WWE Must Make Survivor Series Important Again
Since 1987, the Survivor Series has been a Thanksgiving Week Tradition where a lot of magical moments. This event would combine feuds, give us unique pairings, and have unique matchups you did not get to see all the time. Survivor Series has also been the show where multiple stars have debuted such as The Undertaker, The Rock, Kurt Angle and The Shield. Even non-traditional Survivor Series matches have had impact such as the first Elimination Chamber, the Deadly Games Tournament and the Montreal Screwjob. All these moments and matches meant something and had significant impact on the WWE. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the WWE has lost sight of how important Survivor Series is.
When the first brand split happened in 2002, it took three years for WWE to to do a battle for brand supremacy. The buildup in 2005 was great because it was the first time, they tried the concept. Even when Smackdown won, it did not mean anything because it was a way to setup the continued feud between Randy Orton and The Undertaker. To show how little the Battle for Brand Supremacy meant the Raw versus Smackdown concept did not come back until 2016. Since then, most of the Survivor Series shows have had a little advancement of storylines and winning for your brand has not meant a thing. In the last four years, there has been one great buildup and that was in 2019 when NXT was involved. It gave Survivor Series and the brand supremacy a new twist and a lot of up-and-coming superstars exposure that they normally would not get. They dropped the ball this year and went back the Battle for Brand Supremacy between Raw and Smackdown with one the worst buildup and laziest booked Survivor Series that I can remember. How do you make Survivor Series important again?
There are multiple concepts that WWE could use to make Survivor Series great again and make it mean something. In 1995, the Survivor Series had a Wildcard match that featured two teams drawn at random. One team consisted of Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, British Bulldog and Sycho Sid. The other teams consisted of Razor Ramon, Dean Douglas, Yokozuna and Owen Hart. If you know your history you would know that both teams had major rivalries within the team itself, which made hard for everyone to get along. This reminded me of WCW’s Battlebowl concept they had in the early 90’s where it was two on two and the pairings were also a random draw. In 1990, the Survivor Series had a Grand Finale match where the surviving members of the five previous matches face off in the final match. In WCW Battlebowl, the winning teams throughout the night would go into a Battle Royal to determine the Battlebowl Champion. Imagine if WWE took some of these old concepts and made into something bigger and more meaningful.
If I wanted to make Survivor Series more meaningful, I would have four traditional Survivor Series Matches. Each team would be selected by a random draw so it would not matter if you are a face or heel, or whether you were on Raw or Smackdown. Whoever were the Surviving members of those matches would go onto the Grand Finale Battle Royal, where the winner would get a title shot (WWE Championship or Universal Championship) of his choosing. The United States, Intercontinental Champion and Tag Team Champions of each show would all be involved in these random drawings to determine the teams.
As for the WWE Champion and Universal Champion, I would do something completely different. Depending on what show the respective championship is on, they would team with the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Championships, respectively. It would be a mixed tag team match to determine the better brand and keep that “competition” alive for those who enjoy it. You could also add NXT in that match with the NXT Champion and NXT Women’s Champion. When it comes to NXT, I would have four male NXT stars be in the random drawing to be inserted into each of the matches. Since Survivor Series has been known for its debuts. What better way to debut by possible earning a title shot on your first night of being on the “main roster.”
Now some of you may be asking, what about the Women’s Division? Currently there are thirteen women on Raw and nine women on Smackdown. I would put two women from NXT in the random drawing to be inserted into each match. There would be two traditional Survivor Series Women’s matches that would be six on six. The winners of each match would go onto a separate elimination match where the last women left would also get a title shot of her choosing. Again, these ideas put emphasis on survival and making Survivor Series mean something and have importance like it used to.
These ideas may seem farfetched and it may seem like out of the box thinking, but how else are you going to make Survivor Series important again? It does not feel like one of the “Big Four” traditional WWE pay-per-views anymore. It feels like a blow-off show that does not advance storylines, does not make an impact and does not change the direction of the company. The tagline for Survivor Series used to be “Only the strong will survive.” There is nothing strong about Survivor Series, but with all depth in talent WWE has they could easily make it strong once again.
