Welcome to our live coverage of the WWE Survivor Series from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
We will have a LIVE Survivor Series POST Show at approximately 11:30 pm Eastern with Wai Ting, Braden Herrington, and Davie Portman joining me to review the entire card. This will be available live for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.
The kickoff show began with the panel that consisted of Jonathan Coachman, Booker T., Charly Caruso, and David Otunga. Sam Roberts and JBL were also part of the kickoff broadcast.
During the show, JBL went over the creation of the Survivor Series and said it was a response to Jim Crockett trying to ‘lock up the pay-per-view window’. By that, Jim Crockett Promotions was set to run Starrcade on Thanksgiving in 1987 and the WWF added a show that date and then gave an ultimatum to the cable providers that they could only carry one of the shows and had a detrimental effect on the Starrcade event.
The kickoff show will also feature a Cruiserweight title match with Lio Rush vs. Kalisto vs. Akira Tozawa.
Sarah Schreiber interviewed Paul Heyman and he previewed the No Holds Barred match. He emphasized the ‘Miracle or Massacre’ tagline the match has been given.
Shawn Michaels appeared on the panel to announce that Team NXT will consist of Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Matt Riddle, Damian Priest, and NXT UK champion WALTER.
Cathy Kelley interviewed Adam Cole and said he isn’t 100% after the past week of matches he has had but The Undisputed Era is the measuring stick.
TAG TEAM BATTLE ROYAL
The battle royal features tag teams from Raw, SmackDown, and NXT.
The commentary team was Vic Joseph, Corey Graves, and Nigel McGuinness.
The participants included Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, The Forgotten Sons, The Revival, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, The Street Profits, Fandango & Tyler Breeze, Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado, Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Heavy Machinery, and Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins.
Steve Cutler was the first one out and the entire is gone. Lince Dorado was quickly thrown onto The Forgotten Sons on the floor.
Marcel Barthel eliminated Zack Ryder next.
Roode knocked Fabian Aicher off the apron to save his partner Ziggler, who was fighting with Aichner on the edge.
Heavy Machinery was tossed out followed by Tyler Breeze being eliminated by The Revival, so all the NXT teams are gone.
With the elimination of Gallows & Anderson, it came down to Ziggler & Roode with The Street Profits.
Ziggler missed a superkick and hit Roode that sent him through the middle rope to the floor. Ford was shoved off the top onto the apron but held on. Ford recovered and rotated in mid-air to land a frog splash. Upon landing the splash, Roode grabbed Ford and threw him out to win.
WINNERS: Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler at 8:19
They posted a graphic keeping track of the wins for each brand.
It was a rushed battle royal until the final two teams. It was a very basic match.
LIO RUSH VS KALISTO VS AKIRA TOZAWA FOR THE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE
Byron Saxton and Aiden English are calling this match.
The three ended up on the top of the turnbuckle with Rush rotating both over almost like a variation of a Spanish Fly but delivered to two guys.
Tozawa fired up on Rush with kicks and a bridging German, which was stopped by Kalisto who used a jackknife cover on Rush for two.
A Salida del Sol by Kalisto was hit to Rush but Tozawa stopped it with a shining wizard. Tozawa went to the top and hit a senton on Rush that Kalisto broke up.
Kalisto landed on his feet from a German and hit Tozawa with the Salida del Sol, Rush came off the top with the Final Hour and pinned Kalisto.
WINNER: Lio Rush
There was lots of action in this one and they worked well. They didn’t have the crowd until the end, but the work overcame the disadvantage of being on the kickoff show. The finish sequence came off well with the Salida del Sol into the Final Hour for the cover and Rush retains.
Sami Zayn interrupted the panel and said the three-way involving AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Roderick Strong could be a ‘match-of-the-year’ because of their artistry. There were audible chants of ‘CM Punk’ in the background.
Kayla Braxton spoke to New Day backstage, who wished Xavier Woods a speedy recovery.
VIKING RAIDERS VS KOFI KINGSTON & BIG E. VS KYLE O’REILLY & BOBBY FISH
Vic Joseph, Jerry Lawler, and Corey Graves are on commentary.
The Viking Raiders were on the edge with the others on the floor as Erik scoop slammed Ivar onto the four.
Kyle O’Reilly hyperextended the knee of Erik and they kept him away from Ivar. Erik caught Fish and suplexed him into O’Reilly on the apron and made the tag.
New Day returned to the match as Big E. hit Fish & O’Reilly with a pair of belly-to-belly suplexes. Big E. lifted Erik and Kingston came off the top with a foot stomp sending Erik off Big E’s shoulders.
Kingston was launched over the top by Big E., who followed with a spear sending Erik off the apron to the floor.
Erik lifted Big E. and Ivar launched off the middle rope with a clothesline but favored his knee after landing.
Ivar did a cartwheel to avoid the High-Low from Fish & O’Reilly. They hit the Viking Experience to O’Reilly to land on top of Fish and Ivar scored the fall.
WINNERS: The Viking Raiders at 14:40
Each brand has a win after the three kickoff matches.
This was a strong three-way match with the Viking Raiders working off the smaller Fish & O’Reilly effectively and would be a great program if they are matched down the road. The best match on the kickoff portion.
The main show began with the women’s elimination match.
TEAM RAW (CHARLOTTE FLAIR, NATALYA, ASUKA, KAIRI SANE & SARAH LOGAN) VS TEAM SMACKDOWN (SASHA BANKS, NIKKI CROSS, CARMELLA, DANA BROOKE & LACEY EVANS) VS TEAM NXT (RHEA RIPLEY, IO SHIRAI, CANDICE LeRAE, BIANCA BELAIR & TONI STORM)
Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Beth Phoenix are calling this match.
Everyone was wearing team armbands. There were three women in the ring at once and they went through various combinations.
Kairi Sane and Io Shirai were tagged in and went at it, although the crowd didn’t react to it as a big deal. When Ripley was tagged in, they got excited.
Everyone was sent down from a variety of moves with Banks alone in the ring. Suddenly, Candice LeRae and Io Shirai were shown laying on the floor and you couldn’t see what happened, but they appeared hurt and everyone stopped. They were both helped to the back and eliminated from Team NXT.
Cross dove off the apron onto Ripley and then attacked Storm with forearms on the floor. Ripley lifted Cross onto the apron allowing Belair to roll up Cross and grab the rope for the next elimination.
Belair hit Logan with a 450-splash and eliminated her with Belair’s second elimination. Flair was tagged in with Belair and it just felt like the crowd was not engaged at this point.
Carmella hit a ‘rana sending Flair off the turnbuckle and landing on Belair. Flair came back moments later to eliminate Carmella with the Natural Selection.
Sane hit a spinning back fist on Storm and the Insane Elbow, which Banks cut off by hitting the running knees and eliminating Sane.
Asuka entered for the first time and quickly eliminated Brooke with a spin kick. Teammates Asuka and Flair got into an argument and Asuka was shoved down. Flair continued and did the strut, turned around and was hit with Asuka’s mist, which the audience finally woke up for and chanted ‘Asuka’. Evans hit Flair with the Woman’s Right and pinned Flair.
Natalya entered and quickly eliminated Evans.
It’s down to Ripley, Belair, and Storm for Team NXT, Natalya on Raw, and Banks with SmackDown.
Natalya applied the sharpshooter on Storm as Banks applied the Bank Statement simultaneously and Storm tapped. The crowd booed the elimination.
Natalya and Banks hit the Hart Attack and pinned Belair.
Natalya and Banks appeared to be working in tandem when Banks attacked her with a right hand and eliminated Natalya.
The audience was livelier once it was down to Banks and Ripley and they started having an actual match. They were chanting loudly for both women.
Banks hit the Meteora and Ripley kicked out. Banks came off the top into a boot from Ripley. Banks countered out of Ripley’s leg submission into the Bank Statement and transitioned to the other side when Candice LeRae and Io Shirai returned and pulled Ripley to the floor. It was revealed they were fine and it was a plan.
Banks fell to the numbers taking a springboard dropkick from Shirai and the Riptide as Ripley pinned Banks.
WINNERS: Team NXT (Survivors: Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae & Io Shirai) in 27:49
The match was hurt by a lack of reaction for a large part of it. It picked up at the end when you got through most of the eliminations. They spread out the eliminations as much as they could but it was still too many with 15 people and 12 eliminations. I expected some of the unique pairings would have led to bigger reactions.
Seth Rollins spoke to Kevin Owens in the locker room about why he helped NXT at TakeOver and where his loyalty lies. Owens said Saturday was about getting even with The Undisputed Era, he loves NXT, but NXT doesn’t need him. Raw desperately needs Kevin Owens and not to worry because he is Team Raw tonight. He reminds Rollins about his history as he put out his fist for a Shield reference.
AJ STYLES VS SHINSUKE NAKAMURA VS RODERICK STRONG
Sami Zayn was ringside in Nakamura’s corner.
Styles was knocked to the floor, returned and applied a sleeper on Strong and drove him into Nakamura before returning to the choke.
They had the same struggle as the first match with the audience. They weren’t completely dead but not enhancing the match in any way.
Strong hit Styles with a monkey flip, Styles landed on his feet and drilled with a flying knee from Nakamura. Styles caught Nakamura with an Ushigoroshi for a two-count. Styles attempted the Styles Clash on Nakamura and Strong stopped it.
Styles lifted Strong and Nakamura came off the top with a knee and Strong started selling his own knee.
Styles prevented Nakamura from using the Kinshasa and Zayn attacked Styles on the floor allowing Strong to get a near fall on Nakamura after hitting a flying knee.
The CM Punk chants began as Nakamura called for the Kinshasa and was cut off with a flying forearm from Styles.
Nakamura hit Strong with the Kinshasa and Styles broke the cover.
Nakamura and Styles faced off and Nakamura hit the Landslide for a two-count. Styles avoided the Kinshasa and failed to use the Styles Clash, he set up for the Phenomenal Forearm and hit it. Strong tossed Styles to the floor and stole the cover on Nakamura.
WINNER: Roderick Strong at 16:46
The three worked very hard and it was a tremendous performance for Strong and one of Styles’ better matches in some time. This was a struggle with the audience, and it was clear Michael Cole wasn’t familiar with all the moves. If this had a more heated crowd it would have been that much better, but I still liked the match a lot.
The Miz spoke with Daniel Bryan and said he has to put a stop to The Fiend for their sake ‘and our families’ sake’. Bryan told him to get lost.
ADAM COLE VS PETE DUNNE FOR THE NXT TITLE
Cole’s ribs were taped following the War Games match. Dunne had his left knee wrapped.
Dunne stomped on the right elbow as they attacked each other’s injured body parts. Dunne stopped Cole’s attack with an X-Plex. Dunne hit a moonsault off the turnbuckle to Cole on the floor. Cole got his knees up in the ring and responded with the Last Shot for a two-count.
Dunne recovered from an Ushigoroshi and hit the Bitter End for a big near fall on Cole.
Dunne scaled the turnbuckle, did a backflip and was hit with a superkick, the audience stood up to applaud them.
The two went to the edge of the apron where Cole came off the turnbuckle with a Panama Sunrise on the edge and both fell to the floor. Dunne beat the count and was hit with an immediate superkick but kicked out again.
Cole tried to prevent Dunne from re-inserting his mouthguard, Dunne snapped the fingers and went for another Bitter End that was revered into a Panama Sunrise and Cole finished him with the Last Shot.
WINNER: Adam Cole at 14:02 to retain the NXT title
This was excellent and the best match of the show, so far. Adam Cole just finished an unreal week and felt like a top star throughout this entire build-up.
THE FIEND VS DANIEL BRYAN FOR THE UNIVERSAL TITLE
The red lighting was used for the match.
Bryan attacked with dropkicks before The Fiend cut him off and they went to the floor with The Fiend in control.
Bryan escaped and went for a suicide dive. He was caught but avoided Sister Abigail. He fought off Wyatt and came off the top and dropped Wyatt on the floor.
Bryan fired up and the audience got behind Bryan as he delivered the Yes kicks. Bryan blasted him with multiple kicks to the body and head. Bryan stomped him and pointed up for the ‘Yes’ and hit the Busaiku knee and Wyatt kicked out. They chanted for ‘Daniel Bryan’ and were super hot.
Wyatt stopped him on the turnbuckle with the Mandible Claw, Bryan fell back to apply the Suzuki armbar over the ropes. He was free of the claw and came off the top into a right hand. Sister Abigail was countered with a roll-up and then Bryan ran into the Mandible Claw and was pinned.
WINNER: The Fiend Bray Wyatt at 10:00 to retain the Universal title
Given all the limitations of this presentation with the red lighting, the audience was super-hot when Bryan was in control and they believed he could win. I still feel this presentation is a detriment and this match could have been that much better without the limitations. That said, this was Flair-Steamboat compared to last month’s Hell in a Cell with Seth Rollins.
Sarah Schreiber interviewed Rey Mysterio and he said it’s been 15 years since he last fought Brock Lesnar. Lesnar never changed but this is a new Mysterio as he displays the pipe. He’ll do things to Lesnar the old Rey would never have done. He evolved because of the love of his son and would usually tell Dominic to look away but tonight, look close and what closely as he swings at Lesnar’s legs and take him out. He will massacre Lesnar and take his title.
TEAM RAW (SETH ROLLINS, RANDY ORTON, DREW McINTYRE, KEVIN OWENS & RICOCHET) VS TEAM SMACKDOWN (ROMAN REIGNS, KING CORBIN, MUSTAFA ALI, SHORTY G & BRAUN STROWMAN) VS TEAM NXT (TOMMASO CIAMPA, KEITH LEE, WALTER, DAMIAN PRIEST & MATT RIDDLE)
With everyone in the ring, the crowd chanted for Walter.
Walter and McIntyre exchanged chops and Walter dropped him with a boot. Then, Walter attacked Strowman and dropkicked him into the corner and was hit with a Claymore as McIntyre eliminated Walter within three minutes. The audience was pissed and chanted ‘Bullshit’.
Shorty G and Ricochet had a great sequence ending with the Chaos Theory. Riddle was tagged in and traded ankle locks with Shorty G, who I’m just going to refer to as Gable for the rest of this report. Owens was tagged and hit a frog splash to eliminate CHAD GABLE.
Owens was climbing back into the ring when he was caught by Ciampa with a draping DDT and Owens was pinned.
Orton and Ciampa were in together, Priest was tagged and went for the Reckoning and was countered into the RKO for the elimination. Riddle immediately came in and blocked the RKO and rolled up and pinned Orton for the next elimination. Orton hit Riddle with an RKO before leaving allowing Corbin to pin Riddle.
Strowman came in and ran around the ring with shoulder blocks to everyone on the floor. He ran around again and right into Keith Lee where both went down. Strowman was down, then was hit with a Claymore, and counted out on the floor for his elimination.
Ricochet hit a Fosbury Flop, climbed to the top and landed on his feet from a 450-splash and right into the End of Days as Corbin pinned Ricochet.
Ali tagged in and had a solid response from his hometown crowd. Corbin yanked his partner Ali to the floor and Ali slapped him, returned to the ring into the stomp and was eliminated by Rollins. These eliminations are way too quick. Reigns was pissed with Corbin. The ‘CM Punk’ chants were loud for briefly.
Reigns eliminated McIntyre after hitting a spear. Rollins is alone on Team Raw.
Reigns avoided the Fairy Tale Ending and hit Ciampa with the Superman Punch. Corbin tagged himself in and then Reigns hit a Superman Punch and spear on his teammate and Ciampa pinned Corbin. Reigns is the only SmackDown member left.
Reigns and Rollins worked together against Ciampa and Lee. They went for a Shield powerbomb to Ciampa and Lee stopped them with a tackle. Ciampa hit a running knee strike and Project Ciampa on Rollins for a two-count.
A Fairy Tale Ending was stopped with a Superman Punch, Rollins hit Ciampa with the stomp and eliminated him.
It’s down to Rollins, Reigns, and Keith Lee.
Lee kicked out from a frog splash, caught Rollins with a jackhammer after a superkick attempt and Lee pinned Rollins.
Reigns hit a pair of Superman Punches that Lee kicked out from. The referee counted three and it seemed Lee was late kicking out.
Reigns kicked out of a Spirit Bomb. Lee went up and missed a moonsault, Reigns hit the spear and pinned Lee.
WINNERS: Team SmackDown (Survivor: Roman Reigns) at 29:16
I thought the final 20 minutes were tremendous. There was so much talent and it was last half of the match had time to breathe with less elimination that affected the first half with so many quick eliminations due to the volume of people.
In terms of Survivor Series elimination matches, this was among the better ones as the talent was tremendous and NXT had a great showing.
Reigns and Lee stood in the ring after the match with Lee taking a bow to Reigns and they bumped fists while that awful AC/DC song was blaring.
There was a taped interview from Becky Lynch, and she said they would have to destroy her completely to take away what she has earned. She sees herself in Bayley and didn’t want to hurt her but tonight she will.
BROCK LESNAR VS REY MYSTERIO FOR THE WWE TITLE
Mysterio immediately grabs the pipe and Lesnar bails to the floor. Lesnar caught him and stopped him from using the weapon.
On the floor, Lesnar hit a belly-to-belly sending Mysterio toward the announcer’s desk. Back in the ring, Mysterio took a release German onto the pipe. He continued with another release German as Dominic ran in with a towel and pleaded with Lesnar, who tossed the towel away.
Lesnar went for Dominic and was hit with a low blow and Dominic nailed Lesnar, too. Mysterio used the pipe and Dominic attacked with the chair and hit double 619s. They each hit splashes from the top and a double pin that Lesnar kicked out from. The audience was going crazy.
Lesnar grabbed Dominic and hit a German, Mysterio came off the top and was caught and hit with the F-5 for the win.
WINNER: Brock Lesnar at 6:55 to retain the WWE title
It was heated while it lasted and the audience bought into the idea of Mysterio winning along with the spots involving Dominic. It wasn’t long enough to be considered great, but I enjoyed the time it lasted. I felt there was a legitimate argument to switching the title as this program caught fire out of nowhere this past month.
BECKY LYNCH VS BAYLEY VS SHAYNA BASZLER
Baszler stomped Bayley’s left elbow and followed with a running knee into the corner. During the early portion, the audience was not engaged to a large degree.
Lynch applied the Disarmer on Bayley and Baszler kicked Lynch to stop the submission.
They were doing the usual three-way formula where one would be outside as the others wrestled and the crowd was a big negative and were not into it.
Baszler lifted Bayley onto her shoulders and was hit with a missile dropkick from Lynch.
Bayley was shoved into the post and Baszler hit a knee to Lynch’s back sending her into the barricade and then to the post.
Lynch was tossed over the announcer’s desk and removed from the match.
Back in the ring, Bayley rolled out of the Kirifuda Clutch and suplexed Baszler to stop it. Bayley missed the elbow from the top and Baszler went back to the Kirifuda Clutch, which ended the match with a tap.
WINNER: Shayna Baszler at 18:05
The match was hurt badly from the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd and this wasn’t a case of it being a bad crowd. The match never got to a dramatic gear and it felt like the crowd had peaked earlier in the show.
Booking wise, they went with the best choice in Baszler and builds to a future match with Becky Lynch, if they choose.
Lynch attacked Baszler as she celebrated. Lynch tossed her from one desk to the next. Lynch came off the barricade and put Baszler through the desk with a leg drop.
NXT wins the night with four wins, SmackDown had two, and Raw with one. The announcers put NXT over big as the show ended.
