With WWE Survivor Series 2019 concluded, it’s time to look back on what happened and assess the damage, praise the positives and talk about what went down.
Per usual, at the end of this post, you’ll see my regular Smack Talk Pay-Per-Viewpoint post-show podcast, which reviews the event in more detail, but for those who want a more condensed version of my thoughts, I present to you my “quicker than a hiccup” reaction to the different parts of the evening:
Cross-Branded Battle Royal
I’m glad they added this to the card. It’s interesting to see which teams weren’t taking part in this from the three different brands. I guess we really can write off The Ascension and The Colons as they haven’t done anything in months and weren’t even part of the draft. Yeesh.
I’m surprised Ziggler and Roode won. I thought this was The Street Profits winning, for sure. Obviously, I was wrong. To be honest, I kind of wish Heavy Machinery would have won it for SmackDown instead if it had to go to team blue.
NXT Cruiserweight Championship Triple Threat Match: Lio Rush (c) vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Kalisto
Like many matches from tonight, I don’t remember any real specific details about this. I do remember thinking that it was good enough for a pre-show, but not something that I think will have won any fans over to 205 Live (especially since Tozawa and Kalisto won’t even be appearing there). But hey, at least they acknowledged the cruiserweight title after it had to sit out of TakeOver, right? Overall, this was a plus.
Triple Threat Match: The Viking Raiders vs. The Undisputed ERA vs. The New Day
This was good, but not as good as I was hoping it would be. I’ll echo that statement again later. I don’t at all understand how those helmets are supposed to represent vikings, that’s for sure. One of them was like a gimp mask. Whatever.
Something else I’ll say later is that I think this match would’ve been better not as a triple threat, but with any combination of the two teams. We know TVR and TUE can tear it up, and I think either of those teams against The New Day would do the same. As a three-way, it was hard to balance everything. But I still enjoyed it.
Women’s Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Triple Threat Match
This was my favorite match of the night. I’m not fond of how Candice LeRae and Io Shirai were booked, but I was digging pretty much everything else.
Rhea Ripley once again looks like a goddamn star that they’re strapping a rocket to, and that’s fun to see. I liked how everyone had a few moments to shine, rather than anyone being jobbed out too quickly or made to be a fool. Even Dana Brooke had her moments and they could’ve easily had her be some fast elimination or something.
This was mostly how I’d like to see Survivor Series go down, where it actually feels like there is competition going on with three teams that want to win and can all legitimately pull it out.
Triple Threat Match: AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Like the tag team triple threat, this wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be, but it was still enjoyable. Nakamura’s kick off the ropes was a dangerous looking flub. Ouch.
I’m glad Strong won. I’d have been cool with any of them winning, but I do feel like Strong doesn’t often get to be the featured act in anything and is the setup guy for Cole. This undid some of that damage and I’d love to see Styles vs. Strong and Strong vs. Nakamura another time.
NXT Championship Match: Adam Cole (c) vs. Pete Dunne
Good match, as expected. It took some time to really get started, but once it did, they had the audience captivated.
Major credit needs to be given to Adam Cole for the amount of punishment he’s gone through over the past bunch of weeks. This guy’s got to be beaten up and needs and deserves some downtime. Let’s make this week’s NXT a show that features some others so that he doesn’t have to take some more pain.
Universal Championship Match: Bray Wyatt (c) vs. Daniel Bryan
This match did nothing for me. I didn’t enjoy pretty much any of it, to be honest. In particular, I hate the red lights, and I really wish they’d just stop that whole thing. More and more, I’m thinking that Bray Wyatt in general just doesn’t do it for me and this whole Fiend thing has already peaked, which doesn’t give me a lot of hope for my enjoyment level for the next six months.
Men’s Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Triple Threat Match
There were problems in this match, that’s for sure. I hate that they did the whole stupid count out thing with Braun Strowman, which makes no sense. Granted, I prefer a count-out to a pinfall for the guy, but at no other point in time were counts even made, so that was ridiculous. WALTER being eliminated so fast was lame and did him no favors. They could have booked both of those much better.
But there were lots of great moments here. I enjoyed the RKO to Matt Riddle after the elimination, for instance. I’m also a big fan of Keith Lee and I loved how much they put him over, even in coming up short.
I don’t think I would have gone with Roman Reigns winning this for Team SmackDown, but overall, this was a win.
WWE Championship No Holds Barred Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Rey Mysterio
Normally, I hate Brock Lesnar matches. This, however, was a lot of fun! Check out the podcast for more elaboration on all this, but suffice it to say, this was logical and funny.
Triple Threat Match: Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Bayley
I feel like if I went back and watched this match again, I’d be let down, but while doing live coverage on multiple things and being a little distracted, this was fine. I’m definitely underwhelmed about the finish, though. I’m good with Baszler winning and making Bayley tap out, but there was no need for Becky to have her post-match pose situation going on. Something else should have happened, like an appearance from Ronda Rousey, to make this go off with a bang instead of just sort of ending.
For more opinions on the show as a whole, check out the latest edition of the Smark Out Moment wrestling podcast SMACK TALK as the panel reviews Survivor Series with our immediate reactions following the event before the dust has fully settled.
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