WWE Raw vs. SmackDown: Winner, Top Highlights and Botches for Week of November 2

The push to Survivor Series on November 19 continued this week across both Raw and SmackDown as the brands prepared for battle.

Raw featured the return of Braun Strowman and a show-closing angle that re-established The Monster Among Men as the unstoppable force he has been for the last year.

SmackDown countered with a main event pitting Shinsuke Nakamura against Kevin Owens, as the blue show continued putting together its team for the upcoming pay-per-view main event.

Which brand presented the better show and captivated audiences, though?

Why Raw?

Samoa Joe, Nia Jax and Braun Strowman all returned to Raw Monday night and instantly left their mark on the broadcast.

The Samoan Submission Machine rolled over Apollo Crews, Nia Jax flattened Bayley and Strowman stalked after and demolished The Miz, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. The three Superstars provided a spark to a show missing one last week and more importantly, brought a sense of importance to the broadcast.

Alexa Bliss and Mickie James headlined the night's show from an in-ring perspective, with Little Miss Bliss retaining her Raw Women's Championship.

Perhaps the most effective thing about the night was the pace of the show.

One segment bled into another, which bled into another, rarely giving fans a chance to catch their breath or digest what happened. Sometimes, that can be a bad thing, but in this case, it was a different format than the predictable and monotonous one the show typically follows.

The lack of Roman Reigns still haunts the show, leaving The Shield's reunion at a standstill, but the writers have made up for it with interesting twists and turns, as well as shows specifically built around The Miz, who has been as good a performer as anyone in 2017.

Why SmackDown?

Special Halloween episodes of WWE television typically are throwaway broadcasts but that was not the case Tuesday night.

Two new Superstars were determined for Team SmackDown in Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura. The NXT exports had tough battles to earn those spots, the former defeating Dolph Ziggler in a 2-out-of-3-Falls match, while the latter knocked off Kevin Owens in an interference-heavy match.

Sin Cara's growth as a babyface continued as he dug deep within himself and pulled out an angrier, more aggressive luchador than fans had ever seen out of him. That was in direct response to the United States champion Baron Corbin's continued disrespect of him and his mask.

Then there was the comedic Strangerer Things vignette featuring Breezango, The Ascension and Tye Dillinger that not only brought the funny but also set the stage for The Bludgeon Brothers to make their television debuts.

The show may still lack the star power of a John Cena, Brock Lesnar or Reigns, but its strong point has always been its storytelling. It succeeded Tuesday night, including a beatdown by Jinder Mahal that showed his renewed aggression, spotlighted the numbers advantage and added heat to his rivalry with AJ Styles, who felt his wrath in the form of three Khallases.

Biggest Botch

Kane has become the living, breathing anti-love letter from WWE to its internet-based fans.

Since returning, he has decimated Finn Balor, Seth Rollins and Daniel Bryan, the last two coming on this past Monday's Raw.

Why WWE Creative feels as though he needs to go over Balor and Rollins clean in the center of the ring at this point in his career, just to sacrifice him to Strowman is a mystery only the writers inside the creative room can answer.

Kane is a throwback to the Attitude Era and one of the most accomplished heavyweights in WWE history. He has done it all, traveled all over the world and done just about everything asked of him. We are in a new era, though; an era that should be focused on those Superstars in their primes.

Sacrificing main event-level talent for the sake of putting over a guy in the middle on what may be his last run is not conducive to building toward any sort of future.

Winner

This one is close given the quality of both shows but Raw picks up the win, even if narrowly.

The Strowman return was handled so well and put such an exclamation point on the show that it is difficult to justify giving the win to a SmackDown show that, while steadily strong throughout, did not have that one big moment that properly defined it.

The steady build of the Survivor Series card, as well as the show-closing angle featuring the ever-entertaining Strowman, helped Raw earn a victory this week.