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Welcome to my live, ongoing WWE Survivor Series 2020 blog!
I'll be going a little deeper with blogging tonight as Dave Scherer is balancing a conflicting schedule tonight. Richard Trionfo will be heading up coverage with his play by play. Thanks for supporting PWInsider.com and enjoy our coverage and blogs tonight!
PRE-SHOW THOUGHTS
I know this will be silly to some but I am legitimately looking forward to covering the show tonight a little more than usual. In 1987, my family got cable for the first time the day before Thanksgiving and the next night, ordered the first ever edition of Survivor Series. In the days of streaming content all over the world, it's easy to take it all for granted, but in 1987, the idea of seeing a show live AS IT HAPPENED was a great novelty then. While WWE has moved away from the initial concept of the show, I have always loved the elimination matches too, especially year one seeing Ricky Steamboat & Randy Savage ON THE SAME TEAM and seeing the Jumping Bomb Angels and The Glamour Girls have some great interactions, which opened the door for me to look out for other international talents. Plus, it had a 5 vs. 5 tag team bout and a fun Bam Bam Bigelow performance in the main event. Just a fun show for its time period. So, I have a soft spot in my heart for this show and I hope it's a fun few hours.
With all the talk of Undertaker's 30th Anniversary tonight, I do hope WWE will feature Paul Bearer in some fashion tonight, either by having him on the Titan Tron via classic footage or some cool special effect. He was a great, important piece of the Undertaker puzzle and was a great person, so I'd love to see some representation tonight. If Tupac can perform via hologram, why can't Paul Bearer pop up?
I also wonder if we'll see Brock Lesnar show up tonight. The timing seems right for an angle attacking someone to set the stage for 2021 and Wrestlemania season.
KICKOFF SHOW
During the Kickoff Show, R-Truth celebrated the 30th anniversary of...The Gobbledy Gooker. Of course he did. If you were guessing there would be a 24/7 title change, you'd be right as the Gooker rolled him up after Akira Tozawa popped up. My guess is that was Drew Gulak under the mask. The Gooker lost one of his feet while running away with Truth in pursuit. Okaaaay!
They showed Rikishi preparing Jey Uso for later tonight. I like it. Let's see some of the other legends. It'll make the show seem even more important.
Next up was the Raw vs. Smackdown Battle Royal. Why isn't Big E in this? Or on Team Smackdown somewhere else? They had Dominik toss out John Morrison as an early surprise. It was cool to see Rey Mysterio and Kalisto going at it. Cedric Alexander had a Black Lives Matter armband on. Carrillo took a nice bump off of the apron, crashing into the guard rail chest-first. Alexander and Ricochet had a nice back and forth on the apron. Benjamin KILLED Ricochet with a nice knee strike.
It was your typical Battle Royal with some solid action, some back and forth fisticuffs and some OK to cool eliminations. It came down to Miz, Chad Gable, Jeff Hardy and Dominik. Gable surprisingly took out Hardy with an over the top clothesline. Nice way to show Gable is legit. Let's hope WWE actually follows up on that, but I'm not holding my breath. Miz went to the floor. Gable hit Dominik with some awesome suplex combinations. They had some great interactions before Gable was tossed. Miz returned to toss Dominik, giving us the exact same tired finish we've seen since the days of Jimmy Hart hiding under the ring.
WWE blew a good opportunity here where they could have had two younger talents in Gable and Dominik be the last ones in the ring and get each other over with some cool sequences and then give one of them some good momentum. Instead, they went for the same old idea and then, when they finally try to push a younger talent who's been floating aimlessly forever, they will wonder why they don't get any traction. They had a chance here and let it slip through their fingers. Why does Miz need the win? He's already a former WWE Champion and has the MITB briefcase. What does it hurt to give an undercard talent a nice win?
Where's Lars Sullivan, by the way?
Here we go with the official Survivor Series PPV!
We kick off with Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown!
AJ Styles and Jey Uso started out. That was fun while it lasted. Riddle and Otis battled early on, which was a weird clash but they had some interesting interactions. Owens tagged in and worked over Riddle's ankle, even headbutting his foot. That was pretty unique. Sheamus and Rollins faced off. Rollins just got on his knee and offered himself up, yelling at Sheamus to do his part. He got rocked with a Brogue Kick and was pinned. Enjoy that time off Seth.
Even though the story the last few weeks was that Team Raw didn't get along, they spotlighted Team Smackdown arguing. Braun tagged in and ran them over on the floor. Braun then screamed Raw needed to be on the same page and work like a team. Who's going to argue with THAT guy. We got a battle of the big men, Keith Lee vs. Otis. Shades of One Man Gang vs. Bam Bam Bigelow! They exchanged some power spots, including trying to go for big suplexes on the other but having those moves blocked. Strowman tagged in and after trying so hard to muscle over Lee, Otis was tired and easy prey. Otis tagged out after Styles entered the ring, setting up some Owens vs. Styles action, including a crazy high backdrop.
Owens was taken out and pinned by Styles. Corbin tried to wipe out AJ but the entire Raw team made the save. Riddle and Styles double-teamed Corbin and eliminated him. Smackdown is down to two men, Otis and Uso. Sheamus had words with his team, allowing Uso and Otis to gain control. They gave Otis a lot of big power spots beating on everyone except Braun. Finally, he and the Monster faced off. Braun actually took the catepillar but Riddle interfered, setting up Braun getting the win with a powerslam.
Jey Uso is the last man standing vs. five men. They showed Paul Heyman watching, so that means Roman is watching. Jey hit a dive on Team Raw. He fought the good fight until Keith Lee made a blind tag. Uso dove off the top on Styles but Lee snatched him in mid-air and nailed the Spirit Bomb for the pin.
Team Raw wins and just as I predicted in the Tip Sheet, NO DISSENSION despite their entire story the last few weeks being that they didn't get along. I guess they go back to not getting along tomorrow!
More thoughts on Page 2!
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