Welcome back to Brand Warfare, where we compare this week’s episodes of Raw and Smackdown and try to determine who is actually winning the brand extension by putting on better shows. This week, there was a certain sense of repetition on both brands, with Goldberg making his second appearance on Raw, Dean Ambrose getting a second (and final) opportunity to beat AJ Styles, James Ellsworth begging for a second chance to prove he can help, and all sorts of rematches from Hell in a Cell. We didn’t say they were all good things. So, who emerged victorious as we start the road to Survivor Series? Let’s go in for a closer look…
Opening Segment – Raw
Raw decided to open strong with the second appearance of Goldberg, this time with interruptions by Paul Heyman, followed by Rusev (because obviously, Brock Lesnar wasn’t there). We saw someone point out that Rusev is currently in the perfectly solid position of “disposable heel”, which means that he can be the guy who loses a bunch to top guys, but then spends a couple months squashing lower card wrestlers to build him back up as a monster, and people buy it because he’s really good at playing that role. Sure, it sucks that he’s not dominating the main event, but there’s something to be said for job security, and knowing the company trusts you to go out there and make a retired 49-year-old guy who hasn’t been in the ring in years look good. Clearly, Goldberg was a little over-amped, leading to a slip that was deftly edited out of replays, but it was the right segment to hype people up for the eventual Lesnar-Goldberg match, showing that Goldberg can still deliver the Jackhammer and the Spear when he wants. And of course, Heyman played the crowd like a fiddle, because this time he wasn’t trying to get Lesnar’s hometown crowd to boo him, the wrestling equivalent of attempting to sell ice to the Inuit. Momentary slip aside, this was a great opening to Raw to help sell their marquee Survivor Series match.
http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2016-10-31#fid-40059687 Source: WWE.com