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With Dave Scherer set to travel cross country tomorrow, I am stepping in to handle his usual blogging duties with ongoing thoughts on the 2017 Survivor Series PPV. Richard Trionfo is doing our play by play report. For those who want a little more, I'll be recording a Survivor Series post-game show for our Elite section, which you can subscribe to at www.PWInsiderElite.com.
The Elite section, by the way, has had 55 audio updates (and counting) so far this November alone. We strive to give you far more than your money's worth there, so check us out!
I got home from my own traveling today to find Elias in the ring singing and he got some nice heat, ripping on Houston. Matt Hardy's music hit to stop his performance and they had some decent back and forth grappling before the went to the usual nonsensical commercial promoting the very show we were watching.
Elias worked over Matt's shoulder and they did a nice job of going back to that issue over the course of the match. Matt came back with a Side Effect on the apron and had some good hope spots but in the end, Elias scored the pin. The right guy won here as they have obviously been investing in Elias and Matt is pretty much teflon at this point but without a role until he gets the rights to the Broken character or Jeff is back, which comes first. Solid bout.
They aired a trailer for the John Cena animated film Ferdinand. It looks like one for the kids.
Next up in the ring was WWE Cruiserweight champion Enzo Amore vs. Kalisto. Kalisto got caught up on the ropes doing his trampoline leap into the ring. Ooops. Enzo had a pretty good promo on the way to the ring. You have to admit he's been a huge success for the 205 Live brand. They had some good, aggressive wrestling early on. Kalisto caught Enzo with a nice Code Red before they went to commercial. When the returned, it was all Enzo in the ring. I don't know why but Enzo had a poop emoji on his rear end. There was a rough spot on the apron where Enzo went for the Eat Defeat and it looked awful, but announcers Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness did a nice job covering that Kalisto was holding onto the ropes and that's how he saved himself. In the end, Enzo scored the pin.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn cut a promo about being relegated to the pre-show, with Owens pointing out that he won the Universal and United States titles in the same venue. He shouldnt be fighting Breezeango. They have their tag match. I don't think the finish here was ever in doubt and sure enough, Owens and Zayn won the bout. The work was fine.
AJ Styles was being interviewed about facing Brock Lesnar tonight and Jinder Mahal showed up to stare him down. PLEASE NO!! I hope they leave Lesnar vs. Styles interference free tonight.
The first official PPV bout is The Shield vs. New Day. The crowd was pretty hot for the New Day's entrance. They cut a promo and we then...get a long video feature on the match. Hey WWE, we ordered the show and we are already invested. Let's go with some action. Dean and Seth wore shirts that were half Shield/half Raw. Those looked weird.
They have the announcing teams for each brand all together. This could get messy. Xavier and Seth started out and they had a nice exchange. The one interaction I was looking forward to was Big E and Roman Reigns and we didn't have to wait long for it. Reigns looked strong and took him down but E, the beast he is, jumped right back up and challenged Roman. That was fun. The Shield took control on Xavier and really worked him over. Woods is a great seller so that was the right choice to build heat. Shield looked good.
Woods was finally able to escape and now it was Dean getting triple teamed by New Day. The teams starting throwing down a little and E wiped out Dean with a great spear through the ropes to the floor. That spot never ceases to not scare the hell out of me. Ambrose continued to get worked over before Seth made the tag and began hitting some high impact offense. Everyone battled and Roman wiped out Xavier with a Superman Punch. That looked to be it as he set up for the spear but Woods kicked him as he charged. Dean tagged in and New Day tried to set him up for the Midnight Hour but Seth superkicked him Xavier. Dirty Deeds by Dean on Kofi but Xavier broke it up at the last second. Nice timing. They had some really great back and forth sequences here.
New did a triple decker splash with Woods followed by E each hitting splashes on Dean. That was pretty damn creative. They keep hitting big bombs against the other. Great stuff here. It ends up with each time lined up, pulling themselves to their feet before brawling in the center of the ring. They are brawling all over the ring and the ringside area. At this point, I almost wonder if the referee it going to end up throwing it out. Kofi came off the top but Roman avoided him and speared the hell out of him.
The Shield set up for a Triple Superbomb off the top rope for the pin on Kofi.
Really entertaining back and forth war to set the stage. They all brought it. A great way to start the show.
Raw 1, Smackdown 0.
We continue on Page 2!
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