Recap and Review of WWE Survivor Series 2019

Tonight was annual Survivor Series Pay-Per-View, which is the second longest running show in WWE’s history. For the first time ever NXT was featured against Raw and Smackdown. Leading up to tonight, the last three weeks of buildup has been absolutely awesome but could it live up to the hype? That is always the questions when it comes to heavily build shows. Here are the results of WWE Survivor Series:

-Kickoff Show: Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode won the Tag Team Battle Royal
-Kickoff Show: Lio Rush defeated Akira Tozawa and Kalisto to retain the NXT Cruiserweight Championship
-Kickoff Show: The Viking Raiders defeated Undisputed Era and The New Day
-NXT defeated Raw and Smackdown in the Women’s Elimination Tag Team Match
-Roderick Strong defeated Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles
-Adam Cole defeated Pete Dunne to retain the NXT Championship
-The Fiend Bray Wyatt defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the WWE Universal Championship
-Team Smackdown defeated NXT and Raw in the Men’s Elimination Tag Team Match
-Brock Lesnar defeated Rey Mysterio to retain the WWE Championship
-Shayna Bazsler defeated Bayley and Becky Lynch

The Kickoff Show featured three matches that were all matches that could have been on the Main Card. The first match was the Tag Team Battle Royal featuring tag teams from all three brands. It was cool to see all the teams in one ring, because if WWE actually booked tag team wrestling better there would be some really incredible matches. I do like how they made use of the brands and the Cruiserweight Championship. Both Raw and Smackdown had Cruiserweights on their shows, so they made good use of them and put them in a match against Lio Rush. I feel like the Kickoff Show showcased everything that the fans want to see more of. They want to see more Cruiserweights and more tag team action, which is why I was a bit frustrated to see the Triple Threat Tag Team match featuring each brands champions on the Kickoff Show. The other side of the coin is that they got a lot more time to work their magic. I am glad they got more time to work because they put on a great match to prove why tag team wrestling should be showcased more often in WWE.

The opening match of the main card was the Women’s Elimination Tag Team Match. The matches were different this year because of NXT, but I loved the unpredictability of having three competitors in at the same time. The match came down to Sasha Banks, Natalya and Rhea Ripley but NXT had Io Sharai and Candace Larae who faked injury so they could be taken to the back and wait for the right moment to come back out to help Rhea. It’s more evident than ever that Rhea Ripley is going to be the face of WWE’s Women’s Division for a very long time. The next match is a match everyone was excited for. Roderick Strong, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles is something I would have dreamed about in Ring of Honor. I never thought I’d see it in a WWE ring. I was honestly shocked that Strong got the victory over Styles and Nakamura, but then again Undisputed Era’s music starts out with “Shock the System.” I hope to see these three men in the ring against each again someday because we know it will be hard hitting and an evenly matched contest.

Adam Cole and Pete Dunne competed at TakeOver WarGames the night before which made me wonder how they were going to to do tonight. Cole and Dunne absolutely blew it out of the water, and they proved beyond the doubt that the casual WWE fan and all pro wrestling fans should be tuning into NXT on Wednesday Nights. Whether you like him or you don’t, Adam Cole has been on an incredible run as of late and it continued tonight. One Another person who is now on a run is “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt. I enjoy the new character and momentum he is getting, but if they don’t start showing that he has some small weaknesses than it’s going to get old real fast watching his matches. People are already tired of the red light in his matches so they should find something to keep people guessing.

The Men’s Elimination Tag Team Match had me asking myself multiple times what are they thinking? I thought it was a bad move having WALTER be eliminated first. He was the freshest of the NXT team and the WWE United Kingdom Champion. I also thought Randy Orton should have been the last competitor for Raw considering his history at Survivor Series. It came down to Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Keith Lee. The WWE world knows Rollins and Reigns, but they got to see an awesome performer in Keith Lee. Even though NXT didn’t win this match, it showcased all the great talent they have and will continue to have in the future. Following a wild and crazy Traditional Survivor Series Match, we had Mysterio versus Lesnar for the WWE Championship. I didn’t think too much of his match, because like Bray Wyatt right now there is nothing that makes me believe Lesnar is going to lose anytime soon. Even though it was exciting to see Dominic and Rey work together, it never phased me for a minute that Lesnar was going to lose.

The Main Event of Survivor Series was the Women’s Triple Threat Match between Shayna Bazsler, Bayley and Becky Lynch. I love that the Women headlined the show because they have had the most build up among all the matches between the three brands. All three women have proven themselves to be capable of the main event match. I loved all the bad blood these three had leading up to the match. All three of them represent their show well and it showed during this match. I was personally shocked the Bazsler won given the year Becky Lynch has had. It just goes to show you that adding the third brand made things a lot less predictable. This Survivor Series was very unique because of having three brands instead of two. I think there is a lot of room for improvement and a lot more room for exciting things to happen. At the end of the night, I got give Survivor Series an 8 out of 10. It was cool seeing all three brands, but it lacked a lot of possible epic moments that could have happened. I also think NXT’s success might have been a little bit forced. I loved NXT’s involvement, but this Survivor Series was designed to get eyes on the NXT brand and make it as equal as Raw and Smackdown are. Next stop for Raw and Smackdown is TLC to end year. For NXT, they build off this momentum and continue to shine on Wednesday Night. NXT not only survived, but they shined on their biggest stage to date.