WWE Survivor Series 2017 Review

By Kieran Moran

Much like the video games that shaped my childhood, tonight was all about Smackdown Vs. RAW. Champion versus Champion matches galore, big stars from both brands squaring off and 2 traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team matches. Lovely stuff.

While it appeared that the lead up to this show came from out of no where, it wasn't a hard story to follow. After Shane McMahon lead a crusade against the flag ship Monday night show (which isn't the longest running TV show in history, Mr Graves) the battle lines were drawn, and so without any further a do, lets see who survived (sorry).

The New Day Vs. The Shield

Always a good way to start any show, The New Day got the Houston crowd on their feet and handed out some 'Booty-Os' for good measure. Then out came the Hounds of Justice, wearing the most hideous half-and-half t-shirts known to man, to another large reaction. The match had some good moments including an exhaustingly long unicorn stampede, but I feel the final product fell a little flat. Obvious missed cues and bad timings towards the end of the match left a sour taste in the mouth. A lacklustre performance from Dean Ambrose left The Shield feeling less than dominant, but that didn't stop them from picking up the victory after a Super Triple Powerbomb from the second rope.

The match was by no means a bad one, but it could have been so much more. Perhaps being first out the gate took away a little bit of the big fight feel that this match deserved but nevertheless, we were off to a good start.

Rating: 6/10

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

After a long boring speech by Stephanie McMahon to the RAW women's team, both teams went to the ring to compete in one of the longest running matches in WWE history. In recent years this match had been relegated to the pre-show or was given very little thought, so it was good to see it, A: back on the main show, and B: shown the thought and respect it deserves.

The match started with the two team captains, Alicia Fox and Becky Lynch, facing off in the ring. Becky showed dominance early on but a sneaky tag from Bayley and a quick roll up pin lead to the captain of Team Blue being the first to head to the back. Bayley herself was then sent to the back after a Superfly Splash from Tamina, who was undoubtably the standout star of the match. Tamina was then joined by her cousin and equal opposing force, Nia Jax. After a colossal collision between the beautiful behemoths, Nia was eliminated via count-out, which was either a lucky break or great strategy by Team Smackdown.

Then came the decision that overshadowed the entire match. Naomi countered Fox's Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker into a sunset-flip setting up for her new submission. Whether Alicia forgot to kick-out, Naomi didn't set the move up in time, or the ref messed it all up, is anyone's guess. What we do know, is that it was a gigantic mess.

Auska was the sole survivor for Team RAW but that didn't stop her from taking out Natalya and Tamina single handed to pick up the win for the red brand. It was a good match but with the miscommunication and lack of big moments, it wasn't anything special. 

Rating: 5/10

United States Champion Baron Corbin Vs. Intercontinental Champion The Miz

This match was one of the only matches of the night to have it's own personal storyline, as both men took to social media to call each other out. However, Corbin took the rivalry to another level by bringing The Miz's pregnant wife, Maryse, into the mix, with The Miz responding by saying "If you ever talk about my pregnant wife again, I'll knock your f**king teeth down your throat". Lovely. Let's get this one under way.

The match was a decent back and fourth, with The Miz focusing his offence on Corbin's knee after a cheap shot from Bo Dallas of the Miztourage. Ultimately Baron Corbin came out on top hitting Miz with the End of Days to pick up Smackdown's first win of the night. A good match that told its stories well. Both men proved why they are champions on their brands and both should be proud of their performance.

Rating: 6/10

RAW Tag Team Champions The Bar Vs. Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Usos

Boy, oh boy, was I looking forward to this. The two standout tag teams of the year went head to head representing their respective brands. The heavy hitting, power-centric offence of The Bar against the agile, high flying style of The Usos, and it made for a truly entertaining match. 

The creative tandem offence of Sheamus & Cesaro allowed them to dominate for much of the bout. However after Cesaro jumped in front of a double super kick, taking the bullet for Sheamus, The Usos capitalised with one super kick each to Sheamus before delivering a devastating double super kick to either side of the Celtic Warriors head. What followed was a spectacular over-the-top rope dive onto Cesaro, whilst tagging in his brother, who went up to the top for a big splash for the win. The Usos proved why they're the best, but The Bar having nothing to be ashamed of.

Rating: 8/10

Smackdown Women's Champion Charlotte Vs. RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss

The last time two women's Champions faced each other was 7 years ago when the original Women's championship was unified with the Divas Championship. Needless to say, we are in better times now. Alexa Bliss took control early on and dominated much of the match. Both women weren't afraid to get physical and threw a number of hard hitting manoeuvres throughout. Charlotte proved why she is indeed the Queen of the women's division coming out on top and taking the lead for Smackdown for the first time in the evening. 

The match was pretty good. It was evident that Bliss and Charlotte didn't have the best in-ring chemistry, but it's a testament to both ladies, that they still pull off a match of this calibre. 

Rating: 7/10

WWE Champion AJ Styles Vs. Universal Champion Brock Lesnar

The saviour that is AJ Styles came from the gods to deliver us from the train wreck of what would have been Jinder Mahal against Brock Lesnar. I hate to admit it, but I was warming to Jinder as champion. It was hard to ignore how much he was improving but it was so, so obvious how bad a match between The Modern Day Maharaja and The Beast Incarnate, would have actually been. So WWE decided to save the match up, by bringing in The Phenomenal One instead... And my word I'm glad they did.

Brock took the fight to AJ from the word GO, throwing the WWE Champion all around the ring. Admittedly, I also had my reservations about this match too, as I haven't been a fan of Brock's recent matches. I think he's gotten lazy and hasn't put the effort into any of his latest 1-on-1 matches. However this match was against AJ Styles, who I have said time and time again, could have a great match with a concrete bollard cemented into the ground (and you know it's true). 

What parted this match to the others came down to 3 things: AJ reversing and wriggling out of a number of F5 attempts, instead of just going up, coming down and game over. The amount of offence Brock took from AJ made it feel like a proper fight and not one-sided in the slightest. And third and finally, Brock's look of absolute pain whilst being locked in the calf crusher. This match was end-to-end fun. A big fight for the ages.

Brock came out on top after a sole F5, but AJ took the fight to the beast, and only just came up short.

Rating: 8.5/10 

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

The star power was off the charts in this main event match, and some of the face-offs in the ring were simply beautiful. Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura's NXT call back (also why was Cole calling Nakamura 'Shin'. No. Just no mate). Triple H and Bobby Roode. Cena and Angle coming full circle from Cena's first ever match in WWE. Bobby Roode and Kurt Angle reunited, you know, since they worked for that other company. Can't for the life of me think of their name. 

Of course, the star of the match was Braun Strowman. He was taken out by the full Smackdown team when they suplexed him through an announce table, but the Monster among Men came back and took full control, almost single-handedly winning the match for his team. And then came the finish. 

We put our head together this morning and came up with the theory that Triple H thought Angle couldn't get the job done himself and so Pedigreed him, and then wanted to be the one to take out Shane and dished out a Pedigree to his brother-in-law too. I can only assume we will be getting an explanation tonight on RAW.

RAW got the win and won the night in general, 4 matches to 3. The match was entertaining, fun, enjoyable and to actually agree with the announce team for once, I could have watched it all night. The confusing ending wasn't a great way to end the night but Strowman stood tall, which is all that matters I guess.

Rating: 8/10

So that's it for the big 4 WWE shows this year and only Clash of Champions remains to go until we venture into 2018. If Survivor Series remains in the same format in the years to come, I would very much welcome it, as a celebration of the year, and a spectacle of dream matches that should only be possible once a year.

Survivor Series 2017 had a number of problems, mostly due to sloppy performances and confusing decisions, but it was still a very fun show. Let's see where things go from here shall we...

Show Rating: 7.5/10

Kieran Moran is the host of a number of podcasts for Official Wrestling including 'A Few Good Marks'. He can be found on a weekend shouting names into a microphone, marking out at anything Finn Balor does, and wishing he was born earlier so he could be around when ECW was still active