WWE Survivor Series (November 2019)

 

Original Airdate: November 24, 2019

From Chicago, Illinois; Your Hosts are Vic Joseph and Jerry Lawler (RAW); Michael Cole and Corey Graves (Smackdown); Nigel McGuinness and Beth Phoenix (NXT)

Opening Triple Threat Survivor Series Elimination Match: Team RAW (Charlotte Flair, Asuka, Kairi Sane, Natalya, and Sarah Logan) v Team Smackdown (Sasha Banks, Carmella, Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke, and Nikki Cross) v Team NXT (Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, and Toni Storm): Yes, it's a triple threat elimination match. That is a thing that exists now. Logan, Evans, and Storm start, with Lacey striking first, but then paying for it by having to deal with a double team. She gets saved by Nikki Cross, but she too falls prey to a double team before the Logan-Storm alliance falls apart. It just wasn't meant to be. Sarah would be a lot better suited to gal palling with Nikki, anyway. Storm gives them a double German suplex (drawing a cool little bouncy reaction from the NXT team), and then everyone decides to tag out (Sane, Carmella, Io respectively). Sane and Io want each other, but that makes Carmella jealous, and she insists that they acknowledge her presence. That goes badly. She passes to Brooke, who is wise enough to just stay the fuck out of it, and let these two kill each other. Which they do. In stiff fashion. Watching Sane and Io kill each other for a few minutes is great, but also kind of embarrassing for the rest of the division. Especially with all of them standing RIGHT THERE. More tags give us Asuka, Evans, and LeRae in the match, and Candice dominates, sticking and moving. Over to Ripley, and she BLASTS Evans with a dropkick, but gets trapped in a submission by Asuka. She looks done for, but Belair saves her, triggering a sequence where everyone in the match takes turns hitting spots on each other - ending in Banks giving Logan a lungblower. Sasha's pretty full of herself, isn't she? Not sure how much of that is Sasha Sasha, and how much of it is TV Sasha. Candice and Io get hurt during the sequence, and both end up getting carried to the back by the trainers, so I guess they're out of the match. It's obviously kayfabe though, since all the RAW and Smackdown women taunt them on their way out. Dust settles on Charlotte, Banks, and Belair next, but then Logan decides she wants in, and so does Cross. I literally don't care, so just settle on something. Nikki runs wild like the ferocious little gremlin she is, even stopping to take out Toni and Rhea while she's at it. Unfortunately, trying to fight everyone at once is not the best strategy when you're about five feet tall, and she ends up getting clobbered, and leverage pinned by Belair at 9:38. Within spitting distance of her home corner, too. Couldn't one of you lazy bitches push Bianca's foot off the ropes?! Carmella comes in, and gets some abuse in on Belair, but gets slammed in short order, and she takes a break on the outside. Logan picks up the slack by dumping Belair to the outside, and Sarah follows to take out the rest of the NXT team while she's out there. Like Nikki, that strategy backfires on her, and Bianca puts her away with a flying 450 splash at 12:11. Belair celebrates, but here comes Charlotte, and I like how the Smackdown team is just chilling, in no hurry to participate. Hey, that's smart wrestling, but where's the referee? Carmella swoops in to throw a bunch of superkicks, but everyone just kind of ignores her, and Flair big boots her to the outside. Flair lands a big boot on Belair too, but Carmella runs in to prevent her from completing the flying moonsault, and she gives Flair a rana off the middle for two. More superkicks on Belair get two, but they allow Flair to sneak up with the Natural Selection to send Carmella home at 15:38. Charlotte should really stop using any move with 'natural' in the title, like, right away. Dust settles on Sane, Banks, and Storm, and it's a slugfest. Toni's big ass wins that one (literally), but Sane wants to fly around, and it's big elbow time! Cover, count, but Sasha blasts Kairi with a knee to break it up, and that's it for Sane at 16:48. Why not let Sane get the pin on Storm first, though? Asuka comes in and throws strikes at everything that moves, with a spinkick ending Dana's night at 17:25. See, the trick is to simply not be moving. Like in Jurassic Park. Or, you know, real life... if real life still included certain dinosaurs. Flair gets into a fight with Asuka during her victory celebration, which prompts a furious reaction from Evans for some reason, but Flair suplexes her into the turnbuckles. Asuka returns to mist Flair in the face before walking out at 19:00, and leaving blinded Charlotte to get quickly pinned by Evans at 19:08. That leaves Natalya alone for the RAW team, but she comes in hot, and puts Evans away with a schoolgirl at 19:50. That leaves Sasha alone for Smackdown, and NXT still has three. Natalya and Banks know what's up, and decide to team up to put Storm away with a Sharpshooter/Statement combo at 20:47... while her teammates just stand there like goofs. Belair comes in next, so Natalya and Sasha give her a modified Hart Attack at 21:17. That leaves Ripley alone, and she's not looking too confident. But then before we get to see how she handles herself, Sasha turns on Natalya, and pins her at 21:58. And then there were two. Ripley unloads with right hands to stun Sasha, and a running dropkick gets her two. Tilt-a-whirl, but Sasha turns it into a sleeper, and Ripley is forced to fight her off. Rhea's dazed, allowing Banks to put her in the corner for some abuse, but a dive off the top gets blocked with a boot, and Ripley covers for two. Ripley hooks an inverted standing cloverleaf, but Banks manages to counter to the Statement! Ripley starts to power out, so Banks slaps it back on, but here come Candice and Io to make the save. Yeah, I'm pretty sure once you disappear for twenty minutes, you're out - pinfall or not. Sasha fights off the triple team, but ends up getting overwhelmed, and Ripley pins her at 27:53 - to a great reaction. Zoe Bell wins! Zoe Bell wins!
Survivors: Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae, Io Shirai
Not really sure how Candice and Io aren't considered eliminated, but faking an injury to save yourself for later in the match is a great strategy, if legal. The match was pretty fun, but not a half hours worth, that's for sure. ** ¼

Triple Threat Match: AJ Styles v Shinsuke Nakamura v Roderick Strong: All three guys hold secondary titles on their brand (United States, Intercontinental, and North American respectively), but none are on the line here. Nakamura takes them both down right away, and dominates the early going, mostly with kicks. Eventually, Styles catches the leg to block one, and railroads Nakamura into the corner. He adds a dropkick on Strong, then puts him in the opposite corner so he can pinball back-and-forth at both guys. That goes on until Strong cuts him off with a backbreaker, and Nakamura gets one too. Nakamura bails, so Strong goes after him with a baseball slide, but an attempt to dump AJ to the outside with a suplex backfires. AJ tries a Phenomenal Forearm on Nakamura on the way back inside, but he gets knocked off the ropes, and Nakamura bootchokes him in the corner. Remember when the prospect of seeing Nakamura/Styles in the WWE had the entire smark community practically salivating? Yeah, good times. Nakamura dumps AJ to the outside just in time for Strong to show up with a gutbuster for two, and he tries a modified torture rack for a submission, but Nakamura escapes. Cue AJ with a sleeper on Strong, but he escapes, and we have a three-way slugfest. Strong gets the better of it, and he hits AJ with a hangman's clothesline, then gives Nakamura a backbreaker. Suplex on AJ gets two, but Styles counters another one, and we have another three-way slugfest. Strong gets the better of it again, but AJ blocks him coming into the corner, triggering a reversal sequence that ends in Nakamura blasting Styles with a dropkick for two. Nakamura and Strong slug it out, won by Nakamura with a shining wizard for two. AJ hits Nakamura with an inverted DDT for two, but Nakamura blocks the Clash, and the Calf Crusher as well. He's not so lucky against the fireman's neckbreaker, but it only gets two anyway. Clash, but Strong dropkicks AJ mid-move to save, and Sami Zayn pulls Nakamura out of the ring to avoid anyone covering him. Strong stays on Styles with a neat saito suplex into a powerbomb for two, but an attempt at a superplex goes badly when Strong gets caught with an electric chair/flying sidekick combo from Styles and Nakamura. That was cool. Nakamura gets to the cover first, but Styles breaks at two. Kinshasa, but Styles blocks him from hitting it, which allows Strong to blast Nakamura with a high knee for two. I love how the high knee has basically become an all purpose finisher now that Triple H is management. I know it's probably not actually because of him, but you could easily believe it. Everyone trades off with strikes, with Nakamura getting the better of it, and nearly finishing Strong before AJ breaks up a pin at two. Strong rolls to the outside to regroup, leaving the grown ups to slug it out, and Nakamura spinheel kicks him to win that exchange. Suplex, but Styles counters with a pele kick, so Nakamura dives off the middle rope with a knee. Michinoku driver gets two, but AJ counters Kinshasa with the Clash, only for Nakamura to block. Reversal sequence ends in Styles hitting the Phenomenal Forearm, but here's Strong to dump him to the outside before he can make the cover, and he steals the pin on Nakamura for himself at 16:46. Another great crowd reaction to NXT going over here. I'm not really a fan of triple threat (or fatal four-way) matches in general, and while this didn't do much to change my opinion, it found a pretty good groove that I could work with. ** ¾

NXT Title Match: Adam Cole v Pete Dunne: Cole is sporting taped up ribs to sell last night's WarGames. Dunne with a quick takedown to work the magic fingers, but Cole counters his way out, and they trade holds for a bit. Criss cross is won by Dunne with a clothesline, and it's back to the mat for more magic fingers. Pete tries going to the middle rope, but Adam swipes at Dunne's taped up knee to knock him off, and that's enough to turn the tide. Cole with a neckbreaker, and he keeps his challenger grounded with a kneebar. Dunne goes after the fingers to force a break, so Cole throws a dropkick to the knee, but Pete counters a suplex with the x-plex! Dunne throws right hands and an enzuigiri, followed by a release German suplex. Way to sell that knee, Pete. Dunne with a sitout powerbomb for two, and NOW he remembers that his knee is supposed to be all fucked up. Yeah, I'm not sure that's how selling works there, bud. Cole bails, so Dunne dives after him with a flying moonsault press on the floor, but Adam swipes at the knee again on the way back in. German suplex, but Pete lands on his feet to block, and he goes up with a flying moonsault, but Cole lifts his knees to block. Shining wizard gets two, but Dunne dodges the Canadian destroyer, and levels Cole with a clothesline. Suplex, but Cole counters with a suplex-neckbreaker for two. Shining wizard again, but this time Dunne dodges, and grounds Cole in a submission. Adam escapes, so Dunne hits the Bitter End for two, then punishes Cole for kicking out with an extended array of chops. He tries a flying moonsault press, but Cole is ready with a superkick for two to block. Nice! Canadian destroyer, but Pete blocks with a right hand, and another x-plex is worth two. Cole swipes at the knee to slow his challenger down, and we get a neat sequence where both guys fail to lift the other for suplexes on the apron due to the damage they've sustained. That ends with Cole using momentum instead - in this case with a wild Canadian destroyer on the apron that leaves both men down on the outside! Cole makes it in first to go for the countout win, but Dunne guts it out after him, so Adam fires off a big superkick to try for the knockout. Cover, count, two! That was a great nearfall! Dunne goes after the fingers to buy time, but another Bitter End is countered with a Canadian destroyer (nice), and Cole adds a knee to the back of the head to put the cherry on top at 14:02. I had some issues with the selling at points, but they went for it out there, and it worked more than it didn't. *** ½

WWE Universal Title Match: Bray Wyatt v Daniel Bryan: Yep, they're still doing the stupid red light gimmick. I don't think even Kane got saddled with it for this long. Bryan blitzes him at the bell, but Wyatt counters one of the cross corner dropkicks with a clothesline, and he pounds on his challenger. To the outside, Daniel takes trips to the barricade and post, and Wyatt hits a senton splash on the floor. Back in, Bray hits a uranage, followed by a suplex-slam. This is so slow and plodding you could get a piss break in between moves here. Wyatt works a headvice next, but that goes nowhere, and they spill to the outside. All this is missing is Jim Ross to call it 'bowling shoe ugly' for us at this point. Wyatt tries a charge into the steps, but misses, and Bryan sends him into the post to set up a diving high knee off of the apron. Daniel stays on him with a flying high knee into the barricade, and he rolls the champ back in to nail with a flying dropkick. Bray no-sells, so Daniel goes up with another one, but Wyatt gets back up. Bryan with a third flying dropkick, but Wyatt still won't stay down, so Daniel switches to the Yes Kicks. That doesn't work either, so Bryan just keeps kicking like the little lumberjack that he is, but Wyatt just won't do much selling. Bryan switches to stomping his brain, and that starts to get somewhere, so Bryan punctuates it with a running knee strike for two. Wyatt is vertical first, so Bryan tries getting to the top rope for a dive, but Bray grabs him with a mandible claw. Bryan fights him off and tries the dive again, but Wyatt nails him on the way down. Sister Abigail, but Bryan blocks, so Bray goes to the claw again, and that's the game at 10:00. It got fun once Bryan took over, but it was brutally bad when Wyatt was in control of the contest. Brutally. But at least it was short. ¾*

Triple Threat Survivor Series Elimination Match: Team RAW (Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, and Ricochet) v Team Smackdown (Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Baron Corbin, Shorty G, and Mustafa Ali) v Team NXT (Tommaso Ciampa, WALTER, Damian Priest, Matt Riddle, and Keith Lee): We get Rollins, Strowman, and Ciampa to start, and the littles try ganging up on the big, but Braun fights them both off with a dropkick. That leads to tags to other bigs (Drew, WALTER) to make it a fair fight, and man, WALTER looks like he just stepped out of 1981, or something. I mean, I love the guy, but he's never going to get a serious try on the main roster looking like that. But that's honestly probably for the best anyway. He hits Drew with a German suplex, but an attempt on Braun fails, and worse, pisses him off. WALTER responds with a big boot and a dropkick, but that leaves him open to a Claymore Kick from Drew at 2:53. I guess Vince doesn't like 1981. Priest comes in to take his place, and he manages to dominate Drew, but gets hit with a flying moonsault press from Shorty. Ricochet comes in to fly around with Shorty, and a lengthy reversal sequence ends in Shorty dropping Ricochet right on his head with a nasty German suplex. Riddle tags in to try going to the mattresses with Shorty, and a nice exchange ends in Riddle hooking an anklelock, but Shorty reverses. Seriously, how are they not pushing the fuck out of this guy?! I know he's short, but he can work multiple styles, and can draw sympathy. Shorty ends up getting nailed by Ricochet out of the ropes, and Owens tags in to finish him off with a flying frog splash at 6:22. Well, that gets rid of the fats and the shorts, hopefully Vince can sleep at night. We take a break for an extended dramatic reading between Reigns and Corbin, until Owens breaks it up by superkicking Roman, and hitting him with a Cannonball on the outside. He gets Corbin a stunner, but Ciampa sneaks in a DDT on Kevin before he can cover at 7:36. Orton comes in next, and he and Ciampa are basically sporting the exact same gear. RKO right away, but Ciampa knocks him to the outside to block. DDT on the way back in, but Orton manages to pull him to the outside to block, and Ciampa takes a ride into the barricade. Orton adds a side suplex onto the apron on the way back inside, and he puts Ciampa through the Garvin stomp. RKO, but Ciampa manages to tag out in the process, allowing Priest to sneak in... and right into an RKO anyway at 10:11. Riddle comes in with a knee, but Orton counters to the RKO, so Matt counters right back with a schoolboy at 10:24. Matt is really excited about that, but his celebration is cut short when an angry Orton hits an RKO on the way out, and Corbin quickly covers at 10:49. Lee comes in next, but Corbin doesn't feel like dealing with him, and passes to Braun instead. They have a stare down, but Drew doesn't feel like waiting for them, and dives in with a flying axehandle to take Lee out. That earns him a beating from Braun, and it spills to the outside, where Strowman mows downs a bunch of guys with his running shoulderblock on the floor. Second round, but this time he collides with Lee, and gets the wind knocked out of him to the point where he's counted out at 13:11. Ricochet comes in fast and furious, flying around on everyone (and nearly killing poor Roman with a dive), but he runs into the End of Days from Corbin at 14:26. Dust settles on Rollins and Ali, and Vince can finally book that Undertaker/Undertaker match with actual workrate! Ali dominates, but gets into a fight with a jealous Corbin, and Seth curb stomps him at 16:06. Corbin is actually HAPPY about that, like a dumbass. Which Reigns makes sure he's called. They argue, which allows the other guys to jump them both on the outside, and inside, Drew hits Ciampa with his wicked inverted whiplash for two. Claymore, but Roman cuts him off with a spear at 17:33. Seth sneaks right in with a schoolboy on Reigns for two, and an enzuigiri sends Roman to the outside. Tope, but Reigns is ready with a punch to block, setting Rollins up for the Drive-By. Back in, but Ciampa cuts him off with a DDT. Pedigree, but Reigns counters with the Superman Punch, and both guys are left looking up at the lights. Ciampa edges closer to a tag to Lee, so Corbin comes into take Lee out, and then drags Roman back to the home corner so he can tag himself in. Corbin goes for the kill on Ciampa, but Reigns decides to spear his own partner, and Ciampa pins him at 19:51. Who's the dumbass now? Even the crowd seems to be laughing about how stupid he is. Seth and Roman decide to get the band back together on Ciampa, and it's time for the (double) powerbomb through an announce table, but Lee manages to save. I wasn't feeling it anyway. It's like going to see your favorite 60s band in concert now, with only half the original lineup. Lee brawls with Reigns as Ciampa takes Rollins in to finish, but the backbreaker-powerbomb only gets two. Another one, but this time Seth counters with superkicks. He tries a dive off the middle, but Ciampa blocks, so Reigns rushes in with a Superman, and Seth punctuates it with a curb stomp at 23:56. Lee comes in to face off with the reunited Shield, and actually dominates them both, finishing Rollins off at 26:30. Lee is game to go, but Reigns drills him with a quick pair of Supermans for two, and Lee is seeing stars. Spear, but Lee counters with a sitout powerbomb for two, and man, this crowd wants to see Keith pull this off. He tries a 2^nd rope moonsault, but Roman dodges, and he hits the spear for the win at 29:13.
Survivor: Roman Reigns
This was fun, and never dull (they did a great job of keeping the action moving), but still way too long. ** ¾

WWE Title No Holds Barred Match: Brock Lesnar v Rey Mysterio: Rey appears to be paying homage to Doink the Clown tonight, which is an... interesting... choice. Rey grabs a pipe right at the bell, but Brock is just, like, 'no thanks,' and bails to the outside. I guess Rey still hasn't learned that he has to beat Brock, not the other way around. Brock outsmarts him (shouldn't be hard considering the kid has been in the business for over 30 years, and still hasn't figured out how title changes work), and not only forces the weapon away from him, but chucks him into an announce table just for shits and giggles. Brock with a release overhead suplex onto a table, and he rams Rey into a post next. F5 on the floor, but Rey shoves him into the post to block. He goes for the pipe, but Brock cuts him off before he can grab it, and it's time to go to Suplex City. After a couple of them, Brock kicks the pipe over to Rey, daring him to use it, but Mysterio is too battered to even notice. Brock responds with another German suplex, so Rey's son Dominic runs in to plead for mercy. He wants to throw in the towel, but Brock rips it away from him, and decides to maul the kid instead, but papa Mysterio saves with a low blow. That allows Dominic to get in one of his own, and Rey finally grabs the pipe. He unloads, and with the aid of a chair shot from the kid, we get stereo 619s! That's followed with a pair of flying frogsplashes (one from each of them), and they dog pile onto the champion... for two. Oooh, that would have been a great feel good moment. They go up for another set of dives, but this time Brock pops up, kills Dom with a German suplex, and catches a diving Rey in an F5 for the pin at 6:55. Not really a whole lot to it, but Rey and his kid double teaming Brock was lots of fun. *

Main Event: Triple Threat Match: Becky Lynch v Bayley v Shayna Baszler: All three hold the women's title on their brand (RAW, Smackdown, and NXT respectively), but this is non-title. Baszler tries to boss the other two around at the bell, which earns her a tantrum from Bayley. Becky gets caught in the crossfire, but recovers to dive at both from the apron when they spill to the outside. Becky takes Bayley in to try and polish off, but misses a legdrop, and Bayley slams her. Bayley tries a sunset bomb into the buckles, but overshoots it, and ends up knocking herself into the buckles instead. And then they just pretend it went perfectly, and she covers Becky for two anyway. Jesus, it's okay to go off script once in a while! Even guys like Randy Savage or Diamond Dallas Page would have improvised there. Baszler recovers and beats on Bayley for a while, but Becky returns, and stacks them up in the corner for some booting. Bayley looks really weird without the classic hair style. Bayley works Becky over in dull fashion, including another ridiculous looking spot where she snaps Lynch's throat across the middle rope, misses by a mile, and Becky sells it anyway with another two count. I'm sure this will get decent towards the end, but man, it is just not working right now. Becky suplexes both, and goes up with a flying legdrop on Bayley, but Baszler breaks the cover at two. Becky dumps her, but Bayley has recovered, and schoolgirls Becky for two. Becky responds with the Dis-Arm-Her, but Baszler saves, and suplexes Lynch. That allows Bayley to recover, and she hits a kneesmash on Baszler for two. Bayley-to-Belly on Baszler gets two, but she looks badly winded, and Baszler is able to tackle her. She looked legitimately blown up there, and generally not in as good a shape as normal. Baszler goes for the kill, but here's Becky to dive off the top at both to stop it, and we have a slugfest. Bayley breaks THAT up with a bodypress to knock both down, but an attempt to charge Baszler gets her caught in the Clutch. Becky saves, and she powerbombs Baszler for two. Dis-Arm-Her, but Baszler counters to the Clutch, so Becky shoves her into Bayley to escape. Schoolgirl gets two, so Becky goes to the Dis-Arm-Her, but Baszler counters to the Clutch. Bayley saves this time, and it spills to the outside, where everyone takes a trip into something (post, barricade, table). Bayley manages to get the best of it all, but Baszler counters the Bayley-to-Belly with the Clutch on the way back in. Bayley escapes, and goes up for the flying elbowdrop, but Baszler catches her in the Clutch for the win at 18:05. As genuinely awesome as it is to see the women getting opportunities to main event on a fairly regular basis now, this was not a good example of why they should be. *

BUExperience: Not like they shit the bed, but definitely not a memorable show, either. It’s just kind of ‘there’ – which you could say about the entire promotion much of the time.

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