WWE Raw vs. SmackDown: Analyzing Who Won the Week of October 17

The battle between Raw and SmackDown for sports-entertainment brand supremacy continued this week, the latter focusing on the build to Hell in a Cell and the return of Goldberg while the former countered with the James Ellsworth story.

Neither show was particularly good nor did much to generate interest among fans, but which was slightly less disappointing en route to a victory in this week's showdown?

Match Quality

SmackDown Live continues to pale in comparison to Raw in terms of in-ring content, though the running time has something to do with it.

At three hours, Raw benefits from having longer matches designed to eat up television time. Thus, singles bouts between Big E and Sheamus in Hour 1 may get eight minutes as opposed to a one-on-one contest over on SmackDown, which is shortened a few minutes to meet the confines of the two-hour time frame.

Jack Swagger and Baron Corbin could have had a strong, power-based contest but settled for a sprint of a match, hurting the overall quality of the blue brand. That the much-hyped match between James Ellsworth and AJ Styles that headlined Tuesday's broadcast was more of a story than a competitive match only added to Raw's dominance this week.

Winner: Raw

Creative Direction

Raw is still in the midst of building to Hell in a Cell on October 30, so its television is much more focused than it has been in recent weeks. WWE Creative is focusing on main event programs involving Roman Reigns and Rusev, Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens and Sasha Banks and Charlotte while systematically building midcard matches to fill out the remainder of that pay-per-view card.

SmackDown Live remains in a holding pattern of sorts.

It is clear that Dean Ambrose is gearing up to battle Styles over the WWE World Championship, and Randy Orton's vendetta with Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper will continue into the next month. But beyond that, there is nothing in the way of substantial or significant storyline advancement or creative direction.

Everything is as it was before No Mercy, all the way down to midcard rivalries that remain the same.

Winner: Raw

Booking Decisions

The biggest issue facing Raw right now is the fact that the writing staff has made a more intriguing character out of Chris Jericho than it has Seth Rollins, and the result is a side program between Y2J and Kevin Owens. Their fractured friendship is significantly more interesting than Rollins' halfhearted babyface run.

Couple that with the writing staff's decision to book Banks and Charlotte inside Hell in a Cell for the purposes of "making history" rather than settling their blood feud, and you have a Raw brand that has improved significantly in recent weeks but is still faltering at several key positions.

SmackDown, for all its flaws of late, has featured steady booking designed to get its core Superstars over.

Just this week alone, Styles and Ambrose were spotlighted while perennial—yet surprisingly over—jobber James Ellsworth earned substantial television time. Dolph Ziggler and The Miz intensified their rivalry while simultaneously shining the spotlight on tag champions Heath Slater and Rhyno and top contenders The Spirit Squad.

Then there was Alexa Bliss, Nikki Bella and Carmella, all of whom were given significant roles on the show as the build to major contests continued.

Winner: SmackDown Live

Winner

For the first time in the brand extension, Raw takes the lead in the head-to-head battle on the strength of an OK show that never matched the quality of last week's but still ranked just slightly ahead of a so-so SmackDown Live in need of a spark.

Winner: Raw

Scorecard

Raw: 6; SmackDown: 5