Each Survivor Series team is only as good as the sum of its parts. When Raw or SmackDown builds a team with no cracks, all the Superstars have to do is get along and victory is almost guaranteed.
But it is exceedingly rare all five Superstars make it to the end of their match, as there are always weaknesses to be exploited.
Sometimes, one person’s ego gets in the way of teamwork. Bad leadership could cause the whole team to unravel. Often, it’s just a matter of one Superstar not being up to par against the opposing forces.
Which Superstars appear to be the biggest hindrances of their teams this year?
Let’s look at the men and women of Team Raw and SmackDown for WWE Survivor Series 2021 and expose the weak links that may lead to that group’s downfall.
WOMEN’S RAW TEAM
Bianca Belair, Carmella, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley and Queen Zelina Vega
Two names stand out as the anchors of this team in Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. Both were the winner and runner-up of this year’s Royal Rumble and went on to win their brand’s championships at WrestleMania. In any other scenario, one of them would be the captain of the other team if they were on the opposite brand, so it’s good for Raw that they’re on the same team.
The same can’t quite be said about the other three women, unfortunately.
Carmella may be one of the most beautiful women in the company and a former champion, but she’s far from a “strong” competitor. Most of her matches are won by interference or cheating, which is harder to do in this sort of environment.
Liv Morgan has a terrible track record. Despite her popularity, every time it seems WWE is going to push her, she’s back to losing within three weeks or so. That is, if she starts winning at all to begin with.
A few weeks ago, Zelina Vega would have been the obvious pick for the absolute weakest link. She had an even worse win-loss record than the other two up until winning the Queen’s Crown tournament. Since then, she’s been getting a much more solid push, which takes her out of the running of being the weakest link.
Between Carmella and Morgan, it’s kind of a toss-up. Carmella can get in her own way and be wrapped up in her ego and just sacrifice a spot for her team, but Morgan, even if she’s trying her hardest, is simply not likely to survive until the end.
Ultimately, since underdogs are better to track in this situation, I’ll give Morgan a slight edge to possibly last longer.
Weak Link = Carmella (with Morgan nipping at her heels)
WOMEN’S SMACKDOWN TEAM
Aliyah, Natalya, Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler and Shotzi Blackheart
Shayna Baszler keeps coming up short with the big matches, but she’s still an absolute beast. If anyone is able to tear through the competition and decimate Team Raw, it’ll be The Queen of Spades.
Sasha Banks is the captain and rock solid. There’s no need to worry about her being a weak link. If that happens, it’ll be because WWE found it interesting to be shocking, rather than for it to be a reflection of her value.
Shotzi’s fresh with this shift in her character. Hopefully, that means WWE is willing to put some attention on her, rather than that they’re gearing up to release her like they’ve done with lots of recently pushed people in the past two years. That sounds ridiculous, but talk to Bronson Reed about winning championships and then getting fired, or B-Fab for finally wrestling, getting called up to the main roster, debuting and then being nixed. You never really know.
Natalya is perpetually whatever WWE needs her to be. Sometimes, she’s a staple of the division and a reliable championship contender. Other times, the best she can do is fart and run away embarrassed. My guess is she’ll be the fourth most important person on this team, but still not the weakest link.
That goes to Aliyah. It sounds harsh, considering she hasn’t had any time to make an impression on SmackDown, but this is based on her time in NXT. In the weeks leading up to Survivor Series, there’s almost no way she can achieve anything successful enough to counterbalance the years of being booked poorly on the black and gold brand. She was always more of an enhancement talent than the featured star and I just don’t have a ton of faith she’ll be holding down the fort for Team SmackDown. Hopefully, I’m wrong, but not at the expense of anyone else.
Weak Link = Aliyah
MEN’S RAW TEAM
Dominik Mysterio, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins
One of these things is not like the other and doesn’t belong by any means. Raw could have had AJ Styles, Austin Theory, Bobby Lashley, Edge or some others, but they went with Dominik Mysterio? How are we supposed to believe representatives from the red brand thought he would be the most advantageous fifth person on this squad?
Look at the rest. Each of them has won a world title at least once, but multiple times in the cases of Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins, who also won Royal Rumbles and many other accolades. Finn Balor’s got a list of championships to his name. Kevin Owens checked off numerous things.
Dominik, though, has won the tag team titles alongside his father and lost them several weeks later with an unceremonious reign, followed by a series of losses. For the past few months, all he’s done is come up short and even cost his father some wins. That’s a textbook weak link.
Weak Link = Dominik Mysterio
MEN’S SMACKDOWN TEAM
Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, King Xavier Woods and Sami Zayn
Drew McIntyre is going to lead this team to victory even if he has to Claymore each member of Team Raw into oblivion himself. He’s the biggest and overall most successful of this bunch.
Jeff Hardy’s had his fair share of success, too, though. While the momentum isn’t as much on his side for him to be the featured player, he’s someone who should be able to hold his own rather well. Then again, WWE does have a tendency to take someone like him and saddle him with a quick loss for seemingly no reason other than to speed things up.
King Woods is on a high note. I don’t think WWE is going to job him out entirely and make him look like a fool. By no means do I expect him to be a sole survivor (that article still to come), but I think he’ll be booked well enough to not appear as a weak link.
Happy Corbin could always be the sacrificial lamb. However, WWE shifted him from the sad sack character to someone who is more confident. In order to keep that going, he’ll probably revert back to his more capable ways. Corbin’s had a surprising amount of good luck despite not winning some of the biggest matches. I think he’ll score an elimination.
Sami Zayn, though, could very well be someone who gets eliminated in the first few seconds after being wrapped up in some kind of distraction. I wouldn’t be shocked at all if they view him as the comedic “oh my god, someone is already down on Team SmackDown this fast!” type of elimination as a shocker.
Weak Link = Sami Zayn
What is your assessment of these teams? Drop your thoughts of weak links and anchor teammates in the comments below!
