Butcher]

SmackDown! for me as well. The underdog factor played a part for me, too. Plus, the roster often felt fresher and more dynamic than Raw's, and it typically featured longer and better matches. Also, in the early days, Triple H's tyranny on Raw was a little annoying at times. It was never a runaway, as there was plenty to like on Raw during the Brand Extension, but I was definitely always more of a SmackDown! guy.

 

[relentless1]

raw all the way, all the big stars were on monday nights, all the important shit happened on monday nights, sure; the wrestling was better on smackdown, for the first year or so but i always loved raw moe because as a WCW fan it was the more "WCW-centric" show

 

[Galvatron]

I was always for Smackdown. I thought it had the better wrestling and storylines. It would always annoy me when the draft took place and Smackdown's best talent went to Raw but I understood that they had to go to the "A" show. Of course the days of Smackdown being better died when Raw Supershow was created.

 

[GameOver]

RAW has always for me atleast been the more entertaining. Smackdown just had better matches most of the time, but better matches doesn't translate to better entertainment as a whole. There was a time when Smackdown was on par if not better then RAW, specially when it debuted, it was new and the storyline extensions were played out better on Smackdown. Years later Smackdown became the copycat show, everything on Smackdown was just a rehash of what happened on RAW that month including exactly the same match stipulations and PPV matches more specifically the only difference being who was involved. and now it's all RAW again, Smackdown has fallen into a hole and as the above said, RAW now has both RAW and Smackdown talent anyway.

I could really give a toss ether way, i'll watch all programming regardless and there's good and bad in all the shows including NXT, Main Event, Superstars, Vintage Collection, Raw and Smackdown

 

[JaylisJayP]

I was always for Raw just because even from the start, Raw was the "A" show. It had HHH and I believe Stone Cold...then Jericho defected to Raw...then Kurt Angle, John Cena, etc...

I'd just rather watch the show that has more entertaining stories over athletic matches, just my preference.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I preferred Raw during nearly the entire time that the brand extension was in full effect. It was clearly the "A" show during most of this timeframe and a good number of the big stars were on Raw as opposed to Smackdown. Raw was more storyline oriented while Smackdown was more wrestling oriented, so there was more than enough differentiation between the brands. Smackdown was vastly superior in match quality, although in my opinion Raw destroyed it in the other categories other than for the second half of 2008. During that time Smackdown briefly felt like the "A" show until Wrestlemania season of 2009, when Raw picked back up and never lost its momentum as the top brand again. I was more of a fan of Raw as a brand since it entertained me more, despite the fact that Smackdown consistently put on better matches, Raw still caught my attention more.

On another note, why is ECW even in the poll?

 

[the_vipers_enigma]

I will also go with SD. Like others said it had the better wrestling and stories. Sure there were time when Raw was better but SD was the best.

 

[fenderjapan]

I was 100% SD for most of the time. I enjoyed Angle, Taker, Batista, Finlay, JBL, Booker T...while Raw was all Cena and Edge and HHH.

 

[HellBoundPower]

Raw has always been the "A" show, and I've always preferred it. It's most likely due to the fact that I was watching Raw before SmackDown even existed. Raw has always had the bigger stars, the bigger matches, the bigger storylines, and all in the all the bigger feel. Raw always felt important. You could miss an episode of SmackDown and feel like you didn't miss anything, but if you missed Raw you missed something special. Of course I watched both, but I pretty much only tuned into SmackDown to see The Undertaker. Everything else was on Raw. And while I feel that there were times when the momentum would switch and SmackDown had a better product, those times were few and far between. Raw has always been bigger, and will always be bigger.

 

[King Patrick Star]

This may not make sense to most of you, but I’m a “WWE Championship” guy. Whatever show the WWE Champion was on, that was the show I was most interested in. As far back as I can remember, SummerSlam 1989, to be exact, 88% of my interest in Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment was for the WWE Champion and the WWE Championship Title and the WWE Championship Belts. The other 12%, if you were wondering, went to the other Champions / Championships and Stables.

In specific detail during the Brand Extention, I was on “Team Blue” from September 2, 2002 to June 6, 2005. I was on “Team Red” from June 6, 2005 to June 23, 2008. I was back on “Team Blue” from June 23, 2008 to April 13, 2009. I was back on “Team Red” on April 13, 2009 and haven’t switched again since.

I’m one of those fans that didn’t believe that Raw was always the “A” Show. I did, however, always believe that the WWE Championship was, is, and always will be the “A” Championship, the Richest Prize in this industry. Now, don’t get me wrong. I wanted the show that featured the World Title to succeed like I wanted WCW to succeed. I wanted Vince’s ECW to succeed like I wanted Paul’s ECW to succeed. I just happened to be a bigger fan of the WWE Title than the WCW / World Title and ECW Title.

 

[HBsam31]

I have just always been a Raw guy. During that time Smackdown often did offer the better wrestling, but Raw always had that anything can happen feel for me. It may have just been out of habit, but I always thought Raw was the better show. I would watch Raw every Monday night live, and often times wouldn't get to Smackdown for a few days after. I was never a huge fan of the brand split, but I always stayed loyal to Raw despite Smackdown sometimes being the better show.

 

[LascoX]

I always enjoyed both shows but for me the favorite show was Raw. Raw went out live and that made all the difference. It was like being at the event instead watching the edited version of Smackdown. Smackdown at times seemed like it had the better matches but if you factor in that they were able to cut out bad material and slip ups to me it mattered. I loved the fact that what you were watching was what actually happened. Mistakes and all made the watching exsperiance for me better.

 

[SuperSteve16]

I have always been more of a fan of RAW, simply because it was the "A" show, that had most of the biggest stars in the WWE and always had the most must see storylines. While Smackdown has always had the better matches, RAW has featured the most important stories and therefore has been more entertaining.

 

[Wolf Pac]

I've always been a RAW guy even when Smackdown was better, it was just hard for me to root against RAW because the red show has always felt like home for me. While Smackdown always put on the better matches, RAW was always better for other things like the storylines (except the Katie Vick one) as many have pointed out, it's GM's especially Eric Bischoff, I couldn't stand whenever Stephanie got one over on Eric but like the ruthless SOB that he's always been, he always got her back, and Michael Cole & Tazz were annoying as hell especially when they would constantly throw shots at RAW, JR & King were great as always and they never felt the need to blast Smackdown all the time, even Coach was better than Cole & Tazz whether he was face or heel, I'd always get a laugh out of him cause he was becoming funny in interviews, on commentary, wherever. And RAW always had more household names, so that made me want to watch RAW more than Smackdown. Also I hated Smackdown always beating RAW in their 10/12 man elimination matches at Survivor Series or Bragging Rights, but I understand they had to do that in order to make SD look superior to RAW, unfortunately it never worked anyway.