The majority of this week’s news concerns the rapid assembly of the Survivor Series card.
WWE has held PPV level events nearly every 2 weeks this Fall. This has meant that stories sometimes don’t have a ton of breathing room and new event cards have to come together more quickly. It’s up to each viewer to decide for themselves that has been a good thing or a bad thing. I personally would have preferred a more well paced timeline for storylines to unfold, but they also had some unexpected curveballs to overcome. The loss of one of their top stars to illness has seemingly effected every bit of booking.
If rumors are to be believed, the brand rivalry was not the original plan for this year’s Survivor Series. Raw vs Smackdown is a tried and true formula though. It will provide some stellar match ups from the current champions of each brand while also giving the company time to regroup and start down a fresh path for their long-term story telling. As long as the individual performers aren’t too burnt out from the chaotic schedule they’ve been working lately, I think we’re in for one of the more entertaining shows of the Fall. Of course it doesn’t hurt that we also have NXT bringing us Wargames the night before either.
Injury Report
HHH underwent surgery this week to repair a torn pectoral that he suffered at the Crown Jewel event.
Assorted News and Notes
Starting next week, Raw will end at exactly 11pm each Monday night. They will no longer be running over for an extra 5-15 minutes (sometimes more). This was said to be a decision made by USA Network. Honestly, I welcome the change. Raw is already the longest weekly show at 3 hours, and if they can’t fit everything into that 3 hours that’s a problem they need to address internally.
Nov 18: Survivor Series
It looks like we can forget about the Team Corbin vs Team Angle idea in favor of an all Raw vs Smackdown line up at Survivor Series. If the rumors are to be believed, this is yet another layer of fallout from the unexpected departure of Roman Reigns.
On Raw, acting GM Corbin named himself captain of the Raw mens team but stated he would not compete in the match, only manage it. The 1st three team members he chose were Ziggler, McIntyre, and Strowman. He spent the rest of the night running away from an angry Strowman though, so it’s unclear where that’s heading. Corbin also named Alexa Bliss captain of Raw’s women’s team. It was unclear at the time, but seems she will also be a non-competitive captain. She is still recovering from the injury that kept her from competing as scheduled at Evolution.
Also on Raw this week, AOP took the Tag Titles off of Seth Rollins in a handicap match. Presumably this now sets up AOP vs Smackdown Tag Champs the Bar at Survivor Series. Rollins is also now free to only worry about defending the IC title against his former partner Dean Ambrose. But first he’ll square off against US Champ Shinsuke Nakamura at Survivor Series.
On Smackdown, the full teams for both the men and women were set. Plus it was revealed there will also be a tag team elimination match. The Usos defeated longtime rivals the New Day for the right to be captains of team Smackdown. They immediately named New Day their 1st picks to join them on the team.
Announced:
Raw Womens Champ Ronda Rousey vs Smackdown Womens Champ Becky Lynch
Team Raw Men: Baron Corbin Captain- Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, and Braun Strowman vs Team Smackdown Men: Miz and Daniel Bryan co-captains, Shane McMahon, Rey Mysterio, and Samoa Joe
Team Raw Women: Alexa Bliss Captain vs Team Smackdown Women: Charlotte Flair Captain?, Carmella, Naomi, Asuka, and Sonya Deville
Universal Champion Brock lesnar vs WWE Champion AJ Styles
Raw Tag Champs: AOP vs SDL Tag Champs: The Bar
IC Champ Seth Rollins vs US Champ Shinsuke Nakamura
Tag Team Elimination Match: Team Raw: vs Team Smackdown: Usos captains and New Day
NXT News
Nov 17: NXT Takeover Wargames:
NXT Championship: Tomasso Ciampa© vs Velveteen Dream (there seems to be a chance Lars Sullivan gets added to the mix here as well)
Aliester Black vs Johnny Gargano
Wargames: Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong) vs War Raiders, Ricochet & Pete Dunne)
2 out of 3 Fall Match for the NXT Women’s Title: Shayna Baszler© vs Kairi Sane. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sane enlisted the help of her best friend and MYC runner up Io Shirai to help neutralize the interference of Shayna’s friends Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. Perhaps they’ll even throw in a 3rd lady for team Sane to keep things even. Top guesses for that spot would be MYC winner Toni Storm, Mia Yim, Dakota Kai or Deonna Purrazzo.
NXT UK
Now that they’ve finally begun airing the footage that’s been taped for this brand, they’re attempting to close the gap between tapings and TV. This week, like last, they aired 2 new episodes of UK action. I may be a little biased in that I just really enjoy the British style and some of the competitors on their roster, but this is currently my favorite wrestling show each week. If you watch only one match this week, it should be the title match between UK Champion Pete Dunne and NXT regular Danny Burch which main evented Episode 5. The 6-man tag match that concluded episode 6 was a lot of fun also.
Coming Soon!
Dec 16 is TLC!
