The NXT crew will be more than busy dealing with NXT TakeOver: Toronto the day before Survivor Series, but since there’s a turf war going on between Raw and SmackDown, what if the yellow brand got in the mix as well to make this a triple threat? Who would end up on the teams to represent NXT?
NXT Men’s Survivor Series Team
Raw has the Universal Champion Kevin Owens, SmackDown has the World Champion AJ Styles, so by default, NXT’s team captain would definitely be Shinsuke Nakamura, who would be on the team regardless of whether he was holding the NXT Championship at the moment or not.
If they weren’t injured, I would say Hideo Itami and Austin Aries should be included, but they need to be taken out of the running. I’d also opt to ignore everybody who isn’t important enough like Oney Lorcan, Buddy Murphy, Wesley Blake, Noah Potjes, Patrick Clark, Steve Cutler and so forth. Some of them have bright futures, but this isn’t their time to shine.
Eric Young is a big enough name to be put on the team, but I think there are bigger fish to fry and with only four other spots, he has to take a backseat. The same applies to Elias Samson.
Three of those four remaining spots should go to Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode and Tye Dillinger, who I think is massively underrated and passed over too many times.
The question then is who gets the final spot: Andrade “Cien” Almas or No Way Jose?
While I think Almas can be argued as the better wrestler, it wouldn’t hurt to have No Way Jose’s entrance for the pure spectacle of it to keep the energy up. You could even work an angle where Jose beats Almas to get the spot and during the match, Almas interferes to get him eliminated out of spite. That way, you incorporate both of them without needing to make one of them an unofficial 6th teammate like they’re doing with Natalya.
Final Team = Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, Tye Dillinger and No Way Jose
NXT Women’s Survivor Series Team
Asuka is clearly the team captain and I would argue that she is the easy choice for the sole survivor on her squad—or, if they lost to Raw or SmackDown, she’d be the last one eliminated.
Billie Kay and Peyton Royce are the two top heels, so they definitely need to be added into there.
Liv Morgan has been gaining a lot of attention lately, moving up from a supplemental wrestler to one of the most prominently featured women. The same can be said for Aliyah, but I’d argue that a better choice for the last person on the team wouldn’t be her, nor would it be Nikki Cross, as you wouldn’t want someone crazy on your crew. Instead, the last spot should go to Ember Moon, who is being slowly but surely set up to be the one to dethrone Asuka somewhere down the line, possibly in Orlando.
Final Team = Asuka, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Liv Morgan and Ember Moon
NXT Tag Team Survivor Series Team
Four of these are very easy picks, as The Revival are the current champions, The Authors of Pain are on a monstrous streak, TM-61 is pretty much the top babyface tag team, and SAnitY is brand new but should be making a big impact over the next few months. Things get a little more interesting when trying to pick a fifth team, though.
Do you disqualify DIY because Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano are technically also part of the Raw roster, fighting for the cruiserweight division? They haven’t appeared on Raw yet, so that might make them exempt, but it definitely means No Way Jose can’t be teaming up with Rich Swann, nor can anybody else in the cruiserweight division take that spot.
Injuries play into it, too. Hideo Itami and Austin Aries are out for a while, meaning there’s no Roderick Strong and Austin Aries team, nor a Kota Ibushi and Hideo Itami duo.
Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss are just getting started, as are Heavy Machinery, but perhaps that last spot can be given to one of those teams to give them a boost. Between those two, I would say the better choice would be Sabbatelli and Moss to round it out as the heels that can get eliminated quickly for being too cocky.
Final Team = The Revival, The Authors of Pain, TM-61, SAnitY, Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli
Those are my picks, but who would you book if you had the option to make this a triple threat match?
Leave your teams in the comments below!