Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Alicia Fox and Nia Jax (RAW) def. Becky Lynch, Natayla, Alexa Bliss, Naomi and Carmella (Smackdown LIVE) – Five on Five Elimination Match
Gotta say, I was very disappointed. The moment they had Nikki Bella written off the match, it was obvious Smackdown was going to lose, and I can see the logic in replacing Nikki with Natayla because of the whole home-country thing, but it didn’t amount for much in the grand scheme of things. The booking here was really shoddy. They built up Nia Jax like a beast having her undefeated in singles action since the draft. Then they just had her tap out to Becky Lynch in a quick sequence. They could have just had her get disqualified or get counted out to protect her, but having her tap out at such a random juncture was very poor decision making if you ask me. The weak roll-up on Sasha Banks by Natayla was also puzzling to me. As for the actual in-ring action, it was much less than what I was expecting considering the talent present in the match. I was really hoping these women would show how far they’ve come and that we would get a very passionate and heated back and forth affair, but I was really left with meh. There was some good back and forth between Bayley and Becky Lynch, and Sasha had some nice moments, but overall, the quality of the match, considering what I’m sure everyone was expecting, was grossly lacking in quality. Just a lot of fluff, some spots weren’t executed right, and this match really looked more like a rehearsal as opposed to an actual match. I’ll give them some points for effort, but this was a lackluster showing for me. Very disappointed here. **1/2
The Miz (C) (Smackdown LIVE) def. Sami Zayn – Intercontinental Championship
This sort of gave me vibes of Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan’s match at Bragging Rights six years ago. Despite the reports that had Zayn winning the IC Title and taking it to RAW, I picked The Miz for the sheer fact that in spite of WWE’s stupidity, there’s no way WWE would let RAW be home to both mid-card titles. I thought these two had some great chemistry and there was some very good back and forth between the two, with some basic storytelling in The Miz targeting Zayn’s leg and Zayn having to overcome that to win the match. There was some good near-falls towards the end, and I believe both men were game for each other. Crappy finish aside, this was a very good watch for me. What WWE needs to do now, however, is build up more potential suitors for Miz’s title, because the Intercontinental Title has really revolved around Ziggler and The Miz since WrestleMania. It’s time to get some more fresh faces in that title hunt. As for tonight, though, both men gave a great effort. ***1/2
Cesaro and Sheamus, The New Day, Enzo and Cass, The Shining Stars and The Club (RAW) def. Heath Slater and Rhyno, American Alpha, The Usos, The Hype Bros and Breezango (Smackdown LIVE)
Had I known that was how the match was going to play out, you might as well should just had Sheamus and Cesaro against The Usos out there, because everything else up to that point was just a whole lot of fluff. The action between Sheamus/Cesaro and The Usos was incredible teamwork, featuring great near-falls and false finishes, and I think their chemistry together was enough to save the match, because beforehand, all of the other action was very RAW-ish. With the RAW tag team champions being eliminated with one superkick and Fabreeze being eliminated within five minutes of the match beginning, I was really ready to tune out, but I’m glad that things got going when it came down to the final 2 teams. American Alpha also tried to pick things up in a big way as well with some of their high spots as well. Overall, I’d just skip to the portions with the final two teams, because trust me, you can live without the rest. The final 10-15 minutes of the match, however, was some really awesome work, so I’d definitely try to see if you can fast forward to that portion of the match, do so, because it got really fun, really quick. I assume that this is going to lead to some sort of reward or so for Cesaro and Shaemus as they were on the same page for once. ***3/4
The Brian Kendrick (C) (RAW) def. Kalisto (Smackdown LIVE) by DQ – WWE Cruiserweight Championship
I sort of initially regretted my pick for The Brian Kendrick to retain over Kalisto, because the new WWE Networkshow, 205 Live would be airing after Smackdown, which sort of made it a supposed giveaway that Kalisto would win, but it would appear that WWE’s keeping the CW’s on the main brand. My rationale for Kendrick retaining was because WWE was not going to let The Brian Kendrick lose the title so easily, and in addition, I’m not sure how they would be able to give the Cruiserweights adequate time to tell their stories and built them up with only a two hour time frame each Tuesday night. Smackdown may be a better home for the Cruiserweights, but RAW’s extended time frame gives them more leeway with them. The match was alright. I especially liked Kalisto hitting Sin Cara’s old finisher on the outside, because that spot looked beautiful, despite how dangerous it was. Again, however, WWE’s problem is that they haven’t given us a reason to care for the Cruiserweights, and the crowd, at least from my viewpoint, didn’t look invested into the match. Even though there were stakes to this match, the match itself didn’t feel important because the characters aren’t resonating with the crowd much. WWE will have to work on that. It seemed this match was more to build up Baron Corbin as opposed to building up the Cruiserweights. The match was passable, though. **3/4
AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt and Shane McMahon (Smackdown LIVE) def. Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens (RAW) – 5 on 5 Elimination Survivor Series Match
Okay, I promise that my review of the match won’t be nearly as long as the match itself. This was an all out war, and I appreciated that a lot. I also knew that WWE was going to have a lot of sub plots inserted into the match. We had Ambrose and Styles attacking each other once again, thickening the plot for the TLC match, Kevin Owens attacked AJ Styles with the List, which further teases Jericho and Owens breaking up with each other, and the teamwork of Orton and Wyatt, pushing them as a dominant force. I’m pretty sure no one saw Wyatt eliminating both Rollins AND Reigns, even though it was due to Orton’s assistance. Long matches, especially tag matches are sort of hard to judge, but I’ll do my best. This was really a 5 on 5 no DQ match, because there were a lot of outside spots. There was some booking decisions I didn’t like, such as Braun being eliminated by count out, even though everyone else stayed on the outside for extended periods and the ref didn’t seem to care. I also thought a lot of it was overbooked, and some of the eliminations could have come much earlier and could have achieved the same effect, but I guess that may be nitpicking. I actually had fun watching the match for the most part, because there was really no telling what would happen. Each man from each team got adequate time, more stories were built, and Wyatt getting a win on a Big 4 PPV was certainly a shocking result to say the least. I had Team RAW winning, just because not only did the jobs of Team RAW depend on it as stated by Stephanie McMahon, but Undertaker threatened whoever cost Team Smackdown, and it seemed obvious to me that Team RAW was the way to go. So I’m glad that WWE actually gave Team Smackdown the win, continuing their dominance over RAW in the men’s Survivor Series match historically. Especially considering they gave the tag team and women’s matches to the females, it’s good to see RAW didn’t get the clean sweep and that the men from Smackdown won to even out. It was long, sort of meandering at times, but overall I thought it was a solid outing from the best of both brands. ***3/4
Goldberg def. Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman)
So, um, yeah, about that. I understand a lot of people were shocked, but I think that was sort of the point. I actually applaud WWE for taking a risk in doing this finish, damn well knowing what could have happened, being a catastrophic crowd reaction. But Toronto was electric for Goldberg, and the finish let them erupted enough to not boo the finish. Now, if I was there live wanting to see Goldberg live for my first experience, I’d be disappointed because that was all I got from him, but at the same time, there’s always a bigger picture to things, and I don’t think we can simply look at this at face value. The finish was indeed shocking, but that was the point. Goldberg, who’s been out of the ring for 12 years, faces Lesnar, who’s run rough shot over WWE’s stop stars including The Undertaker, John Cena and Randy Orton in recent matches. This was the last thing anyone expected, being a WCW style squash of Lesnar. I’m not entirely sure this makes Lesnar looks weak, considering the opponent (no matter how old he is). Of course, there’s always a downside to it. It is a feel good story, that a 50 year old Goldberg whom many thought would never return, in fact does and defeats the most dominant star in the business, but I have to question building up Lesnar as an unstoppable foe, just for Goldberg to have that kind of victory. I’m sure other stars such as Kevin Owens, Rusev or even a Cesaro could use that kind of win. So there’s also that. Obviously, this match doesn’t get a rating from me because of how short it was, but it was good in shock value ,so that’s something that it has going for it. And, I also hear that Goldberg has agreed to work the Royal Rumble match next year, so that’s also something looking forward to, because I’d think it would suck if this was all we got from Goldberg after all that return hype. DUD
Conclusion:
Takeover: Toronto was better and it was an easier watch. This show was fine, but nothing like I thought it could be, especially the women’s match. Also, the PPV was just so very LONG, so that can make it hard to sit through some times, especially in tag matches. This show did re-ignite the brand war, which I was always a fan of, and for the most part the Survivor Series matches delivered. The other singles matches were acceptable, and while Goldberg/Lesnar did finish abruptly, it was a finish no one expected. As a matter of fact, I’d say that each match on the card, with the exception of many the women’s match ended in a way no one saw coming, and WWE has had a big inevitability issue, so I appreciated that as well. For matches I’d watch on their own, I’d watch the last 15 minutes or so of the tag team match, the men’s survivor series match and I’d watch Goldberg/Lesnar just to conceive how Goldberg managed to squash the 2016 version of Brock Lesnar. I’ll go thumbs in the middle because I had high expectations for the show because it didn’t reach it, but I’ll go leaning up, just because I thought the guys gave a great effort, and the show also built towards future feuds. Until next time.
