WWE SURVIVOR SERIES

Los Angeles

THE USO'S, THE NEW DAY, LUKE GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON & THE COLONS vs. BOBBY ROODE & CHAD GABLE, THE REVIVAL, THE B-TEAM, LUCHA HOUSE PARTY & THE ASCENSION (22:20): This was the pre-show match. A pre-show, I might add, that was two hours long. Jesus Christ. This match was fairly decent. It had a lot of action. The highlight was when Gable gave one of the Uso's a German Suplex off of the top rope down to the floor onto everyone. That was pretty nuts, and something I don't think I've seen before. The Smackdown team won here, which was weird because by the end of the night the announcers were constantly mentioning that Team RAW went 6-0 on the show and it was a clean sweep. Did they forget about the pre-show? Or does the pre-show not matter? Whatever. **1/2

MICKIE JAMES, NIA JAX, TAMINA, BAYLEY & SASHA BANKS vs. NAOMI, CARMELLA, SONYA DEVILLE, ASUKA & MANDY ROSE (18:50): Nia ended up being the sole survivor. The she-beast. Last week she punched Becky Lynch in the face and broke her nose and gave her a concussion, thus deleting the Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch match from this show. So instead of punishing Nia for a stupid thing they've seemingly rewarded her. How nice. This was just okay. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (21:50): This was the best that Nakamura has looked in forever. The match started slow, though, but by the end it turned out good. The only recent Nakamura matches that have been any good have been when he faced AJ and now Seth. So I guess he's only good when he's facing the elite. **1/2

AOP vs. THE BAR (9:00): AOP are the tag champs. Remember they were popular and pretty entertaining in NXT and now they suck? Yeah, weird. This was by far the worst match on the show. I've been sick of Sheamus and Cesaro forever and I guess they don't have good matches anymore, either. 1/2*

BUDDY MURPHY vs. MUSTAFA ALI (12:20): This was perhaps the match of the night. Both guys are nuts and it was big moves one after the other. Ali gave Murphy a Spanish Fly off of the announce table to the floor. And they both did big over-the-rope-to-the-floor dives. This was fun. Murphy retained the Cruiserweight title. ***

DOLPH ZIGGLER, DREW MCINTYRE, BRAUN STROWMAN, FINN BALOR & BOBBY LASHLEY vs. THE MIZ, SHANE MCMAHON, REY MYSTERIO, SAMOA JOE & JEFF HARDY (24:00): NXT Takeover on Saturday night was awesome. The best match was Gargano vs. Aleister Black, but pretty much every match on that show was awesome except for the main event War Games match that was a little too boring in spots (and too long!). But the hot L.A. crowd for Takeover made the show. And I was surprised that tonight's crowd was almost as hot. They were super loud for this match and it helped to make this a good match. Samoa Joe got pinned fast by McIntyre. Shane O'Mac did a top rope elbow drop onto Braun through the announce table. Then Shane did two Coast to Coast Van Terminator's minus the chair (the second one was ruined when Braun slapped him down midway). Shane was great in his day, but, c'mon, he's too old to be doing this shit. Mysterio looked great. It was very entertaining. **1/2

RONDA ROUSEY vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR (14:40): This match was okay but the post-match was awesome. Becky Lynch was injured so they threw in Flair to face Rousey. The Flair/Rousey match has been rumored to be the Wrestlemania main event so it was kind of a surprise that they did it here on five days notice. But they still might do it because this set up a revenge match. Flair turned heel by hitting Rousey with a Singapore Cane and causing a DQ. Then she went crazy, hitting Flair with the cane and a chair then putting Rousey's head in a chair and stomping on it all the while the officials were going crazy trying to stop it and the place was going nuts. Awesome angle. ***

BROCK LESNAR vs. DANIEL BRYAN (18:50): Ah...the dream match, a few years too late. So Bryan beat AJ for the title and turned heel on Tuesday on Smackdown. So we got a five day build for this match. Okay. Bryan did kick Lesnar in the balls and did taunt him pre-match, so I guess that was his only heel antics. But the crowd wanted Bryan to win so he was sort of still a good guy in their eyes. This turned into a good match once it got into a back-and-forth match, but before that it was ten minutes of Lesnar destroying Bryan with suplexes and the crowd a silent tomb between chants of, "Same old shit!" The only good Lesnar matches have been the ones that are even and back and forth, and so eventually Bryan got going and kicked him in the balls then did some flying knees and put him in the Yes Lock and the crowd was wild. This probably wasn't as good as last year's AJ/Lesnar match but it was pretty similar, and at least this one was the main event unlike last year when AJ and Lesnar were mid-card. Bryan's a heel and the champ now so at least his return has gotten some momentum going. **1/2