Survivor Series, the WWE’s fall tradition, is in the books, as the company looks to wrap up another record-setting and historic year with the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC in just two weeks. As one of the “big four,” Survivor Series, while probably fourth in line in terms of importance of the traditional pay-per-views, still had lofty expectations, especially with the amount of star power that was stacked up for the all-star main event segment.
However, reviews online, at least initially, are mixed. The reason I mentioned that Survivor Series is slotted at number four in terms of the traditional pay-per-views is that it’s close enough to Royal Rumble season that in the modern era, most fans look for clues as to what will shape the direction of Wrestlemania the following year, but at the same time, given the history of the event, it’s understandable that the fans still expect a spectacle, particularly when the current WWE brand is based around the pryo and ballyhoo of the major pay-per-views.
As with anything else, the hits or misses of Survivor Series depends on perspective. After the three and a half hour broadcast went off the air, I wondered if there was any resolution and how much progress was made toward the end of the year for the company.
The show opened with the 40-minute women’s War Games match, and to parse details on this segment would be too lengthy to be pertinent to the bigger point that it was an absolute mess. I’m not sure how this happened, considering that the women’s division is usually the most consistent aspect of the organization in terms of quality content, but this went off the rails within minutes of the opening bell. Bayley and Nia Jax started the contest, but the champion looked clumsy and fumbled through spots. Unfortunately, the more competitors that were added to the match, the more unorganized and clunky the segment became as each participant tried to work spots around the other sloppy sequences. The only highlight of the contest was the pair of dives from Iyo Sky and Tiffany Stratton from the top of the cage, which will probably do well on social media, but the match as a whole was a complete flop. I’m not sure if some of them got lost or if a sequence was mistimed and it caused a traffic jam so to speak with the timing of the rest of the match, but all things considered, this match didn’t help the division at all. Rhea Ripley got the win for her team after she put Liv Morgan through a table off the ropes with her finisher, but it’s best for everyone to forget this underwhelming match.
The US title match was really solid, and showcased the commodity that Shinsuke Nakamura can still be for the company. The action was good and had a pace that built toward the conclusion. More than anything, the repackaging of Nakamura was impressive. The Samurai helmet and Muta-style remix to his music created a tremendous presentation that added an edge to his persona that was definitely needed to rejuvenate his WWE career. The finish saw a reserve DDT that looked brutal on the steel grading between the two rings and the running knee with for Nakamura to win the championship. So, it looks like WWE brass is going to get behind this new persona of Nakamura, and maybe I’m being too pessimistic, but I really have to wonder if this was too little too late in terms of maximizing what they can do with Nakamura at this point in his career. Keep in mind, when he debuted on the main roster and won the Royal Rumble in 2018, it looked like he was on his way to becoming the first Japanese WWE champion. Despite the talent and the charisma, he lost to AJ Styles that year at Wrestlemania and never got close to a main event spot again. If I had to guess, I’d say that Vince McMahon probably went with the trope that if someone doesn’t speak completely flute English for promos then there’s a ceiling to how far up the card they can go in the promotion. It’s a shame because for the past several years, including when he was paired with Claudio as a thrown together tag team, the office did nothing of importance with Nakamura, diminishing his star power to a significant degree, especially compared to the main event push in 2018.
Nakamura was so under the radar that before he resurfaced for this feud with LA Knight recently, he wasn’t seen on WWE programming for more than six months. Listen, he relocated from Japan to the United States when he originally inked a WWE deal in 2016 so you know that he had to be offered hefty cash to make the transition to America. Perhaps, he was completely fine with staying home the majority of this year to collect the check. At the same time, it’s still very disappointing that his career was more or less stagnant for several years. At 44, Nakamura probably isn’t in the prime of his career, but hopefully, he can have another solid run in the WWE before he retires.
The triple threat match for the Intercontinental title was fun. Three way matches can be difficult to structure, but the participants in this contest worked well and developed a good pace for the segment. You have to give credit to Ludwig Kaiser for his work in this storyline, he’s proving that he can be more than just a sidekick. The action was good, and Breakker flying into the frame for a shoulder block on the outside was the social media moment of the match. Breakker retained the title after a spear to Sheamus. It was a wise decision to keep the belt on Breakker, because at this point, the main event scene is too crowded to realistically move him up the ladder without the risk of him being overshadowed by others in terms of solidified star power. That being said, when the time is right, Breakker should definitely be booked for a major push and a major title win at a future Wrestlemania, even if that’s in a few years as opposed to anything in the immediate future.
Speaking of titles, the world heavyweight championship match was fine, but it definitely had a lame duck atmosphere around it. Aside from the fact that Gunther lost the champion vs. champion bout at Crown Jewel, the feud with Damien Priest wasn’t so much a continuation from their match at Summer Slam, but rather something that was picked up more to give Gunther an opponent than anything else. It didn’t really have the momentum behind it to be viewed as an anticipated match and the crowd reaction reflected that. Plus, it was doubtful that Gunther was going to drop the belt until at least Wrestlamania. Since the result was somewhat obvious, this contest just didn’t get the chance to build any drama toward the conclusion. Finn Balor interfered toward the finish, implying that he and Priest are going to continue their feud, which makes sense. Gunther used a submission to retain the championship.
The War Games main event was another 40-minute segment to close the show, and this is probably the portion of the program that has garnered the most mixed reaction. It should be noted that War Games matches, particularly based on the visual of two rings and the cage, are often based on sizzle rather than substance. There’s only so much you can do when there are several wrestlers involved or there are an uneven amount of competitors. Usually, it’s not until everyone enters the cage that a specific narrative can be told since that’s when the match officially starts and thus the win or defeat could be at stake with a certain spot. War Games 1991 and 1992 in WCW were probably the best type of that match that had an equal amount of sizzle and substance in terms of the in-ring presentation, but a lot of that was based on the wrestlers involved.
The War Games at the Survivor Series was specifically designed to be an all-star segment so I’m not sure exactly what the fans that were underwhelmed expected from this segment. That’s not a criticism, but rather that I don’t think that CM Punk, Roman Reigns, or too many other of the main event guys were going to dive off the cage, especially right before Rumble season to build for Wrestlemania.
However, one of the aspects of the segment that I think was a total miss was the way the announcers implied that the feud wasn’t over, simply because Solo Sikoa still has the tribal necklace. By definition, the War Games bout is the payoff to the feud. The original Bloodline won and thus this should be the end of this chapter. Don’t get me wrong, I still think there’s a lot of meat on the bone for the wrestlers involved on an individual basis, but if management is going to attempt to continue the storyline based on Solo still claiming to be the tribal chief, the fan interest might diminish. Roman Reigns vs. Jacob Fatu could be a money match, and it would be a realistic bout for Roman at WM that doesn’t involve the championship, which is completely fine because Reigns doesn’t need the title again. I could see an argument being made for the Usos vs. the Tongans for the tag titles at some point. I’m not sure where Solo goes from here, but as I said, the tribal chief angle was more or less resolved.
One of the most interesting aspects of this segment was the “favor” that CM Punk reminded Paul Heyman that he owns him. It creates compelling questions about the future, and I don’t think it would be impossible for Punk to turn heel to work a feud against Reigns. Maybe Heyman will blame Roman for leaving after WM and allowing the attack by Solo where he was put through the table. CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman involved is another money match that would be worthy of a featured spot at Wrestlemania next year.
Overall, the main event was fine, nothing too over-the-top, but nothing subpar either. For the fans that have stamped Survivor Series as underwhelming, I’d guess that it was because they expected some type of shock or surprise at the end of the event, similar to when The Rock showed up at the end of the Bad Blood pay-per-view. There wasn’t a heel turn or a surprise cameo to conclude the show, but as mentioned, there are a few intriguing scenarios that are possible as the company gets ready to debut on Netflix next month.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
