Results, Review, Recap of WWE Survivor Series 2018

Tonight was the 31st Annual Survivor Series, which is the one time a year that Raw and Smackdown go head to head in competition. I had a lot of concerns going into this Survivor Series due to domino effect Roman Reigns’ departure caused and the fact Crown Jewel was just two weeks ago. These two issues led for a very weak build up to Survivor Series and the little buildup they did have changed within twenty four hours to injuries and contract issues. With the being here are the results of WWE Survivor Series:

-Preshow: Smackdown defeated Raw in the 10 on 10 Tag Team Elimination Match(Uso’s are the Sole Survivors)
-Raw defeated Smackdown in the 5-on-5 Women’s Elimination Match(Nia Jax is the Sole Survivor)
-Intercontental Champion Seth Rollins defeated United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura
-Raw Tag Team Champions AOP defeated Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Bar
-Buddy Murphy defeated Mustafa Ali to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship
-Raw defeated Smackdown in the 5-on-5 Men’s Elimination Match(Braun Strowman, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre are the Survivors)
-Raw Women’s Champion defeated Charlotte by DQ.
-WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defeated WWE Champion Daniel Bryan.

The 5 on 5 Tag Team Elimination Match was on the preshow, which was really sad to me. Tag Team Wrestling in WWE has been lacking for a long time, and having a makeshift team like Bobby Roode and Chad Gable captain the Raw Tag Team Division shows me how it’s become. You have The Ascension,The B Team, The Revival, and Lucha House Party in the division, and they are not being used properly. On the Smackdown side, you have the look of a solid tag team division even though the Colons and Sanity barely get any TV time. I am glad Smackdown won this match because they have the more legitimate tag teams. During the preshow some changes were made to the Women’s 5 on 5 Match. Raw kicked off Ruby Riott and Natalya and replaced them with Sasha and Bayley. The Smackdown team also announced Mandy Rose as the fifth member of their team. Also, in an interesting twist of announcements a vignette was shown that Lars Sullivan is coming soon. I am not sure where Lars will go, but I hope they use him properly unlike a lot of other NXT call ups in the past.

Survivor Series opened up with the 5-on-5 Women’s Elimination Match. I can tell you right now that they really played into the heat that Nia Jax has right now. The crowd is absolutely hating Nia right now because of the Becky situation. I wasn’t feeling the Smackdown team at all because Naomi got eliminated first and Asuka continue to suffer on the main roster. I personally feel that Smackdown should have gotten the revenge win for what happened on Monday. I think everyone is sadly mistaken if Nia Jax is going to be punished for what happen to Becky. The WWE doesn’t want to upset and offend the Samoan Family. I will be curious to see what they do with Nia Jax going forward. The first champion versus champion match of the night was between Seth Rollins and Shinsuke Nakamura. This has been a dream match that fans have wanted to see for quite some time and with little to no buildup they told a great story. I personally feel like Nakamura needed the win more because he has lost so much momentum this year. I think they left the door wide open for more great things between the two of them.

Speaking of momentum, Raw went into the third match with a 2-0 lead on the main card. We were treated to another champions verses champions match with AOP and The Bar. I had a feeling this was going to be a hard hitting match because of the two teams styles. I was not at all surprised that a spot between Big Show and Drake Maverick played into the finish of the match. Raw went up 3-0 after AOP defeated The Bar. They took a break from brand supremacy to have 205 Live finally showcased on a big pay-per-view. Buddy Murphy defended the Cruiserweight Championship against Mustafa Ali in an incredible match. I feel like 205 Live does not get the credit it it deserves, so hopefully the crowd reaction tonight gives the 205 Live show the momentum it deserves and needs.

We pick up with Raw vs. Smackdown with the Men’s 5-on-5 Elimination Match and the beginning was absolute garbage. How do you take out Samoa Joe in a matter of 60 seconds? I get that they are trying to build up Drew McIntyre but it should have been Shane or The Miz taking the early exit. Other than the Samoa Joe elimination this years match was way better than last years match. I loved all tension on the Raw team with Braun basically against everyone. Last year it seemed like superstars got eliminated really fast, but with exception of Joe everyone lasted quite a long time. Team Raw got the win after Stowman absolutely dominated the four remaining members of Smackdown. When it comes domination the two most dominant women on the roster went to war tonight. Charlotte and Rousey absolutely beat the crap out of each other and it could have gone either way until Charlotte got herself disqualified. With this win it put Raw up 5-0 in Survivor Series, which I think is a really bad move. With WWE getting one billion dollars from Fox to make Smackdown a premier show I don’t think this was a very smart business decision to make Smackdown look weak.

The Main Event was WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar taking on newly crowned WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. This match was put together only five days ago when Bryan defeated AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. The championship win also saw a heel turn from Bryan that was unexpected and shocking. It made tonight for an intriguing match because Lesnar works a heel and now Bryan was heel. I was very worried about this match due to Bryan’s past issues with concussions and neck injuries. My concerns were very legitimate because Lesnar manhandled Bryan in a very scary way. I am honestly surprised Bryan got any offense in whatsoever. Bryan finally made the match interesting, but I think we all knew Lesnar was going to win. At the end of the night, I have to give Survivor Series a 6 out of 10, because the booking was horrendous. The match quality was excellent but some terrible booking and business decisions really soured me on it. I hope going into 2019 the company realizes that both shows need to be equal, especially with the money WWE is getting for Smackdown. With one pay-per-view left in the year I will be curious to see what direction WWE goes headed into the Royal Rumble and into the Road to Wrestlemania.