Quick 2016 Survivor Series Recap Thoughts

So I watched Survivor Series tonight, but not live. I started at the beginning around 10pm and now it's like 2am. Anyway, like the nerd that I am, I took some notes throughout the night and here we are.


Survivor Series Elimination Match- Team Raw (Bayley, Alicia Fox, Nia Jax, Sasha Banks and Charlotte) w/Dana Brook vs. Team Smackdown (Becky Lynch, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, Carmella and Natalya)

There is certainly more star power on Raw, but Alexa Bliss surprisingly over. I liked Natalya coming in for Nikki Bella (and it was probably Natalya who attacked her), mostly because Canada.
Whenever Michael Cole isn't calling a match, I'm happy.

It's also really nice to see a real women's division with various storylines. I didn't think WWE could actually pull it off, but they did. I originally thought the women should all be on one show, but they've actually built up two entertaining divisions.

This was a well-booked match that I enjoyed.

The crowd is already starting to get smarky and annoying. I hate today's WWE crowds so much.

I expected a Natalya "Survivor Series Screwjob" whenever anyone attempted a sharpshooter.

My only issue was that they had the monster Nia Jax tap. I understand she wasn't going to win the match, but tapping looks much weaker than being pinned, in my opinion.

Charlotte's attack at the end was good and I hope this ends with Bayley taking the title at WrestleMania.

Good stuff all around in this match.

Hey, did you know that Fantasy Warfare Becomes Reality tonight?


WWE Intercontinental Championship Match- The Miz w/ Maryse (c) vs. Sami Zayn

Oh fuck Cole is back.

The Miz is a great heel. He gets booed for his heel work, which is rare these days. Adding to that tonight is that Sami Zayn is the perfect face.

It's so weird hearing the ACC cheer for the words "Montreal, Quebec, Canada."

Someone should tell the announcers that saying "prestigious intercontinental champion" over and over doesn't make it so.

The ending was an interesting variation on the "screwjob" that I thought worked. Miz and Maryse are so great.

Michael Cole: "I think Maryse rung the bell!" when she was clearly on camera ringing the bell. He's the worst.


Survivor Series Elimination Match – Team Raw (Enzo and Cass, The Shining Stars, The Club, Sheamus and Cesaro & The New Day) w/Xavier Woods vs. Team Smackdown (Heath Slater and Rhyno, Breezango, The Usos, The Hype Bros & American Alpha)

Enzo and Cass needed more Drake references, imo.

I want to like Sheamus, but... I just can't for some reason.

Cesaro struggling to get his suit off was funnier than it should have been to me.

I don't care. I still don't like Heath Slater.

The Uso heel turn was a great move for them. They're really good heels. And how annoying are the Hype Bros? Most of Team Smackdown is super annoying in this one.

I'll be honest. I skipped most of this match. The Cesaro 619 was good.

Crowd, stop with the fucking "10" thing holy fuck. You guys are terrible.

So Smackdown definitely wins the remaining elimination match, right?

WWE Cruiserweight Championship- Brian Kendrick (c) vs. Kalisto 

THE Brian Kendrick is great. But why doesn't it say "the" in his on screen graphics?

I really dig how they redo the ring and everything for cruiserweight matches.

Mauro Ranallo and Corey Graves make a good commentary team.

Oh God Baron Corbin... STOP TRYING TO MAKE BARON CORBIN HAPPEN.

I still think the cruiserweight division would make more sense on Smackdown, especially due to Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo being there.


Survivor Series Elimination Match- Team Smackdown (Shane McMahon, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, AJ Styles & Dean Ambrose) w/James Ellsworth vs. Team Raw (Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens) 

Jericho having a subtitle of "Kevin's Best Friend" during the video is so great.

I'll admit that I don't really watch the weekly WWE shows, so I don't know or get what the James Ellsworth thing is.

The Undertaker should have taken Shane's place in this match. Having the commissioner fill a spot on the team makes it look like Smackdown doesn't have enough guys to field a team.

Why didn't AJ come out last for his team? He's the WWE World Champion.

At least they're not pretending that Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt have no history. In the past, they would have ignored their history completely.

Rollins wearing a half and half shirt is great .

I'm so bored with people booing Roman Reigns. He's a perfectly good upper card wrestler. He's the US Champion and he's not in many main events these days. Booing him like crazy is just so old and tired now. He's entertaining and there's no reason for the hate any longer. Crowds are the worst.

Speaking of which, outside of Roman (technically) does Raw have any faces?

A little thing at the beginning that I liked was Strowman ripping off his Raw shirt right as Owen's put his on.

"Fantasy Warfare Just Got Real"

One of the commentators said that this is the "Home of the Maple LEAVES."

Did they forget the Jericho/AJ feud? And here I was giving them credit for remembering the past.

Maybe they need to do more storylines about the former members of the Shield and how they were "one of the greatest groups ever" and now they broke up.

JBL is especially terrible tonight. Like, when did Raw have the Gobbledygooker, JBL?? Is all WWE history Raw history now?

"IF your commissioner wasn't such an egomaniac he'd be out here!?" "Our commissioner is Stephanie McMahon." 

Strowman is boring. This match is boring. Maybe it's because I'm watching it at 1am. I don't know. At least the way Strowman was eliminated kept him looking strong, unlike Nia Jax's elimination in the first match.

At least Ellsworth didn't hit those Pizzaiolo and Pizza Nova boxes when he went off the stage. They make good pizza.

The Shane McMahon elimination was weird. Why did they cut to some random shot of a woman in the crowd right before Shane was counted down for three? Did Shane accidentally kick out? They never showed the replay. What happened there?

If they wanted to mention the Shield 300 times, Dean Ambrose should have helped triple power bomb AJ through a table with Roman and Rollins. Oh. He did. Okay! That would have been a cooler moment if they didn't mention the Shield a million times. You could see it coming as soon as he came back out. Drop the Shield references now.

If Orton joined the Wyatt Family, who does he look, dress and act exactly like Randy Orton always does?

I was really hoping that Reigns would win the match single-handedly because people would have been so mad. At this point, I just want this crowd to be upset. But they'd probably chant "holy shit", "this is awesome" or "10" even if they were.

JBL yelled " RAW WINS! RAW WINS!" as the match ended and then tried to cover for it. He's terrible.

Does Erick Rowan still exist?


"Fantasy Warfare Just Got Real."

Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs. Goldberg

Goldberg's locker room walk is cool. The security has never made sense to me, but whatever.

At least Lesnar is being treated like a heel by the crowd. Goldberg is super over.

Holy shit. A squash. WOW.

I can see that being disappointed because it was so hyped up but, man, I'm excited. What a shock.
I have no idea why this happened or how this happened or what, but man. I feel like I'm probably in the minority here, but I liked that booking. The crowd was happy about it. They didn't chant "bullshit" or "refund" or anything.

When I realized that there were only a few minutes left in the show and the match hadn't started yet, I assumed that Lesnar had squashed Goldberg and I was ready to be pissed off about it. This was much better.

This is shocking. This is a WCW guy getting a huge send off by WWE and getting to destroy Lesnar, who has been unstoppable for years. It was fun to watch and it will certainly create a buzz.


I didn't need to see Bill Goldberg's son shirtless though.