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| Miguel Discart, flickr.com/photos/miguel_discart/ |
Drew McIntyre has the same winning percentage as Tyler Breeze? Shinsuke Nakamura loses more as the United States Champion? Jinder Mahal and Bobby Lashley have competed in over sixty matches--do you remember any of them? It's another look at a fake sport's real stats!
by Sam Everett, @readsameverett
Note: All records mentioned below pertain to matches broadcast during the period since WrestleMania 34.
Scour wrestling fandom for the Raw is Better Than SmackDown take. You'll absolutely wade through Raw is Late Era WCW Awful takes, and you'll encounter some Raw Isn't That Bad or You Try Writing Three Hours of Television Every Week takes, and you'll no doubt run into takes extolling the popularity and talent of individual Raw performers like Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, or Roman Reigns. But Raw is Better Than SmackDown? That's the Bigfoot of takes, and some basic math may just bear out why.
Since WrestleMania 34, the following Raw wrestlers have competed in the most matches: Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Ember Moon, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman, Bayley, and Jinder Mahal. In that same time period, SmackDown has gotten the most usage out of The Miz, Jeff Hardy, Asuka, Charlotte Flair, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, and Rusev. All but Mahal and perhaps Lashley are undeniably popular among fans, but can Raw promise satisfying matches from any of those listed besides Balor and Rollins? Moon and Bayley reside in a shallow Women's division, Strowman excels in segments that call for him to destroy sets and rental cars, not wrestle, and lately a Lashley match only guarantees the objectively irritating bleating of his hype man Lio Rush. Meanwhile, SmackDown could produce an entertaining episode featuring solely the performers listed above.
This isn't proof that SmackDown's roster is better than Raw's (though that may be true as well), but that SmackDown uses its roster better. Raw's Alicia Fox was not put on this earth to wrestle, but she boasts as many broadcast matches as the athletically gifted Apollo Crews. Lashley and Mahal have combined for over sixty matches, and none of them will sniff the year-end best-of lists soon to prop up wrestling punditry. Payroll isn't writing checks to Strowman for his in-ring prowess, and so all 31 of his matches represent either 31 segments in which he could have been pulling a fighter jet with his teeth to run over Baron Corbin instead, or 31 more matches for naturally entertaining grapplers like Sasha Banks, Tyler Breeze, or Chad Gable. Combine Lashley and Mahal into the tag team of obnoxious gym rats they're probably meant to be anyway, cutting their usage in half and opening up more matches for solid talents like The Revival and Bobby Roode.
MAIN EVENT KINGS
The standings below look more different than normal with the inclusion of matches from the WWE Network-only Main Event and Facebook Watch's Mixed Match Challenge. Suddenly Crews, Breeze, and No Way Jose are rubbing shoulders with Strowman, Reigns, and Rollins. Of course, this also serves to point out obscure curiosities: star-in-the-making Drew McIntyre's record nearly mirrors Breeze's; Dean Ambrose is to Raw as Jose is to Main Event.
MAKE NAKAMURICA GREAT AGAIN
When we last looked at these standings in September, Shinsuke Nakamura had a winning record.
He now has a losing record.
He has been the United States Champion since July.
Thanks, Obama.
IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP
One wonders what Raw would look like if it weren't for Rollins at the top of the card on the men's side of things. A look at the standings makes obvious the dearth of main event talent available to the show, as Brock Lesnar remains contracted on a part-time basis, Strowman has been limited by injury, and Reigns is out of action indefinitely following a recurrence of leukemia. The next winningest member of the roster is Lashley, but he is only now establishing himself as a douchey villain after spending far too long engaged in worst-of fodder with Sami Zayn earlier in the year. Farther down the standings finds Balor, who has spent most of 2018 spinning his wheels, and then Elias thriving in a newfound embrace of the crowd but also suffering a losing record. Rollins is known as The Architect, but circumstances have forced him to act as Raw's foundation, load bearing wall, and décor as well.
MIDCARD EVOLUTION
There are rumblings about WWE one day soon introducing tag team championships into the women's division--but is the time already here for a women's midcard title, at least on Raw? The saying "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu" is as true in the world of professional wrestling as it is anywhere else, where "the table" is reserved for champions who must out of necessity feed on performers lower on the card. As a result, even a talent like Moon who has achieved a plus-600 winning percentage will find herself fed to her brand's champ sooner or later, and in the meantime will continue to compete in matches with limited significance. What's the point of winning most of your matches if you're not likely to be a world champion? As the company prepares in earnest for its WrestleMania card, it appears the top spots for the ladies have already been set aside for Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, Nia Jax, and Flair. A midcard title would allow important and entertaining contributers like Moon, Banks, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, and/or Natalya to participate in a meaningful match rather than find themselves shunted into yet another pre-show battle royal.
TAG TEAM TURMOIL
A dirty little secret about SmackDown? The tag team division is thin. Survivor Series offered proof, as SmackDown team captains the Usos earned the right to recruit the rest of the brand's squad for its five-tag team showdown against Raw . . . and only wound up reminding the world the Colons exist and SAnitY was recently called up from developmental NXT. The truth is the Usos weren't recruiting anything, for SmackDown only has six teams, and The Bar was booked in a champion versus champion match against Raw's AoP. Moreover, all of SmackDown's teams combine for a dismal record of 19-24. It must be nice for SmackDown to be able to pad a card with some variation of an Usos, New Day, Bar match, but at some point new challengers must be established. Chalk this all up to SmackDown only having two hours to Raw's three. Its WWE and United States Championship options are plentiful, but there isn't enough air time to give its tag team or women's divisions ample attention. These are the divisions that always suffer from a brand split, it seems.
QUIET RIOTT
Is there ever a reason to hope for a woman to be propelled through a table adorned by the image of her recently deceased father? Probably not (and damn, wrestling is weird). But it wasn't long ago that Ruby Riott sat near the top of the standings before she and her chaotic cohorts Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan began racking up losses to combinations of Banks, Bayley, Nikki and Brie Bella, and more. A win over Natalya at this Sunday's TLC event would give her record a boost, but fulfilling her promise to drop the heiress to the Neidhart legacy through a Jim Neidhart-decorated table would be despicable enough to earn the ire of fans and put her on champion Rousey's radar, as she should have been months ago when her record was impressive but her last name wasn't Bella.
K.O. M.I.A.
Wrestling's Smartest Man is Kevin Owens. You can't lose if you can't wrestle!
Since WrestleMania 34, the following Raw wrestlers have competed in the most matches: Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Ember Moon, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman, Bayley, and Jinder Mahal. In that same time period, SmackDown has gotten the most usage out of The Miz, Jeff Hardy, Asuka, Charlotte Flair, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, and Rusev. All but Mahal and perhaps Lashley are undeniably popular among fans, but can Raw promise satisfying matches from any of those listed besides Balor and Rollins? Moon and Bayley reside in a shallow Women's division, Strowman excels in segments that call for him to destroy sets and rental cars, not wrestle, and lately a Lashley match only guarantees the objectively irritating bleating of his hype man Lio Rush. Meanwhile, SmackDown could produce an entertaining episode featuring solely the performers listed above.
This isn't proof that SmackDown's roster is better than Raw's (though that may be true as well), but that SmackDown uses its roster better. Raw's Alicia Fox was not put on this earth to wrestle, but she boasts as many broadcast matches as the athletically gifted Apollo Crews. Lashley and Mahal have combined for over sixty matches, and none of them will sniff the year-end best-of lists soon to prop up wrestling punditry. Payroll isn't writing checks to Strowman for his in-ring prowess, and so all 31 of his matches represent either 31 segments in which he could have been pulling a fighter jet with his teeth to run over Baron Corbin instead, or 31 more matches for naturally entertaining grapplers like Sasha Banks, Tyler Breeze, or Chad Gable. Combine Lashley and Mahal into the tag team of obnoxious gym rats they're probably meant to be anyway, cutting their usage in half and opening up more matches for solid talents like The Revival and Bobby Roode.
MAIN EVENT KINGS
The standings below look more different than normal with the inclusion of matches from the WWE Network-only Main Event and Facebook Watch's Mixed Match Challenge. Suddenly Crews, Breeze, and No Way Jose are rubbing shoulders with Strowman, Reigns, and Rollins. Of course, this also serves to point out obscure curiosities: star-in-the-making Drew McIntyre's record nearly mirrors Breeze's; Dean Ambrose is to Raw as Jose is to Main Event.
MAKE NAKAMURICA GREAT AGAIN
When we last looked at these standings in September, Shinsuke Nakamura had a winning record.
He now has a losing record.
He has been the United States Champion since July.
Thanks, Obama.
IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP
One wonders what Raw would look like if it weren't for Rollins at the top of the card on the men's side of things. A look at the standings makes obvious the dearth of main event talent available to the show, as Brock Lesnar remains contracted on a part-time basis, Strowman has been limited by injury, and Reigns is out of action indefinitely following a recurrence of leukemia. The next winningest member of the roster is Lashley, but he is only now establishing himself as a douchey villain after spending far too long engaged in worst-of fodder with Sami Zayn earlier in the year. Farther down the standings finds Balor, who has spent most of 2018 spinning his wheels, and then Elias thriving in a newfound embrace of the crowd but also suffering a losing record. Rollins is known as The Architect, but circumstances have forced him to act as Raw's foundation, load bearing wall, and décor as well.
MIDCARD EVOLUTION
There are rumblings about WWE one day soon introducing tag team championships into the women's division--but is the time already here for a women's midcard title, at least on Raw? The saying "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu" is as true in the world of professional wrestling as it is anywhere else, where "the table" is reserved for champions who must out of necessity feed on performers lower on the card. As a result, even a talent like Moon who has achieved a plus-600 winning percentage will find herself fed to her brand's champ sooner or later, and in the meantime will continue to compete in matches with limited significance. What's the point of winning most of your matches if you're not likely to be a world champion? As the company prepares in earnest for its WrestleMania card, it appears the top spots for the ladies have already been set aside for Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, Nia Jax, and Flair. A midcard title would allow important and entertaining contributers like Moon, Banks, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, and/or Natalya to participate in a meaningful match rather than find themselves shunted into yet another pre-show battle royal.
TAG TEAM TURMOIL
A dirty little secret about SmackDown? The tag team division is thin. Survivor Series offered proof, as SmackDown team captains the Usos earned the right to recruit the rest of the brand's squad for its five-tag team showdown against Raw . . . and only wound up reminding the world the Colons exist and SAnitY was recently called up from developmental NXT. The truth is the Usos weren't recruiting anything, for SmackDown only has six teams, and The Bar was booked in a champion versus champion match against Raw's AoP. Moreover, all of SmackDown's teams combine for a dismal record of 19-24. It must be nice for SmackDown to be able to pad a card with some variation of an Usos, New Day, Bar match, but at some point new challengers must be established. Chalk this all up to SmackDown only having two hours to Raw's three. Its WWE and United States Championship options are plentiful, but there isn't enough air time to give its tag team or women's divisions ample attention. These are the divisions that always suffer from a brand split, it seems.
QUIET RIOTT
Is there ever a reason to hope for a woman to be propelled through a table adorned by the image of her recently deceased father? Probably not (and damn, wrestling is weird). But it wasn't long ago that Ruby Riott sat near the top of the standings before she and her chaotic cohorts Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan began racking up losses to combinations of Banks, Bayley, Nikki and Brie Bella, and more. A win over Natalya at this Sunday's TLC event would give her record a boost, but fulfilling her promise to drop the heiress to the Neidhart legacy through a Jim Neidhart-decorated table would be despicable enough to earn the ire of fans and put her on champion Rousey's radar, as she should have been months ago when her record was impressive but her last name wasn't Bella.
K.O. M.I.A.
Wrestling's Smartest Man is Kevin Owens. You can't lose if you can't wrestle!
