Raw vs. SmackDown Live: Which show included more wrestling (Oct. 24 - 25)?

It’s a new era in WWE, and there is an ongoing competition between the Raw and SmackDown Live brands. This column is focused on how much televised wrestling content is seen on each brand when commercial time is removed from the equation.

Televised match times

Here is the amount of television time given to each match on the October 24, 2016 edition of Raw:

• 3m 49s: Enzo Amore vs Karl Anderson (1 commercial break)
• 8m 42s: New Day vs Cesaro and Sheamus (1 break)
• 2m 58s: Curtis Axel vs Bo Dallas
• 4m 01s: Golden Truth vs Shining Stars
• 5m 00s: Rich Swann vs Brian Kendrick (1 break)
• 9m 57s: Owens vs Jericho vs Rollins

Here is the amount of television time given to each match on the October 25, 2016 edition of SmackDown Live:

• 7m 45s: Kane vs Bray Wyatt (1 break)
• 3m 48s: Hype Bros vs The Ascension
• 6m 41s: Nikki Bella vs Natalya
• 4m 08s: Slater and Rhyno vs Spirit Squad (began during break)
• 12m 39s: AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose (2 breaks)

Results for Week 14

Raw total televised content: 2h 19m 02s
Raw televised wrestling time: 34m 27s (6 matches)
Raw wrestling time percentage: 24.8%

SmackDown Live total televised content: 1h 21m 18s
SmackDown Live televised wrestling time: 35m 01s (5 matches)
SmackDown Live wrestling time percentage: 43.1%

This is the first time since the brand split that SmackDown Live actually had more total wrestling time than Raw.

The only other instance where Raw included less wrestling time than this was back on August 1, with a total wrestling time of 33m 22s. That show finished with a slightly higher percentage than this week’s Raw due to this episode running longer.

Meanwhile, this was the first time since the brand split that SmackDown Live broke the 40% threshold for wrestling time. When the blue brand’s upper end performance this week is combined with a lower-end performance from Raw, the end result is that SmackDown Live included roughly 35 minutes of wrestling for the first time since the brand split, while Raw failed to reach 35 minutes of wrestling for just the second time since the brand split.

Overall results for the brand split

Here are the overall results for the brand split thus far, which began on July 25th:

Raw total televised content: 31h 21m 23s
Raw televised wrestling time: 10h 24m 18s (113 matches)
Raw wrestling time percentage: 33.2%

SmackDown Live total televised content: 19h 15m 27s
SmackDown Live televised wrestling time: 6h 01m 39s (66 matches)
SmackDown Live wrestling time percentage: 31.3%

Combined total televised content: 50h 36m 50s
Combined televised wrestling time: 16h 25m 57s (179 matches)
Combined wrestling time percentage: 32.5%