The single biggest take away from Survivor Series was that NXT seems to have been officially established as a third brand in WWE. NXT is no longer just developmental, but rather a place that has more of a focus on recruiting young talent that has not previously been with the company.
It just feels right to have Becky Lynch main-eventing a Pay-Per-View. She creates the same aura John Cena did; not so much in terms of on-screen character but because they both command the attention of the audience so well. They emanate the feeling that they are in exactly the right place within the company that they should be. Shayna Baszler also already feels like a main eventer.
The NXT roster had an extremely strong showing, winning 4 of 7 head-to-head matches between Raw, SmackDown, and NXT overall at Survivor Series. Three of four which took place on the main card.
Three NXT superstars stood out:
- Rhea Ripley had an amazing weekend, leading each of her respective teams to victory, each with a disadvantage.
- Adam Cole and Pete Dunne each fought through injuries from the previous night to put on what was probably the best match of the night. This match also put NXT in the spotlight because it was for the NXT Title. I would love to see the spectacle these guys could execute when fully healthy.
- Keith Lee is another one that stood out, mostly for not only eliminating The Architect Seth Rollins (who is due for a heel turn) and being put over by The Big Dog and the top superstar in the entire company Roman Reigns. Roman is a very classy guy in his own right and legitimately cares about the company more than anything.
While it was nice to see Dominic doing his absolute best to even the odds for his dad Rey Mysterio, it simply was not enough to overcome Brock Lesnar. This was more than expected. It has become somewhat of a staple for Lesnar to have his best match of the year at Survivor Series: AJ Styles in 2017, Daniel Bryan in 2018, and now Rey Mysterio in 2019.
I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of emphasis “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt and the Universal Championship received. At least for this Pay-Per-View, it was relegated to the status the WWE Championship has been under for about the last three years. The Fiend and Daniel Bryan both deserve better than this.
It seems that WWE could possibly create a tag team of Daniel Bryan and The Miz which would be a great idea since they have an extensive amount of history with one another deleting back to 2010 in the first season of NXT.
Shinsuke Nakamura is significantly benefiting from the presence of Sami Zayn. What is happening is that the WWE universe is getting so irritated by Zayn and his punchable face that they are starting to develop a liking again for Nakamura. As a result, I would expect WWE to turn Shinsuke into a fan favorite again within the next couple of months, leading to a match between him and Sami Zayn at ‘Mania.
Potential option ideas for WWE creative to execute at Survivor Series 2020 are:
- To either have each match have some sort of Royal Rumble implication (I will leave it up to them which implications they choose for the matches to have, but it would be great if the Survivor Series matches had some type of impact in the future).
- Or, WWE could always go back to the more traditional route of orchestrating it so the Survivor Series matches served to create new, marketable superstars; either way, I just think I speak for the entire WWE universe when I state that it would be beneficial if one of these transpired.
Side Note: The Viking Raiders needed the victory in the tag team match to keep their momentum as an unstoppable force in the Raw tag team division. Very smart decision.