Since the brand extension started in 2002, which show have you enjoyed the most? I don't mean which brand is better at this exact moment, but throughout the almost three years since it started?

Personally, I've liked Smackdown in general. In late 2002, Smackdown was awesome and Smackdown spent 2003 looking as if it was on it's way to having a breakthrough year in 2004. That didn't happen, partially thanks to injuries, stars being traded to Raw, and Brock Lesnar quitting.

Raw was an absolute joke of a show from 2002-2003. 2004 has been the only year where Raw has been good, and it's fallen into a rut at numerous points. However, a big part of the reason Raw was good this year was because it took away a lot of talent from Smackdown (Benoit, Edge, Shelton Benjamin). I think if no jumps had been made, this would have been a banner year for Smackdown.

Gotta agree with you on this one. While Raw has been the better show lately, Smackdown kicked it's ass in 2002-early 2003. The Smackdown 6 were tearing it up about the same time Trips was fucking Katie Vick, so I gotta give Smackdown the nod.

But since Benoit moved to Raw, it's been a lot better. Anyone notice a trend?

Yes, Smackdown made a lot of stars for Raw. While Orton was sucking the heat out of arenas, Cena was getting majorly over. I can imagine one day they will be one the same roster and Orton will be trying to hold Cena down the same way Triple H did to Chris Jericho.

And yes, Benoit's presence adds a lot :)

I voted for Raw, but meant to vote for SmackDown! (since I kinda forgot about the SmackDown! 6 in '02)

I watch Raw every week, since I have Monday nights off. But I only catch SmackDown! a few times every few months, since I work on Saturday nights, and that's when SmackDown! is shown in my area.

Not sure if "since the roster split" is a fair question, because there have been massive changes in quality over that time.

Originally I preferred Raw, but when Austin/Benoit/Guerrero/Lesnar left and HHH was placed as the top man it went downhill rapidly. Mid-2002 through early 2003 was ALL Smackdown. Mid-2003 through Benoit leaving Smackdown they were about the same. Raw destroyed Smackdown from Mania to Summerslam before cooling off (ain't it odd that quality went down post-Benoit title reign?). Stopped watching Smackdown around Summerslam.

Meh, for the most part it's a toss up to me. Very rarely are BOTH shows good at the same time, but I usually watch one and like it while the other one gets on a horrible slump. There was a point earlier this year though where I didn't watch SD at all....but I still watch RAW every Monday regardless.......it's like tradition for me.

Smackdown...except I only enjoy Velocity on a normal basis.

RAW is fine from time to time, but Heat generally sucks with maybe a few stand out matches occasionally.

I guess it is worth pointing out that last year when I went camping for two weeks, the only wrestling show that I bothered to tape while I was gone was Velocity. This was because I didn't care about Raw, and Velocity would fill me in on Smackdown's events while entertaining me with the better wrestling. It turned out to be a good decision.

Smackdown still #1 Velocity... Not #1 RAW, Hawk-tooey!

What the fuck is this? RandombumpingofthreadsaMania?

I still say that Smackdown is consistently the better show, with Raw once in a while going through a string of hot shows that makes me think that times are changing for the better only to return to sucking again.

Smackdown is the opposite of Raw. It has a string of bad shows, but generally is about 10 times more watchable and usually has at least one outstanding match/segment (for TV scale, that is).

Well said. The only era of Smackdown since the split that was consistently bad was for a few months in 2004, with Jackie winning the Cruiserweight title and JBL being rushed to the main event (which in hindsight, wasn't so bad, thought at the time it seemed astoundingly stupid).

You have to understand the problem there, though. The main problem was THEY HAD NO HEEL MAIN EVENTERS. Angle was injured (again), Show needed surgery he had put off for months, and Brock cried his way out of his contract after WWE pushed him to the moon for 2 years.


The CW Title situation is ignorable. It's always been treated like crap. cough:DuaneGill:cough

Like I said, in retrospect the JBL push wasn't such a bad thing. Sure, it cost them a decent buyrate for one or two ppvs, but it worked out in the long run.

What was annoying about that time period was they had the first draft at that time and did not send any main event heels from Raw over to Smackdown to balance things out. Instead, they send Booker T, turn him heel by burying Smackdown, and then just job him out to Undertaker and Cena.

That was awesome... I mean, from a "how bad is this gonna be" way. They really need to send Kane to Smackdown. He needs a new place for all the Kane-a-nites to run wild, brother.

Well, if that rumor about Kane winning the World title at Judgment Day is true, then you shall be getting your way.

Yeah, but knowing my luck, it's fake news. GOD DAMN YOU, PWINSIDER! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'M DA MOUNTIE~~~!!!!!

Yeah, remember that Kane/Batista match that was supposed to happen at No Way Out? I don't either....


Sure, Batista got hurt, but Kane could've always wrestled Angle B)

Stop teasing!

Little does Scrooge know that I have tricked reporters at PWI and etc that I am a WWE office worker and every few months I send them a secret report claiming that Kane is going to headline a pay-per-view or win a World title every couple of months...

Well now you've blown your cover, haven't you? :P

Maybe with you, but I still have them fooled. ::Sends them reports that WWE is about to resign Lesnar and Goldberg::

Stop that! I get pain in my chest reading that Donkey Kong might resign with WWE.

Smackdown could really use Lesnar right about now (which has been the ongoing case since Lesnar initially left). Of course, Vince will want to punish Lesnar, so Lesnar might have to do a few jobs... to Simon Dean, Paul London, Jacquelyn (in a one shot deal), and the Blue Meanie.

I'm all for it.

Yeah, suddenly Lesnar would be the one who'd actually have to put Mark Henry over.

I'd actually like to see Lesnar back since I enjoyed the majority of his matches, though it would be suspenseful since the fear of him walking out would hover over anything he does.

I'd rather have Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and pretty much every piece of shit TNA signed that's a "big name" come back than Brock Lesnar.

Wow, that's some big time Lesnar hate. Why do you hate Lesnar anyways? I forget.

Because he didn't appreciate anything Vince did for him and walked out on a bullshit lie when they needed their biggest investment since Austin the most.

All good reasons. Smackdown did fall to pieces without him there, even with a hot Eddie Guerrero as WWE Champion.

Guerrero had no one to feud with! Even Hogan probably drew dick back in the day when fighting garbage like Kamala.

So that's why you hate Lesner?

Seriously Scrooge, you've got to be fucking kidding me.

Yes.

No, I hate him because he's ripped like a monster and has a cool ass tattoo.

Good, I thought you hated him because he was a better worker than 95% of the company at the time. Glad that's settled.

To save an argument, I won't point out how incredibly lop-sided that 95% is.


... Fuck it. I say 50-60% tops.

Lesnar was one of the top workers in the WWE throughout 2003. He was still rusty for most of 2002 and was only around for the beginning of 2004, but 2003 was the year of Lesnar consistently delivering the goods in the ring.

You're criminally underrating his work. Remember that Brock actually was the reason that his feud with Show was even REMOTELY interesting.

That's why I said 60%. It's a rough estimate, since I honestly can't rate 60-70 workers, especially when I'm probably on the fence with half of them.

Lesnar was a great worker for someone his size, he just a little bitch out of the ring.