The Good
For Raw, the whole segment and match featuring Seth Rollins was a great feature on this show. With Rollins demanding a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship against Dean Ambrose, Triple H decided to come out and address this. Triple H told him that the “automatic rematch” clause is no longer going to happen and that superstars have to earn their title opportunities from now on. This then led to a match with Bobby Lashley, which ended in a DQ when Rollins took out Lashley and Lio Rush with a steel chair. This has fans thinking if Triple H possibly set something off in Rollins going forward.
For Smackdown, the main event was a fatal five way match to determine who would face Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble and it was a spectacular match. With each superstar getting their time to shine, it was a solid showing from everybody. AJ Styles ended up winning the match after hitting a 450 splash on Randy Orton. With what has been happening with Styles recently after his encounter with Vince McMahon last week, it is interesting to see what is going to happen next in this feud.
The Bad
For Raw, their main event compared to Smackdown’s was underwhelming. We got a standard tag team match between Natalya and Ronda Rousey versus Nia Jax and Tamina. The match was ok overall but didn’t really have anything too attention grabbing. Along with that, this is a match we have already seen multiple times.
For Smackdown, we really didn’t get anything out of the tag team division this week. There was no segment, promo, or anything in regards to what is next in store for the champions so that was very disappointing.
The Final Verdict
Overall, with the holidays falling on both scheduled times of these shows, they had to put on good shows that would get people to actually watch. While they could throw in segments related to the holidays, they still need to push forward for the Royal Rumble. In regards to which brand did a better job of this, Smackdown takes this week too. With a solid main event, proper time given to build up the United States Championship, and things to look forward for next week’s show, Smackdown keeps hitting on all cylinders while Raw still needs to figure out what to do.
