I'm going to forgo the match by match on this one... because this is totally different. It's not a show for me, but most seem to love this brand supremacy concept and the return of a bunch of SS matches on one card. For that, I'm proud...
But... As a preface, if you ask me "Who was the best WWE Champion recently?" my mind will go right to Brock Lesnar. Not only was he the most credible champion, but his reign made things FEEL different... and we had PPV's that felt different because we had grudge match main events. Taking a break from title matches is definitely a good thing and it's fun to see a PPV lineup so drastically different. Thank you, WWE.
But in the end, when I see "Survivor Series", warning bells go off in my head. As someone who's only been watching since '08... think a buddy of mine found a DVD of the 2009 show and I enjoyed that one, but otherwise I can count on this show being a dud every single year, and I laugh when I hear people talk about the "prestige" of it. And it got me thinking about last year's show..... LETS GO BACK IN THE NEW DAY-LOREAN
-We came in feeling a hot tournament, and had the talking point of the possible Ambrose heel turn. Then we got Sheamus
-25 YEARS OF THE UNDERTAKER and Wyatt officially reaching the "beyond repair" point
-Ziggler jobbed to Breeze btw
-WWE trying way too damn hard in all the wrong ways to get the Hashtag Divas Revolution over, as Paige screamed the infamous Reid Flair promo and still nobody cared
-a 100% meaningless tag
No matter what we think of 2016, we have come a very, VERY long way.
Anyway, there's a few things to mention I guess...
1: Keep the Cruiserweight Division on Raw.
Maybe the whole plan is to jettison the whole division to 205 Live which would be okay, but they just need the division to fill time on the show. Sure, we could watch Kendrick and Kalisto instead of Curt Hawkins vs Apollo Crews, but otherwise Smackdown's doing just pretty well with time management and the whole division may wind up being rushed. Raw's biggest issue is that they can't book anyone and the cruiserweight division is just the latest example, but maybe this could turn into the Hashtag Divas Revolution and they realize how much these six man tags suck and focus on 2 matches to fill double the time
2: Smackdown has a chance.
Back when Raw was CLEARLY the flagship, the "A show", Smackdown did wind up winning 2 Bragging Rights cups. To send a message that "Smackdown is the better brand!" while sending all the other messages that Raw was more important. 50/50 booking at it's finest, lol. But they aren't going to give Raw the win because "it's the flagship".
3:..... Goldberg should win?
Again, they'd know the state of Goldberg's body more than I would. We don't know if he has another match in him, but... do you really think they're going to let the guy actually on the roster beat the guy who's just going to leave after this night? Come on. You know WWE better than that... But... At least this one could have a chance to make some people happy. We could really use an unpredictable finish, plus bringing the unstoppable monster in Lesnar down a few pegs to where someone can believably challenge him isn't such a bad idea. Plus if Goldberg has any shelf life for a few more matches, that builds HIM up enough to put a guy over really strong later on as well. Btw no, please don't run in Shane
4: There isn't a point to putting the IC Title on Zayn.
The only meaning a midcard belt can have is a story prop. It's making a great one for Miz as he clashes with authority on Smackdown, being a key part of his promos and leading to a lot of entertainment. Raw has shown no interest in featuring Sami Zayn, and that interest won't change with the extra bit of gold around his waist. If they want to trade Miz for Zayn later on it would make sense - and I'm all for Zayn on Smackdown - but seeing the Miz on Raw? During one of his best runs of his career? No, please.
5: Something memorable should happen on this show
I'd love to see a key defection, or the locker rooms empty during the main event, or random DDP run-ins, or some sort of spot like you've never seen before. Something to remember this show as something special. This is setting up to be the perfect show to do something cool, so while those beers are chilling, keep those brain cells a-rolling
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