WWE Survivor Series 2017

WWE Survivor Series 2017

Houston, TX - November 2017

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Brock Lesnar is the WWE Universal Champion, while AJ Styles holds the ever-so-slightly less prestigious WWE Championship. The United States Champion is Baron Corbin, The Miz is the Intercontinental Champion, the RAW Tag Team Titles are held by Sheamus and Cesaro, the SmackDown Tag Team Titles are the property of the Usos, Charlotte Flair holds the SmackDown Women's Championship, and Alexa Bliss is the RAW Women's Champion. The only title not featured on tonight's show is the Cruiserweight Championship held by Enzo Amore. By the way, did you know Rich Swann held the title for 2 months? I didn't. 

COMMENTATORS: Booker T, Tom Phillips, Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton

The New Day start off the show with a needless promo, which has become something of an unfortunate trope for SmackDown pay-per-views. In the ring, The New Day consistently bring the goods and even their worst promos tend to have at least some originality thrown in between the catchphrases, but these events are long enough that their promos are just unnecessary. For some reason a video package plays highlighting what led to their match against The Sheild and we're 10 minutes into the show and not a single wrestling hold has been applied. Thankfully, once the bell rings, everyone seems to have their workboots on, arguably the WWE's most successful stables of the past decade eager to try to steal the show early. As most expected, this was two teams with lots of signature offense busting out everything they could against each other including some never-before-seen variations on the classics. The crowd was very into the proceedings, though Reigns did get some slight jeers at times. The shifts in momentum weren't too jarring, a pet peeve of mine that is sometimes hard to ignore (especially in Ambrose matches as he "death sells" a little too much for my liking), and I liked how both sides played it relatively "tweener," taking advantages and liberties at times, but never blatantly cheating. Just a really well-worked, well-produced battle that checked off every box it needed to. My biggest gripe might be that Reigns might've gave too much at points, though, in the context of the match, him selling for Xavier Woods, for example, made more sense than it would in a 1-on-1 TV match. I'm not sure it will make my Top 10 list for 2017, but it could sneak in as an honorable mention. (4/5)

Backstage, Stephanie McMahon gives a pep talk to the RAW squadron of female talent. 

In the ring we go for our first Survivors Match of the night - Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, Tamina,  Charlotte, and Beth Phoenix of SmackDown taking on Sasha Banks, Bayley, Alicia Fox, Nia Jax, and Asuka. Lynch, the Blue Brand's captain, was the first lady out, disappointing a large, vocal portion of the audience. The somewhat odd booking would continue from there as the majority of the minutes and spotlight seemed to go to SmackDown's Tamina Snuka despite her general sloppiness. I didn't watch the entirety of the Mae Young Classic but has the WWE actively sought larger "monster" type females that have been adequately trained the way they've gone after other body types? If Nia Jax needing more time in NXT is a valid criticism, I think one could just as accurately say Tamina needs a time machine to relive the EIGHT YEARS of experience she's supposed to have. To be sure, it was an off night for one of my personal favorties Alicia Fox as well, the sometime-valet/sometime-grappler showing serious ring rust in her exchanges with Naomi. In the past, I've raved about Fox's character work (maybe 2014 when she was playing an unhinged maniac) and I would continue to cite her as an underutilized talent, but like Tamina and to a lesser degree Jax, she's not a polished enough worker and hasn't had a well enough defined character to add much to these matches. While multi-man matches are usually designed to hide the flaws of the competitors, this time around, their worst attributes were front and center as miscommunications, blatant spot-calling, and poor timing became the recurring themes of the match. Even when things boiled down to Banks and Asuka vs. Carmella, Natalya, and Tamina and it became obvious that the match was leading towards Asuka being the sole survivor, the match didn't pick up and Asuka's predictable victory played out with little inventiveness. On the plus side, Natalya showed great fire, really stiffing the hell out of the former NXT Women's Champion, and Asuka got a big response for her victory. Also, kudos to whoever sent them out with the clear directive of SmackDown being the clear heels and RAW fighting from underneath. That dynamic gave the match the structure it needed, even if the execution was imperfect. (2/5)

Backstage, Stephanie talks trash to Daniel Bryan. 

Back to the ring we go for United States Champion Baron Corbin vs. Intercontinental Champion The Miz. This match was better than most people expected, The Miz proving his Twitter claim that he is able to elevate others - though I'm not sure he does it better than anyone else on the roster. What The Miz might do better than anyone else on the roster, though, is build his matches around a basic story - this time it was a damaged knee - to keep the audience engaged from beginning to end without gratuitous, insane spots. Corbin, meanwhile, had one of his better nights, his inconsistency maybe being his most consistent factor. For a heel/heel match, the crowd seemed into the proceedings too. While I wouldn't call this match "great," it was no worse than average. (2.5/5)

Paul Heyman cuts a brief backstage promo hyping the match I'm most excited for - AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar.

Time for the two Tag Team Champions to do battle - RAW's Cesaro and Sheamus vs. SmackDown's Usos. Like the prior match, this is another heel/heel combo, only this time around, the expectations are relatively high because both teams have been consistently great for awhile now. The crowd seemed a little quiet early on, though one could hear a sprinkling of chants for both teams at different times. I'm not sure how they could do it, but it'd be fun if they could figure a way to split the crowd into "blue" and "red" with the winning side, depending on ticket color or something, getting a free chalupa. Might seem like a silly idea, but I've been to Cavs games where the crowd erupts when we get to 100 on garbage points in a blowout loss. Just a thought....Fundamentally, the match delivered all the sound back-and-forth that anyone could've expected, but in a year full of really great, exceptional tag team matches, this one lacked the fan enthusiasm it needed to place it in that rarified air. The nastiest spot of the match might've been a ridiculous back body drop by Jay Uso that sent Cesaro into the corner and looked like it could've broken his neck. The Usos couldn't capitalize on it, though, Cesaro fighting back and with some extra help from Sheamus, applying the Big Swing-into-the-Sharpshooter right in the middle of the ring. At this point someone mentioned the end result of last year's 10-on-10 Tag Survivors match, a note that I would've loved for them to play up earlier as I'd completely forgot about it. As the false finishes starting stacking up, the crowd got more invested and the violence ramped up as well, Jimmy Uso eating the middle rope in a scary moment reminiscent of the way Enzo got injured some time back. Great Tower of Doom-esque spot with Jimmy Uso hitting Sheamus with a Samoan Drop while sitting atop Cesaro's shoulders. A quiet "This is Awesome" chant started but fizzled out. One of the best finishing stretches in a tag match in a long time, this one could've been a Top 10 Match of the Year if it had started with the heat that it ended with. (3.5/5)

Jason Jordan is backstage, noting that he's "100% behind his teammates" except for Triple H, who stole his spot on the show. In-ring, Jason Jordan has impressed me, but I'm definitely on the side that believes this entire "Angle's Son" gimmick has become a hole that Jordan, Angle, WWE Creative, and now seemingly Triple H are unable to dig themselves out of (but continue to try to). Maybe a quick switch to the Blue Brand could allow them to start from scratch with Jordan?

Charlotte vs. Alexa Bliss in a Battle of Womens' Championships was next. Charlotte was one of the best heels in the company, male or female, a few years back and I'm praying that they are building her for a heel turn and feud with Becky Lynch for WrestleMania as that is where the money's at right now on the Blue Brand. Bliss, meanwhile, has become my favorite female talent on the entire roster, her obnoxious arrogance impossible to tolerate but her in-ring craftiness equally impossible to ignore. Finally a match with a somewhat clear heel/face dynamic (though Charlotte is not nearly as good a babyface as she was a heel). I really liked 90% of this match from an in-ring standpoint as Charlotte and Bliss worked very well together, all the transitions in control made sense, and this looked like a legit fight at every point. My biggest gripe came in the closing segments as at no point in the match had Charlotte targeted Bliss's knee which made the Figure 8 finish frustratingly inappropriate. The exact same result after a second Natural Selection and I'd notch this one up another half-point, but the inattention to details at the climax of what was a very spirited and well-crafted match kept this from being as great as it could be. (3.5/5)

The match that most fans were waiting for was next - Brock Lesnar, the reigning WWE Universal Champion, taking on AJ Styles, the reigning WWE Champion. Styles only recently captured the title from Jinder Mahal, arguably the worst WWE Champion of all time, when Vince McMahon finally came to his senses and realized that the goal of his company should be to maximize profits, not minimize them. Whoops. Lesnar dominated early, the commentators noting the familiarity of his dominance here with the beating he put on John Cena in at SummerSlam 2014. Fortunately, AJ Styles was able to withstand the Beast's initial onslaught and cut Lesnar down to size by going after his knee. The psychology here was really sound too as Styles continued to distance himself from his adversary and strike using his agility and speed, connecting with dropkicks, Pele Kicks, and Phenomenal Forearms both in the ring and out. Only when Styles unwisely attempted some of his other signature moves (a Styles Crash, for example) did his strategy fail him, Lesnar easily outpowering him whenever they drew close. There was an absolutely great Calf Crusher sequence in the closing minutes of the match that, sadly, went a few minutes too short to really contend for Match of the Year honors. Lesnar countered a final ditch Phenomenal Forearm attempt into an F-5 to gain a decisive victory but I definitely wouldn't mind seeing Styles and Lesnar tear it up again as this was easily the best Lesnar match in quite some time, the Beast's best qualities on full display thanks to Styles' enthusiastic bumping and, to his credit, Lesnar's own somewhat shockingly varied offense. I'd have to run back through the database, but I'm thinking this was the best 1-on-1 Lesnar match of the year and another must-see performance out of AJ Styles. (4/5)

Main event time - Team RAW (Kurt Angle, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Triple H, Braun Strowman) taking on Team SmackDown (Shane McMahon, John Cena, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, and Randy Orton). The match began brightly with Braun Strowman tossing Shane-O like a bag of trash across the ring before we got a series of crowd-pleasing pair-ups featuring Balor, Nakamura, Triple H, and Roode. The first elimination came after Nakamura put on a clinic taking out the entire RAW brand by himself with a dazzling array of signature offense before succumbing to a big Strowman powerslam. Nakamura marks will cry "Burial!" but if you're going to go down, you might as well go down to the biggest, baddest mofo in the match. Roode would meet the same fate moments later, putting RAW in control of the match from here on in. Surprisingly, this is when John Cena would finally step into the ring, teaming with Randy Orton to go after Strowman. I was genuinely surprised we didn't get a real "moment" between Cena and Strowman considering, as far as I know, they haven't had a major stare-down or anything since Braun became a bona fide main eventer. Hell, we didn't even get much out of the commentators regarding the fact that Cena and Orton were putting aside a career-long rivalry to work together. Anyway, Team Blue (including Nak and Roode) banded together to suplex Strowman through an announce table and the big man wouldn't come back for over 10 minutes. Back in the ring, Joe and Cena locked up for a little bit and showed some real chemistry. After eliminating Joe with two AA's (at least it wasn't just one), the remaining RAW team members took an inordinate amount of time deciding who would face John Cena. Oddly, this non-wrestling stretch was somehow less awkward and more watchable than the 3-4 minutes that followed it as Kurt Angle came in to bring the match to a crawling pace as the crowd quieted, giving absolutely no shit about the history between the two. Even Cena's dependable "U Can't See Me" earned only a mild response. What a surprise - John Cena wrestling at half-speed to accommodate the clearly gassed Angle isn't as compelling as seeing fresher talent like Joe, Nak, and Strowman tear it up in 2017. Balor helped eliminate Cena (though it was Angle that inexplicably got the pin) in what I would consider the first real sign that this match was pointed to and now heading in the direction of a toilet. Balor continued to run roughshod over Orton until he ate an RKO to put him out of the commission and we were left with a 3-on-2 situation built around 4 guys that have no business being in the main event spotlight and Braun Strowman. To make matters worse for the Blue Brand, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens showed up to beat on Shane McMahon even more, though, thanks to a chair an RKO, they were sent to the back, essentially jobbed out in a match they weren't even in for no reason at all. Soon after, Strowman got up from his slumber and took out Randy Orton to make things 3-on-1, the audience on their feet expecting someone, anyone, maybe Undertaker (?), to save this match. Sadly, the "savior" would end up being Triple H, who selfishly pedigree'd Kurt Angle to break up the Ankle Lock Submission he'd applied to Shane McMahon, only so he could be the one to get the win for the RAW brand. The ending of this match was like the worst possible Mad Lib selections for the worst possible way to end a Survivor Series match - just truly beyond terrible. During the post-match celebration, Triple H got laid out by two Braun Strowman powerslams in what I'm thinking Creative thinks will further cement Strowman as someone worth cheering, but while that may be true, they sure took a really unentertaining, disappointing route to get there. I mean, Strowman would be cheered for powerslamming a bag of puppies at this point so its not like he gained anything by being the sole survivor of a terrible match. This match delivered what it needed to in the first act, but the middle saw the elimination of nearly every interesting character involved, and the third act exposed Kurt Angle as being much more worn down than he seemed at TLC (where he at least had the benefit of getting to rest for 10+ minutes during the middle of the match with a feigned injury). Also, compared to several of the other multi-man main events this year, this one was surprisingly light on the chaos and brawling, which is disappointing because when you've got Braun, Shane, Orton, and Triple H involved, you kind of expect shards of table and other debris to be left around the ring. I'm not saying this would've been a better match with a dozen ladder and table spots tossed in, but when you got to Burger King, its okay to be disappointed if your order of fries doesn't include an errant onion ring. Worst WWE main event of the year? (1.5/5)


With a Kwang Score of 3.00-out-of-5, Survivor Series 2017 was one of the better overall shows the WWE has produced this year outside of the NXT brand. In fact, only Great Balls of Fire and the Rumble scored better, though, its impossible to fully recommend this show when the main event was maybe the most disappointing match of the year. Considering the talent involved, there was almost no way the WWE could mess it up - but in a sad attempt to microwave a decades-stale rivalry between Triple H and Kurt Angle and presumably utilize John Cena as nothing more than a "live gate bumper" (meaning, once the tickets are sold, he's used only in a cameo role), that is exactly what they did. On the positive side, there were no less than 4 really good-maybe-great matches on the rest of the show, including a very fun 6-man opener, two great Champion vs. Champion matches in Bliss/Charlotte and The Bar/Usos, and arguably the best 1-on-1 Brock Lesnar match of the year. Too bad the WWE seems to be more interested in protecting Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon, and Triple H's legacy than actually delivering on the promise of the fresher talent that clearly shined throughout the show (namely Big E, The Usos, AJ Styles, and Braun Strowman).

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand