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The card looks good and for the first time, in a long time, I'm looking forward to a Brock Lesnar match. I hate the advertising poster with Becky, Shayna, and Bayley. It's a small thing to be fussed about, but Becky and Bayley look nothing like Becky and Bayley. Will you be watching tomorrow?

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Nope. I didn't watch the Crown Jewel event as I'd been burned by the PPV before it. I like the card this time, but I'm skipping Survivor Series too. Maybe if I stay out of it for a while things will seem better.
Wow, the Survivor Series 2019 starts today. I am looking forward to the Brock Lesnar vs Rey Mysterio match where the former will be defending his WWE title. Daniel Bryan will also be challenging Bray Watt for the Universal Championship!
I always enjoy watching Kalisto, especially when he's going hard, but I also always forget about him when he's not in the ring. Not sure why.
Maybe if I stay out of it for a while things will seem better.

 

That's the way it goes, isn't it? A drink tastes better when you haven't drank in a long time.

 

But no, I'm not putting out money for this for awhile, if ever. They bill it as some sort of championship, but it really isn't.

@ShadowEdge, probably because he's a cruiserweight.

 

I missed the first bit because my mum rang and I couldn't get her off the phone.

 

Asuka turning on Charlotte Flair and her team was fun.

 

I'm not into Pete Dunne, but he puts on a good show and so does Adam Cole. This was the best finish from all the matches in my opinion.

 

The Fiend is still able to take a merciless beat down and come out on top like much like The Undertaker during his heyday. It's wearing thin at this point, though I liked the bit with The Miz and Daniel Bryan backstage.

 

Keith Lee is getting a big push. Reigns looked fantastic. Baron Corbin still brings nothing to the table. And I can't wait to see what comes out of the Matt Riddle, Randy Orton situation. Hoping for a fued.

 

Didn't watch Brock Lesnar and Rey Mysterio. That was the time to get a snack.

 

The Women's Championship wasn't terrible, but not what I expected. The crowd was hot on Shayna Baszler and Becky Lynch. Cool move by Baszler when she threw Becky. Why did Becky go on the attack afterwards? It made no sense.

So Survivor Series is the first WWE pay per view I've watched in it's entirety in probably a couple of years - I watched the whole pre show (or at least, all the pre show matches and honestly most of the pre show) as well as the whole main card. Overall I was sports entertained, but there were some major mis-steps throughout the night.

 

The Pre-Show added a weird multi-team brand warfare tag team battle royal thing. It wasn't really clear if you had to eliminate both members of a team or just 1 to get the job done, but this was mainly just a throwaway match to get more people on the card anyway. Roode/Ziggler getting the win makes as much sense as just about anyone else honestly, it's not like it'll matter much anyway.

 

Cruiserweight triple threat was pretty decent, but it just goes to add to the confusion about the state of the Cruiserweight title and the 205 live division. The draft raided their roster and they did this match in a "Raw vs NXT vs Smackdown" kind of way, but what would've happened if Akira Tozawa or Kalisto had won? Are they exclusive to Raw/Smackdown or would they also go on 205 Live and NXT now? Just...what? Thankfully we didn't have to answer that as Lio Rush won. Crowd mostly didn't care.

 

Then the final pre-show match was one I personally had thought would be excellent, the tag champ triple threat. I had bet on New Day because I felt that Kofi being only a month removed from being WWE Champion and a main eventer + New Day having such strong tag team credentials that they might get the win here by beating Undisputed Era. But it went the other way, Viking Raiders beating UE instead. That's cool too, gave Raw their only win for the night. That was interesting too, given Raw was nearly a clean sweep last year (Except for 1 random pre-show tag match the Usos won). The match itself was reasonably good, but not the fire I was hoping for. We know what all 3 teams are capable of, but we just didn't get to that level in this one :( So, that was a bit disappointing. But it was still a good match.

 

Starting off the main show, the women's survivor tag came first and this is where the first of our mis-steps really happened. The NXT Women's team won and that was the right call, but how we got there was problematic. For one thing, the match went on way too long. It feels weird saying that since Survivor Series as a whole was actually a shorter PPV than WWE usually puts on and that was refreshing and good, but this match dragged. Too much weird stuff happening in the beginning, and it got majorly de-railed for a minute when we pulled the Io/Candace "injured" angle. The problem with that was they didn't show what happened to those 2. Hell, as far as I could tell watching at home, we went through that big "Everyone does a big move" series which normally is a prelude to an elimination or 2, then somehow worked their way over to the rampway side and were suddenly mysteriously "down". The action in the ring just stopped, they pretended they were both hurt, and everyone in the ring just watched and was like ??? - So team NXT went from 5 to 3 in an instant. We slowly got back on track after that. There was good stuff to be had in this match, but it was mostly just small moments in the middle of a long drawn out and overbooked match. The tension between Asuka and Charlotte was great, leading to Charlotte's elimination. Carmella's super Stratusfaction was rad. The Kairi and Io face off was great, wish we could've gotten more of that. But the biggest problem I had with this match was apparently the entirety of Team NXT went Heel for this match, including Rhea and Candace. I haven't watched NXT UK so I don't know Rhea well beyond what she's done in NXT USA since coming over, I'd imagine she was a heel in UK. But even if she was, it just makes no sense for her and Candace especially to suddenly act like heels when they were literally overcoming the odds like valiant underdogs the night before. Jerry Lawler especially kept saying he doubted if Io and Candace were ever injured when they inevitably made their return - that in itself was weird because we were like "Are they allowed to rejoin the match? Have they been ejected? Is this now interference? What is this?" The referee didn't seem to know what to do either, yelling at them for what they did but also not disqualifying anyone so who knows. But it was very clearly heel tactics and it made no sense. It would seem Io and Candace were faking their injury, but to what end? What sense does it make to deliberately put your team at a 2 person disadvantage for most of the match? You're basically gambling that your team is good enough to survive til the end to make good on that hidden advantage, but if your team is that good to survive, why not just keep everyone out there and dominate?

 

And that's basically the problem with Survivor Series. WWE had an absolute gem of a PPV card on their hands, and they busted it up until it went from being a potentially legendary PPV to being a "Not bad" PPV with their stupid booking decisions. I wanted Team NXT to win, but the way they got there made them look less legitimate.

 

Moving on, midcard championship triple threat. First I'd like to say, I really dig the new IC title. I do miss the white belt, it was definitely very regal and fitting for a championship title, but this new title looks freakin rad. And honestly, it's been 8 years since the white belt came back, I think a change at this point is fine. Even if you wish we still had the white belt, you can at least be glad the WWE designed a new belt that doesn't look like another color in the rainbow of WWE Championships :p Anyway, I had hoped this match would steal the show. AJ/Shinsuke never really had a great match together in WWE but they have the Japan history and Roderick being added to the mix sounded like it could maybe be the missing ingredient they need to set it off. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Much like the triple threat tag match earlier, this was good, but not great. Sami Zayn dancing to Shinsuke's music in his entrance was freaking gold, and also Sami was quite entertaining on the pre-show earlier. Dude deserves more than to just be a mouth piece. I believe I've read he's healing up from injuries a little bit right now anyway, so that's fine, but I hope someday he gets an actual push. It's a damn travesty he still hasn't held any titles on Raw or Smackdown. Roderick getting the win surprised me, I bet on AJ because he's a 2 time former WWE Champion and just seemed like the biggest star in the match, but maybe that's why he didn't need to win. Good for Strong.

 

Nice little backstage segment with Bryan and Miz, I love how they're continuing to have these 2 interact as they both switch between Heel and Face and change up the dynamic of their hatred. It's surprisingly good consistency that no matter if they're both heel or both face, they still don't like each other. Though I admit, I kind of would like to see them turn to begrudging respect and turn into an unlikely tag team duo.

 

Adam Cole and Pete Dunn was fantastic. Unfortunately, the crowd was not as hyped as I wanted them to be. Not that they weren't into the match, they were, but Chicago often has frenzied and loud and woke fans. We had them for Takeover the night before. But I guess Survivor Series had a more diverse crowd. It sounded to me like maybe half the crowd was super into this, and the other half was mildly into it because they at least know who Adam Cole is at this point. Still, excellent match, loved the psychology of selling their respective injuries all match long (especially on the apron). They even managed to repeat the spot Cole/Ricochet did with the flipping superkick counter, that's so sick. But the ending...that counter to the Bitter End where Adam Cole flipped and somehow turned it into a Panama City Sunrise was incredible, followed by the Last Shot and that's it. Well done both of these guys. Match of the night for sure. This lived up to the match quality I was expecting, but the crowd disappointed me on this one.

 

Daniel Bryan vs The Fiend was highly anticipated, and I noticed the fans really came alive for Daniel Bryan in this. That's incredible. Even after his heel run and not really doing a full-forced return to being face AND with how over The Fiend has been, the fans there still rallied HARD for Daniel Bryan and the Yes movement. This was a real good match too, despite the DAMN RED LIGHTING. The only thing I like about the red light is that it makes the Fiend mask blend into Bray's head, so you can't tell where his head ends and the mask begins, that's rather cool. But it makes everything else look weird and fuzzy and low definition at times. Great match, as I expected. The last time I can remember these 2 fighting was Royal Rumble 2014 when Bryan had been fueding with the Wyatt Family, and that was a match of the year quality outing. This one wasn't quite that great, but it was still damn good. Figured Bray would win, I can't imagine who's gonna take that title from him.

 

Rey's little backstage interview was once again quite clearly scripted word for word, but I will give the writers credit because this one was better than the pure garbage they gave him a few weeks ago. Not great, but it got the job done and Rey delivered it pretty well. I will say I was 100% behind Rey winning the WWE title.

Men's survivor tag was up next, which was a pleasant surprise as I had expected it to be the main event. It was the most anticipated match if you ask me, but hey we had several solid choices for main events. That's probably another mis-step on WWE's part, I think they picked the wrong main event, but we'll get to that. As for this one, this was looking to be a wild ride. Team NXT didn't get announced until the pre-show and Shawn Michaels announced it'd be Tomasso Ciampa as captain with Keith Lee, Damian Priest, Matt Riddle, and WALTER. Sounds like a badass team, albeit I didn't expect WALTER there at all. But when I heard that, I lost my mind because the thought of WALTER going up against Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre or Roman Reigns or basically any of them was gold. And then we got it! Pretty early in the match too, and it was AWESOME...while it lasted. WALTER dominating Drew was fantastic, and I legit LOL'd when Braun RAN OVER WALTER. I mean, Braun's big enough to make that believable, but it was just hilarious to see that happen to a guy like WALTER who is in my mind, basically the NXT UK version of Brock Lesnar. But here's another one of those mis-steps WWE made - they took WALTER, a guy who as far as I know hasn't lost since coming to WWE, and not only made him lose but they made him lose to 1 single Claymore Kick AND he was the first elimination of the match. ABSOLUTE TRASH. Now I know, Survivor Tags are a bit more loose when it comes to beating people I mean we saw Sasha pin Natalya earlier with a lame ass punch - stuff like that happens when you've got 9 (or 14) eliminations to get through. But you know...I'd have rather WALTER not even been in this match if that's how they were gonna book him. Would've much rather had Killian Dane, that would've been another big guy who could've filled that role equally well and it wouldn't have been nearly as problematic for him to get eliminated that way. Grrr. The crowd felt the same way, I heard those chants of "bulls**t" and I hope Vince did too, damn it. Moving on...Braun Strowman getting eliminated soon after by count out was a bit of a cop out...like, why does WALTER get pinned but Braun (who has already taken a fair number of losses anyway) get protected like that? Furthermore, isn't this a triple threat match? Why is there count outs to begin with, and why doesn't the ref appear to count out anyone else for most of the rest of the match? Stupid stupid booking.

 

I did enjoy Chad Gable running around, him and Riddle had a fun exchange. Chad is just so great. Stop calling him Shorty G and making him dress like he wants to be in Space Jam. Loved Randy's role in this match. Once we got past that initial BS with WALTER and Braun, the match was really quite entertaining, albeit long. I think if we had cut this one down by about 5 minutes, it would've felt more fast paced and exciting. Still, it was cool. I honestly expected Team RAW to win this one. I felt like Baron Corbin was going to screw things up for Smackdown and like NXT was gonna make up the wins in other matches. But while Baron did get Mustafa Ali eliminated and cause Roman to sacrifice Corbin, it wasn't enough to keep THE BIG DOG down. Keith Lee looked impressive, that Spirit Bomb on Roman was godlike. I love that he pinned Seth Rollins. I was sad Roman got the win, mostly cause I thought it would've been hella star-making for Keith Lee to have beaten both Seth and Roman. But that's alright, the silver lining to all this is that they all can come back and say they beat big names. Matt Riddle can lay claim to pinning Randy Orton, Tommasso to Baron Corbin, and Keith Lee pinned Seth Rollins while they all stood toe to toe with everyone. Overall this was good, minus the BS in the beginning.

 

Nice backstage promo by Becky, she's great.

 

Rey vs Brock. Rey wearing his Joker attire, more in line with the most recent Joker movie. Made him look goofy as hell though, I don't think this was the right night to bust that out. Didn't end up distracting me from the match, but it was odd to see. I liked the psychology of the match, Brock toying with Rey for awhile until Rey finally managed to get that equalizer steel pipe/baseball bat lookin weapon and whacking the crap out of Brock with it. For me, this storyline fued resonated deep and the video package they showed to hype this match up really did a great job amplifying the things that I liked about it - Brock beating up Dominic and Rey being helpless, just watching, even crawling on top of his son and crying to Brock "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't hurt my son" really hits me deep. That's me as a father though, I know not everyone else is a parent and won't have that same reaction. But for me? It triggered thoughts of how I would feel if I were in Rey's position, and it just fired me up. Every single time Rey hit Brock with that pipe before Survivor Series and at Survivor Series just gave me a rush of feeling righteous vengeance, I wanted Rey to win this match BAD. And when Dominic ran down and gave Rey that window to start beating the absolute HELL out of Brock, I was loving it. Then Dominic got himself a chair and joined in, I was like YES GO GO GO BEAT THAT BASTARD, I was losing my mind. The double 619 was perfect, followed by back to back splashes and a double father/son pin. Here's the problem - Brock kicked out. That was a major mis-step. This was a perfect time to take that title off Brock and put it on someone else. Rey didn't need to go having a super long title reign, but he does deserve better than the 1.5 hour WWE title reign he got back in 2011 during the Punk voice of the voiceless story. Also, this was a highly emotional match, and it would've felt really good to see Brock get his by the unlikeliest of opponents. Unfortunately, he kicked out, then in about 1 minute wrapped up the match with a quick F5 and that was that. Sucked the life right out of the arena. The crowd boo'd, they were mad, they were sad, but mostly they were just disappointed.

 

Finally we have the main event, the Women's Champions triple threat. Now, I originally had thought this would be a great main event because it seemed like one of the most highly anticipated matches. But the ending of Brock/Rey really deflated the excitement in the arena, and on top of that this match just underperformed. In my opinion, it underperformed worse than the previous champion triple threat matches we had earlier in the night. That's really shocking to me, because Becky's been mostly on fire and Shayna has been too. Bayley's been rejuvenated with her heel turn and also was fed up with being ignored, so it just seemed like everyone had a lot to prove and there'd be lots of intensity...but there just wasn't. What we got was a fairly cookie-cutter triple threat match for a good bulk of the time, with 2 participants in the ring and the 3rd continuously being thrown back outside or knocked off the apron, that 3rd being Shayna for seemingly what felt like half the match. Bayley and Becky fighting each other just felt uninspired, I just didn't have much to be excited about as they didn't really do anything noteworthy. Even when Shayna came back into the fray more permanently, it still didn't get better - I wanted to see Shayna taking on Becky, I wanted to see Shayna taking on Bayley, but even when that happened it was just plodding and slow paced for the most part. The fans didn't react to hardly anything most of the match. They were making noise, but I couldn't tell what they were saying and it didn't seem like they were coordinated anyway. It wasn't chants, it was more like a bunch of people all talking like at a party. You couldn't make out any individual conversation, but you could hear that there was noise. Unfortunately none of that noise really seemed to pay attention to the action in the ring, except for near the end. Shayna winning was the right call I think, and I think this is planting the seeds for Shayna to lose the NXT women's title and come up to Raw to deal with Becky. But this match didn't really end with a roar, more like with a "Oh, it's over, ok". Becky sending Shayna through tables afterwards did get a bit of a pop, but not nearly as much as she normally would've gotten. Crowd was just pissed that Rey lost.

 

Overall, I'd give this show a C+. It wasn't a bad show, but it had so much potential to be absolutely amazing and instead it was just "Kind of good". It mostly just reaffirmed my feeling that Raw/Smackdown (AKA the stuff Vince directly controls) continues to be hobbled by his booking decisions and it's better to focus on AEW and NXT instead. One last note - Whoever decided that the teams for the survivor tag matches would just come out to their brand's TV show theme song made a bad call. That didn't help set the stage for an important match. What do they do when we're gonna have a big multi-person match on TV? They cut to commercial, play the Raw or SD theme song and have all the wrestlers come out to that - So it felt like this didn't matter as much. What's weird is we weren't pressed for time, they could've done quick entrances for everyone. Not sure why they didn't. Or they could've at least had each team come down to their Captain's theme song, that would've been better too. Even when a team won, they still played the show theme and not the person's theme...except for Roman, but only after Smackdown's song had been playing for awhile. Weird.

Edited by Zack T

Great review @Zack T

 

I've not watched any of the pre-show but I did watch all the main show.

 

Going from the excellent women's wargames match to the Survivor Series elimination match was a comedown! I was surprised to see who the NXT team was after seeing some of them try to kill each other the night before :) It felt so strange seeing them all pally pally with each other so soon after. I also don't get why some of the women were making the saves when a member of the other brand was going to be eliminated. As Zack already pointed out, what was the point of LeRay and Shirai feigning injury when they knew their team would be at a disadvantage. Silly booking.

 

IC title match was good, all 3 looked strong.

 

Cole/Dunn was great but having a quiet crowd didn't help.

 

Fiend/Bryan was OK, I've said it before but I HATE the red light. I thought Bryan did well to get the crowd on side, loudest reaction of the night.

 

I totally forgot Mysterio/Lesnar was happening, it was pretty much what I expected. It was nice to see Dominic get involved, it felt like the crowd thought Mysterio might win it at one point.

 

The men's elimination match was better than the womens match but still had some silly moments. WALTER eliminated first? Thankfully the crowd spoke for us all. Keith Lee pulled out some impressive moves on both nights, I've not seen much of him but I can see why Vince would like him :)

 

I had high hopes for the women's triple threat and it was just kinda meh. Part of that could be from me being tired watching the show, but I was pretty bored by it. It felt like it was a pretty flat ending.

 

Overall, it was OK, nothing special.

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