@ShawnPuffy
Wow what a weekend of wrestling! NXT TakeOver: War Games 2019 was incredible and WWE Survivor Series offered even the most jilted of fans their fill. We were supposed to bring you another episode of The Sean & Shawn Show today but my brother from another mother is welcoming his grand baby into the world. So I’m on solo duty. You know what that means? More rum and egg nog for me! Let’s get this show on the road.
KICKOFF SHOW
–Tri-Brand Tag-Team Battle Royal: Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode win – What was the actual point of this? Just to get a bunch of guys on the show that were otherwise unused? Ugh. Glad it was on the preshow and in the first hour. Nobody cared. – Dud/5
–NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Kalisto v Lio Rush (c) v Akira Tozawa – Oh hey! It’s the obligatory Kickoff Show Cruiserweight match. This one was good. But if you’re paying attention, most of the 205 Live matches are good. They just get overlooked because of the purple ropes and the segregation. Hopefully, the move to NXT revives the cruiserweight division because this is how you get a pay per view going. As a bonus they even took Kalisto from SmackDown & Tozawa from RAW to keep with the brand supremacy theme. Nice little touch. – 3-3.25/5
–Tag-Team Champions: Viking Raiders v Undisputed Era v New Day – The first of the champion v champion v champion matches. I’m slightly confused why this ended up on the Kickoff Show but I’ll let it go. I’m kind of over the New Day and have been for a while. This gimmick has more than run it’s course and probably has outstayed it’s welcome. Regardless, this was a good match. I’ll never not be astounded by Hanson & Rowe‘s agility. These two big men should not fly around the ring like they do. Kickoff Show-wise, this might be the match of the year. Let’s see if the main show can keep up with momentum set by the Kickoff Show. – 3.25-3.5/5
After the Kickoff Show, it’s one a piece (now I get why the moved the tag match here) and the stage is set for the main show.
–Women’s Elimination Match: Team Raw v Team SmackDown v Team NXT – At first glance this was a pretty lopsided match. SmackDown clearly had the disadvantage talent wise. We saw why sometimes, long time rivals don’t make good bed fellows when Asuka and Charlotte turned on each other and Charlotte got a face full of green mist. There were some shenanigans that eliminated Io & Candice for a little bit, probably because of what they went through the night before in War Games, and it kind of deflated the crowd. But they fixed it with a more than satisfying ending that saw NXT come out on top and set the crowd on fire. Overall this match was very sloppy and waaay too long (28 mins?). When the women get a bad wrap, it’s because of stuff like this. – 2.5/5
–Midcard Champions: Roderick Strong v AJ Styles v Shinsuke Nakamura – Did anyone not expect this match to be sick? This was probably the most looked forward to match of the night and it was heel v heel v heel. Three world class performers in a dream match. Well they certainly didn’t disappoint. Not that you thought they would. But don’t take my word for it, (actually, yes, take my word for it. That’s the whole point of this.) go watch this match. Roddy stole a win at the end of the day and NXT goes up 3-1-1. – 3.5/5
–NXT Championship: Adam Cole (c) v Pete Dunne – I thought the last match would be the show stealer– I was wrong. Wow. If WWE had a Classic channel like ESPN does, this match would be being replayed on it right now because it was an instant classic. This is what the main roster needs to be. Since this match wasn’t about the Tri-branded battle, I won’t spoil the outcome on you. Roddy stole the win last match, but this match stole the show. – 4/5
–Universal Championship: “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt (c) v Daniel Bryan – Eh. I love the Fiend character but I’m over the “eerie” red light and the super natural, can’t hurt him thing. Looking back, he reminds of the Undertaker when he first arrived. That being said, I’m sure as this evolves it will ease up and he won’t be so indestructible. I mean, it just makes his matches so predictable. If you thought D Bry was going to win, you should send me some of what you’re smoking. Fine match, but the predictability kind of takes away from the aura. – 2.75/5
–Men’s Elimination Match: RAW v SmackDown v NXT – Team NXT was stacked. WALTER, Ciampa, Riddle, Keith Lee & Damian Priest. I whole-heartedly expected this team to win and I half-heartedly expected Triple H to be a part of this team. Tons of great spots in this one and a huge push for Keith Lee. You can tell they have big plans for this guy. Sure, he was eliminated and didn’t win, but he was the last elimination and he lost to Roman Reigns. I mean, come on. I guess with SmackDown moving to Fox on Fridays and not too many people being impressed and what they’re doing over there, Reigns had to go over here. It makes sense. – 3/5
–WWE Championship – No Holds Barred: Brock Lesnar (c) v Rey Mysterio Jr. – Don’t just have a Happy Thanksgiving, have a NO HOLDS BARRED Thanksgiving. God. Someone please make Rey just go away. Don’t they need a GM once they launch NXT Mexico? Oh yeah, and tell him to bring his little lesbian son with him. For a minute I thought we were going to see a damn miracle. Then the plane took off and it was a one-way ticket to Suplex City with no refunds and no layovers. Yeah, I know. You hate Brock. I don’t. And I thought this was awesome. Not a long drawn out technical match, but a brutal beating and one I’ve been waiting to see. My only concern is it wasn’t quite brutal enough for me. Hopefully this is the last chapter in this stupid story. – 2.75/5
–Women’s Champions: Shayna Baszler v Becky Lynch v Bayley – Why was this the main event again? I’m in a bunch of wrestlimg groups and the general consensus here was this match brought everyone down and was kind of boring. No Ronda Rousey. No big climax. Baszler taps Bayley and NXT wins, but they couldn’t go off the air without letting “Da Mon” look good and stand tall. Bleh! – 2.5/5
Matches = 2.75/5
Entertainment = 4/5
Overall = 3.25-3.5/5 Bibles
Survivor Series 2019 was a really good show. Especially when you compare it to recent WWE shows. They did the right thing by putting NXT over which pretty much makes them a third, equal brand now. They messed up with some of the match placement. (The opener and closer should have been different) But at the end of the day the WWE showed us that Vince and company can put on a quality show. Now let’s see if they can build off of this and keep it fresh and exciting or if will more of the same old tonight on RAW and Friday on SmackDown.
-Shawn Puff