WWE Raw vs. SmackDown: Winner, Top Highlights and Botches for Week of May 25

The May 22 episode of Raw was concentrated on building rivalries and booking matches for its upcoming Extreme Rules pay-per-view on June 4. The following night's SmackDown Live not only wrapped up the major happenings from Backlash Sunday night, but also turned an eye toward the Money in the Bank extravaganza on June 18.

With so much energy focused on pay-per-view events, it was more important than ever to produce a compelling product that drummed up excitement for those spectaculars.

The red brand highlighted Finn Balor, Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe ahead of the Fatal 5-Way match to determine the No. 1 contender to Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship.

SmackDown prominently featured the six Superstars who will compete in Money in the Bank (AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens) and new WWE champion Jinder Mahal.

It also shined a light on energetic, red-hot acts like Breezango and the women's division.

One brand successfully created an exhilaration and elation about the product that the other simply did not.

Who won this week's battle for brand supremacy?

Your answer lies within.

Why Raw?

Paul Heyman's return Monday night injected Raw with an energy and electricity that had been missing. The advocate for the reigning, defending universal champion, "The Beast Incarnate" Brock Lesnar, interrupted the proceedings to speak directly to Finn Balor prior to the Superstar's battle with Karl Anderson.

The manner in which Heyman proceeded to put Balor over, referring to him as the most talented Superstar in all of WWE and the most intriguing potential opponent for Lesnar after Extreme Rules, did more to put over the aura and talent of the former universal champion than anything WWE Creative has mustered up for the NXT export.

Unlike many non-wrestling on-screen personas, there is credibility behind Heyman's words.

He told the world Lesnar would beat The Undertaker, and he did. He told the world The Beast would reign as the Universal Champion come WrestleMania 33, and he did.

Not only are his claims validated, he speaks in a way that is both easy to understand and entirely engrossing. Fans care about what he has to say, so when he comes to the ring and tells the world that Balor is the most talented Superstar in WWE, it carries a weight that someone like Stephanie McMahon, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley and others simply cannot claim.

Considering how significant a role Balor figures to play on Raw for years to come, having Heyman put him over as the most interesting of the five Superstars competing for the title opportunity at Extreme Rules is a phenomenal creative decision.

Speaking of positive creative decisions, the sneak attack of Enzo Amore spawned a "who done it" storyline, the likes of which are always effective.

Immediately, fans took to social media and questioned who it could have been, with most suggesting it was tag team partner Big Cass who laid out his buddy.

Whether it was the result of a frustrated big man tired of losing because of his over-the-top confidant or someone else, there is genuine intrigue developing at a time where Raw is as gold a product as it has been since the miserable days of the mid-1990s.

Emphasis on the underrated Akira Tozawa and The Brian Kendrick ahead of their Street Fight on 205 Live, as well as Goldust's insistence that The Golden Age is back, helped round out the best of this week's red brand broadcast.

Why SmackDown?

On the heels of a newsworthy Backlash pay-per-view, and only a month from a monumental Money in the Bank event, SmackDown Live did not let off the gas pedal. It continued to develop matches, rivalries and stories fans could look forward to.

Shane McMahon introduced the world to the six Superstars who will meet in the annual ladder match to determine which Superstar will have the opportunity to challenge for the WWE Championship at any time they please. Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens were revealed to great fanfare.

Those six competitors have been involved in three of the more prominent feuds on Tuesday nights, so bringing them together for such a fan-favorite match only makes sense. Given the short turnaround, booking the Randy Orton-Jinder Mahal rematch for the WWE title at Money in the Bank was also a wise decision.

Speaking of the new WWE champion Mahal, his uninterrupted celebration allowed him to take center stage without him sharing the spotlight. There was no interruption by Orton, and as a result, Mahal felt like a bigger deal and not some placeholder champion.

Given the buzz surrounding SmackDown Live and its new champion, keeping Mahal strong is a wise move on the part of management. Mahal is creating discussion that a guy like Orton, for all of his accomplishments, simply is not in this, his 15th year with WWE.

Mahal is fresh, new and exciting. He is exactly what fans have been begging for. He is a young star with a golden opportunity. Whether one appreciates his sudden jump to main events or the reasoning for why he was chosen rather than someone like Zayn is irrelevant. All that matters is that Mahal is there, he is intriguing, and new and people are genuinely interested, as television ratings from the May 23 dictate.

The continued growth and evolution of the hilarious Breezango, who once again did battle with The Usos but ultimately fell just shy of capturing the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, and the brutal beatdown by Corbin to Zayn that helped The Lone Wolf regain heat following his loss at Backlash, were among the other highlights from Tuesday's broadcast.

Biggest Botch

The biggest botch of the week belongs to Monday's Raw and revolves around the stale nature of the brand's booking.

The show started with a promo between two Superstars, which devolved into a brawl involving four competitors before the authority figure made his way to the stage and booked a tag team match for the main event.

This is not 2007 SmackDown. The days of Teddy Long booking the tired, formulaic tag team main event should have died a long time ago. Unfortunately, it did not, and the result is the continuation of lazy booking that inspires apathy, as reflected in Raw's rapidly deteriorating television ratings.

Instead of using that opening promo to develop characters or, maybe, explain why Samoa Joe went from assassin for The Authority to generic villain, the show went the predictable route and produced a tag team match using the same means every show for the last decade has leaned on as a crutch of sorts.

Raw's inability to step outside the box and provide fans with storylines involving fresh faces or ideas has led to the once-unpredictable show devolving into an unrecognizable mess of repetition and disinterest.

That is a scary place for the brand to find itself in considering guys like The Undertaker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Big Show and Kane, Superstars recognizable to casual audiences who remember their glory days from the 1990s and early 2000s, are not walking through the door to help rescue the product anytime soon.

If WWE Creative does not take the initiative and tell more compelling stories and create honest-to-goodness characters rather than booking matches involving a bunch of wrestlers who are just guys, with no recognizable characters traits to speak of, the downfall of wrestling's flagship show will continue, and the brand will find itself looking up at the more experimental and fun SmackDown Live in the ratings.

Winner: SmackDown

SmackDown Live obliterated Raw this week. It beat the flagship show with the fury of Alexa Bliss wielding a kendo stick. It was not pretty, nor was it the funny type of destruction.

Whereas Raw sticks to the formula, SmackDown Live has made it a goal to position itself as the so-called "Land of Opportunity." Rather than using it as a tagline that carries little weight, it has actually embraced it, and as a result, the show is better and more fun to watch.

The risks taken on perennial undercard stars like Fandango, Tyler Breeze and new WWE champion Jinder Mahal have helped make the blue brand a refreshing addition to the WWE lineup rather than the bastardized little brother of Raw.

It has helped the brand develop a unique identity at a time where Raw is content to adhering to the status quo.

As long as that continues, SmackDown will dish out a one-sided ass-kicking every week.