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Survivor Series (Nov. 21, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Survivor Series (2021) was the 35th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was available to stream through Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network elsewhere, which made it the first Survivor Series to air on Peacock. It took place on November 21, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The theme of the event was brand supremacy and pitted wrestlers from the two brands against each other.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The card was highlighted by two traditional Survivor Series elimination matches: Raw's men's and women's teams were victorious over SmackDown's. In the main event match, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Big E. Also on the card, Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch defeated SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, and Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) defeated SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). The event also commemorated the 25th anniversary of The Rock's WWE debut at the 1996 Survivor Series where a 25-man dual-branded battle royal took place in honor of The Rock's career; Raw's Omos won by last eliminating SmackDown's Ricochet. Raw won brand supremacy by winning five of the seven matches, including the pre-show match. The event also had a promotional tie-in with the Netflix film, Red Notice, which stars The Rock.

Match Card & Results:

Kick-Off: Champion vs. Champion Singles Match

Shinsuke Nakamura (SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion) (with Rick Boogs) def. Damian Priest (Raw's United States Champion) by disqualification

Champion vs. Champion Singles Match

Becky Lynch (Raw Women's Champion) def. Charlotte Flair (SmackDown Women's Champion) by pinfall

Going into this show, I was told by several friends that the news going around on social media was that this match was going to be headlining the show since The Rock wasn't showing up, so WWE was going to open with Roman and Big E. I was like OK, that makes sense since this is the match with the most hype and controversy surrounding it given the fact of the real, legit animosity between Becky and Charlotte that has come to a boil as evidenced by that infamous Championship exchange segment on SmackDown! a few weeks ago. The million dollar question was whether or not were these ladies going to do business and play nice or it would turn into a shoot and not in the good way.

I thought we got one hell of a match out from this from bell-to-bell. Charlotte and Becky going all in right from the start and laying in their shots thick and not holding anything back. I absolutely loved the finish as Charlotte's own heel tactics proved to be her own downfall as Becky used that same trick to beat her and pick up the win. Neither woman came out of this looking bad. Charlotte has an out given the fact that Becky held onto the ropes to add more leverage to the pin, which gives them an easy excuse to come back to this match again for WrestleMania season. My only knock against this match is the fact that it was heel vs. heel and it's hard to support either one of these women in terms of how they've been booked over the last few months. I was on Team Charlotte for this one though as I find Becky and Rollins' heel personas to be insufferable on current WWE programming.

5-on-5 Men's Survivor Series Elimination Match

Team Raw (Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, Austin Theory, and Bobby Lashley) (with MVP) def. Team SmackDown (Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, King Woods, Happy Corbin, and Sheamus) (with Madcap Moss)

I was shocked that they followed up that amazing opener with this match. Kevin Owens shocks the world by eliminating himself by walking out on Team RAW as soon as the match starts. Happy Corbin was eliminated next by Finn Balor without any complaints from me. King Woods went on a tear after a hot tag to unleash some great offense against the opposition until he was promptly flattened by Bobby Lashley for the next elimination. Just when I thought we were going to get to revisit Lashley vs. McIntyre from earlier this year (more notably WrestleMania), both men got caught up fighting at ringside and were BOTH eliminated by countout. I thought that was fucking stupid, but I guess WWE Creative thought they were "protecting" those guys by not having them being pinned or submitted. The live crowd didn't like this turn of events in the least either, evidenced by the chorus of boos that followed shortly thereafter. Finn Balor was laid out promptly by Sheamus, who was rolled up by Austin Theory not too long after that. It was at this point where I thought Austin Theory would be the last man standing for his team, but Sheamus laid waste to both his own teammate, Jeff Hardy, AND Austin Theory following his elimination. Jeff Hardy powered out to the delight of the crowd and eliminated Austin Theory. It was looking like it was going to be Jeff Hardy's night, but after an exciting finishing sequence, Rollins put his knees up to defend against the incoming Swanton Bomb and connected with the Curb Stomp to pick up the win for Team Raw.

There were some VERY questionable booking decisions in terms of some of these eliminations but overall, I was entertained by this match for the most part.

The Rock's 25th Anniversary 25-Man Dual Branded Battle Royal

Omos won by last eliminating Ricochet

Outside of some comedic moments from Sami Zayn trying to rally his fellow SmackDown! Superstars (Cesaro and Ricochet) to rally together against the remaining Raw Superstars to R-Truth offering Omos and Otis a slice of pizza as a peace offering, this was easily a bathroom break of a match. Omos was throwing out guys left and right like this was Kane in the 2001 Royal Rumble. At one point, I thought they were going to throw Ricochet a bone and have him win the entire thing, but nope, he was dumped out unceremoniously like everyone else here. What a massive waste of time and talent for guys like Ricochet, AJ Styles, and Cesaro, who should be placed much higher up on the card(s) at this point of their careers.

Champions vs. Champions Tag Team Match

RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) (Raw Tag Team Champions) def. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) by pinfall

I honestly didn't pay attention to the bulk of this match while I was eating dinner (especially after realizing I should've done that during the previous match...) but for what I did pay attention to, I wasn't surprised. The Usos tend to have good to great tag team matches with anyone and everyone and this was no different here. The finish saw The Usos going for their Uso Splash on Riddle but didn't see the blind tag that allowed Orton to capitalize with the RKO literally out of nowhere as he caught the lone Uso out of the air for another win for Raw. At this point, I realized that Raw was winning every single match outside of the main event as they had to give SmackDown SOMETHING instead of this being a landslide victory for Raw.

5-on-5 Women's Survivor Series Elimination Match

Team Raw (Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Carmella, and Queen Zelina) def. Team SmackDown (Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Natalya, and Toni Storm)

Toni Storm was the last minute addition to Team SmackDown but I was happy to see her get about two eliminations in the first 15 minutes of this match before being eliminated herself. Carmella got eliminated in the first minute after Rhea Ripley snatched off her protective face mask. I'm guessing that played up to her and Zelina winning those Women's Tag Team titles off Rhea and Nikki A.S.H. on Raw the following night. The #1 contender to the Raw Women's Championship, Liv Morgan, eliminates Toni Storm, who is set to face Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship in the near future. Liv didn't last in there for long before she was eliminated by Sasha Banks. I'll admit that I like the pairing of Shayna Baszler and Natalya together. I hope they keep that going for a bit longer on SmackDown. At this point in the match, I was thinking that Rhea and Bianca was going to run through Team SmackDown on their own, but Rhea was eliminated by Shayna. Sasha got back into the action, looking to square off with Bianca Belair, who was the last woman standing for Team Raw. Sasha didn't want to play well with her teammates, which led to them causing her to be eliminated via countout due to some miscommunication at ringside - clearly her teammates (especially the currently heel Shotzi who Sasha had beat on SmackDown two nights prior) had their fill of her as their "captain". This decision ended up leading to Team SmackDown's downfall as they crumbled from within, which allowed Bianca Belair to overcome the odds and pick up yet another win for Team Raw.

For as much as people complain about Bianca Belair's push for the past year, we can't deny that they have given her a lot of accolades here in 2021, especially more when you compare her push this year in comparison to Rhea Ripley's debut year on the main roster. It's like day and night in that regard.

Champion vs. Champion Singles Match

Roman Reigns (SmackDown's Universal Champion) (with Paul Heyman) def. Big E (Raw's WWE Champion) by pinfall

This match started off pretty slow and boring but it ultimately found its voice by the end. Most of the fans on social media seemed to approve in terms of what they wanted out of this match in terms of "big guys slappin' meat" in terms of seeing two wild bulls charging at each other head to head.

I cringed seeing Big E go for that apron spear between the ropes, only to take the full brunt of that bump on both occasions after Roman stepped off the ring apron too soon (not that I don't blame him for not wanting to take that stupid bump). How that dude doesn't have a broken collarbone from all of the years of squeezing that spot into almost all of his matches is beyond me.

At the end of the day, Roman Reigns came out on top as the victor and lone member of the SmackDown roster who was able to pick up a win for the brand - something I have no doubt in my mind that we won't hear the end of on Friday Night SmackDown! this week (11/25/21).

To Big E's credit, he was able to hang with the Tribal Chief and endured not one or two Superman Punches, but THREE along with several Spears to boot. In all fairness though, Big E shouldn't be pinning Roman anyway. That honor belongs to the one who is going to take that title from him at WrestleMania next year, even though I would not be surprised that they fast track the rematch between Roman and Lesnar to Royal Rumble, only to setup another rematch at WrestleMania.

As shown in the image above, you can see Big E going for the one of the many Apron Dive Spears/Suicide Dives in this match.

I couldn't understand why this match was the main event when Becky and Charlotte had the most compelling and interesting match going into this show, yet that was the opener to this entire show. I guess WWE was banking on a last minute appearance from The Rock even down to the zero hour, but to no avail.

At the end of the day, they have no one but themselves to blame for having egg on their face - no pun intended. If they knew The Rock wasn't showing up then it makes this whole embarrassing love letter to him, which gave off the impression that they were brown nosing and essentially begging him to show up, despite already getting a fat check for promoting his Netflix film, Red Notice. There was that promotion/endorsement from Pizza Hut tonight too, but that just came off really forced, much like their usual fast food endorsements/advertising.

Afterthoughts:

Survivor Series (2021) will be remembered by fans solely for the debacle with Vince McMahon and his egg that was gifted to him by The Rock, who was ironically absent from this show when it was promoting his recent Netflix film release AND his 25th anniversary debut on this very PPV. I'm not even going to sugarcoat the fact that the ongoing storyline with Vince and his egg was stupid, but at the same time, I'm not the target audience for their modern day storylines. For those wondering, the egg storyline had no payoff as it was revealed the following night on Monday Night RAW that Austin Theory took the egg merely to take a selfie with it, much to Sami Zayn's dismay to acquire Vince's bounty/reward for finding the culprit. From what I was told, this event had little to no build going into it until the zero hour for both brands in terms of brand warfare with the teams weren't even finalized until Friday night. I'm not even a regular viewer of their weekly programming anymore, but even I could tell that the whole concept of brand warfare was lost this year when most of the Superstars were more invested in their individual feuds with each other than this so-called "battle for brand supremacy". It's hard to make your talents care about that when this company never offers any sort of an award for the winning brand at Survivor Series. I don't understand why is it so hard to offer the winning brand the advantage of entry numbers for Royal Rumble or something. It's hard to care about these Survivor Series events when there's nothing on the line every year, especially when they never change things up. I wouldn't mind if they did a War Games match one year, but I guess that is going to remain being an exclusive match type to the NXT brand.

In terms of match quality, the talents definitely worked hard, especially with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch in the opening bout of the night, but the fans definitely weren't feeling everything put out there - not that I can blame them. That's the sad state of WWE's current product. They've turned off and pushed away a lot of their audience with their questionable (and better yet, flat out stupid) creative decisions and business practices (i.e. such as releasing 80+ wrestlers and counting in this year alone...) as they have been practically handing them over to Tony Khan's All Elite Wrestling.

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