Raw/Smackdown Throwdown: Week of 8/27/18

Weekly episodes of Raw and Smackdown get reviewed separately by most, but not here! In this new series, we will be running through Raw and Smackdown through five specific categories.

Each category will have a match or moment from both Raw and Smackdown that fit the criteria. This will just be another way of looking at the shows each week.

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Raw: Braun Strowman beats down Reigns & raises the hands of Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre

We'll get more into the main event of Raw in a bit, but the true highlight of Monday's show was how the match (and the night) ended. Universal champion Roman Reigns was betrayed by his partner, and Braun Strowman appeared to have aligned with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre (as of now, anyway).

It was one of those moments that seemed cool in your head, but you always thought "that'd never happen", until it does. This was a highlight for me, mainly because it leaves you asking whether or not this was technically a "heel turn" for Braun.

Smackdown: Daniel Bryan def. Andrade Cien Almas via DQ

I'm not putting this under "Match of the Night", but it was my favorite match on Smackdown. While I'm not a Daniel Bryan fan, he is a terrific wrestler. When you pit him up against somebody like Andrade Almas (a good wrestler who I'm a big fan of), it's hard to mess that up.

The finish was pretty screwy, with The Miz and Maryse coming down and getting involved, but it was pretty epic. The beatdown of Bryan (by Andrade and Miz) and Brie Bella (by Zelina Vega and Maryse) was pretty fantastic. I'd love to see an alliance between Andrade and The Miz in the future.

Raw: The Revival beat B-Team... in a non-title match

In my mind, this doesn't make any sense. You have a fantastic team in The Revival, have them lose like they don't belong in a ring, then build them back up again. WWE then has them lose a triple threat tag match for the titles, and suffer another flukey loss at Summerslam. Dash and Dawson each beat Bo Dallas last week, which gives them another match this week...
... only it's a non-title match. The Revival should have won the titles long ago. I like Dallas and Axel, but until they lose their titles, the Raw tag team division cannot be taken seriously.

Smackdown: Jeff Hardy/Randy Orton Promo

It's well known that Hardy is likely to hang up his boots soon. There's even a decent chance that this program with Randy Orton will be his farewell from pro wrestling. Despite him almost always being well liked by the fans, he's never been that good on the mic, and this was evident again here.

After talking about how his actions last week made him feel "alive", he called out Orton. He talked more about what he's going to do to Hardy before being interrupted with "R...K..." "NO!" (which was corny as hell). Hardy made the challenge for a hell in a cell match, and Randy didn't respond.

This was basically the same promo these two have cut for the last few weeks, so there's really nothing new here.

Raw: Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman def. Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre via DQ

Raw's main event was the usual story about two rivals teaming up to take on a heel tag team they both want to dispose of. It was a very quick match, and the majority of it told the story of Ziggler and McIntyre beating down on Reigns, and isolating him from making a tag.

The whole match, the guys on commentary kept asking the same dumb question: "can Reigns and Strowman get on the same page to defeat these two?". The answer was obviously... no. The Universal champion finally broke through and made the tag to his partner, who ended up just watching as their opponents beat down on him to the point where they were disqualified. It wasn't a very good match, and it was the same basic story we always get, but the ending kind of saved it all.

Smackdown: Charlotte Flair def. Carmella (Smackdown Women's title match)

This was easily the match of the night. Carmella put in probably the best performance of her career. Her and Charlotte put on a great match, which included some pretty nice counters.

In the end, Flair hit the Natural Selection and locked Carmella in the Figure 8 for the submission victory. After the match, the champion was assaulted again by Becky Lynch. The Irish Lasskicker said she will take Charlotte's title at Hell in a Cell, before calling her a "bitch".

This rivalry is growing more personal by the week, and I love it. I'm definitely looking forward to their upcoming match, and their likely other match in the future (especially with a story like this).

Raw: Seth Rollins def. Kevin Owens (Intercontinental title match)

The best match of the night comes as no surprise, as Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens are two of the best stars in the business today. Rollins came out and issued an open challenge for his Intercontinental title. Owens answered, and started everything by talking about how lucky Rollins was to have his best friend (Dean Ambrose) in his corner at Summerslam, helping him recapture the title. He goes on the say that his best friend (Sami Zayn) isn't there because he is hurt. KO is excellent on the mic, and can easily draw sympathy (especially from this writer).

This wasn't the greatest match in history, but it was undoubtedly the best one on Raw. These two have a great history together, but it seems like so long ago that you'd hardly remember that fact. This match saw certain moves we're used to seeing, yet there were some that we didn't get. This includes Rollins countering a Fisherman Buster from the top rope, which was a cool spot. After hitting The Stomp, Rollins retained the title and it led to our final category.

Smackdown: (see main event)

Raw: Kevin Owens quits

Following his loss, Kevin Owens sat in a chair in the center of the ring, and looked absolutely hopeless. He literally sat there through a commercial break, a backstage segment, and another commercial break. When the cameras went back on to him, he stayed silent for about or so, then finally uttered the words "I quit" before getting up and walking out.

He's obviously not actually quitting (as he just signed a multi year deal with WWE somewhat recently), but it's interesting where this story will go. I'd be willing to bet that it goes nowhere at all, since WWE has a history of screwing up potentially great stories, so I won't get my hopes up.

This could just be a way of writing KO off of television for a while, as Owens has been one of the more consistent performers week in and week out for quite a while now. Who knows, maybe he won't return until Sami Zayn does, and they come back together. The one thing we do know is there are potential stories to come out of this, and WWE is likely to ignore all of them.

Smackdown: Samoa Joe takes it one step further

They haven't been stealing the spotlight on Smackdown as of late, but these two are undoubtedly the best story WWE has going today (Becky/Charlotte is second, in my opinion). Samoa Joe was in the parking lot and called up AJ's wife to taunt the champion, but when Styles got to the parking lot, Joe was nowhere to be found.

The story these two can tell in the ring is incredible enough, but the addition of AJ's family into the story made it that much better. I'm very excited to see where this story goes next.

Thanks for checking out my new series! If you have anything to add, whether it's a new category, suggestions on my picks, or anything at all to add, feel free to drop something down in the comments section! Also, I'd appreciate any and all feedback, so be sure to let me know what you think of this article as a whole.

Make sure you share this with all of your wrestling fan friends! Thank you all!