WWE SURVIVOR SERIES

Rosemont, Illinois

TAG TEAM BATTLE ROYAL (BOBBY ROODE & DOLPH ZIGGLER) (8:20): I suppose this was a pretty decent, entertaining show. At least compared to the usual, humdrum shit the WWE puts on these days. Because AEW Dynamite has been beating NXT every Wednesday in the ratings (until this week when NXT won thanks to packing the show with the likes of Ricochet, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, etc.), they've pushed NXT down our throats and for the first year they're in all of the elimination matches tonight. So that was something new at least. I've never been the biggest fan of this year for a lot of reasons. One: the winners get nothing. Two: seeing Smackdown wrestlers face RAW wrestlers is supposed to be this unique thing but they seem to end up on each other's shows all the time so that is never anything fresh. This match had a zillion dudes in the ring at the same time and if one member of a tag team was thrown over the top rope then both were eliminated. This was a pre-show match (the pre-show was two hours...my God) so nobody really cared and the building was half empty. This was the same building where AEW's All In happened, right? I guess I'm just pondering AEW because it's better and I seriously just watched Dynamite. *

LIO RUSH vs. AKIRA TOZAWA vs. KALISTO (8:20): This was for the 205Live title...which is kind of ridiculous since Lio defended it on NXT two week's ago and 205Live was mysteriously not on last Friday. With these three you'd think it'd be a fucking epic of pure excitement...but it wasn't. It was short, basic. *1/2

THE VIKING RAIDERS vs. THE NEW DAY vs. BOBBY FISH & KYLE O'REILLY (14:35):
This was on the pre-show. It was pretty fun but nothing special. The Viking Raiders, for whatever reason, were a hell of a lot more exciting when they wrestled as The War Raiders in ROH and NJPW. **1/2

TEAM NXT (RHEA RIPLEY, BIANCA BELAIR, CANDICE LERAE, IO SHIRAI & TONI STORM) vs. TEAM RAW (CHARLOTTE, NATALYA, ASUKA, KAIRI SANE & SARAH LOGAN) vs. TEAM SMACKDOWN (SASHA BANKS, CARMELLA, DANA BROOKE, LACEY EVANS & NIKKI CROSS) (28:00): Since NXT was added to this 5 on 5 elimination matches I thought this show would stretch on until the end of time. I think the WWE realized that this was a possibility, too, so they actually curbed them all at under 30:00 which helped. This was a good match and the fresh, hot crowd helped. Rhea Ripley was kind of the star here. I guess they're pushing her because she's really tall (Vince always seemed to favor tall people for whatever reason). Candice and Io Shirai got "injured" and had to leave the match but returned to cheer on Rhea as she pinned Sasha to win. **1/2

RODERICK STRONG vs. AJ STYLES vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (16:45): Strong kind of snuck in the win here. Nakamura has been at least semi-interesting lately thanks to his manager, Sami Zayn. Why Sami Zayn doesn't wrestler anymore is beyond me. Somebody go send Vince an El Generico greatest hits DVD or something. Three years ago this may have been the greatest match in the history of time. Now...it was good not great. **1/2

ADAM COLE vs. PETE DUNNE (14:10): This was perhaps the best match of the night...but unfortunately only the last five minutes or so were great. Maybe it's because Cole has a broken hand and a cast plus he leapt off the War Games cage through a table last night at NXT so he had to start slow. Either way, when this heated up it was awesome stuff. Pete Dunne is one of WWE's best wrestlers and this ended up being really good. ***

"THE FIEND" BRAY WYATT vs. DANIEL BRYAN (10:10): So this match was ruined by the stupid red lighting that every Wyatt match has now. Daniel Bryan is awesome, though, so he at least helped this being somewhat watchable. I guess Bryan is a good guy again now since he's doing the "Yes!" chants. Or is it just because he's facing Wyatt? Who the fuck knows? Get rid of the red lighting already. Wyatt retained the title. *1/2

TEAM SMACKDOWN (ROMAN REIGNS, BRAUN STROWMAN, KING CORBIN, MUSTAFA ALI & SHORTY G) vs. TEAM RAW (SETH ROLLINS, DREW MCINTYRE, KEVIN OWENS, RICOCHET & RANDY ORTON) vs. TEAM NXT (WALTER, TOMMASO CIAMPA, DAMIAN PRIEST, MATT RIDDLE & KEITH LEE) (29:25): Again with the pushing of NXT, the finale had Roman Reigns vs. Keith Lee. There was a lot of good action here and this was a fun match. Walter got a huge reaction from the crowd when the match started. The goodwill ended when McIntyre pinned him first and the crowd booed. Seriously, Walter is one of the greatest wrestlers in the world and the WWE is fucking him over. I guess they went with pushing Keith Lee because Walter is in NXT UK and not NXT Florida. Ugh. Ciampa did a top rope slam on Adam Cole through a table last night from the top of the cage. Ciampa had frigging neck surgery last Spring. Are doctors getting better or something? What the hell is going on? Maybe he's a robot now. **1/2

BROCK LESNAR vs. REY MYSTERIO, JR. (7:00): This match was good but stupid. The crowd loved it, though, and it was hilarious in a Vince Russo type of way. By the end, Rey Mysterio was hitting Lesnar with a lead pipe and Mysterio's son was giving Lesnar a low blow, then they both did a 619 on him and it was crazy and wild and ridiculous. Lesnar of course won...somehow. Cain didn't show up for whatever reason. This had the big fight feel and I'm not entirely sure why it wasn't the main event. **1/2

SHAYNA BASZLER vs. BECKY LYNCH vs. BAYLEY (16:10): Wow. They put this match on last for no good reason and the crowd was asleep and this was awful and boring. Way to end the show, idiots! Shayna Baszler is by far the worst NXT women's champ ever. I guess they think she's like Ronda Rousey because she's an MMA fighter and so they're pushing her...but Rousey was exciting. Baszler is a snore. The big problem with these three way NXT vs. Smackdown vs. RAW matches is that the winner gets nothing so they're meaningless. Oh, well. 1/2*