WWE Survivor Series Review - November 18, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Team SmackDown (The Usos, The New Day, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, SAnitY, and The Colons) def. Team Raw (Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, The Revival, The Lucha House Party, The Ascension, and The B-Team) in a Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination Match

I'm very happy this match was on the Kickoff show because it really wasn' that good and the first two-thirds of it were total throwaway. Teams were getting eliminated at a rapid pace and the crowd couldn't have cared less. On the bright side, I loved the face-offs with Gable and Roode, The Revival, The Usos and New Day. They all worked well together and saved this thing from being a complete disaster. WWE knows Revival are a talented tandem and will give them opportunities to shine (such as on this show), yet they will continue to waste them for no apparent reason. The commentators later noted that SmackDown winning this match didn't count because it was on the Kickoff show, so then what was the point?

Team Raw (Nia Jax, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James and Tamina) def. Team Smackdown (Asuka, Carmella, Sonya Deville, Mandy Rose and Naomi) in a Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series Women's Elimination Match

On the Kickoff show, team captain Alexa Bliss replaced Ruby Riott and Natalya with Banks and Bayley because they "fought too much," which was a smart move and should have been the case from the get-go. Meanwhile, Jax had monster heat for legitimately injuring Becky Lynch on Raw, so at least WWE is running with that and using it to their advantage. Thus, no one should be surprised that she was the sole survivor here. The match itself was fine, but it didn't really pick up until it was Asuka taking on both Jax and Banks.

Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins def. United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (Non-title)

It's such a shame that a "dream match" of this caliber was relegated to being an afterthought as a result of receiving zero build coming into this event. All of the focus was on Rollins and Dean Ambrose and whether Ambrose would interfere, and ultimately, he did not. That would have been an easy way to protect either Rollins or Nakamura in defeat, but instead, Nakamura was beaten in clean fashion, losing even more credibility as a champion in the process. It was an enjoyable affair, yet not nearly as exciting as it should/could have been.

Raw Tag Team Champions AOP def. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bar (Non-title)

I was actually looking forward to this match because of the potential it had to be a highly physical war. It was still solid but not incredibly memorable. In fact, I'm sure the only thing people will be talking about coming out of this contest will be how Drake Maverick peed his pants when threatened by Big Show. I like Maverick in a managerial role and believe he has helped AOP in their rebuilding phase, but making him look like an absolute loser won't do him or AOP any favors. If nothing else, AOP scoring the victory was the right call.

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy def. Mustafa Ali

The Cruiserweight division still has a small stench on it (at least in the eyes of the casual audience) from when it was presented as a joke by the company, but putting the 205 Live guys on the main card of pay-per-views in addition to giving them video packages and time for their matches will hopefully work wonders. Ali and Murphy have had excellent chemistry in the past, so the fact they contested the best bout of the night up to this point was hardly a shocker. It could have been even better had it lasted longer, but I was just happy the crowd was into the action and gave these guys the reaction they deserved.

Team Raw (Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, Dolph Ziggler and Finn Balor) def. Team Smackdown (The Miz, Shane McMahon, Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe) in a Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series men's Elimination Match

Needless to say, this was easily the strongest of the elimination matches on this show. Joe getting taken out quickly was a bit of a bummer, especially considering how over he was with his hometown crowd. Thankfully, the rest of the match was pretty fun and it was cool to see so many different face-offs we won't normally get (Balor vs. Mysterio, Hardy vs. Strowman, etc). Raw dominating in the second half killed my interest in it, however, since Raw had already won every other match (aside from the Kickoff) prior to this. The "best in the world" Shane being the last man standing for his team was annoying as well given literally any one else on his SmackDown squad would have been a better fit for that role. I've never understood why WWE positions him like the biggest babyface in the world when he isn't an active member of the roster.

Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey def. Charlotte Flair by Disqualification (Non-title)

The crowd didn't really come alive for this clash until Charlotte hit Rousey with an awesome-looking spear. Before that, though, they say on their hands and I couldn't blame them one bit since this was added to the card only a few days ago (not to mention Rousey vs. Becky Lynch was the real main event of this show before Lynch got hurt). Once they picked up the pace, it turned into an entertaining encounter with plenty of drama and suspense. Charlotte getting herself disqualified was an interesting twist, but I'm in full favor of it because it ensured neither woman had to lose and also seemingly turned Charlotte heel. She plays that part to perfection, and if Lynch is going to be on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, then Charlotte filling that void in the meantime is great. Obviously, we haven't seen the last of Rousey vs. Charlotte, but I maintain that Rousey vs. Lynch should be closing out WrestleMania 35 in the spring.

Universal Champion Brock Lesnar def. WWE Champion Daniel Bryan (Non-title)

First and foremost, it is so apparent that Bryan is infinitely more comfortable as a heel than he was as a babyface these past couple of months. As soon as he made his entrance, he made it clear he loved being that smug prick and channeling that inner aggression of his. I feared for the worst when this started and Lesnar was on offense for a while, which the crowd was not thrilled with in the slightest. When Bryan began battling back, the crowd rallied behind him big time and popped huge for some of the nearfalls. Everyone had to know Bryan wasn't winning, but at least they managed to make a handful of people believe that could happen if only for a few moments. WWE could have had Lesnar simply squash Bryan here, but it turned into a competitive contest down the stretch that I thoroughly enjoyed. Bryan didn't lose much in defeat, similar to AJ Styles last year. This was everything I would have wanted from these two.

Overall Show

I honestly don't know how to feel about this show. The Raw vs. SmackDown Live rivalry doesn't and has never done anything for me. Although the brand warfare stuff means nothing, Raw squashing SmackDown in what was a clean sweep (because the Kickoff never happened, apparently) is sad and I doubt they have actual plans in mind for the blue brand going forward to establish it as equal to Raw. From an in-ring standpoint, the last final two matches were above-average. Everything else was either good or mediocre, so it's difficult for me to recommend this show. In other words, it was along the same lines as every other installment of Survivor Series in recent memory,