WWE Survivor Series (November 2022)

Original Airdate: November 26, 2022

From Boston, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Michael Cole and Corey Graves

Opening WarGames Match: Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, and Mia Yim v Dakota Kai, Iyo Sky, Bayley, Rhea Ripley, and Nikki Cross: Belair and Kai start, and Bianca dominates with some basic feeling out exchanges. The announcers note that “five minutes is an eternity inside of a WWE ring.” Well, it definitely feels like one here. Belair manages a powerbomb into the cage as Sky enters the match, and Belair takes a beating for the duration of the period. Asuka is next in, and makes an impact, backing up Belair. Asuka dives with a missile dropkick on Sky as Belair presses Kai into the cage, and Cross is next in. She’s the first to bring weapons into play (kendo sticks, trash can lids), since that’s what these matches are in 2022. Bliss is next in, and everyone beats the hell out of one another with kendo sticks, as Nikki just hangs out on the top of the cage, enjoying watching the destruction. Cross finally dives off onto everyone in a dogpile, and in comes Bayley. Along with a ladder. And a table. The heels dominate, until Yim joins the party with some more weapons. You know, sometimes it is okay to show up to a party empty handed. There are already kendo sticks, trash can lids, ladders, and tables in there. Now is that time. Ripley is next in, and is dominant, destroying people left and right. Becky is last in to officially start the WarGames, and are we not calling it the Match Beyond anymore? Becky runs wild for a bit, and you’d think the finish would be forthcoming, but nope, it just drags on and on from there. The crowd dies off, and the match kind of drags across the finish line with Becky pinning Kai after a flying legdrop through a table from the top of the cage at 39:36. Wait, pinfalls now? I don’t dig these modern WarGames matches. Hell, I was never that big a fan of the original either. My only real takeaway here is that Becky and Rhea looked like the biggest stars there. ¾*

AJ Styles v Finn Balor: Some feeling out to start, and Finn gets control. He works an abdominal stretch, but Styles fights free, and puts him down with a forearm, then corner splashes him. Fireman’s neckbreaker gets AJ a two count, and he works the leg. The OC and the Judgement Day guys get into it on the outside to distract from the match for a bit, and we get a pinfall reversal sequence once the stables brawl into the crowd to refocus. Balor gets control, but AJ blocks a running dropkick, and he suplexes Finn into the turnbuckles for two. Reversal sequence ends in both men looking up at the lights, and Styles reverses a cross corner whip as they recover. Styles tries a slingshot, but gets caught in a gutbuster for two, and his own fireman’s neckbreaker sets up a suplex, but AJ blocks. That allows Styles a sliced bread for two, but a flying 450 splash misses, and Finn capitalizes with a running dropkick. He goes up for the flying double stomp, but Styles dodges, and puts him in the calf crusher. Finn fights free, but ends up eating a Phenominal Forearm at 18:22. These two had a really good match at TLC in 2017. This was not a worthy follow up. *

WWE Smackdown Women's Title Match: Ronda Rousey v Shotzi: Shotzi goes right at her with fists, but Ronda keeps shaking her off. Shotzi tries an enzuigiri, but Ronda ducks, and gets her in an anklelock. Shotzi escapes, and manages a cannonball in the corner, and the champ bails. Shotzi is on her with a tope, but Shayna Baszler takes the bullet for the champion. That only slows Shotzi down for a moment, however, and Rousey gets send into the steps anyway. Shotzi takes it back inside, so Shayna tries a distraction, but Shotzi fights it off. Shotzi goes up with a flying bodypress, but Ronda catches her in a sloppy belly-to-belly suplex. Good try, but it didn’t look good. Ronda tries kicks, but Shotzi takes her down, and puts the boots to her. Ronda tries another anklelock, so Shotzi throws a leg-feed enzuigiri, but Ronda absorbs it, and traps the challenger in a cross-armbreaker. To the outside, they spill into the crowd, taking out a bunch of plants in the front row, in a cool spot. Who cares if they’re plants, it was interesting. AND it saved them from having to take a real bump on the concrete, so twice as good. Back inside, Ronda slams her off the top for two, and the armbreaker retains at 7:13. Solid, if totally bland. * ½ 

WWE United States Title Triple Threat Match: Seth Rollins v Bobby Lashley v Austin Theory: Austin gets dumped over the top right away, leaving Seth to take some abuse from Lashley solo. He tries a vertical suplex, but Seth blocks, and the champ throws some chops - all no sold. Lashley tries a full nelson, but Seth blocks that as well, and Austin pulls Seth to the outside to chuck into the barricade. Austin comes in to try attacking Lashley, but gets suplexed. Seth is back with a dive at Lashley, but he gets caught in a suplex as well, and Lashley pinballs them around for a bit. Lashley with a slam on Seth for two, and Austin delivers a dropkick on Rollins for two. Seth fights back with a small package for two, but Austin cuts him off with a backelbow for one. Austin makes the mistake of trash talking him, allowing Seth a comeback, and he hits both challengers with topes, before dumping them to the same outside of the ring for a somersault suicide dive onto both. Inside with a sitout powerbomb on Theory for two, but Austin manages a somersault neckbreaker on Lashley. He stupidly goes for a power move to follow up, but Lashley counters with a full nelson. Austin runs the ropes into a cradle for two, and Seth dives on Lashley for two. Why are the announcers calling Survivor Series the ‘Thanksgiving weekend tradition?’ It hasn’t been since, what, 1994? Coincidentally occurring on the same weekend as Thanksgiving from time to time since doesn’t a ‘tradition’ make. Rollins superplexes Theory, but Lashley blocks the falcon arrow follow up with a spear - only for Austin to fall on top of Rollins to steal the title at 14:49. Another one where the work was perfectly fine, but there was nothing engaging in it. * ½ 

Main Event: WarGames Match: Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, and Solo Sikoa v Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Kevin Owens, Ridge Holland, and Butch: Jey and Butch start, so get ready, more ‘eternity’ on the way! They spend the full first minute just yelling at each other from a distance, and Butch gets his hands on the fingers, doing some joint manipulation. “He has to suffer through three more minutes of this,” note Graves. He’s not the only one. Ridge is next in, and apparently he stores food, but is not a Maytag. Maytag and Butch work Jey over, until Sami joins the party. That allows the heel to control, until Drew enters the fray. The crowd is dead here, since all of this is meaningless, and they know all the big spots aren’t going to start until the full field gets in. Jimmy is next in, and he introduces weapons, just in case you thought, maybe, they forgot. Owens is next in the match, and he runs wild with a chair. Solo is next in, and the announcers are really excited about it, but the crowd is so dead that I have to check that they haven’t reverted back to the empty arena shows again. They haven’t, this just sucks. Sheamus is next in, as the announcers remind us of the ‘great Survivor Series’ Sheamus had in 2015. To put that into perspective, that would be like the announcers in 1999 talking about shit from 1992. Today, that almost nothing has changed. Roman is the last into the match, and hopefully the crowd wakes up a little bit now. Owens hits Reigns with a stunner, but Sami saves at two, and kills Kevin for the Usos to finish at 38:32. With the format and extreme length, they’ve basically turned WarGames into a lamer version of the Royal Rumble match, instead of a blood feud blowoff. Not for me. ½*

BUExperience: If you thought the crowd was dead for this, I wish I had video of me trying to sit through it. Not just a ‘no’ on this one, but a big, massive, Royal Rumble 1991 NOOOOOOOOOO!!

DUD