RAW vs SmackDown
The ongoing battle! Who came out on top this week? My review below!
RAW 5/5/03
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between Bischoff and new co-GM Austin *No Jericho match *Rico on the mic!!! *Continuation of Christian's push via Goldberg |
very few points of light |
| Overall: Terrible, terrible show! Not a single good match on the entire show; everyone good was paired up with someone horrible. Worst thing being JR coming back and Austin attacking coach! JR is a very strong candidate for worse commentator of all time, this show was better watched on mute, the commentary being horrid. Jericho's "Hi-lite Reel", Austin's beer bash, and the Austin/Bischoff/commentators segments were utter wastes of time. Really one of the worst episodes of RAW I've ever seen. |
SmackDown! 5/8/03
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| Overall: |
| This Week's Winner: SD. There is just no concievable way that, as horrid as RAW was, SD could ever be worse! |
| RAW Match of the Week: None, they were all beyond
terrible
RAW Moment of the Week: Rico gets the talk!! Worst thing about RAW: Almost everything on the show could go here; Lance Storm, JR, Test; but overall the worst thing on RAW, as always, was Chris Jericho. The man wastes more camera time without ever stepping into the ring than HHH, Rock, Bischoff, and Austin combined. SD Match of the Week: SD Moment of the Week: Worst thing about SD: |
RAW 4/28/03
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*Coach on commentary |
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| Overall: |
SmackDown! 5/1/03
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*Los Guerreros vs Mattitude faction *More FBI *Guerreros/Team Angle feud; Guerreros steal medals *Interesting women's match; Torrie/Sable feud *More camera time for Sean O'haire! *Piper's Pit with "Mr. America" and Vince *"Mr. America" (aka Hogan) angle |
*Promise of another boring Brock/Show feud *More Benoit/Rhyno association *Show squashes poor little Funaki |
| Overall: An enjoyable show. Not the best one ever, but it was certainly solid; it had some good matches, some good feud continuation, and some nice humorous segements. Props to the SD writers/bookers, they're doing a good job! |
| This Week's Winner: RAW. Granted, SD as a show was more solid, but the highlights of RAW (mostly Christian's heavy involvement) were so good that they push RAW over SD. It was like a breathe of fresh air to have Rock finally gone, and Austin being named co-GM was awesome. RAW was greatly improved from the last few episodes, and very enjoyable. |
| RAW Match of the Week: Christian vs Booker
RAW Moment of the Week: Cena brings out a faction of heels against Goldberg Worst thing about RAW: Chris Jericho is guarenteed time to waste on every episode of RAW via his "Hi-lite Reel" SD Match of the Week: Los Guerreros vs Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore SD Moment of the Week: Spanky mocks Cena with a rap of his own Worst thing about SD: Chris Benoit |
RAW 4/21/03
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*HHH's surprise turn on Nash *Booker/Shawn clip, Flair/Bischoff clip *3MW/Rico on RAW *Lita speech (mostly) *Coach on commentary!!! Yay! |
(way too much to list) *No 1 reason it sucked: The Rock Honorable mentions to: Jericho Dudleys Morely TeddyLong Test |
| Overall: Really, seriously AWFUL show! The HHH/Booker/Shawn/Nash angle is interesting, and most of it was pretty good, but to have Booker's WM rematch deteriorate into a brawl and not even HAVE an ending really ruined the whole thing. There was so much promise in that match, but it was just ruined by all the interference. And everything else on the show was just horrible, completely unwatchable, and especially appalling heading into a PPV! One of the worst episodes of RAW ever. |
SmackDown! 4/24/03
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*Sable invitational *SEAN O'HAIRE!!!! *FBI/Benoit skit and match *Plenty of Cena and great lead in to his PPV title shot *Crash becomes an MFer *Made great by: Cena Guerreros Rhyno FBI Divas Team Angle Rey Tajiri Funaki Mattitude |
a few guys missing, but still good |
| Overall: Good show. Not the most exciting show ever, but it was all solid and it was entertaining. We got good matches, good building up feuds for the PPV this weekend, and good character interaction. |
| This Week's Winner: SD was a good show, RAW was an absolutely terrible show. SD had no competition this week. |
| RAW Match of the Week: None, they were all terrible
RAW Moment of the Week: HHH low blows Nash Worst thing about RAW: Crap ending of Booker's WM rematch SD Match of the Week: Cena vs Rhyno SD Moment of the Week: FBI demand Chris Benoit pay them back for money they lost betting on him Worst thing about SD: Seeing a closeup pan of Steph's bottom half |
RAW 4/14/03
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*Nowinski/Steiner debate; THREE MINUTES! *Goldust/Goldberg clip *Awesome Nash/HHH/HBK speech *Booker wins a title shot next week!!! *Nash/Booker/HBK sort-of fighting *Excellent divas match |
*RVD & Kane vs Team S&M [Storm & Morely] w/Dudleys involved, again (REPEAT!) *Teddy Long on commentary during women's match *Jericho vs Test (horrible match), Test/Stacy angle *Booker having to team with Hurricane *Bischoff's Austin sale |
| Overall: Half of this show was just crap, but with that stuff edited out, it amounted to a pretty killer 50 minutes of show! A good show overall, since the edited version is really enjoyable. The tag angle and the Bischoff/Austin thing needs to be dropped, the Rock and Teddy Long need to be muzzled, and Jericho, Test and Stacy need to just disappear. But, forgetting those bits, the Goldust, Booker, Kliq, Steiner, Nowinski, Christian, and divas bits were all excellent! A much better show than the last few RAWs. The good outweighs the bad here. |
SmackDown! 4/17/03
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*CENA WINS!!!! He's the No. 1 contender *Guerreros/Team Angle shots at each other *A-Train/Big Show post-match clip *All solid, enjoyable matches, except the ME *Guerreros back on SD! And talking! *No Stephanie *More FBI mischief *Interesting Torrie/Sable clip *Divas wrestling! |
*Brock talking *No Rhyno! *No Edge |
| Overall: Really a good show! The only problems were Benoit and Brock being allowed to talk, whih was terrible as always. Benoit really did his best to make Cena look like crap in the ME, which was terrible, but Cena won, so it's not a total loss. Really this was an entertaining, well put together show which was really enjoyable! |
| This Week's Winner: SD. There was some great stuff on RAW, but about half the show was pretty boring, while almost all of SD was really good. |
| RAW Match of the Week: HHH & Flair vs Booker
& Hurricane
RAW Moment of the Week: Christian's promo against Goldberg (close second: Nowinski's THREE MINUTES) Worst thing about RAW: Tie: Rock's boring promo & never-ending repeat tag team angle (RVD & Kave vs Team S&M [Storm & Morely] vs Dudleys) SD Match of the Week: Eddie Guerrero vs Jaime Noble SD Moment of the Week: Nathan Jones attacks Nunzio Worst thing about SD: Chris Benoit making Cena look like crap |
Episodes the weeks of 3/31 and 4/7 should be counted as SD victories, as SD began to improve, and RAW really sunk into the gutter, weighed down by bad booking and even worse "talent".
Note: All episodes between these two entries (Week of 2/24 - week of
3/24) should be assumed to be RAW victories, RAW was pretty good, and SD
consistantly bad.
RAW 2/24/03
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*Randy Orton's wrestling again *Victoria and Stevie on commentary *Jackie vs Jazz, Trish returns and divas brawling *Storm vs Kane, good match *Nowinski speech, ref reverses decision and Jeff loses *Rock singing/Hurricane as the Hamburgler *Awesome battle royale *Rocky on commentary on break from match *BOOKER WINS A WM TITLE SHOT!!!!!!!! |
*Jericho wasted on Test *Morely vs King *Dudley appearance *Boring Rock speech |
| Overall: There were a few bits of tonight's show that were just terrible, but the majority of the it was awesome! Great divas action, a hilarious Rocky/Hurricane clip, several other good matches, Orton back in action at last, and a fantastic and exciting battle royal, with a surprise victory by Booker over the Rock! The good stuff was so good, it far outweighs the bad. Awesome show! Very enjoyable! |
SmackDown! 2/27/03
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*Kendrick vs Kurt |
(too much to list) |
| Overall: When the Undertaker fighting A-Train is the part of the show that most interests me, I know the show is in sad, sad shape. Seeing Rhyno was awesome, and the part of the match not involving Benoit were great. Matt and Shannon did a great job fighting Rhyno. GORE GORE GORE!!! Kendrick vs Kurt was good too. The rest was crap, as SD always seems to be these days, and the crap always overshadows the good parts. |
| This Week's Winner: RAW. Even with Rhyno, SD just isn't a show worth watching anymore. RAW, on the other hand, with the exception of a few week bits, is often excellent! |
| RAW Match of the Week: RAW battle royale
RAW Moment of the Week: Booker wins the battle royale and a title shot as WrestleMania!!! Worst thing about RAW: Jericho wasted against Test, again SD Match of the Week: Brian Kendrick vs Kurt Angle SD Moment of the Week: Rhyno returns! Worst thing about SD: Rhyno is immediately pushed into the roll Edge must recently occupied, being a subserviant pion to Benoit. |
RAW 2/17/03
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*HBK getting handcuffed and whipped with his own belt *Booker pinned HHH! *3MW letting Rico have the pin on Spike *Stevie's pink shorts *Victoria/Jazz confrontations, in the ring an backstage *Great women's match; we see Jackie again!! *Decent Christian/Jericho match (vs Jeff & HBK) |
*Hurricane *Nowinski finally wrestling on RAW again, but in a joke match jobbing to Hurricane *Bischoff & Morely beating up JR |
| Overall: Not a super great episode, but it had a lot of enjoyable bits. Nice build up to the PPV. Overall, a good episode. |
SmackDown! 2/20/03
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*Los Guerreros "Cheat to Win" video *Matt getting naked to make weight *Divas on SD! (and Nidian beating Torrie) *Funaki saving Torrie *Edge appearance *Cole and Tazz' funny commentary |
*Benoit vs A-Train uninteresting repeat *Johnny Stamboli had a match *Rey & Kidman vs Matt & Shannon *No interesting development on the "Italian faction" *Super boring Hogan/Rock confrontation *Kurt and Team Angle wasted against Boring Brock *Edge had only a tiny little run-in at the end *Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, Chris Benoit, Brock Lesnar *No Sean O'haire, Kanyon, or Brian Kendrick |
| Overall: You know, when the best wrestling match on the show is a "Paddle on the Pole" match between a diva who's not really a wrestler and a diva who's just a valet at the moment, the show's just sad. The divas match and the promising divas feuding is interesting, but certainly can't carry the show. The booking was horrible, Rock and Hogan were unbelievably boring and wasted a full 1/4 of the show, and Brock just gets worse and wastes more of the show every week. The only high points of the show were Matt getting naked and hugging a grossed out looking Shannon, and the excellent Guerreros clip. It's nice to see them showing personality again! Everything else was just not worth seeing. Terrible, terrible show. |
| This Week's Winner: RAW. Neither show was super great this week, but RAW was decent, at least. It built up to the PPV well and had some nice matches and character interaction, especially Victoria and Jazz. SD was just terrible all around this week, it was boring and a huge letdown, especially in a pre-PPV episode. SD better make some big changes soon if they want to keep any viewers! If Edge leaves with an injury, I'll have very very very little reason to ever tune it, considering how consistantly terrible everything on the show has been lately. |
| RAW Match of the Week: Jacqueline & Molly
vs Jazz & Victoria
RAW Moment of the Week: Booker gets a pinfall over HHH!!! Worst thing about RAW: Evolution's jokes about Goldust's injury SD Match of the Week: Torrie vs Nidia (Paddle on a Pole) [sadly] SD Moment of the Week: Guerrero's show personality again in their "Cheat to Win" video Worst thing about SD: Team Angle being wasted on Boring Brock |
RAW 2/10/03
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*Promise of Austin for sure at NWO *Coach on commentary instead of JR *Excellent Jericho vs Hardy ME *Good 3MW (w/Rico!) vs RVD & Kane match *Booker wrestled and won (although should've been longer) *Amusing Morley/Dudleys squash *No long boring HHH speeches *Batista squashes Tommy Dreamer *Excellent women's match; Jazz (1st match back) vs Molly *No HBK speeches/air time |
*Christian's "match" against Test *D'lo Brown's racism gimmick *Test/Stacy clip *No Victoria or Stevie |
| Overall: Decent showing. Not the best episode, but it was entertaining almost all the way through. If the horrid Test match and later Test/Stacy clip had been cut out and replaced with, well, anything, this show would've been much better. But these didn't waste all that much time, and we did get good women's, RVD, Jericho, and Booker T matches. It's a shame Christian didn't have a real match, but then we never do see him really wrestling on RAW any more. It was nice seeing Rico and 3MW. RVD & Kane teaming up again was great, and the entire Vince/Bischoff firing/re-hiring bit was very entertaining and exciting, since it wasn't clear which way it was going to go. Wish Bischoff would've actually kissed Vince's ass, but just the look on his face made the segment worth it. Overall a nice strong showing for RAW! Good show! |
SmackDown! 2/13/03
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*Kurt trying to hit on Stephanie *More O'haire/Kendrick! *KANYON'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Brock actually wrestling, good match against Cena *Cena's rap, and clip with Funaki *No Billy Kidman *Awesome divas fighting! *Birth of Nunzio's new Italian faction, with Chuck! |
*Kanyon getting beat up by Taker *Brock beating up Team Angle and Kurt *Torrie and the GGW crap *Rey Mysterio *Johnny Stamboli showing up on SD! *Horrid Matt Hardy/losing weight angle |
| Overall: This was a pretty solid show. It had some decent highs, and some awful lows, some of them strangely combined. I'm very very happy to see Chuck getting an angle, and the birth of Nunzio's Italian faction was great, but why why why why did Johnny Stamboli have to be part of it? Definitely the biggest low of the show was him showing up! The entire Matt Hardy/losing weight angle is disgusting and really terrible, plus it's pretty much destroyed the interesting character he had going for a while. Brock getting so much airtime was awful as well, he's still incredibly bad at anything speaking or character related. But, on the positive side, Kanyon's back!!!! And we got to see O'haire and Kendrick again, although I wouldn't liked to see them more. We got a few good matches and only 1 really bad match (Hardy vs Rey). This show continued or started several very interesting things that will have my tuning into future episodes, so overall I'll give it a positive review this week. |
| This Week's Winner: RAW. The angle with Bischoff trying desperately to save his job really drew me into RAW and made the show exciting. SD was right on RAW's heels though this week. They both had a lot of good stuff, and they both had several negative elements as well, but SD definitely had some negatives than RAW. Still, decent showing for WWE tv in general this week. |
| RAW Match of the Week: Chris Jericho vs Jeff
Hardy
RAW Moment of the Week: Bischoff being fired (even though he was re-hired later on the show) Worst thing about RAW: Test had a match SD Match of the Week: Edge vs Charlie Haas SD Moment of the Week: Kanyon returns, dressed as Boy George and singing a terrible rendition of "Karma Chameleon" Worst thing about SD: Stamboli showing up! |
RAW 2/3/03
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*More heelish Jeff Hardy assaulting RVD & Kane *Tommy Dream getting beat down *Rico as a ref *Interesting 3MW vs Dudleys match *Victoria/Jazz confrontation *Sean O'haire vignette |
*Christian and Jericho being wasted on Test & Stacy *The end of BookerDust *Goldust electrocuted *HHH's boring speech *Pointless HHH faction skybox clips *Rico through table *HBK showing up to put down Jeff Hardy |
| Overall: Extremely shabby follow up to last week! This show was fairly boring and uninteresting. It's just a crime for two incredibly talented guys like Christian and Jericho to be wasted on Test and Stacy, and I'm getting really sick of Christian being little more than Jericho's henchman. Bischoff trying to find Austin was mildly amusing. Goldust being 'electrocuted' was terrible and very uncalled for. The Booker/Goldust 'breakup' was sad. I hate to see such an entertaining pairing ended! All the matches were lacking, except for Dudleys vs 3MW with Rico as the ref, which was very entertaining, but short. HHH gave yet another long boring speech, despite being injured. Really a very, very disappointing show! |
SmackDown! 2/6/03
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*Funny heelish Rock speech *Nice Hogan speech *Los Guerreros vs Team Angle *SEAN O'HAIRE APPEARS!!!!!!!! *Cena's rap-challenge to Brock *BRIAN KENDRICK STREAKS!!!!! |
*Billy Kidman beating Matt Hardy *Kurt vs Benoit part 25 *No Edge match!!! The outrage!!!! *Benoit's boring talk |
| Overall: There were definitely bad and good parts of this week's show; seeing Kurt vs Benoit for the kajillionth time was hardly thrilling; same with the horrid Matt vs Kidman match. Rey vs Noble was just as bad as all Rey's matches. But, Team Angle vs the Guerreros was excellent as expected, and I was very very happy to see Team Angle crowned tag team champinons! I absolutely loved the way they won, it was very original. The Rock made me laugh, especially with "When I point, you speak", and Hogan was wonderfully entertaining. Of course, the bit that sold the show was the tv debut of SEAN O'HAIRE!!! And he's doing his best to get the boys to misbehaving, getting cute little Brian Kendrick to streak around the arena! Definitely the highlight of the show! All in all, an enteraining show, a big step up from previous weeks! |
| This Week's Winner: Definitely Smackdown! It was actually a decent show this week, and RAW was really bad. Neither had any particularly exceptional matches, although they had one match each that was pretty darn good. Seeing Rico as a ref on RAW was awesome, but seeing Sean get Brian to strip was better! That was definitely one of the most entertaining moments of SD since the Billy & Chuck wedding! |
| RAW Match of the Week: Dudley Boys vs 3MW (Rico
as the ref)
RAW Moment of the Week: Seeing Rico as a referee Worst thing about RAW: Goldust 'electrocuted' SD Match of the Week: Los Guerreros vs Team Angle (w/Paul Heyman) SD Moment of the Week: Sean O'haire showing up & getting Brian Kendrick to streak! Worst thing about SD: No Edge match! Of all the outrages! |