What a ppv. Excellent action from top to bottom, aside of course from the shit show that was the main event. but more about that later, let’s get to reviewing this ppv.
First of all, two big guys were left off this ppv completely. Dolph Ziggler, Rusev. Both have been featured prominently for a while now but there wasn’t a spot for either guy on the card, not even on the ppv. Common sense dictated that both would face each other in a Smackdown vs Raw match, since Ziggler is the former IC champ and Rusev lost out to Sami Zayn for a shot to face the IC champ at the ppv. So a match between these two would have made a lot of sense, as a sort of exhibition Smackdown vs Raw match on the pre-show, instead of Kane vs Harper, or even instead of the cruiserweight match. Strange that both were left off.
The pre show was what it was, just a couple of exhibition matches really to warm up the card. good action from the cruiserweights again. Harper vs Kane has a little history I guess since Kane has been semi-involved in the whole Wyatt/Orton storyline. Again, just a match they threw together to get the crowd warmed up. Another note on the pre-show; make sure you go back and watch the social Media Lounge segment with Owens and Jericho. It’s one of the most hilarious segments I’ve seen in a while. Tom Phillips could barely keep a straight face. Absolute gold from two of the top guys in the business today.
The 5 on 5 womens match was good. I was surprised to see Raw pick up the win, and I’m also very surprised that they had Nia Jax tap out. Having her get pinned after 2 or 3 finishers would have been plausible, but tapping out? That makes her look a little weak. I’d have kept her unpinned or un-submitted, though with Braun Strowman in a similar position I guess they couldn’t do the same with both guys, and Strowman is more of a priority in that sense I guess. But I’d have preferred a pin as opposed to a tap out from Jax. I was also surprised that Sasha Banks had a pretty weak showing. It seems to me that she’s being put on the back burner a bit. Her feud with Charlotte has been ongoing for a while now, and with Bayley being the sole survivor with Charlotte, then I think Bayley is being groomed as the next person to be taking on Charlotte. Sasha has a shot at the title on next week’s Raw, but I have a feeling that it’ll be the last time we see her fight for the title for now. They’ve been teasing a feud between Banks and Jax, so that could be an interesting one.
The Miz vs Sami Zayn was a great match. Classic heel vs face match. There was some back and forth going on in my head as to who would win this, but in hindsight, Miz retaining makes sense. Raw has the US title (though I wish WWE would give up on desperately trying to shove Reigns in the main event scene and keep him in the mid card with that title being on him) so it makes sense for Smackdown to keep a true mid card title, even if there was the possibility of the cruiserweight title coming across to the blue brand later. The way Miz won was interesting and different too, with Maryse ringing the ring bell while Zayn had the figure 4 slapped on to make him think he’d won. Zayn losing also will further his character a little on Raw, where Stephanie has been on his case calling him a weak link and so on.
The Tag Team Survivor Series match was, as predicted, a bit of a clusterfuck. It wasn’t so much that it was a complete write off (which could easily have happened) but I did notice that they worked on eliminating a couple of teams before they did the obligatory “get everyone in the ring and then get the top guys to clear the ring” spot. I was hugely surprised to see The New Day eliminated so quickly. It did give the match a big shock factor, which was welcomed by myself, but still, shock move. Raw again emerged victorious here again, so they were already 2-0 up here (2-1 if you include the Zayn vs Miz match). It was intriguing to see Sheamus and Cesaro, a makeshift tag team, as the sole survivors here. I still think that their team is still a short term thing though.
The cruiserweight championship match was a great showing from both guys. THE Brian Kendrick has been great since winning the title. I feel that people care more about the title with him as the champion after things in regards to the division and the title were a bit ‘meh’ with TJ Perkins, which is a shame since I felt that he would do a good job as the inaugural champion. Kendrick is doing great at resurrecting things with that though. Kalisto had an excellent showing here too, his first match beck since his injury and he hadn’t missed a step, and in fact, this is one of the best matches, if not the best, that he’s had on the main roster in my opinion. That spanish flea spot from the apron was sick. This match is a clear sign that Kalisto should be part of the cruiserweight division and I really hope that WWE trade him to Raw or at least feature him on ‘205 Live’. It does appear though that he’s going to be continuing his feud with Baron Corbin, after he caused the DQ here, which is a shame since that feud was boring as hell before Kalisto’s injury. I think it makes sense for the cruiserweight title to stay on Raw since that show has more time to showcase the division, but it does put a lot of strain on the cruiserweight talents to travel to Raw, and then travel to Smackdown the next day for ‘205 Live’.
The main 5 on 5 Survivor Series match was excellent. Absolutely great top to bottom. They held off for an age before eliminating anybody, with the first elimination not coming until 16 minutes in, which I thought was great given the people involved here. This match lasted nearly a whole hour which is a huge credit to those involved.
Dean Ambrose was the first eliminated, which to some may be surprising, but someone had to go out first, and because it happened well into the match then it wasn’t a huge deal. Strowman was out next but it was another 5 minutes until that happened. Great showing from the big man, they made him look unstoppable and it took a hell of a lot to keep him out for the count-out. Nice to see that Orton’s terrible track record with announce tables continnues with the German announce table refusing to break when he hit the RKO on Strowman. Kudos to Shane for the crazy leap of faith through the table. Even that wasn’t enough to keep Strowman out though as he would have beat the 10 count if it wasn’t for James Ellsworth. He ends up being the deciding factor here. I hope that’s the last we see of him, though I doubt it given that he’s signed a full time contract this past week. Great showing from Strowman though and he kills Ellsworth after the match too which was great. The spot with Owens getting DQ’ed after using the List of Jericho was pretty great, and then Jericho’s reaction was priceless, which led to his elimination by Orton.
Beautiful Superplex from Orton to Rollins. Orton does that move better than anyone IMO,makes sense given his dad made it famous. The coast to coast countered into a spear. Wow. That was BRUTAL. Can’t remember if it was Cole of JBL who said it, but he was right in saying that’s one of the most brutal spears I’ve ever seen. Reigns seemed to drive his shoulder into the chin of McMahon and that would have whiplashed his head onto the mat then as they hit the ground. Shane looked completely out of it and Reigns didn’t look too great either. Savage spot but kudos to both guys for going for it. Both are reportedly ok though they think Shane may be concussed, which isn’t at all surprising. Just hope it’s not a serious one. Rollins then comes in lie a house on fire, love when he does that superplex rolled into a falcon arrow spot.
Dean Ambrose going crazy and beating up Styles was surprising. And then, we got what we’ve been asking for pretty much since the day they split up. A Shield reunion. Rollins and Reigns clear away the security holding back Ambrose and then a big time triple powerbomb to send Styles through the Spanish announce table.I guess it was inevitable that we’d see Luke Harper after this, though it’s strange how there was about 10 referees and security people coming out to try and get Dean Ambrose away, yet nobody came out to stop Harper. Rollins does most of the work to fend all 3 guys off after Harper takes out Reigns, then we get the obligatory RKO out of nowhere as Rollins was going for the frog splash. Beautiful spot again. It was always going to be Reigns as the last man I guess. The crowd were firmly behind Smackdown at this point. Funny how there were “Roman’s Sleeping” and “Wake up Roman” chants going on when Rollins was blitzing it earlier. Anyway, Orton eventually shoves Wyatt out of the way to save him from a spear, taking the hit for him, and then Wyatt nails Reigns with Sister Abigail to give Smackdown a big win, much to the crowds delight.
I find it hilarious how JBL still thinks he’s on Raw as he screamed “RAW WINS! RAW WINS!” after the pin was counted, only for David Otunga out of everyone to do his best to cover it up. You even catch a glimpse of Corey Graves facepalming in the background after this gaffe! then after a long pause JBL backtracks and says “Raw wins is what everyone wanted to say… it didn’t happen!”. What a mess. Not the first time since the brand split that JBL has dropped clangers like this, thinking he’s still a Raw announcer. Anyway, this leaves the Smackdown vs Raw matches as 2-1 to Raw if you just include the traditional elimination matches, but iff you include the cruiserweight match and the IC title match, whcih were technically Smackdown vs Raw matches and had things on the line for both brands, then it was 3-2 to Smackdown. So either way, Raw won this overall.
Now, onto the main event. There’s not much to say here because, well, there wasn’t a match. It was a squash. The match in total lasted 1:26 seconds. Even CM Punk lasted longer in his UFC match. It was a complete and utter joke. 2 spears, one jack hammer and it was over. Brock didn’t even get one move in. Not a single one, save from driving Goldberg into the corner. For all the hype we got for this match this was a huge, huge disappointment. The commentators were hyping the shit out of the match, calling it a “megamatch” and “match of the century” and all this crap, and then we got what we got. Very, very disappointing. It also pissed me off to no end how they’ve been constantly referring to Goldberg as “The Icon”. Have they already forgotten about Sting? Sure looks like it. The ppv ended about 30 minutes early from what I understand, so was this match supposed to be longer I wonder?
I’m don’t have that much of a gripe with Goldberg winning this match, though IMO it was the wrong call, but my main gripe is with the length of the match. What WWE expect us to believe after this is that Goldberg, who’s a 50 year old man, is so dominant that he can beat the guy who has spent the last year and a half destroying the company’s top stars; John Cena, The Undertaker, Randy Orton, Big Show, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose. We’re expected to believe that Goldberg is better than all these guys, even at the age of 50. That to me is a complete joke. They’ve spent so long building Brock Lesnar up to be this unstoppable monster, this unbeatable machine, and the pay off they’ve got at the end of it is that they’ve had him put over a 50 year old has been in a squash match. Absolute nonsense. They could have used Lesnar to put over a more current star that could have used that rub and push. Someone like AJ Styles, Kevin Owens or Braun Strowman.
With Goldberg winning this match, there isn’t even any incentive for a rematch because Goldberg’s already 2-0 against Lesnar now, tough there are reports that WWE are considering a rematch, possibly for Wrestlemania. It would be a pointless match IMo, no matter who wins it. If Goldberg wins then he’s 3-0 and Lesnar looks like a proper chump, or Lesnar wins but Goldberg still has the last laugh because he’s still one up on Lesnar. Goldberg was on Raw last night though and said that he does have another title run left in him and that he’s entering the Royal Rumble match. So Lesnar wasn’t last after all…
If I’m taking any positive from this, it’s that at least Lesnar’s next big match won’t be as predictable. While it’s been great to see Lesnar blitz through guys you expected to be able to give him a decent challenge, his matches had become stale and predictable. Bell rings, 50 suplexes later, couple of F5’s and he gets the 1, 2, 3. He’s facing Rusev at a live event in December, and though I expect that match will be another Lesnar destroys job, his next ppv match I expect will be more competitive. We could even see him face off against Goldberg in the Royal Rumble perhaps.
Despite the shit show that was the main event, the rest of this ppv was top notch. WWE delivered big time here for me. Looking forward to Smackdown’s TLC ppv, Raw’s Roadblock and then we’re on the road to Wrestlemania!
Until next time, stay smooth!
T_T
