The Good
For Raw, the counseling segments were pretty entertaining this week between Bayley and Sasha Banks. You can tell the build for this is slow and the fans do not know what direction this is heading, which is good. WWE is just getting started with the counseling between these two and it’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
For Smackdown, the main event between the reunited Team Hell No and the Usos was a great match. There was something on the line in this match too because if the Usos won, they would be added to the tag team championship match at Extreme Rules. Team Hell No ended up winning, meaning they will face the Bludgeon Brothers at Extreme Rules and with Daniel Bryan involved, it does feel like the tag team division is getting recognition it deserves.
The Bad
For Raw, how many weeks in a row are we going to see the same matches? Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns vs. The Revival and Curtis Axel vs. Matt Hardy have been on our TV screens for the past three weeks. While I do understand trying to build up rivalries since most of these competitors are facing off against each other at Extreme Rules, there are other ways about building them up than just putting on the same match week after week.
For Smackdown, I still do not understand what they are trying to do with Andrade Almas. The former NXT Champion still has not had his match with Sin Cara and we haven’t seen him on TV for weeks. Hopefully, he is either the next one to answer one of Jeff Hardy’s open challenges or he finds somebody else to have a rivalry with because the anticipation to see what he can do for Smackdown is running thin.
The Final Verdict
Overall, both shows were pretty good this week. Both shows did a great job of building up their matches for Extreme Rules and have laid out groundwork for possible upcoming feuds as well. Both brands had segments that felt like they were going to fall flat, turn out pretty good (New Day’s pancake eating segment, Bayley and Sasha Banks counseling). With that said, I will have to say that Smackdown had the better show this week. A great main event, proper build up for the WWE Championship match, and a New Day segment that led to Xavier Woods getting put through a table are all solid reasons for why their brand had the better show. In conclusion, WWE has done a good job of building up for Extreme Rules. Hopefully, WWE keeps the momentum rolling into the PPV because the card looks good.
