I don't know which amused me more in the AoP/TM-61 match:
-In order to prevent Ellering from interfering on the match, it felt easier to hang him above the ring in a shark cage instead of just banning him from ring side
or
-Shawn Thorne seemed to be intent on hurting his own team more than the opponents. Especially that…

Thank you for the kind words, even if my negative comments in this thread might not deserve them. Still greatly appreciated.

Again, the Raw team members are feuding and are using this story to further those feuds. Smackdown isn't some unique unicorn in that aspect and I don't understand why insistance that it is.

And that is completely fair as I accept that is a subjective aspect of product. For me it worked, because they forced characters who disliked each other work together in preparation for the Survivor Series. The promo set that up while the matches payed off for me, giving a better grasp of the internal dynamics of the…

In that case I understand your argument less as it ignores that the men in the ring had already been involved with feuds with each other, which led to that fight in the ring. They weren't just random dudes after all, two of them had been in a HIAC match just a week ago and JeriKO/Reigns also had existing roots.

But by the same token Raw has the JeriKO friendship, Rollins's promised rewards and dislike towards JeriKO, and KO's dislike of being upstaged by Roman going on for the men's team. And on the women's team they have Charlotte's out-of-control ego, Nia's destructive presence, Charlotte/Sasha feud and how their…

I assume you meant weak, as otherwise I don't quite understand. And yeah, they set it up because the men in the ring were feuding and attacked each other after Steph had made the situation clear to them, leading to Stephanie making the match. Here, they just took two women in a blood feud and threw them in a match…

I agree. I think they changed the women's team's story which led to this this seeming last minute wrinkle, but fortunately the characters themselves were so well-established that it worked for me anyway.

While I did appreciate the final places of the team stories, unity y'all, the way they got there felt a bit clumsy for me and I still don't quite get the internal team stories. So I remain on team Raw heading in to Survivor Series.

I couldn't help facepalming when on Talking Smack Carmella was pointing out that she had had Nikki's back during the beatdown and everyone agreed despite just having seen a match where Carmella was going out of her way to end Nikki's career.

You know, that spoke about how low the WWE Universe experience has fallen. Here is an enthusiastic member of the audience being out there to show her support in the front row, to be that sister that could not make it there, and thrilled to have this experience. And what does this joyful soul get in thanks? The very…

Did you see how bad Bayley's attack was? This clearly someone not in to what was being done there, but giving in to peer pressure.

As a final note, I feel they are finally starting to find that right gorove with Rollins and it is paying off with both the crowds and the performer himself. These past couple of weeks, for me, he has started having that same swagger as a face he had before the injury that makes him such a compelling performer to…

At that moment, I was completely in to the Raw tag team team. Like that was one of the best tag team heel moments of the year for me as it was just such a dick move.

Most likely, but they need to sell that story on Smackdown as I can see Styles not understanding what team Raw is about to unleash on them.

To me, the most powerful moment in that finishing segment, even if it was thrown out there, was when Rollins stated that the Smackdown team doesn't understand what a force Rollins and Reigns are when they are on the same page. However, now it is on Smackdown to sell that concept as it seems to be one of the central…

Really? I have to admit I thought Raw savaged Smackdown on that show and Bryan came across as an utter dick most of the time.

Different tastes. I'm in turn really neutral on the Takeover as aside from the tag title match none of the stories really interest me, while I'm all in on Survivor Series.

Also, as a sidenote, while I completely understand parts of the backlash against Charlotte winning the title at HIAC, she has been pretty awesome for me as the deluded team captain. And credit to Sasha as I felt this week she came across best as she has on the main roster at the backstage segment.

For me, Raw has done an excellent job on setting up their internal team dynamics for Survivor Series, much better than Smackdown, with the stories being so good, again for me, that I am really rooting for the Raw teams on Survivor Series. I made a similar comment last week, but this week really sold it to me as I…