WWE recently held its 2020 Survivor Series, where the highlight in many people’s opinions was the Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre (Champion vs Champion) match and the Undertaker’s 30th anniversary farewell. But, as it is every year, there was the traditional 5 on 5 tag team elimination match for the male and female rosters.
As it has been since 2016, the two sides were Team RAW and Team Smackdown for both rosters, and RAW was again victorious. The men’s RAW team (AJ Styles, Matt Riddle, Keith Lee, Sheamus and Braun Strowman) did a clean sweep of Team Smackdown (Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Baron Corbin and…Otis)
Meanwhile, the women’s RAW team (Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Peyton Royce, Lacey Evans and Lana) defeated Smackdown’s team (Bayley, Natayla, Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott) on pretty much a technicality when Nia and Bianca were both counted out, leaving Lana as the sole survivor while she was just standing on the ring steps, having been ostracized by her own team.
Because it was the Undertaker’s farewell, the men’s 5 on 5 actually started the show. And while this may have been a one off, this gives off the indication that perhaps it’s time to do away with these traditional matches at Survivor Series.
Put this year’s Survivor Series in contrast to last year’s event, which also included NXT as the third brand, hence the matches were actually much more exciting when you include a third player in the mix…and NXT ended up winning most of the contests in 2019. But this year, it really was hard to pin down what was at stake; not even the bragging rights over ‘brand supremacy’ was much of a factor.
The only two matches where there was something at stake were the Reigns/McIntrye and Sasha Banks vs Asuka champion facing champion matches. Asuka vs Sasha is always a dream match for any wrestling fan, and they indeed delivered. Plus, there was holdover from the summer when Sasha beat Asuka for the RAW title before losing it back.
As for the two men’s champions, they’ve been the two most dominant competitors on their brand for most of 2020; a clash between ‘Claymore Country’ and ‘the Head of the Table’…indeed to find out who really is head of the WWE table, was bound to happen.
I think back to that one Survivor Series in 1998, dubbed ‘Deadly Games’, in which a tournament was held to determine the new WWF Champion. The entire tournament took place at the pay per view, so the matches were short, lasting no more than 10 minutes at most. Only in the tournament finals, between The Rock and Mick Foley (as Mankind) did the match run up to 17 minutes long.
AEW recently did a tournament to crown a new number one contender, the culmination which will take place on December 2 edition of Dynamite. However, 1998’s Deadly Games had higher stakes, as the tournament winner became the WWF Champion.
I would suggest for future Survivor Series pay per views, doing away with the 5 on 5 elimination matches (unless NXT is involved) is the way to go if this was about only RAW and Smackdown competing on the show. Having some kind of tournament to crown a number one contender, where they will face the champion at the next pay per view, would be more interesting. Reserve the brand vs brand battles between individuals when the situation warrants it.
The 2020 Survivor Series marked the 30th anniversary of the Undertaker’s debut in WWE (as a character) and ended with the Deadman walking off into the night. Maybe it’s time the concept of the 5 on 5 traditional tag team elimination matches went off into the night too.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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