WWE
Survivor Series
November 21, 2021
Barclays Center
Brooklyn, NY
Watch: Peacock / WWE Network (Non-US)
Meet Our Reviewers
Suit Williams: I don’t have to pay to watch this show, and I have no interest in watching Steelers/Chargers tonight. Mason Rudolph is a hard pass. Follow me on Twitter @SuitWilliams and check out my Brock Lesnar retrospective series The Brockumentary here on VOW.
Sean Sedor: Well, with NASCAR over for the year, my Sundays are pretty much free, so I figured I’d keep Suit company in this review. Speaking of Suit, I will take this opportunity to gloat, as his Saints got destroyed by my Eagles earlier today (sorry, Suit). Anyway, you can follow me on Twitter @SASedor2994. If you’re interested in some other stuff I do, you can check out my YouTube channel (just search my name) if you’d like to see me play the Formula 1 game, and you can also check out my Extreme Warfare Revenge thread on the Be The Booker forums (if you’re into those kinds of games).
WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (with Boogs) def. WWE United States Champion Damian Priest via DQ
Suit: They didn’t announce this as a pre-show match, and I didn’t know there would be a pre-show match, so I missed this one. I’m not going back to watch it because they didn’t think it was important enough to promote.
Sean: So I found out the other day that my brother (who I would describe as being an extremely casual fan) knows about Eric Bugenhagen because he’s a semi-frequent guest in the videos of a fitness YouTuber he follows. He tells me that he’s very funny in those videos. Anyway, Boogs was at ringside with Nakamura, who ultimately won this match by DQ after Priest went wild and attacked both of them with the guitar that Boogs was using. There was some good action in this one, but the main idea was that anytime Priest seemed to gain a lasting advantage, Boogs would play on the guitar and distract him. This eventually led to a spot where Priest had the match won with a variation of a Gogoplata, and he decided to let go of the hold to go after Boogs, who was playing his guitar again (I have no idea why he let go of the hold, as Nakamura had pretty much passed out). Then the aforementioned finish happened, and they were really playing up the split personality with Damian Priest. Clearly Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard are taking his name quite literally, which is pretty dumb, but pretty dumb is par for the course for WWE. ***1/4
RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch def. SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair
Suit: What is this uh-oh gimmick Charlotte is doing? Thirteen minutes into the show, the bell rings and these two go after each other. Line of the night comes after Charlotte drops Becky on the barricade. Pat McAfee: “Right in front of the Mets fan, that man knows misery.” Becky defaulted to babyface for this one, but both women were talking trash. I’ve got nothing special to say about this one. It was fine, I guess. They worked this with heat and intensity, but that also came with some sloppiness. It was good work, and if I had any investment into this, I would probably like it more. But it just didn’t hit me that way. ***1/2
Sean: So I could’ve sworn that the kickoff panel mentioned several times that this match was the main event. Now it’s apparently the opener. That’s WWE for you. This was easily the most anticipated match on the entire card (especially after the belt swap angle and all the stuff we’ve heard since), so it was a curious decision to put it on first. These two went after each other straight away, and the match turned into a brawl quickly. Charlotte managed to take control after a spear, and while Becky (who is wearing this wild red outfit) was able to stop the moonsault, she got dropped on the barricade shortly thereafter. The brawling continued inside the ring as the two went back and forth for several more minutes, with trash talk scattered in for good measure. Eventually, they got into a rollup exchange, and while Charlotte was caught trying to win with assistance from the ropes, the referee didn’t catch Becky using the ropes when she countered with a pin of her own, and she got the victory for RAW.
I really liked how they worked this match. There was no collar-and-elbow tie-up or chain wrestling to start. The whole build was that these women didn’t like each other, and they definitely conveyed this in the bout itself. It was wild, reckless, and this chaotic energy about this that just worked. The crowd being really into it helped as well (though in the post-Thunderdome Era, you can never tell how much crowd sweetening there actually is), and as a whole, I thought this worked, even with a very WWE finish. ****1/4
Survivor Series Elimination Match
Team RAW (Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley, Austin Theory) def. Team SmackDown (Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, King Woods, Happy Corbin, Sheamus)
Suit: I have an Austin Theory story. No one was in his line, and the guy who was next to him had a line around the building. I felt bad, so I went over to him and bought a hat. I’m pretty sure I left it in the hotel room after that weekend. Kevin Owens got bored after thirteen minutes of entrances and just left. Balor gets the first traditional elimination by pinning Corbin. Lashley taps out Woods with the Hurt Lock. Look, I don’t usually do the play-by-play on these reviews. But I have no rooting interest here. There’s no story, there’s no emotion. There’s nothing on the line except “bragging rights”. It’s just dudes out here fighting. After maybe 40 minutes, Rollins pins Hardy to be the sole Survivor. Watching a 40 minute match just to have Seth Rollins win is a particularly rough gut punch. **
Sean: Starting off the show with two long matches, I see. Of course, a match with a lot of people in it means that EVERYONE gets their full entrance, so that takes an eternity. Kevin Owens argues to start the match for Team RAW, but then immediately gets himself counted out. A very easy payday for Owens. McIntyre then attacks Rollins on the floor, and Team SmackDown takes control. Things break down again after a few minutes, and Finn Balor evens up the sides after hitting Happy Corbin with the Coup de Grace. Xavier Woods would start running wild a short time later, but that usually means an elimination is coming, and soon enough, Woods gets eliminated by Bobby Lashley. This leads to Lashley going at it with Drew McIntyre, and they’re so focused on going after each other that they both get counted out.
This has real “just a match that is happening” energy at this stage, and I’ve completely lost track of how long this has been thus far. Finn Balor gets pinned by Sheamus, and it’s now two-on-two with Austin Theory and Seth Rollins (two former Gabe guys) vs. Jeff Hardy and Sheamus. Didn’t Sheamus frame Jeff for like a DUI or something last year? Well, I guess that heated feud from last year is all water under the bridge now that brand supremacy is at stake! It seems like Hardy and Sheamus are working together nicely, but then Sheamus gets caught with an Austin Theory rollup, and is eliminated. He then turned on Jeff Hardy (so I guess they’re restarting that feud), which allowed the RAW side to take the advantage. Hardy manages to fight back and pins Theory after a Swanton Bomb, which leads to a final stretch between Hardy and Rollins that sees Rollins eventually get the pin. Eliminations aside, while there was technically nothing wrong with the wrestling inside the ring, it was really hard to get invested in this. Why should I care? The whole brand vs. brand thing is an ice cold concept for many reasons that’ve been discussed to death. I guess I’ll slap a gentlemen’s three on this. It was fine. ***
Omos won a 25-man Battle Royal commemorating 25 years since The Rock’s historic WWE debut at Survivor Series 1996
Suit: I was just complaining about ten dudes fighting for no reason. How about 25 dudes fighting for no reason? This match, celebrating a person who is completely unaffiliated with this show, is also sponsored by Pizza Hut. I should’ve watched the football. In fact, I’m gonna check the score. I’ve got a commercial for Uber Eats. Now a Kay Jewelers ad. Fun fact: I didn’t understand their tagline, “Every kiss begins with Kay,” until a few years ago. Wait, Big Ben started? I thought he was in COVID protocol? Goddamn it! It’s 14-10 Chargers. Chargers have the ball, and they’re gonna try and score before the half. Justin Herbert rolls out of the pocket and throws one away with 16 seconds left. Second down, Herbert finds Austin Ekeler who gets out of bounds with 10 seconds on the clock. 3rd and 4 now, Chargers have a time out to burn. It’s another pass and it gets broken up, so the Chargers send out the field goal unit. Dustin Hopkins has a 26-yard chip shot, at least he did before the false start sends them back 5 yards. It ends up not mattering as he splits the uprights to put the Chargers up by 7 at halftime. Alright, back to Survivor Series. Omos and Ricochet are left, and if you need me to tell you how that ended, you must be new here. 25 years ago, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart put on a pro wrestling clinic at Madison Square Garden. 25 years later, the Street Profits threw Pizza Hut slices at a bunch of apathetic New Yorkers. N/R
Sean: So there are random picnic tables on the stage with boxes sitting on them. Apparently, these were boxes of pizza inside of special holiday boxes as part of some promotion with Pizza Hut. I don’t even think there’s a pizza hut within twenty-five miles of my house anymore. It was at this point that I wished I was playing F1 2021 instead, but hey….I made this choice, so now I gotta stick with it. Eventually, Omos and Shanky have an in-ring staredown that gets absolutely no reaction. In other news, Big Ben apparently is back in action for the Steelers (to the delight of Yinzers everywhere) as they take on the Chargers. Omos then eliminates Commander Azeez, and I kinda want to see a triple threat between Azeez, Omos, and Shanky, just to see what that would look like (I’m sure it would be bad). Omos ultimately eliminates everyone else to win the Battle Royal in a dominant fashion. To borrow a line from an Extreme Warfare Revenge match review, I don’t rate Battle Royals. N/R
RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle) def. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso)
Suit: Orton RKO’ed an Uso on a splash to win. Roman Reigns has another 6 weeks of griping material here. That was every note I took on this match. **1/2
Sean: Apparently Randy Orton has now wrestled on more WWE PPVs than any other wrestler in the history of the company, which is….quite the accomplishment, I guess. Anyway, Orton and Riddle were on the offensive early, but then The Usos would soon gain the advantage. They would work over Riddle for a few minutes until Riddle and one of the Usos absolutely botched a GTS. This leads to an Orton hot tag, as he starts to run wild. Riddle would then tag himself back in, and he ran wild until The Usos gained control once again. Both Orton and Riddle ate double superkicks, but they manage to fight back, and Orton manages to counter an Uso Splash into a RKO for the win. This was a pretty solid tag team bout, though it felt like it passed its peak by like two or three minutes. Nothing much else to add. A match you’ll forget about by tomorrow morning. ***1/4
Some Golden Egg Thing
Suit: So The Rock is in a new movie where he and Ryan Reynolds have to steal something from Wonder Woman. WWE is cross-promoting it by having Vince McMahon walk around with a golden egg worth $100 million. I am going to stay away from the easy budget jokes. The egg gets stolen, and Vince wants everyone from both shows on Raw to find it. How many viewers will care about Vince’s golden egg? My guess is the usual 1.4 million.
Sean: I have no comment on the Vince McMahon golden egg nonsense.
Survivor Series Elimination Match
Team RAW (Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Carmella, Queen Zelina) def. Team SmackDown (Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Natalya, Toni Storm)
Suit: AHHHHHHHHHH GOD ANOTHER ONE. Nothing sums up this match, and really this entire company, quite like Zelina Vega sitting on the turnbuckle while waving at no one for no particular reason. The first thing of note were some CM Punk chants in the middle of this that quickly get turned down. Everyone on Team Raw got eliminated except for Bianca. Sasha Banks got eliminated when the rest of her dipshit teammates (minus Storm, who got eliminated already) made sure she got counted out. Belair quickly eliminates said dipshits and wins. Notice that Bianca never got to beat the actual star on the team, but it’s a win. Baby steps, I suppose. **
Sean: Time for another twenty minutes of entrances! Carmella immediately goes to put on her mask, but she quickly gets rolled up and eliminated by Toni Storm (she never actually got the mask on, I think). Not gonna lie….I was so over this show by this point. We get several minutes of random action, and the crowd is dead silent. Then they start to do the wave, so they seem to be totally checked out….but then they suddenly come back to life when Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks tag in. They go back and forth for a bit until Zelina tags in, and we immediately get loud chants for CM Punk. Toni Storm manages to pin Zelina to pick up her 2nd elimination of the match. Of course, by rule, the fact that Storm went on a tear meant that she was next to be eliminated, as she was pinned by Liv Morgan….who was herself pinned a short time later by Sasha! Very funny.
Team SmackDown gangs up on Rhea Ripley, and she eventually gets eliminated by Shayna Baszler. It’s now a four-on-one situation against Bianca. An argument between Sasha and Shotzi eventually leads to an argument with everyone else on Team SmackDown that leads to Sasha getting eliminated via count-out, despite the fact that Sasha actually got in the ring and broke the count like three times. This is all very dumb. It’s now three-on-one vs. Bianca, but she manages to make a comeback, and eliminates Natalya, Shanza, and Shotzi to win the match for Team RAW. A solid win for Bianca for sure, but it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, because this is WWE of course. I honestly have nothing to say about this. It was….a match that happened. **
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) def. WWE Champion Big E
Suit: Roman won, The Rock showed up, everyone cheered. Sean, fix this in case Rock doesn’t show up. I’m going to sleep.
Sean: Well, Suit tapped out on this show, so I guess I’ll stick around and see if his prediction comes true! Just for fun, I decided to time Roman’s entrance (from the second his music started until it stopped), and it ended up at just over four minutes. Big E missed his splash on the apron and Reigns took control. While Roman’s in his boring control period, I’ll take this time to mention that I’ve been doing a rewatch of the entire 2001 NASCAR season (week by week), and I’m watching the final race of that season this week. It’s been a fun year-long project, and it’s been a nice reminder of why I fell in love with NASCAR in the first place (certainly more entertaining than this match).
Big E finally finds an opening and sends Roman into the steps. He starts to gain momentum with some sustained offense. At this point, I’m getting annoyed that this show has gone past 11:00 PM. Normally I wouldn’t care, since I normally don’t work Mondays, but Thanksgiving has shuffled around my schedule a bit, so I have to work tomorrow. Big E nails a Uranage, and Roman responds with a Rock Bottom. Roman then starts to nail Superman punches, but all they do is cause Big E to bulk up. He nails the spear through the ropes (which always looks dangerous, and this was no different), though Roman quickly responds with a spear of his own back inside the ring. The crowd is now suddenly thunderous as we get dueling chants for both guys. Big E reversed the Guillotine into the Big Ending, but he’s too close to the ropes. They go to the outside, and Roman nails a Superman punch off the stairs, followed by another spear for the win.
I feel like this match was similar to (but to a lesser degree I guess) the Edge/Roman Reigns match from Money In The Bank earlier this year. Your WWE Universe fan probably thought it was epic, but to others, it doesn’t come off nearly as well. Roman’s control period was pretty boring, but the latter half of the match seemed to be pretty entertaining. The finish was strange, and honestly, I didn’t even know what happened until they showed the replay. I guess Big E running into the stairs was supposed to damage his leg, and that set up Roman stomping on his calf in the ring, which led to the spear. It was a pretty weak finish, and the PPV closed with Roman standing tall over a defeated Big E. Sigh….I really don’t know how to rate this. I guess I’ll just slap something on this and call it a night. Sorry Suit, your prediction was only a third right. Roman won, The Rock didn’t show up, and the crowd didn’t really cheer at the end. ***1/4
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