WWE Survivor Series 2017 REVIEW

On Sunday, November 19th, WWE aired its most recent edition of Survivor Series. The build for the show was phenomenal, with each and every segment being better than the last. All of the members of each brand that were involved were poised to fire strikes at the opposing brand, in a desire to show ‘brand supremacy’.

What began simply enough as a visit by Shane McMahon to Kurt Angle became team Smackdown Live firing the first shot against their opposition. As the weeks passed, there was social media bickering between The Miz and Baron Corbin, a battle between AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar scheduled, and the setting of the final rosters for the main event meant the opportunity to see Triple H, John Cena, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman come to blows with one another. Here are the results of the 2017 Survivor Series.

 

Cruiserweight Championship Match

Enzo Amore (c) vs Kalisto

In what was a fairly predictable bout, the focal points of the Cruiserweight division in Amore and Kalisto met once again. Amore has continuously berated and verbally beaten down everyone and anyone that has crossed his path, and his matchup against Kalisto would be no different. In a match commentated upon by the duo of Nigel McGuinness and Vic Joseph, Amore finished the masked luchador in the most unscrupulous of ways, as he used an exposed turnbuckle to gain an advantage and then delivered his Jordanzo finisher, putting away the former Cruiserweight champion. Since this was on the pre-show, the evening’s only title match was in the books before the official show began.

Winner and still Cruiserweight champion: Enzo Amore

 

The New Day vs The Shield

The match began with a recount of what has taken place between the two groups, not to mention how New Day led Smackdown Live’s charge against Raw as part of their siege on the roster. After some posturing early on, the two factions alternated taking control over the other, including a unicorn stomp by the former four-time tag team champions. In an all-out affair, New Day isolated Ambrose for an extended period. Each time it appeared as though Ambrose was going to break free, they would prevent the hot tag. When Rollins finally made it into the match, he fought off the attack of each of the New Day members. After teasing a triple powerbomb from the mat, Rollins, Ambrose, and Reigns hit Kofi Kingston with a triple powerbomb from the middle rope!

Winners via pinfall: The Shield (Raw 1 – Smackdown Live 0)

 

Team Raw (women) vs. Team Smackdown Live (women)

The first one eliminated was Becky Lynch from team Smackdown Live, thanks to a schoolgirl roll-up by Bayley. Then, Tamina hit the superfly smash on Bayley and eliminated the former Raw women’s champion. The most notable moment of the match was when Nia Jax and Tamina squared off, and the commentators referred to them as family since both are in the Anoa’i family tree. Nia Jax was eliminated by count out after Tamina hit her with a splash from the apron. Fox was eliminated by Naomi, and Sasha Banks eliminated Naomi almost immediately after with the Banks statement. When Asuka was tagged in, she blitzed Carmella with an array of kicks, then wiped her out with a kick to the head followed by a three-count. Natalya caused Sasha to tap out to the sharpshooter, leaving Asuka as the remaining member of Raw. With no one by her side, the Empress of tomorrow got Tamina to tap out to a cross arm breaker, and then Natalya submitted to the Asukalock.

Winners: Team Raw (women) with Asuka as the sole survivor (Raw 2 – Smackdown Live 0)

 

The Miz vs. Baron Corbin

This was an interesting matchup, as the United States champion was facing the Intercontinental champion. What was even more notable was that The Miz’s wife, Maryse, was sitting at ringside showing her support for her husband. There were a number of instances where The Miztourage played a role in the events of the match, as they interfered on behalf of the Miz a number of times. However, eventually, Corbin took out both Dallas and Axel. During the match, each champion got the better of the other at different points. However, after connecting with the End of Days out of nowhere, Corbin pinned The Miz, getting the first win for Smackdown Live.

Winner via pinfall: Baron Corbin (Raw 2 – Smackdown Live 1)

 

The Usos vs. Cesaro and Sheamus (The Bar)

It began with Sheamus, now sporting silver tips on his spiked Mohawk, facing off against Jimmy Uso. The Usos’ in-ring promo to start the match was pretty clever, referring to themselves as Bartenders and stating that everything that goes to the bar goes through them first. Once Cesaro was able to issue his uppercuts on Jimmy, he returned to his corner to tag in Sheamus. After some time, Jey Uso makes the hot tag and hit both members of The Bar with everything he could. A hard-fought battle ensued, and just when it seemed as though all hope had been lost for the Usos, Jimmy and Jey hit a double superkick on Sheamus, taking him down and eventually leading to the Usos coming up victorious.

Winners via pinfall: The Usos (Raw 2 – Smackdown Live 2)

 

Alexa Bliss vs. Charlotte

In a match that was just decided this past week, the new Smackdown Live women’s champion, Charlotte, faced off against the reigning Raw women’s champion Alexa Bliss. The announcers told the story of how Charlotte has endured a great deal of family distress, with the serious health problems of her father. It was a stalemate early on, as Bliss would back off from any and all of Charlotte’s attempt to take her down. Eventually, Bliss spent a great deal of time working on Charlotte’s left arm after having torqued it as part of a takedown off of the apron. The longer the match went, the greater the challenge to come out on top became for both women. It became a test of wills as Charlotte began to fight the challenge of Bliss. At the conclusion, Bliss missed hitting her finisher, The Twisted Bliss, and Charlotte locked her up in the figure 8, causing her to tap out.

Winner via submission: Charlotte (Raw 2 – Smackdown Live 3)

 

AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar

This match featured two men that have not only competed and won championships in WWE but also in New Japan Pro Wrestling. As soon as the match began, Lesnar took the fight to Styles, beating down the WWE champion and tossing him around the ring from pillar to post. It isn’t common to see Styles completely being dominated. Michael Cole went so far as to compare the beating to the match between Lesnar and Cena when Brock hit Cena with an astounding sixteen suplexes. Whenever it seemed Styles was about to mount a comeback, Lesnar stopped him with one strike. However, as the match went on, the tide turned and Styles was able to hit an array of moves. The story told was that Styles hit the Beast with everything in his arsenal. However, after his first phenomenal forearm did not get a three count, he attempted a second, only to be caught and hit with an F5, leading to a pinfall win for the Beast Incarnate.

Winner by pinfall: Brock Lesnar (Raw 3 – Smackdown 3)

 

Team Raw (men) vs. Team Smackdown Live (men)

This match featured the biggest and most notable names in wrestling over the course of the last two decades, and all prominently featured. We had the chance to see Randy Orton square off against Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura battle Finn Balor. After that, there was an opportunity to see the King of Kings, against the King of Strong Style, followed by Bobby Roode going face-to-face with Triple H. These moments were quite notable, to say the least.

Nakamura was eliminated first by Braun Strowman, who followed that up by eliminating Bobby Roode, giving Raw a 5-on-3 advantage. We then have an in-ring battle of Orton and Cena against Strowman, which spilled outside the ring. The entire Smackdown Live team, including those already eliminated, worked together to put Strowman through a table, taking him out of the match for a prolonged period. We then saw another dream matchup when John Cena and Samoa Joe faced off against one another. Cena eliminated Joe after two attitude adjustments. Kurt Angle then eliminated John Cena after two Angle slams and a coup de grace by Balor. Orton then eliminated Balor with an RKO, reducing the Raw lead to 3-on-2. Strowman returned to eliminate The Viper with a running power slam, leaving Shane McMahon as the last one remaining for Team Smackdown Live.

After Angle got Shane in an ankle lock for a long time, Triple H attacked his teammate and put Shane atop Angle for the pinfall. Triple H then hit his brother-in-law with a pedigree and pinned him, giving Raw the victory. Triple H attempted to celebrate with Strowman, but the Monster would have none of it and hit him with not one, but two running powerslams.

Winners: Team Raw (men); remaining members Braun Strowman and Triple H