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WWE Survivor Series 2017 Review: Big Night For B(RAW)N

November 21, 2017 | Posted by Justin Watry

Image Credit: WWE

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Backstory

Feel free to read my NXT Takeover War Games review (on another website). Good event with a few surprise winners. For now, let’s talk WWE Sunday night wrestling…

WWE Survivor Series 2017 Review

Kickoff Show – I only watched Enzo over Kalisto for the Cruiserweight Championship. No interbrand battle. No intrigue. No spark. No nothing. Champ retains, as predicted, and the world moved on.

Hot Opener – The Shield beating The New Day was a nice way to start the pay-per-view. The New Day get to do their (un)funny jokes, and the fans get to cheer for the reforming super group called The Shield. Three former WWE World Champs versus…well, yeah, not three former WWE World Champs. I liked a lot of this. However, it never wowed me or felt as amazing as it should have. Houston took awhile to get warmed up Sunday night. The end game was always obvious – Shield winning clean. The final few minutes was definitely exciting and had me anticipating more. Slow start but won me over in the end.

Raw Women VS Smackdown Women – Another easy prediction here. Whatever team had Asuka was winning. Very cool to hear the live crowd behind her and cheering every move she did. That girl is 100% deserving of he stardom coming her way. Unreal in NXT and should be a mega DRAW in WWE. Yes, a legitimate DRAW. Didn’t care for Bayley and Becky Lynch being the first two out. That was odd to say the least. Then was the Tamina Snuka spotlight. Nia Jax I understand. Tamina? Um, no. In the end, it didn’t matter. No Paige. No Bellas. Just Natalya tapping out to Asuka. Fine by me.

IC Champ VS US Champ – This one was a tad bit trickier than the others. Yet, at the same time, it was clear. The Miz can lose and just talk his way out of any future situation. Baron Corbin kinda NEEDS these victories now, as he has struggled on the mic (good in small doses) and is still overcoming his Money in the Bank briefcase blunder. With Maryse, Bo Dallas, and Curtis Axel ringside, The Miz still lost. THAT part was shocking. Corbin winning was not. Weird to go the extra mile for Maryse to be there…only to have Miz lose. We’ll see where that goes or if it was simply a one and done because of the social media jabs.

Tag Champs VS Tag Champs – Smackdown LIVE had to even it up here, and they did. This was yet another correct prediction from yours truly. Despite being the Raw Tag Team Champions, Sheamus and Cesaro sure do lose a lot. The Usos are still a semi-face-heel duo, which made the outcome even more apparent. The blue brand against the red brand in the tag division? Tough call. Usos or The Bar? Yeah, the brothers were taking this. Very fun bout. On a side note, kudos to Michael Cole for praising Sheamus. The dude seriously is under rated. WWE Champ, World Champ, MITB winner, Royal Rumble winner, King of the Ring winner – heel or face, Raw or Smackdown LIVE, he brings it.

Goddess VS Queen – Easiest call of the night was The Shield defeating The New Day. Next up was Charlotte Flair wiping the floor with Alexa Bliss. Ignoring the size difference, this was just one girl completely dominating the other. Charlotte has all the momentum in the world right now, and as strange as it may seem, Bliss actually benefits more from a loss. The temper tantrum stuff and her usual excuse making should make for an entertaining Monday night. No doubt Ms. Flair was winning. Smackdown LIVE back up 3-2 over Raw, which meant Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles HAD to be next. No sense to completely give away that result in the main event. The viewing audience was well aware Brock was winning, so at least give *some* effort into making things unpredictable…

Brock Lesnar VS AJ Styles – As noted, this outcome was never in question. Thus, we needed this to be second to last. Raw could win, even up the score, and then the main event could be VERY interesting with nobody knowing which direction the company would go in. The live crowd in Texas was jacked up, as was I. They believed in AJ being the under dog and reacted to Brock as the star that he is. As the Universal Champion and being a special attraction, it was only a matter of HOW Lesnar would win. Not IF. Sorry to the new WWE Champion, but this was not going end well any way you slice it for the blue brand. Jinder Mahal was going to take this beating originally. Now it belongs to AJ. The exact finishing sequence I predicted. No interference, no funny business, no BS. Again, as I predicted. Lived up to the hype if you ask me. A perfect seven for seven in picks up to this point.

Brand VS Brand Finale – Score all tied up. WWE mapped out this card to build up drama over this imaginary brand battle. I hate to admit it because I really don’t care for this annual Raw/Smackdown junk, but they succeeded big time. By the time Brock/AJ ended, you could feel it in the air. Something special was about to go down. Which would prevail: Raw or Smackdown? I had the red brand, despite their historical failures in beating the supposed B-Show when it counted most. Was I right?

I was right.

A perfect prediction night for yours truly. Rather than break down the match moment by moment, let’s do it person by person…

Shinsuke Nakamura – continues to be used as I figure until the Road to WrestleMania begins. Teased some big dream match showdowns but was taken out of the picture early. This match was never about him, so it was not too surprising.

Bobby Roode – same as above. Glorious to see him in the main event of a major pay-per-view. Well deserved. However, this story line never had anything to do with all the pawns. It was a power struggle from the beginning. Sorry, your time will come Bobby.

Samoa Joe – once again, same as above. Joe was never going to be spotlighted here, as much as we all would have wanted it. The guy has his own issues with Finn Balor going on right now. Like others, still very nice to see him in a major WWE PPV main event. Don’t make light of that fact.

John Cena – I said it before and will again: WELCOME TO 2017 FOLKS! This is what John Cena is from now on. If he has more time, sure. However, he is back for huge one offs (Roman Reigns at No Mercy) and big matches on television. Enjoy it now because his time is limited moving forward. Others may be shocked by his sudden/clean loss but not me. New era ladies and gentlemen.

Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn – not in the match itself but interfered to try and attack Shane McMahon. Didn’t work out too well as they were chased off with a steel chair. Whatever. Not to repeat myself for the millionth time, but as I exclusively reported last year. Owens was originally pegged for Smackdown LIVE in the July WWE Draft, but he didn’t want to go. Thus, he stayed on Raw. Come April 2017, he had no say in the matter and was moved. I have written about this all many times (on another website). Now, more rumors of a move back to RAW. Time will tell if it actually happens.

Finn Balor – yeah, same as Joe. Finn Balor mixing it up with some legends was a treat. Still have to believe that showdown with Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship is coming, right? I mean, the guy should get that title shot at some point.

Randy Orton – a legacy star who usually excels at Survivor Series. Read what I wrote about John Cena. Randy Orton is still full-time, so his position is a little bit different…but not by too much. Shockingly enough, Mr. RKO was the young gun on his team but had been in WWE for over 15 years. Amazing, huh?

Kurt Angle – unfortunately, he was always going to get screwed here. Whether by Jason Jordan, Stephanie McMahon, or yes, Triple H, this would be a bad night for Kurt Angle. The long rumored battle against HHH appears to be the direction after what we got at the end of Survivor Series. We’ll see. Plenty of options. Bonus points for the Roode, Joe, and Cena moments with Angle.

Shane McMahon – without being a jerk, I am unsure what fans thought! This entire feud has revolved around him. People are apparently shocked the main event centered around Angle, Triple H, and Shane McMahon. Um, yeah. What have you been watching on TV for the past month? Under siege? All the promos and hype? The authority figures dominated from the onset, but now it is big news that they were at the end? Riiight.

In the end, Triple H won it for his team after killing two birds with one stone. He screwed Kurt Angle AND Shane McMahon. Oh, that cerebral assassin. Exactly what he was positioned to do. Come in and save the day, as I outlined in my preview column. Again, no surprise whatsoever as that is exactly what I predicted. I am fine with it because that was the story being told. Logic and sense win here folks. What happens next is anybody’s guess. I’m just glad we had no interference from Jason Jordan. Kudos to WWE for holding off on that (and Jinder Mahal costing AJ Styles his match).

Oh, then there was the OTHER survivor from RAW. The dude who dominated and looked like a monster amongst men. That would be Braun Strowman. Triple H tried his best to explain why he did what he did to him afterwards, but it didn’t work. Braun took him out with his running powerslam and let The Game know that he is not messing around. The big man stands tall to end Survivor Series and while HHH and Raw may have won the battle, the war is just beginning.

SUMMARY: A very strong case could be made that WWE Survivor Series was better than NXT Takeover the night before. Close call for sure. I nailed every match prediction, so obviously, I had no issues with much of the event. Felt pretty good live Sunday night and after a re-watch on Monday, my thoughts are the same.

Podcast Co-Host

Announcement coming soon. By the end of 2017, I want to a) pick a podcast co-host and b) debut my show. Just general WWE/NXT talk and various topics, nothing special. Invitations to be involved are still more than welcome via Twitter or email. Stay tuned…

NRW: The Match

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