WWE Survivor Series 2017 Review 11/19/2017

Hello Misfits! It’s the Wrestling Classic here with my Survivor Series review. I was 6-2 with my predictions only being wrong about the Alexa/Charlotte match and the main event. This is the one night of the year that Raw and Smackdown Live battle each other for brand supremacy.

Image via WWE.com

Survivor Series 2017 comes to us from the Toyota Centre in Houston, TX.

– I watched the kick-off but it was just background noise while I tried getting ready and finish some stuff before I went to my friends for the main show. Therefore, I’m not going to review it. I will say I’m glad Elias, Matt Hardy, Owens, Zayn and Breezango all go to do something on the show. I’m also glad that Enzo Amore retained his Cruiserweight Championship. Miz was hilarious in the social media lounge and Charlotte/Alexa awesome promos on each other. It was also nice having Shawn Michaels be apart of the kick-off panel.

– The opening video package focused on the Raw vs. Smackdown Live theme of the show.

– The announce team is a combination of the Raw and Smackdown Live team as its Michael Cole, Booker T, Corey Graves, Tom Phillops and Byron Saxton calling the show.

– New Day cuts a promo, saying that tonight, they will prove that they are the most dominant three-man faction in WWE history. They mock the Raw invasion of Smackdown, and say that they will go Bob Barker on their ass. They also note that the Shield will turn on each other on the road to Mania.

Raw vs. Smackdown
Six-Man Tag Match
The Shield def. The New Day
in 21:20 via pinfall
This was a perfect way to kick off the show. Both teams are popular as hell and we know can deliver. The New Day have had a series of great matches on PPV this year that many people forget about. The Shield guys just seem to work better together or work better off each other as a tandem rather than single stars. Its as if they hype each other off and everything feels more explosive. The match was great and had great pacing. The fans were split on who they were cheering for and both teams got a ton of love and hate. The outcome was obvious with the Shield winning. They just recently got back together and this was their first big PPV match as a team since Roman had been out with an illness last month. Regardless, even knowing that I found myself thinking they were going to shock us with The New Day winning. There were a ton of near falls and moments where I thought The New Day had the victory. To be completely honest, by the end of the match I was rooting for the New Day. It’s something in me that just wants to root for the underdog. I liked how they did some cool spots like the double splash spot by The New Day that we haven’t seen before. There was also that cool moment where they reset the match as everybody went back into their corners and that set up the obvious finish with The Shield getting the win. It was an exciting match from start to finish. The Triple Powerbomb from the top rope was cool too from The Shield as its something that they surprisingly have never done before to my knowledge. This was a solid match and I really enjoyed it. I might have expected more though and I dont know why. This match was sweet. I question how long this Shield thing is going to run for though because no matter how cool it is to see them back together, I feel like they are losing their individuality.
Rating – ***3/4

– Stephanie McMahon gives the Raw Womens Team pep talk to rally them up for their upcoming match. Cheesy stuff but a good cheesy. I kind of wish Asuka was absent from it, but otherwise it was what it was.

Raw vs. Smackdown
5-on-5 Tradional Survivor Series Match
Team Raw (Alicia Fox, Asuka, Nia Jax, Sasha Banks & Bayley) def. Team Smackdown (Becky Lynch, Natalya, Tamina, Naomi & Carmella)
in 18:35 via submission
The women came out like it was sports day at elementary school, reppin their team colours. I enjoyed how the Smackdown girls stayed true to their individual characters where the Raw girls were all hugging each other and stuff like they’re became BFF’s for a week. Anyway, this was what we expected from the match. All the girls had a moment to shine and there were some shocking early eliminations. There were also things that took place in this match that I didn’t even realize that I wanted to see until this match happened. For example the show down between Nia Jax and Tamina made me intrigued in a feud between those too or the interactions between Sasha Banks and Carmella which made think how fun a rivalry between those two scrappy women would be. There were some sloppy moments such as when Naomi eliminated Alicia Fox but they weren’t sure if it was supposed to be by pinfall or by submission. There were some awesome stuff too like the sequence with Carmella and Asuka. Plus the way Carmella sold Asuka’s kick was perfect. Becky Lynch and Bayley got eliminated early which was to throw us off and that they did. They kept Nia Jax strong by having her get eliminated by count-out. Sasha Banks suffered an elimination tapping out to the sharpshooter so they could make Asuka look strong by leaving her in a two against one scenario. It was alright because Banks did eliminate Naomi earlier on in the match. The crowd was firmly behind Asuka from the moment the match started and they wanted to see her kick ass, so of course that’s what she did. Single handedly Asuka overcame both second generation superstars in Natalya and Tamina to be the sole survivor for the Raw team. This was a fun match and what you expected. It put Asuka over and everyone will move on and hate each other again. Raw was up 2-0 at this point.
Survivor – Asuka
Rating – **1/2

– Stephanie McMahon from Raw and Daniel Bryan from Smackdown were in the “office” talking about what happened. Bryan said they got John Cena and Stephanie wondered how they got Cena whether it’s because of Angle or because Bryan is almost brothers in law with Cena. Stephanie said that was nepotism, so Bryan questioned Triple H on Team Raw and he mentioned beating Triple H at WrestleMania. Bryan said that he got to beat The Authority in one night. They continued the trash talk with Steph talking about the attack on Smackdown and how awesome it was. Bryan said that Shane is going to be fired up and that’s why Smackdown will win. Stephanie said that Shane won’t be 100% percent and if Shane is too injured to compete then Bryan would be left with full autonomy over Smackdown. She left while Bryan was left to ponder that.

Raw vs. Smackdown
Champion vs. Champion
Baron Corbin def. The Miz w/ The Miztourage
in 09:35 via pinfall
This was a match that I personally felt had the worst build up. The only time these two superstars really interacted with each other was over social media. They took shots at each other in videos and pretty went into business for themselves to build their rivalry while having completely separate feuds on their respective shows. The Miz was running from Braun and  Corbin had been feuding with Sin Cara. I almost forgot that this match was happening. I’m a Miz fan but he didnt need this win as much as Corbin and I think everyone knew that. Therefore the outcome didn’t surprise me. It was cool seeing pregnant Maryse at ringside rooting on her husband. Corbin overcame the odds of the Miztourage too. The match was solid overall even though they seemed a little off at first. It might have also been because they are both heels and the fans struggled with who to cheer. They didn’t side with Miz as much as I thought they were going to but they didn’t really side with Corbin either. The right man won as Miz is going to be popular regardless and Corbin needed this win as I mentioned earlier.
Rating – **1/2

Raw vs. Smackdown
Champion vs. Champion
The Usos def. The Bar
in 15:55 via pinfall
I was really looking forward to this match and rightfully so. Two of the most talented and decorated teams of 2017. All four guys are super talented and have been involved on putting on some of the best tag matches of the year. The Bar was the experiment that worked. The Usos have been on a whole different level and the best thieve ever been in my opinion since they’re change of heart. I dont know if we’ll ever see these two teams face off again with consideration that one day Sheamus and Cesaro might split up so this was extra special. The pacing of this match was great and both teams had moments where it looked like they had it in the bag. It was a bit weird to watch because the crowd wasn’t firmly behind either side since they are both heels but I felt like The Usos did get the fans behind him following a cool Samoan drop move. There match was produced perfectly where it started out well paced, got really intense near the home stretch and lead to a really fun finish. I wonder if anyone commented or if Byron got in trouble for using the term super kick party? The finish was fun and I had a feeling Smackdown would pick the win here to put them on the scoreboard. Personally enjoyed this match slightly more than The Shield vs. New Day match but thats just me.
Rating – ****

Raw vs. Smackdown
Champion vs. Champion
Charlotte Flair def. Alexa Bliss
in 15:00 via submission
Its two of the most dominant women in the WWE today and the only two women to have held both the Raw and Smackdown women’s championships. They also had some heated words on the kick-off too in a promo I thought was done real good because it almost sounded like they were shooting on each other. I dig it when the insults sound like legitimate insults. They really played on the size difference here. The match was really physical and hard hitting for a women’s match. Bliss worked on Charlotte’s ribs to work her down whereas Charlotte just dominated Alexa with his power and speed anytime she was on the offence. he last five minutes were really good after Charlotte missed the moonsault, Bliss missed her Twisted Bliss move off the top and they went into the finish soon after. It made sense for Charlotte to win since she just came off a huge win on Smackdown that week but it threw me off because I thought they’d want Alexa looking strong if she’s the one who Asuka has to dethrone. The Empress vs. The Goddess seems marketable. I think these two could have an awesome rivalry in the future with the matches feeling more meaningful with the right build up.
Rating – ***

Raw vs. Smackdown
Champion vs. Champion
Brock Lesnar w/ Paul Heyman def. AJ Styles
in 15:25 by pinfall
This was the match I didn’t know I wanted to see until it was booked. It’s “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles going toe-to-toe with “The Beast” Brock Lesnar. It’s one of those matches that I thought we might not ever see but yet again I’m happy we got it. This was one of Brock Lesnar’s longest matches in recent history and Styles brought the best out of Lesnar. After months of seeing Lesnar face monsters and big men, this was the first time we saw him take on someone smaller since he faced Dean Ambrose. This was his best singles match since facing CM Punk at Summerslam 2013. It wasn’t a complete one sided battle, where the smaller guy has no chance against Styles. This was the first time since Punk that a smaller guy seemed like a threat to Lesnar because of their speed and endurance. This was an excellent match that lived up to the hype. Styles is such an amazing performer and I still go on trying to figure out if Styles has had bad match since he came to the WWE. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t He brings out the best in anybody and always puts on the best matches any time he’s in a big match on a PPV. They had a lot of cool moments throughout the match with the crowd getting louder the entire show. Brock Lesnar seemed motivated and he was actually selling enough to make it look like Styles was giving him a run for his money. When Styles finally got control, it was when Lesnar hurt the knee and Styles worked on it relentlessly. When Styles did the Calf Crusher, the fans went wild for it because it looked like it might end it. Lesnar fought out of that but sold it like crazy for a couple of minutes. I don’t want to sound like a person who dislikes Lesnar because I dont, but this felt like the most we’ve actually seen him work in a long time. The crowd was also really into it, especially down the stretch when AJ was running wild. This match was terrific. It showcased again why AJ Styles is one the greatest performers of all-time and how great Brock Lesnar can be when he wants to be.
Rating – ****

Raw vs. Smackdown
5-on-5 Tradional Survivor Series Match
Team Raw (Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor & Triple H) def. Team Smackdown (Shane McMahon, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton & John Cena)
in 33:20 by pinfall
Raw and Smackdown are tied 3-3 right now in the battle of brand supremacy. I was looking forward to this match for multiple different reasons. This is the first time we’re seeing Shane McMahon and Triple H interact on television since Shane-O returned last year. They have had zero segments together or any interactions which I find weird for two guys who are brother-in-laws in real-life and share history with each other that spans back to 18 years on television. We’ll also get to see Triple H work a handful of his NXT kids by teaming with Joe and Balor and facing off against Nakamura and Roode. Also we get to see Angle and Triple H both tango with two of the past eras legends in John Cena and Randy Orton. Angle and Triple H both have storied histories with Cena and Orton. It’ll also be cool to see Angle working with newer talent like Nakamura and locking up with his old TNA co-worker Bobby Roode. Also, on that note Angle is teaming with his old TNA co-worker Samoa Joe.
It was great to see Angle back in his own gear rather than in Shield gear like last month. I think the expectations were high considering all the talent involved in the match. The match was good and filled with so many memorable moments. I felt like by the end of it, you just felt disappointed because how they came to the finish. With that much big name talent you would think that they could book an incredible match where they tell the story of the younger guys getting the upper hand on the older guys. Instead, they featured Triple H and Shane McMahon too much. It was even odd to see Triple H, Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle feel more important than Randy Orton and John Cena. Orton and Cena both eliminated a young guy with Orton eliminating Balor and Cena eliminating Joe. Those are two rivalries I’d love to see but other than that Cena was almost non existent in this match which is the weirdest thing to digest and Orton didn’t have as much impact as he did last year. The only young guy who was really put over was Braun Strowman. He eliminated Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode and Randy Orton. He even came back from being put through a table by the entire Smackdown team. The only two people not eliminated on Team Smackdown by Braun were Cena and Shane-O. Kurt Angle eliminated Cena and Triple H eliminated Shane McMahon. Balor, Joe, Roode and Shinsuke didn’t eliminate a single person. There were cool interactions in the ring for example between Balor/Nakamura, Joe/Cena, Cena/Angle, Balor/Orton, Triple H/Roode, Nakamura/Angle and Roode/Angle to name a few but it still didn’t save the finish. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn even made an appearance to attack Shane-O Mac and being the distraction that got Orton eliminated but it still wasn’t enough. There were all these young stars and the final four people were Triple H, Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman and Shane McMahon. When Shane was alone for his team, the big spot was Triple H attacking Angle because he wanted to be the one to win for his team. The announcers were all confused by it thinking that maybe Triple H was aligning with Shane and it appeared that way too for a minute, but he ended up pedigreeing Shane-O to beat him.
Triple H celebrated with Strowman. It didn’t look like Strowman was in the mood to celebrate. Strowman grabbed him by the throat and drove him to the corner. Triple H told him not to play him. Strowman walked away. Triple H tried an attack from behind and for the Pedigree, but Strowman fought out of it. Strowman hit the Running Powerslam. Crowd loved it. Triple H got back to his feet again, Strowman gave him a Running Powerslam and that was it. The crowd was all over this because they love seeing Strowman kill people. There was no Kane or Jason Jordan interference which I found odd too. I dont know if this is leading to Triple H vs. Kurt Angle or Triple H vs. Braun Strowman but regardless where it is heading I felt like this all could have been booked better with the younger stars shining more than the older legendary ones. Its time to build new stars so we dont always have to rely on nostalgia.
Survivors – Triple H & Braun Strowman
Rating – ***1/4

Final Thoughts
This Survivor Series was good and definitely not going to be a show people are just going to forget about. The AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar match will most likely be the most memorable match on this show if you were going to choose the match of the night. I feel like The Shield vs. The New Day and The Bar vs. The Usos were the runner ups to that match. Everything else was good. I definitely recommend watching the event because overall it was fun to watch. I think watching it live the main event fell flat but watching it years from now, it’ll be fun to look back at how random it was and how it showcased talent from three different eras in one match. I still think the main event was disappointing in the case that the superstars from the era which was two decades ago were the ones who stood tall in the main event but oh well. Other than that, there wasn’t necessarily anything bad on this show and everything was enjoyable. If you’re not able to sit through the entire show, make sure to watch the three matches I mentioned above. Dig it?!
Final Rating – 7.5/10

What were your final thoughts on Survivor Series? What final grade would you give the event? Where would you rate it on a scale of ten? Do you agree with my review? Leave your comments, opinions and thoughts below in the comments section.