Welcome to the 30th anniversary of the Survivor Series PPV. This PPV has brought some memorable moments throughout the years and it’s one of WWE’s premier PPVs. We have seen the debut of the Undertaker, the infamous Montreal Screwjob, debut of Sting and the debut of the Shield. With WWE putting on an outstanding NXT special the previous night, they had to do something special for this show. The big headline coming into this match, of course was the return of GOLDBERG!!! He hasn’t been in a ring for 12 years with his last match was when he defeated Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX as they both were leaving. With that said, let’s see how things turned out at the Survivor Series from Toronto, Canada.
We started the PPV with the Women’s Elimination tag match, which featured the top 5 women on each brand. During the introduction of Nikki Bella, she was nowhere to be found and we went to the back to see she’s slumped down holding her head. There was a doctor, Daniel Bryan and Natalya attending to her and the doctor said he wouldn’t clear her because he didn’t know the extent of her injury. Natalya and Bryan decided that despite Natalya being the coach, she would take Nikki’s place. Natalya came out to a crazy pop from the Canadian crowd and the match was on. The match had everything from Nia Jax displaying her power, Naomi her athleticism and the toughness of Becky Lynch. In the end, Lynch made Nia Jax tap with the Dis-Armer, which was very surprising. It came down to her against Charlotte and Bayley, but she took advantage of Charlotte. Afterwards, Bayley tagged herself in which lead to her and Lynch staring each other down because of their history. In the end, Bayley hit her finisher to pin Lynch and capture the win for Team Raw along with Charlotte. Winners: Team RAW with Charlotte and Bayley Surviving.
Match Rating: 3.5/5- After the match, Charlotte viciously attacked Bayley, which is great because it sets up a program between these two moving forward. With Bayley getting the win for her team, it reestablishes her as a threat for Monday Night Raw.
We had the match for the Intercontinental title as the Miz defended against Sami Zayn. I think both of them are really good wrestlers, but I didn’t have much expectations for it because there was no real build to it. Despite all of that, the match was really good that featured so many nearfalls and good wrestling. In the end, in typical Miz form, he relied on his wife to help him retain the title. When Zayn had Miz in the figure four, Maryse rang the bell and Zayn thought Miz tapped and he won the title. That allowed the Miz to pick up the win over the distracted Sami Zayn. Winner and Still IC Champ: Miz
Match Rating: 3/5- The match was really good, despite the lack of build. Sometimes I head to Twitter to see people’s reaction and I’m amazed by the amount of people that says Maryse shouldn’t be with Miz. Are you serious? Having Maryse in his corner make the Miz look more like a star.
We had the tag team elimination match here and things started quickly. As the match began, New Day eliminated Fandango in under a minute, which was followed by a superkick from Jey Uso to eliminate New Day. The next two eliminations were the Hype Bros and the Shining Stars, which didn’t make me mad. Things started to pick up with crazy spots and great moves by pretty much everyone in the match. The action got crazy until Anderson and Gallows eliminated American Alpha with the Magic Killer. After that, Rhyno hit the Gore on Gallows to eliminate the Club, but a couple minutes later, the Usos eliminated Enzo and Cass. It came down to the Usos, Cesaro and Sheamus, in which they really battled each other. There were so many nearfalls between these two teams. In the end, Cesaro & Sheamus picked up the win for Team RAW over the Usos. Winners: Team RAW with Cesaro & Sheamus being the sole survivors.
Match Rating: 3.25/5- Later on, we learned that Stephanie wanted to reward Cesaro & Sheamus with a shot at the tag titles on Raw the next night.
This was the match for the cruiserweight championship and to see if that division was headed to Smackdown Live. We had Brian Kendrick defending the title against Kalisto and if Kalisto were to win, he’d take the title and division over to Smackdown. As far as the match, it started off pretty slow, but towards the end, things really picked up. With so many nearfalls and a couple of crazy spots; the crowd started to eat this match up. In the end, Baron Corbin hit the ring to attack Kalisto to end the match. No Contest
Match Rating: 2.5/5- The match was going really well towards the end, but I don’t understand having Corbin attacking Kalisto. I know they’ve been feuding, but you pull him from the elimination match for this?
We had the 5-on-5 elimination match between the top stars of Raw and Smackdown Live. I’ll be honest; this was the match I was looking forward to the most because you heard so many rumors about the outcome. If I wrote about all the action from this match, it would take more than a couple thousand words to do. With that being said, the match had everything you wanted and then some. The first elimination came after Styles attacked Ambrose, which lead to Braun Strowman hitting the running power slam. After Strowman pretty much dominated the match, he was attacked on the outside by Bray and Orton. They laid him on the announce table and Shane hit his crazy move from the top turnbuckle on to the outside announce table. As Strowman was trying to get back in the ring, someone grabbed his leg under the ring causing a count out and it turned out to be James Ellsworth. He ran Ellsworth down and threw him into some tables sitting beside the aisle at the top of the entrance. Afterwards, Owens was hit with a DQ and Jericho was eliminated shortly ended their night. After a great showing from Shane, he was eliminated by Roman Reigns with a nasty spear. Dean Ambrose made his way down to the ring when Styles was in the ring by himself and attacked him. This lead to the Shield reunion as they hit the triple powerbomb onto the Spanish announce table to a crazy pop. Seth Rollins rolled Styles into the ring and pinned him to eliminate the champ. After that, it was between Rollins, Reigns, Wyatt and Orton, but Luke Harper came out of nowhere. As Harper got onto the ring apron, he said it’s been a while and the fight was on. Rollins was eliminated when he went for a splash, but was met with an RKO. That left Reigns for the Raw team and he was holding his own for a while as it seemed like he was going to pull it out. He went to spear Bray Wyatt, but Orton moves him out of the way and took the spear and Bray hit Sister Abigail for the win. Winners: Team Smackdown Live with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton Surviving.
Match Rating: 4/5- Really good Survivor Series match
We finally have the main event that was booked as Fantasy Warfare turned real. We had the return of Goldberg after a 12-year hiatus facing Brock Lesnar. If you haven’t heard already, the match was less than two minutes. Brock Lesnar picked Goldberg up and carried him to the corner, but Goldberg pushed Lesnar down. When Lesnar got up, Goldberg hit him with a couple of spears and jackhammer for the win. Winner: Goldberg
Match Rating: 2.5/5- Some may think this is too high for this match and I understand that. For me, it got people talking, which is a good thing when it comes to the WWE because people will tune in to see what happens next. Also, I knew this match wasn’t going to be long, but I must admit I was in shocked when Goldberg won. With the social media age, people won’t be happy with anything because those are the same ones saying the WWE is predictable. On the other hand, I think the fallout will be Lesnar will be much more dangerous than usual. With the rumors of Goldberg agreeing to more dates, I would be shocked if Lesnar didn’t eventually get his revenge on Goldberg.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10- This wasn’t a horrible PPV and it wasn’t great either, but I enjoyed it. The day after, people are still talking about the finish of the Goldberg/Lesnar match and if the ratings for Raw are higher than usual, they done their job. Below are my top 3 matches from the PPV!!!
- Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown Live Singles Elimination Match
- Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown Live Women’s Elimination Match
- Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown Live Tag Team Elimination Match
What did you think about the Survivor Series PPV? What was your match of the night? What did you think about the brief Shield reunion? What did you think about the Goldberg/Lesnar match? Head to the comments section and please give some feedback on this one.
