The 2017 Survivor Series pay-per-view is scheduled for this upcoming Sunday night and it appears as though the card has been finalized outside of any last-minute additions, which means it’s time for another look at the superstars on the roster who have been skipped over.
For whatever reason, these men and women from the brand weren’t deemed important enough to find a spot for at the event—at least as far as it’s currently being advertised. Some of those omissions might be justified, while others below are a bit more questionable. Let’s take a look at who will be sitting this show out.
Kane
Conspicuous by his absence is The Big Red Machine, as he’s been feuding with Roman Reigns and the rest of The Shield as well as Braun Strowman simultaneously.
I had thought that this would mean we’d get a separate match wherein Kane would face Reigns, as that seemed to be the direction WWE wanted to go in before TLC, but the Strowman feud got in the way and lo and behold, Reigns is sticking with The Shield in separation from Kane while Strowman is on Team Raw.
My guess is we’ll see Kane make an appearance to interfere in the elimination match, dragging Strowman away from the action and getting him counted out so he can be eliminated without taking an actual pinfall loss.
That may not happen, though, and as far as the official advertisements are concerned, Kane isn’t scheduled to be on the card.
Jason Jordan
In one of what has to be 40 changes WWE has made to this card—which is incredibly annoying for people like myself who have to keep editing their articles over and over again—Jason Jordan is now out of Team Raw and written off the card with a fake injury due to Bray Wyatt’s attack on Monday night.
To be perfectly honest, if his replacement hadn’t been someone of the caliber of Triple H, I would have considered this a downgrade for the card, which is certainly not the general mindset, as most people are against Jordan getting any kind of push.
I was interested, though, and I can’t help but feel like Jordan could have had a good showing or cemented a heel turn. Now, he’s not even going to be doing anything unless he is shown backstage trying to hype up Angle or something like that.
Bray Wyatt
Getting sick is nothing to be happy about, but if you’re someone like me who was tired of the Bray Wyatt and Finn Balor feud, maybe you look at Wyatt’s TLC departure as a blessing in disguise.
Instead of just coming back when he was ready—assuming he is over being ill, since JoJo and Bo Dallas have returned—WWE opted to just keep him off television, only bringing him back this week to face Jason Jordan.
This may be just to distance him from that feud so we don’t have to remember that it didn’t have a proper conclusion, or, alternatively, it could be a situation similar to what I just said could happen with Kane and Braun Strowman.
With the way things went down with Jordan, though, there’s less of a chance Sister Abigail picks up where he/she left off with Finn Balor and more of a chance that Wyatt continuing a feud with Jordan following Survivor Series.
Elias
Speaking of Jordan, while Elias’s guitar on a pole match wasn’t officially a qualifying match, it certainly felt like such, as shortly after his victory, Jordan was awarded the final spot on Team Raw.
This means Elias will have nobody to feud with to give him a random spot on the card and the best that his fans can hope for is a musical performance as an interlude during the event or as a featured random addition to the pre-show.
This isn’t a scenario Elias is not used to, as this is familiar territory for him when there’s nothing else lined up, even though there’s a chance this card could be stacked enough to bypass having enough time for him to serenade Houston.
From the Women’s Division
Even losing Summer Rae and Emma did nothing to help Dana Brooke’s chances of being on Team Raw, as there were still more than five women available to take a spot over her and she’s been pretty much a non-entity for quite some time.
Mickie James had a bit of a push recently with her mini-feud against Alexa Bliss, but she, too, has been pushed aside once more, although it’s understandable if she has other commitments (ie, being a mom is the most important thing she can possibly do, particularly in comparison to being a sacrificial lamb for Survivor Series) and the younger talent is always going to be pushed more, so that makes sense.
At least James and Brooke were given the opportunity to earn a spot on Team Raw, which Bayley snatched away from them.
When it comes to Paige, who is still technically part of the Raw roster even though she hasn’t appeared in over a year, her social media accounts point to an impending return, but until that actually happens, she’s an expected absentee per usual.
From the Tag Team Division
For the most part, the wrestlers missing from Survivor Series who are in the tag team division are out of the mix due to a combination of injuries and just not being all that important overall.
Last year, with the tag teams forming a super-team, there was more of a shot for people like Titus Worldwide and Heath Slater and Rhyno to get on the card, but this time around, that’s a no-go. Given how the one duo is more of a midcarder and his manager and the other one is a comedy act, that’s to be expected.
The Miztourage won’t officially have a match on the card, but they will be accompanying The Miz to the ring for his match against Baron Corbin, so that’s half-credit, which is more than we can say about The Good Brothers, who are continually put on the backburner for some reason.
If I were Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, I’d be begging and pleading to be traded over to SmackDown as soon as possible unless WWE is ever willing to pull the trigger on The Balor Club, because on their own, it doesn’t seem like Gallows and Anderson are ever prioritized, unfortunately.
Then, there are The Revival and The Hardy Boyz, who are both down one member due to injuries. Jeff Hardy and Scott Dawson aren’t likely to be back any time soon, so Matt Hardy and Dash Wilder have had to ride the singles scene in the meantime.
From the Cruiserweight Division
With Enzo Amore defending the Cruiserweight Championship against Kalisto, it seems pretty certain that we won’t be seeing any other members of the 205 Live crew compete at this event.
For those keeping track of who just exactly comprise that roster, the list is as follows: Akira Tozawa, Ariya Daivari, The Brian Kendrick, Cedric Alexander, Drew Gulak, Gentleman Jack Gallagher, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, Mustafa Ali, Neville (technically), Noam Dar, Rich Swann, TJP and Tony Nese.
That’s a long list of names, but those guys are almost always on the list of superstars missing from an event as there just isn’t enough room to accommodate more than one cruiserweight match on pay-per-views unless WWE is struggling to fill the card like what happened at TLC.
The Leftovers:
And then there were five. You may have seen Curt Hawkins and Goldust, maybe even R-Truth, hanging out in the backstage brawls when SmackDown went #undersiege and whatnot, but that’s it. If you’re fond of them, you’re going to have to tune in to Main Event to watch them wrestle as they almost never show up on the actual Raw show anymore.
On the other hand, Big Cass and Big Show have more of an excuse, as they are both on the injured list and have been for some time. If they weren’t dealing with that and were healthy enough to participate, one would have to assume at least Big Cass would be in the running to be on Team Raw, even if he were someone who would lose a qualifying match (or an equivalent to it, like Elias) and Big Show still might have sat this out just to give his spot to a younger guy.
Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
