WWE Raw vs. SmackDown: Winner, Top Highlights and Botches for Week of June 1

For WWE Raw, the week that was represented the last opportunity the brand had to convince fans to get excited for and invest in its Extreme Rules pay-per-view Sunday. The pressure was on, and each segment was under the microscope as the brand put together the final show before the extravaganza.

SmackDown did not suffer from the pressure of an imminent WWE Network presentation. Their show, Money in the Bank, is not until June 18. With some breathing room, the brand was able to steadily build its top matches, one of which it announced to enormous fanfare Tuesday night.

With quality in-ring work from both shows, including a Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins bout on Raw that was the best on television this week, the winner would be determined by the creative direction and overall effectiveness of what was presented.

Which brand was able to excel and provide fans with the most pleasurable viewing experience?

Why Raw?

The United States celebrated Memorial Day Monday, but WWE did not hesitate to deliver two marquee main events in hopes of attracting a bigger viewing audience than a week earlier.

Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe vs. Bray Wyatt in a Triple Threat match was up first. The three Superstars delivered an action-packed match that may have adhered a bit too closely to the prototypical Triple Threat format but employed strong storytelling and a steady pace that allowed it to overcome it.

Balor looked strong just moments away from victory, and Joe built credibility ahead of a Fatal 5-Way match in which he is the only Superstar not to have held a world title in WWE.

Fast-forward to the end of the show and an even better Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins match.

The former Shield members wowed the audience with a dramatic match that, at times, had each man looking poised to pick up the win. Reigns did, but both men looked like favorites to emerge from Sunday's pay-per-view with a shot at dethroning Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

While it is tired and cliche, the opening Six-Man Tag Team match pitting tag team champions The Hardy Boyz and intercontinental champion Dean Ambrose against The Miz, Sheamus and Cesaro was an action-packed opener that highlighted the Superstars involved in Sunday's undercard title bouts.

Hoping to steer ratings in the opposite direction, WWE Creative has concocted two mysteries for fans to invest in this year.

For the second week in a row, Enzo Amore was laid out backstage by an unknown assailant. After it was implied by commentator Corey Graves that partner Big Cass was responsible, the seven-foot-tall Superstar confronted him, to which Graves backed down.

The voice of WWE's future was at the heart of another story as he abandoned the announce position and confronted general manager Kurt Angle backstage. There, he revealed that he's the kind of guy people talk to and that he has information that could be potentially damning to the 2017 Hall of Famer.

Those two storylines, perhaps intertwined, are the kind that will encourage viewership at a time when the show simply is not doing that in other areas.

Why SmackDown?

The May 30 episode of SmackDown Live saw history made as Shane McMahon announced the first-ever women's Money in the Bank ladder match to take place at the namesake pay-per-view on June 18.

This came after a frenetically paced match that featured Charlotte, Carmella, Tamina, Natalya and Becky Lynch warring for the right to be crowned No. 1 contender. The action spilled to the arena floor and culminated with Charlotte sending Natalya into the announce table, proof of the lengths to which the Superstars would go to be able to challenge Naomi for the SmackDown Women's Championship.

Their placement on the show, coupled with the monumental announcement, helped solidify the women's division as an integral part of the brand's success. It also created genuine excitement and anticipation for the upcoming bout. That makes the entire ordeal an immensely successful one and the brightest spot on a fantastic episode of the Tuesday night staple.

AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler tore the house down in Atlanta, The Phenomenal One's backyard, in the night's main event. While there are arguments to be made against Superstars always losing in their hometown, Ziggler's victory in the match lent him some much-needed credibility ahead of the upcoming men's Money in the Bank match.

Randy Orton's focused, energetic and enthusiastic promo was a nice change of pace from the usual monotone, disinterested promo The Viper has delivered consistently over the last three years. It portrayed a veteran performer invested in his current storyline and eager to follow up on the Backlash match with new WWE champion Jinder Mahal. Given the lack of legitimate star power on the roster at this point, WWE needs that out of the 13-time champion.

The return of The New Day and the continuation of The Fashion Files only heightened the overall quality of Tuesday's broadcast.

Biggest Botch

"This Is Your Life, Bayley" was one of the worst, most half-heartedly written television segments ever produced by WWE Creative. That includes hot garbage like Katie Vick.

Unaware that the landscape of wrestling today is not what it was when Mankind and The Rock captivated audiences and scored one of the biggest television ratings in wrestling history, the Raw writing staff threw together a lackluster excuse for a television segment that put its uniquely talented lead heel Alexa Bliss and immensely popular babyface Bayley in an unfair position.

Bliss was left to make the most of the putrid angle. She tried, desperately, to get it over, but the fans rejected it shortly after its start and never looked back.

Rather than amping up the violence via the use of the kendo stick and allowing fans to invest in that manner, the writing staff tried to get cute, employed a few actors for the segment and watched it spin out of control until there was nothing left for either Bliss or Bayley to salvage.

Winner

SmackDown Live wins again this week on the strength of its focused, compact and effective storytelling.

Raw oftentimes tries to get too fancy with its writing, leading to convoluted or wholly unsuccessful angles and segments. We witnessed as much with the "This is Your Life" debacle that nearly doomed the women's title program Monday night.

The blue brand does not suffer from the same ineffective scripting.

It rarely loses sight of the fact that it is a wrestling show. The rivalries make sense, the booking is tight and often leads to something bigger the next week or month. Even the comedic element, most recently the rise of Breezango and The Fashion Files, is never allowed to overstay its welcome.

The result is a show that is much easier to digest and invest in rather than the overly long marathons fans are exposed to on Mondays.

The flagship show has yet to understand the best way to utilize its talent and time, and until it does, or produces a magnificent broadcast, SmackDown will continue to whoop up on its bigger brother and win these weekly battles for brand supremacy.