Featuring Many Current and Past OO Columnists 
Ratings Compiled by Rick Scaia

OOficial Brand of the Week:
RAW
RAW: 2.97  --/-- SD!: 2.83

RATING SYSTEM: Rather than go with the standard 1-10 integer scale for rating shows, OO has selected a 0.0-5.0 rating scheme.  Not only does this allow the reviewer to more precisely award points, but more importantly, it is our belief that our ratings will, in a way, be comparable to the weekly Nielsen Ratings.  Our ratings are based on show quality, however, whereas Nielsen's are based on eyeballs.  Just as WWE hasn't reached the real world 5.0 mark in a long, long time, it will take a monumental effort for a show to earn the highest OO World ratings...  but piss us off in a given week, and we'll be rating you like you're Nitro and it's 2001. 

RAW (2/02/03) vs. SMACKDOWN! (2/05/04)  
OOFICIAL RATINGS

Canadian Bulldog
RAW: 3.0   
This week's Raw was much like the Torrie Wilson-Sable photo shoot. Nothing that got me excited, but it didn't turn me off either. And YES, that was the best I could come up with after staring at a blank screen for 10 minutes.

The good: Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels wasn't all that bad at all. Although... I must have missed them saying it was non-title, so until the next day, I was under the impression HBK was the Intercontinental Champion. Oh well... Mick Foley had another decent showing, though to be honest, sometimes more is less. I'm a huge Foley fan, but I really think putting in fewer appearances between now and Mania would make his match with Orton more valuable... Chris Jericho and Christian vs. Ric Flair and Batista wasn't bad, though I can't shake the bad vibes I get thinking the underwhelming Evolution team will still be champions going into the big event.... Speaking of the Creepy Little Bastard, his vignette with Trish was one of the best `serious' ones he's ever done.... Knock WWE all you like for the silliness surrounding Undertaker's supernatural return; the match will be well-hyped over the next month or so.

The bad: I haven't seen such a lopsided squash in the Triple H vs. Spike Dudley affair since Kamala squashed Tom 'Rocky' Stone back on WWF Wrestling Challenge many years ago. I half-expected JR to say "Earlier on, we had the chance to speak with Hercules" and then have him appear in the top-right corner of the screen. Seriously, why was this match necessary? HHH could have been just as effective messing with Benoit without the benefit of an 80's style jobber match... Likewise, Mark Henry was a bad first opponent for Benoit, and I say that knowing in hindsight they just did the match to write Sexual Chocolate off TV for a while.... While Trish Stratus vs. Kane was a dream match that every wrestling fan was looking forward to, it made for dumb, dumb, dumb television. Austin's appearance on the ATV near the end of the main event showed me how stale his gimmick has become.

SmackDown: 2.5 
This show was much like Josh Matthews on commentary; technically, nothing was wrong, I guess....

The good: Rikishi and Scotty Too Hotty win the tag titles was a fun surprise. It would have been even more surpising had I not read the spoilers first. Still, if WGTT doesn't end up with the belts soon, I can't consider this a positive development.... I've noticed, by way of a recent message on the OO Boards, that I really wasn't paying to Bob Holly's matches recently. I'm not going to say he had a tremendous outing with Kurt Angle this week, but it wasn't bad, either. The problem with Holly is that he couldn't get a reaction if he dethroned Triple H, Austin and Angle in one night, and it shows.... Some nice build up to No Way Out (and even to Mania with the Goldberg-Brock Lesnar stuff), which is more than I can say for SmackDown in their previous two PPV outings.

The bad: Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero would have been a great match had , I don't know, IT HAD NOT BEEN CHAVO'S 60-SOMETHING YEAR-OLD FATHER!!! I know they're saving their one-on-one till the PPV, which is a good idea, but couldn't we have put someone else in there for Rey? Even the 15th round with Jamie Noble would have been preferable.... Why was Paul Heyman, long the foul-mouthed opponent of censorship in wrestling, trying to censor John Cena? It just doesn't make any sense... Big Show vs. Billy Gunn continued the proud SmackDown tradition of giving us shitty mid-card matches that no one wants to see. Speaking of which... Jamie Noble vs. Nidia at the PPV??? Come on! I know we have to have something awful in exchange for no McMahons wrestling, but seriously people.... 

Canadian Bulldog's year-to-date averages: RAW (3.1), SD! (2.9).

Big Danny T 
RAW: 3.0
Nothing too terribly exciting here, but the second half kept my attention well enough.

SmackDown!: 2.8
One word: boring. Check the recap.

Danny's year-to-date averages: RAW (3.3), SD! (3.4).

Rick Scaia  
RAW: 2.9
I'd give the very strong second hour a rating more like a 4.1; you had good wrestling across the board, some decent storyline advancement (especially with Jericho/Christian's failed tag title shot as a result of Jericho's injury following his save of Trish), and ended on a note that actually seemed to put some Big Time Sizzle behind Chris Benoit.  Too bad the first hour would be lucky to score a 2.0 if it were singled out; other than the laying of the foundation of the Trish/Jericho/Christian thing and a bit of quality mic work between Jericho/Benoit/Flair, the entire first hour was a loss.  Like many UD basketball games, this was the tale of two halves... but also like many UD basketball games, the combined effort was still enough to squeak by without being embarrassed.

SmackDown!: 3.2 
Like RAW, SD! was a show that had ups and downs.  But unlike RAW, it wasn't quite so easily deliniated by the mid-point of the show.  SD! mixed and matched its good and bad.  At the end of the night, though, I liked SD! just a touch more than RAW.  I think that might be that I came in with such low expectations after scanning the spoilers...  but somehow, the show-spanning story arc with Heyman searching for his #1 contender really clicked with me, and I wound up totally digging the final 30 minutes or so of the show (with a very good Angle/Holly match, and then the show-closing Angle/Show/Cena/Heyman promo).  It's close, but I'll say that's good for the narrow win over RAW this week.

Rick's year-to-date averages: RAW (3.3), SD! (3.7).

FINAL OO RATINGS, WEEK ENDING 2/06/04

RAW average: 2.97
Actual Nielsen Rating: 3.1 (converted to broadcast rating)  
RAW UNDERdelivers versus actual rating this week.

SmackDown! average: 2.83 
Actual Nielsen Rating:  3.4    
SD! UNDERdelivers versus actual rating this week.

BATTLE TO DATE TALLIES

Average OO Rating for RAW:  3.17 
Average Nielsen Rating for RAW: 3.11 
RAW is OVERdelivering, on average, versus actual ratings since the start of the Battle.

Average OO Rating for SD: 3.36 
Average Nielsen Rating for SD:  3.34 
SD! is OVERdelivering, on average, versus actual ratings since the start of the Battle.

Rounds Won by RAW: 13 
Rounds Won by SD!: 21  
Current Streak: 1 by RAW (Since 2/6/04) 
Longest Streak: 7 by SD! (6/27/03 thru 8/08/03)

BROWSE PAST WEEK'S BATTLES OF THE BRANDS  

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