WWE Survivor Series Review - November 21, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kickoff Show: Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura def. United States Champion Damian Priest by Disqualification (Non-Title)

The build for this was nearly nonexistent, so while I was initially disappointed this got put on the pre-show, I can't say I'm too surprised thinking about it now. Priest hasn't even been on Raw the last few weeks. They had a quality contest and I was really liking where it was going up until Priest got himself disqualified by hitting Nakamura with Rick Boogs' guitar. I know he's been "snapping" lately, but this felt like a full-blown heel turn and he got booed for it. He was gradually getting over as a babyface, so why would you turn him heel? That makes no sense to me.

Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch def. SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair (Non-Title)

You could feel the legitimate animosity between these two from the moment the bell rang. No, I don't think they were "shooting" on each other at any point, but they definitely made people believe they were and left them guessing and that's all that mattered. This was a strong opener with the crowd eating up all that they did. Lynch vs. Flair has been done to death over the years, but they did a nice job of getting people invested again. I just wasn't a fan of the finish. I'm not shocked they wanted to protect Flair in defeat, but the way it was done came out of nowhere. If it wasn't for that, this easily could have served as the main event.

Team Raw (Seth Rollins, Austin Theory, Finn Balor, Bobby Lashley and Kevin Owens) def. Team SmackDown (Jeff Hardy, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, King Woods and Happy Corbin) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination Match

Whoever helped lay this match out deserves a raise. I wasn't expecting it to come down to who it did, so that was a pleasant surprise. Everyone had their time to shine and there was plenty of top-notch action. I especially liked that Hardy was the last man standing for his team before Rollins eliminated him. Needless to say, the crowd was super behind Hardy the entire time. Hopefully that means he'll be in line for a feud with Roman Reigns over the Universal Championship sooner rather than later.

Omos Won the Dual-Branded 25-Man Battle Royal

This also served as 25-year celebration of The Rock's Survivor Series debut, hence why there were 25 participants. Then again, there probably would have been 25 people anyway because I feel like we get these dual-branded Battle Royals at Survivor Series every year, but I digress. I assumed there was a reason why this was bumped from the Kickoff to the main card, but then I realized it was likely because Nakamura vs. Priest had that dumb disqualification finish. This was a fairly basic Battle Royal used to showcase Omos as a monster. I realize AJ Styles is helping elevate him, but he hasn't felt this unimportant in almost a decade. His talents are being criminally wasted right now.

Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro def. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Non-Title)

This is another match I wish got more build beyond what we got last Monday on Raw because these are the two top teams in WWE today. RK-Bro continue to a blast and The Usos never cease to bring it. It was standard affair early on, but the second half was pretty good. I'm sure it could have been better with more time, though. That RKO at the end looked fantastic. Congrats to Orton for officially having more matches on WWE pay-per-view than anyone else in history.

​Team Raw (Bianca Belair, WWE Women's Tag Team Champion, Liv Morgan, Queen Zelina and Carmella) def. Team SmackDown (Shotzi, Shayna Baszler, Natalya, Sasha Banks and Toni Storm) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination Match

I know this wasn't the most exciting outing early on, that there weren't any stakes, and that it wasn't the smoothest encounter at certain points, but the crowd starting up a wave and chanting "CM Punk" was absolutely unnecessary. I understand if it's a match you don't care about, but these women didn't deserve that, and it wasn't like the match sucked or anything. Rather, it was a case of the crowd wanting to make it about themselves per usual. I was in the building and I was frustrated watching it. The ladies eventually recovered and had a decent match, but it was already late and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about this at all. Belair has lost quite a bit in recent months, so I actually had no problem with her being the sole survivor for her team.

Universal Champion Roman Reigns def. WWE Champion Big E (Non-Title)

In addition to the opener, this was the only other match I was really hyped for coming into this event because there's been some subtle build for it in recent months. It definitely started out slow and uninteresting, but it was entertaining once they picked up the pace and the crowd seemed to wake up at that point. Big E gave it a great effort, but there was no reason for Reigns to lose here. I also appreciated that there was no outside interference and that Reigns won clean. I understand protecting your champions, but not every match on this show should have had a non-finish like with Priest vs. Nakamura and Lynch vs. Flair. My only nitpick is that fans were waiting for something to happen afterward or for someone to show up (a la The Rock), but no such luck. It felt like a flat ending to the show, but the match itself delivered I thought. For those keeping score at home, the Universal Champion has now beaten the WWE Champion four years straight at Survivor Series.

Overall Show

Different year, same stuff as far as the brand warfare not meaning anything. I enjoyed my experience at the show (my first Survivor Series actually), but it was exactly what I expected: solid from an in-ring standpoint but ultimately meaningless in the long run. It will be as if the event never happened come Monday. This was never advertised as a Rock tribute show, but it certainly felt like there was a strong chance he'd show up at the end after all the teases. Instead, we were left with a stupid egg that will apparently carry over into Raw. That says it all about the state of WWE programming at the moment I think. On top of all that, SmackDown was made to look inferior to Raw yet again at Survivor Series. How many years can they tell the same damn story? This wasn't a terrible pay-per-view by any means and I liked most of the matches, but if you couldn't catch it live, you didn't miss much.

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