11/24/19
Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: A mix of everyone but Mauro due to Corey being Corey.
So I missed the Kickoff show due to work stuff but…
Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode won a Tag Team Battle Royal. The match included The O.C., the Street Profits, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, the Revival, Roode and Ziggler, the Lucha House Party, Heavy Machinery, the Forgotten Sons, Breezango, and Imperium.
NXT Cruiserweight Champion Lio Rush defeated Akira Tozawa and Kalisto.
Raw Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders defeated Smackdown Tag Team Champions The New Day and NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era.
- So apparently the scores are all tied at 1 each. Time for the real show I guess.
Survivor Series Elimination Tag: Team Smackdown (Sasha Banks, Carmella, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, and Nikki Cross) vs Team Raw (Charlotte Flair, Natalya, Asuka, Kairi Sane, and Sarah Logan) vs Team NXT (Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Toni Storm, and Io Shirai)
This had a few rough spots in it but overall I enjoyed the hell out of it. Not a huge fan of Io being gone as early as she was but it is what it is. Obviously Rhea was the one they wanted to showcase in this and did a great job in doing so. I’m not positive what the point was of the fake Io/Candice injury angle was. Either they were trying to make NXT look smart or like cheaters. Didn’t matter, 4 of the 5 NXT women had wrestled in War Games the night previous so they all looked like bad asses just for showing up. Good start to the show.
Winner: Team NXT after a Riptide and some shenanigans on Sasha. NXT is up 2-1-1
- Seth questions KO’s loyalty. Kevin rightly says that he has the right to question anything.
Triple Threat: Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura w/Sami Zayn vs NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong vs United States Champion AJ Styles
This was about what I thought it would be. Really good but could have been better. Nakamura came to play in this one so that helped it a lot. Him throwing strikes like he means it really raises the level of the match. Roddy was really in the biggest match of his life in there and did a heck of a job looking like he belonged with the bigger stars. Another solid if unspectacular match.
Winner: Roddy after he stole a pin on Nakamura following a Phenomenal Forearm. NXT is up 3-1-1
- Miz tries to give Byran a pep talk. Didn’t take.
- Mauro “blew out his voice” and definitely didn’t get mocked by a coworker on Twitter for no reason.
NXT Championship: Pete Dunne vs (C) Adam Cole
This was a banger. It was even more impressive when you consider how badly Cole treated his body the night before. Just a really good back and forth match that put on display what both of these dudes do really well. They both sold their asses off still kept the pace going. I hope the NXT title is defended on every show from now on because it really brought this crowd to life. Both of these guys are awesome. Best match on the show. Enough said.
Winner: Cole after countering the Bitter End into a Destroyer and hitting the Last Shot.
Universal Championship: Daniel Bryan vs (C) The Fiend Bray Wyatt
They honestly would have been better off putting this anywhere else on the show. No way they were following the NXT title match. I’m not saying this was bad, it had Daniel Bryan in it, but it was definitely a big change of pace from the previous match. Also that red lighting is death to my enjoyment of anything. That being said it was good but just hard to judge it too positively after what it followed. The Fiend character works, when they figure out he doesn’t need the title for that to be true I think it will be better for everyone.
Winner: The Fiend with the Mandible Claw.
Survivor Series Elimination:Team Raw (Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, and Ricochet) vs Team Smackdown (Roman Reigns, Mustafa Ali, Braun Strowman, King Corbin, and Shorty G) vs Team NXT (Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Damien Priest, Matt Riddle, and WALTER)
Man pinning WALTER sucked the air out of the room in a hurry. This was fine but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Women’s version earlier in the card. I’m not as upset as some people about the Keith Lee deal because I know they think that going toe to toe with Roman is the best thing they can do for someone. My issue with that is that Lee didn’t get to do a whole lot before then to make him seem like a real force in the match. Dude didn’t even tag in for like 20 minutes. This was fine though, Kevin Owens stunning fools always makes me happy.
Winner: Team Smackdown after a Roman spear to Keith Lee. NXT- 3/SD-2/ Raw-1
WWE Championship/No Hold’s Barred: Rey Mysterio vs (C) Brock Lesnar w/ Paul Heyman
This match fell victim to all the ridiculous stories we (and the internet) made up. We were so hyped about Dom turning on Rey or Cain helping him win that we weren’t going to be happy with just a regular Brock match. Outside of some neat stuff with Dom trying to help his dad that is really all we got. Brock CAN be the best when he wants to be I just didn’t think that this was a fine example about what these dudes can do with one another.
Winner: Brock via F5.
Triple Threat: Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley vs NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler vs Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch
This seemed a notch below what we normally get out of Shayna but it was still a really solid match. Bayley got to look like she was actually developing a character instead of just getting a makeover so that helps. I’m not a big fan of Hulk…er Becky making Shayna look like shit right after her big win but I guess she really is the man now dog. Still it’s awesome that the women are getting to finally main event the big shows without random douche’s complaining about it all the time. This was solid but not an all time great or anything.
Winner: Shayna choked out Bayley with the clutch. NXT- 4/SD-2/ Raw-1 so NXT gets to open their presents first at the Titan Towers Christmas Jamboree this year!
- After the match Becky threw a fit and attacked our hero for winning. Spending too much time with Seth I guess.
Overall Thoughts: They will be in a way better situation when NXT moves the Takeover shows on weekends like this. No matter how good the main roster can be (and this show was good, not great, but good) they always look bad. I thought this was an alright show. Nothing on this was overly terrible and it moved right along. Maybe Bray/Bryan in the main and some elimination choices changing spots would help. I don’t know. Maybe TLC will be a banger, trying to be positive.
Follow me right here.
All Images Available at WWE.com
If you like what we do and want to help keep this site running, hit up our store right here. We can use all the support that we can get.
MWT 