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Burn1nMyLight Argues- Which Brand Has The Best Roster?
At this point, everyone KNOWS I'm a whore for lists, rankings, ratings, and comparisons. You all can bathe in your poetic, personal ramblings about how that Melina/Alicia Fox match from 2009 helped you through your cocaine addiction, I'd rather break down how Melina was overrated due to her looks and Alicia has been perpetually underrated as a technical wrestler.
So it occurred to me that we're about 6 weeks into the roster split, and there is still some dissension among the ranks, some confusion, regarding the rosters. Specifically, which is better? Now, "Which is better" is broad as hell, so we're obviously going to break that down a bit further. So without further adieu or other pretentious ways of saying, "Hurry the fuck up already" here is what we're going to be rating:
Men's Main Event
Women's Division
Tag Team Division
Men's Midcard
Pretty simple, right? Of course, it immediately occurred to me that while I wanted to talk about just RAW and Smackdown, it's not completely fair to leave out NXT, because the Brand Split affected them too. Of course, it affected them in that they lost 2 top stars and some mediocre, green performers, but still. They were pillaged. And they have divisions that line up with the above list, right? Ok, fine, I'll talk about NXT too!!!
One more rules note; I'm talking about how the rosters look TODAY. So anyone who has a long-term injury isn't exactly helping their brand currently, so they won't be counted. That really sucks for RAW, but hey, them's the breaks.
Any predictions? I'm writing this completely stream-of-consciousness, so my brain first says Smackdown wins, but NXT is gonna be TOUGH!!!
Men's Main Event
Anyone who has wrestled a main event program in the recent past.
RAW
Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar
...Ouch. We're starting in a rough spot, which would look a lot better had Seth not assassinated Finn Balor with another botched powerbomb. Now to be fair, RAW has guys like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, and Cesaro that could realistically be elevated INTO the main event very quickly, but WWE has shown no inclination to do so thus far outside of small teases.
Seth is awesome, one of the best, most well-rounded performers in WWE. Roman would be a great heel but because WWE insists on pushing him as a face, no matter what, his matches lose a LOT of luster from fan reaction and bad booking. And finally Brock, who hasn't chased the title since he lost it, but whenever The Beast shows up, he takes the main event slot. Is this a great main event roster? No. Seth is great. The other two are being ruined by booking decisions and hurt further by WWE not pushing new, awesome midcarders into the main event, even just as fresh opponents for the top stars.
Smackdown
Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena, Randy Orton
Two more main eventers than RAW but what a world of difference those extra bodies make. Smackdown proved its prescience when it pushed Dolph Ziggler as the first challenger to Dean's WWE World Championship. He is now a credible, deep CHARACTER and not just a good seller or caricature. Meanwhile, Cena and Styles put on a classic at Summerslam, and there's nobody, even this Dean Ambrose superfan, who would mind seeing him take the belt at Backlash given his entire run in WWE so far has been...what's the word I'm looking for? Incredible? Glorious? No...it'll come to me.
And that's not even touching on the World Champion. Dean is maybe the best in WWE at telling stories. He can play up different facets of his character and has the mic skills and charisma to pull anything off. When he's motivated. In the ring he vacillates between his rougher, more technical NXT style, and his goofier, post-Shield antics. We all prefer the former, but the point is that he's not the BEST wrestler, but he is good, and his match with AJ will really prove if you can get a 4.5 star match out of him, because if anyone can, it's the Phenomenal One.
NXT
Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe
When I said that NXT was plundered, this is the first piece. Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Neville, and Finn Balor are all having success on the main roster. NXT has some great potential in their midcard to restock the main event, and I have no doubt in their ability to do so. But for now, while Nakamura and Joe are AWESOME, they're the only two guys that have sniffed the singles gold in NXT in the last 6 months.
Women's Division
The entirety of each brand's women's division.
RAW
Charlotte, Bayley, Nia Jaxx, Summer Rae, Alicia Fox, Dana Brook
On the one hand, Sasha being hurt as Women's Champion really cripples this division. On the other, it was the catalyst for Bayley getting her call-up. If you could only watch one of those for the next 10 years, which would it be? Tough call, but I'd give Sasha the edge there because her character has more room to play.
Regardless, Charlotte and Bayley are both great. Summer Rae and Alicia Fox are both very underutilized, and could be good role players in the division if given some time and a little freshening up. Jaxx and Brook should be tearing NXT up right now but WWE thinks they need extra bodies(aka someone to take losses for Charlotte and squash jobbers) so they were called up too soon instead. The star power at the top is there, especially when Sasha comes back, but for now this is just a 2 horse race.
Get it, Horsewomen jokes?
Smackdown
Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella, Natalya, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Naomi
What a weird mix. You have people who can JUST wrestle(Natalya and Plastic Bella) you have people with high upside(Bliss, Carmella, Naomi) and then you have one person who can do everything, Becky Lynch. And while Smackdown is definitely making it work so far and really fleshing out their role players, they only have one superstar-level talent in the Irish Lasskicker. Hard to have a great feud with just one participant.
NXT
Asuka, Ember Moon, Billie Kay, Aliyah, Liv Morgan, Daria Berenato, Nikki Glencross, Mandy Rose
Seriously, like a month ago I was talking about how the NXT women's division had been gutted and how it was shallow and needed a rejuvination. Well, here it is. The last half of this list is SUPER green, but Asuka is the best women's wrestler in all of WWE, Ember Moon looks like a billion bucks, and while Billie Kay needs a better wardrobe she has certainly improved as a wrestler, particularly impressing me with her striking. Throw in the functional warm bodies at the back of this list, the division looks restocked and ready for their Bronze Age.
Tag Team Division
RAW
The New Day, Anderson and Gallows, Enzo and Cass, Golden Truth, Shining Stars
This division, honestly, looks kinda crappy. I love Enzo and Cass but they've never won anything. New Day is awesome, no doubt, but they're run through so many opponents now that there isn't much challenge left for them. Anderson and Gallows have thankfully added some personality and really ignited my interest in them outside the ring, while inside they're as good as ever. Golden Truth and Shining Stars, let's just not waste much time on them. This division is ok but without reinforcements it's going to run out of real matches in like 3 months. Badda Boom, weakest division in the room!
Smackdown
American Alpha, FaBreeze, The Ascension, Slater/Rhino, The VaudeVillains, The Usos, Hype Bros
Wow, that is a surprising number of tag teams(and come on, Kalisto and Kane are GOING to tag at some point, Kane takes all the little fliers under his wing eventually!). AA and FaBreeze are dynamite(that last Breeze/Fandango segment just KILLED me). The Ascension have ditched the stupid shoulder pads and look like a decent team again. VaudeVillains will be in the doghouse for a while but remain talented, if a bit hard to use correctly. The Usos are the John Cena of tag teams; they win a lot, they're super over with 50% of the crowd, loathed by the other 50%, and don't seem to change regardless. Finally Slater/Rhino is brand new but Slater has been money and Rhino is a surprisingly interesting character, maybe because he never really had any in his last 15 years in WWE. Oh, and Hype Bros. Yeah...they exist too.
NXT
The Revival, Ciampa and Gargano, TM61, Authors of Pain
NXT really needs another tag team, but the list above is pretty solid. The Revival have a legitimate claim to being the best team in all of WWE. As much as I think their new name is 10x worse than The Mechanics, and they drive me crazy when they talk about OTHER teams being "Good workers, little guys" etc...that just shows how good they are at manipulating an otherwise moderately jaded fan. Dammit.
Ciampa and Gargano are awesome individually and as a team. TM61 still hasn't shown me much but they have potential. And AoP are slow-rolling any motivation, choosing to just steamroll opponents while doing their best Batista Twins impression, but it's working so far. Too bad Blake and Murphy aren't a team anymore, they were great. Dubstep Cowboys!!!
Men's Midcard
That's also the look on my face, realizing that KO has been on the main roster for over a year and has had no real WWE Championship opportunities.
RAW
Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Neville, Chris Jericho, Rusev
RAW has about another 10 wrestlers you could list here but realistically, these are the midcard challengers. And with PROPER BOOKING any of them could be a legitimate main event player, even KFC Universal Champion. This division is stacked as hell, is basically an NXT Allstars +Jericho, and deserves better than it's getting so far. Especially Rusev, RAW's only champion, who has just been creamed by Roman for what seems an eternity already. Dude can't win a match OR get any respect when he should be the top heel on RAW, if he weren't actually a noble, misunderstood Russian with some anger issues he's probably working on with WWE's therapist.
Smackdown
The Miz, Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin, Kalisto, Alberto Del Rio, Apollo Crews
This is a weird one because the main event is so loaded, the mid card looks weaker than it really is. Also, Bray Wyatt has never really challenged for ANY belt, so he doesn't REALLY belong on any list. But he's going here. The Miz has been a decent champion, making others look good when he deigns to defend his belt, but it's been his non-wrestling antics that have kept our interest. Corbin/Kalisto/Crews were in a triple threat to determine the #1 contender for the IC championship, a match that should have been bad but was pretty decent. Now Corbin is busy bullying Kalisto backstage while Crews keeps putting on decent but unspectacular matches with no character development. And as for Del Rio, we may never see him again as he has an opt-out clause in his contract and he seems pretty wasted in WWE yet again(that was a booking reference NOT a drug reference, btw!).
NXT
Austin Aries, Hideo Itami, Bobby Rooooo, No Way Jose, Andrade Almas, Tye Dillinger, Blake, Murphy
What an incredibly stacked division! Aries, Itami, and Roode are proven, main event commodities in other promotions and have been great in NXT so far. Jose shows incredible potential; he's already solid on the mic and in the ring, and his size and look give him a chance at superstardom. Dillinger, a perennial favorite over at The Perfect Ten Podcast(https://soundcloud.com/user-571078411) is incredibly over with the crowd and a good, balanced wrestler in need of a push or tag team partner a la Tyler Breeze. Blake and Murphy were a great team that was broken apart for reasons beyond my understanding, but both are ok fillers as singles wrestlers.
Analysis and Conclusions
WHEW, that was a lot of work! So how do the divisions on each show stack up? I'm going to rank each show in order, but also assign a numerical score not based on relative strength(which is what rankings are for) but as an overall scorecard for that division, and at the end we'll add the scores together and see which show has the best overall product, as well as where their strengths and weaknesses are!
Men's Main Event
Smackdown(10)- Too much depth and great character development from Ziggler means, to me, Smackdown will hold this lead for a long time.
RAW(5)- Seth is great but WWE's head is still up its ass regarding Roman. And the sooner Brock vacates Suplex City, the better we'll all be.
NXT(4)- 3 months ago this was a great division, but losing Finn hurts so much. Still, Shinsuke+Joe is pretty close to Seth+Roman+10 days of Brock.
Women's Division
NXT(8)- Asuka is the best. Ember Moon is great, and they have a lot of midcard bodies to develop and build upon.
RAW(6)- Charlotte and Bayley are nice tentpoles, but there's just no depth to that division as currently booked.
Smackdown(5)- The opposite of RAW, they're developing depth but only have one true star.
Tag Division
Smackdown(7)- AA and FaBreeze are so good, and like the women's division, there's a good amount of depth here that makes tournaments legitimately possible.
NXT(5)- The Revival are incredible, Ciampa and Gargano would be great on any show, and they have a little depth but not much.
RAW(5)- It's a tie! But I'm ranking NXT first because Revival are better than anything on RAW. Still, New Day, A+G, and Enzo+Cass are all legit championship material and entertaining on the mic.
Men's Midcard
RAW(10)- This midcard would be a great main event in most promotions. Just not on RAW apparently. Finn's injury is the perfect opportunity to push 2 of these guys into the stratosphere.
NXT(10)- Another tie! Same logic as above. The end.
Smackdown(3)- Ouch. The problem, as stated above, is that the main event is so stacked that the midcard just has no bodies. It's a nice problem to have, but still a problem.
Overall
RAW- 26 Points
Smackdown- 25 Points
NXT- 27 Points
Holy crap that was incredibly close!!!! Each show has at least one massive point of strength and also a glaring weakness, which is likely why the scores fell so close to one another. But two points to note here before we formally declare the winner:
1. Which show is more watchable is very subjective. I know a lot of us have been enjoying Smackdown more compared to RAW, but I honestly haven't really been comparing it to NXT at all. To me the watchability comes from being able to fill the entirety of your time slot with good matches and character development, and in that regard, Smackdown and NXT are both great, whereas RAW, with its extra hour, often puts together a 30-60 minute stretch of junk somewhere on the show.
2. RAW's score of 26 points is derived from a roster 33% larger than Smackdown's. So really, though their roster is stronger, they have more space to fill, and that leads to, in my opinion, weaker shows. Smackdown better utilizes its roster both booking-wise and time-wise.
So after this elaborate, scientific investigation and analysis, I give to you the Best Roster in WWE....