🔵🔴 Official Survivor Series 2021 Thread
Nov 22, 2021 11:06:41 GMT -5
EoE: Well There's Your Problem likes this
Post by The Kevstaaa on Nov 22, 2021 11:06:41 GMT -5
WWE Survivor Series
November 21st, 2021 | Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
I didn’t watch most of this show live so the review will be a bit late.
Damian Priest vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
KICKOFF action! On paper, this sounded like a fun match as both guys are pretty good. Things started slowly enough and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It made sense to feel each other out. They also kept things relatively entertaining with antics like Boogs playing guitar for Nakamura offense and also to help hype him up whenever Priest would get going. It’s a goofy gimmick but it’s fun. Interestingly, Priest got irritated by Boogs to the point where he grew more aggressive. They went into a series of late counters that included the Reckoning being blocked and Priest going for a triangle choke. Again, Boogs played guitar to pump up Nakamura but Priest instead went outside and took the instrument from him before nailing him with it. He also hit Nakamura, getting disqualified in 9:21. A lame finish to a pretty solid match. [**¾]
Onto the main show.
Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
Smackdown leads 1-0 so far. As everyone knows, there is reportedly legitimate heat between these two. They came out with some PPV gear and this felt important even if I haven’t cared much about the build. People hold up their match as Evolution as their best together and while I agree, I wouldn’t call it an all-timer. That being said, this was right up there with that. It didn’t need the stipulation, to go 30 minutes, or to overdo stuff down the stretch. It was just an intense, hard hitting match between two women who can really go in the ring. Sure they did wrestling moves and some of their signature stuff but a lot of this match felt like a fight between two people who don’t like one another. They included lots of shouting swear words for the sake of it and Charlotte’s moonsault outside is still pretty terrible. Other than that though, this ruled. The finish saw Charlotte try to use the ropes for leverage on a pin only to be caught by the referee, so Becky turned it into her own rollup with the ropes, winning in 18:32. I loved this match. [****¼]
Men's Team Raw vs. Men's Team Smackdown
Surprised this is going on already. Like Full Gear, seems like this show is oddly laid out. Raw has tied the score. Team Raw is Lashley, Theory, Bálor, Owens, and Rollins, while Smackdown has Woods, Hardy, Corbin, McIntyre, and Sheamus. Owens was the first man gone as he walked out on his teammates in under a minute. I’m intrigued by where they go with this story considering his contract is up soon. We got some solid back and forth for the next few minutes before Finn sent Corbin packing with the Coup de Grace, evening the odds. Disappointingly, Woods was out next in under 15 minutes after fighting Theory and being put in the Hurt Lock. At least he didn’t look like a goof. Lashley and McIntyre reignited their feud and it led to a brawl that saw both men get counted out. Not the strongest showing for Drew but at least he didn’t eat a pin. Finn ate a Brogue Kick soon after, leaving this at 2-2. Man, Finn really doesn’t matter, does he? Hardy remained way over as he’s going to be popular no matter what WWE does with him. Sheamus and Theory were out left, leaving it down to Hardy and Rollins. That sounds like a fun feud to put together if WWE wants. Hardy came close but fell to the Curb Stomp after 30:19. A really good men’s tag that never really slowed and was entertaining throughout. [***¾]
25th Anniversary Battle Royal
This was here to honor The Rock, which is odd since it’s not like battle royals were ever connected to him. He’s not Andre. I’m not going to go into too much detail here because it’s a goofy battle royal. The idea of building the match around Omos was good because it’s the perfect setting for him. The stuff involving the pizzas was dumb and not in the “dumb fun” kind of way. It was more like the “just stupid.” Omos threw out Ricochet to win in 10:13. [*¾]
RK-Bro vs. The Usos
Raw holds a 3-1 lead. I feel like The Usos always end up in these Raw vs. Smackdown tags. These are two teams that can almost always put on quality matches so this being entertaining was to be expected. Riddle ended up as the face in peril for a while. Like all the great tag teams, The Usos find ways to make heat segments work and ensure that they’re entertaining. Orton’s hot tag run was solid and it’s a role that fits him at this point in his career. Get in, hit his shit, pop the crowd, and do his thing. Orton can do more than that but this works. Things picked up late with things like German suplexes, the hanging DDT, and superkicks. The finish was the most memorable moment as Jimmy went for the big splash but was caught with an RKO instead, losing in 14:$6. About what I expected in terms of good tag team wrestling. [***¼]
Women's Team Raw vs. Women's Team Smackdown
Raw is dominating with a 4-1 lead. Their team is Queen Zelina, Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair, Carmella, and Rhea Ripley, while Smackdown has Sasha Banks, Shotzi, Toni Storm, Natalya, and Shayna Baszler. Why did Shotzi lose her last name? Anyway, coming into this, Team Smackdown was arguing a lot, mostly because WWE loves to book that angle for big women’s teams and because Sasha and Shotzi are rivals. As usual in these matches, we got a quick elimination as Toni got rid of Carmella with a rollup in about a minute. Maybe they get a feud coming out of this but who knows. This PPV typically doesn’t matter. The next segment of the match was lengthy, as nobody got eliminated for another 15 or so minutes. The action during that time was pretty good. Toni got rid of Zelina as well before Liv eliminated her. Banks then bested Morgan (who should’ve lasted until the end) with a frog splash and Shayna ended Rhea with a knee (getting revenge for 2019 NXT). That left Bianca against four Smackdown women. Could she pull off a 2003 HBK or 2014 Dolph Ziggler? Of course she could because the Smackdown team was arguing. Their infighting led to Team Smackdown keeping Sasha out of the ring and she was counted out despite not really being outside for 10 seconds. Oh, well. Back in, Bianca countered the Sharpshooter into a rollup for an elimination, she used a Glam Slam to beat Shayna, and then won the whole thing by hitting the KOD on Shotzi in 23:17. The rally for Bianca should’ve been handled better and as usual, some stuff here made no sense. Ultimately though, it was a good and entertaining match. [***¼]
Big E vs. Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns is here to make sure Smackdown doesn’t lose 6-1. Even though we all knew the outcome before this started, you got the sense there was a pretty big fight feel here. They worked this at a slower pace to start, which made me believe they’d be going too long. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case as this only lasted 22:24. It was hard hitting throughout and felt like a true case of two powerhouses matching up. It was impressive to see Big E throw Reigns around at points since most challengers haven’t been able to do that. He dished out belly to belly suplexes and the big spear off the apron. Roman responded with powerbombs, Superman punches, and even busted out the Rock Bottom. They really went hard on teasing an appearance from The Rock. Things felt a bit anti-climactic in the end though. When Reigns and McIntyre had their tremendous match last year at this event, it built up well and led to a screwy finish. I don’t love those kind of endings but the lack of one here saw the WWE Champion just eat a pin. I know it’s Roman but still. Big E survived a Spear and then commentary discussed a knee injury for him that hadn’t really acted up all match long. Reigns added a second Spear a bit later to win a match that was very good but just not great. [***½]
There was also a running gag throughout the show involving the egg from The Rock’s Netflix movie Red Notice. It was dumb and is going to continue on Raw but since I was pressed for time, I wanted to focus on the matches.
Overall: 7/10. Honestly, I feel like 90% of WWE PPVs follow the same format these days. The weeks building up are lame, the matches end up ranging from solid to great, and there are some booking decisions that make you scratch your head and wonder why this company does things like this so often.
