Well… thank god I didn’t write this until AFTER the go home Smackdown, because I don’t think I’ve ever changed a preview as much as I have had to the line up for this one! So below you will see my preview for the 2018 Survivor Series card AS IT STANDS… I don’t know when exactly on Saturday I’ll release this but this will be as up to date of a card as I can put out and preview. It appears WWE have gone absolutely crazy as this show… I mean, just look at this card! Some wild matches, most with practically no storyline build, but as stand-alone matches, pretty impressive and intriguing I’d say. So… here I go… here’s my preview of Survivor Series 2018… as the show appears to be right now as of writing… subject to change… and another change… and another……
Cruiserweight Championship: Mustafa Ali V Buddy Murphy (C)
These two had a match that was voted as the best in 205Live history earlier this year, it was No DQ and trust me it was excellent. However a number of factors lead me to think this can’t be as good, simply as it wont be allowed the room to be. It’s on a pre-show for starters and outside of Mania (in which that crowd were… different…) pre shows don’t exactly set the world on ire. I can’t see them getting more than 10-15 minutes, and they haven’t got the No DQ stip that allowed them to do all sorts in their standout previous encounter. It does make sense to do this match up now, given that Murphy has just got the title from Cedric that leaves Mustafa as the obvious next challenger. Although the fact that Alexander is still yet to get his rematch is odd, as is Cedric beating Lio Rush on 205 Live this past week. It appeared to me that they were turning Cedric heel, they made such a big thing about him going unbeaten for so long, then he lost the title and just couldn’t buy a win, then he goes and beats Lio Rush? Puzzling. A heel turn for Cedric would make him a great opponent for Mustafa, but in terms of realistic and believable challengers as babyfaces I don’t see too many for Murphy on that show right now. So maybe that’s why they’re holding off on both the Cedric rematch and a possible heel turn. But for this match… it’s a tough one because I really wouldn’t take the title from Murphy so soon as he’s so good at pretty much every aspect of being a WWE superstar, but then they’ve spent so much time in building Ali as the most sympathetic good guy character I can’t see them beating him on a big show like this. The money is all in the chase though so maybe they figure out a way Murphy can escape with the championship without harming Mustafa too much. That’s what I’d do at least.
Prediction: Buddy Murphy retains the Cruserweight Championship
Team Smackdown: Team Captains ‘The Usos’ (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso), ‘The New Day’, ‘Sanity’, ‘The Colons’ (Primo & Epico) & ‘Gallows & Anderson’ (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) V Team Raw: Team Captains Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, ‘The Revival’ (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson), ‘The B-Team’ (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel), ‘Lucha House Party’ & The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) – Tag Team 10 on 10 Survivor Series Elimination Match
As you will see from the rest of the blog, I don’t really have too much to say about these multi person matches. They will barely be referred to if at all in a few weeks so what do they really matter. And this one more than the other two has so much… (insert preferred word for something not very good)! This Raw team maybe the worst Survivor Series team in the history of the event. Team Smackdown has 4 teams I’m a big fan of, and The Colons. If either Team Smackdown don’t win or Raw win and we get some form of angle that is the start of a story that will go forward and mean something, then I’ll be so pissed. The shining light of this match is that Sanity have by some miracle made it on the card for a huge show like Survivor Series, albeit in a nothing match on the pre show but nonetheless this makes me happy. Other than that if I need to go to the toilet before the main show starts, I could very well go during this match. Apologies.
Prediction: Team Smackdown win
Smackdown Tag Team Champions ‘The Bar’ (Sheamus & Cesaro) with Big Show V Raw Tag Team Champions ‘AOP’ (Akam & Rezar) with Drake Maverick
2 heel teams. 2 big guys on each side and the one team of super heavyweights have a cruserweight with them, whereas the team of heavyweights have a super-heavyweight giant watching their back. So with that all said it’s an interesting match up. But again it doesn’t matter in the long run does it lets be honest. Cesaro is an excellent wrestler and incredibly strong so expect some form of spot involving him lifting Akam and/or Rezar. Also I’ll be dissapointed if we don’t get some form of comedy spot involving Drake Maverick and Big Show on the outside too. That’d be fun. But for this one AOP have to win surely/ They just won the titles, they’re billed as unstoppable monsters once again after a mini blip in their early main roster days. Sheamus & Cesaro and solidified stars so they can take a loss no problem. But by WWE logic that’ll probably mean The Bar win. Hopefully not.
Prediction: AOP win
Team Smackdown: Carmella, Naomi, Sonya Deville, Asuka & ? V Team Raw: Mickie James, Nia Jax, Tamina, Natalya & Ruby Riott (with Team Captain: Alexa Bliss) – Women’s 5 on 5 Survivor Series Elimination Match
Before I start in this match I’d like to say for anyone who doesn’t know that 9/10 I’m a glass half full kinda guy, particularly when it comes to women’s wrestling. I lived through as a fan the dark ages of hair pulling matches, pillow-fights at Wrestlemania, and pudding matches as their ‘extreme’ match (Candice Michelle and Melina did their best to be fair to them) so we have certainly come a long way. But I look at the line ups for this match… I’m struggling. Let me put it like this: the 2016 Survivor Series Women’s elimination match was the following: Team Raw: Alicia Fox, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Nia Jax and Sasha Banks (4 stars and Alicia Fox who… was there…) vs Team Smackdown: Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi and Natalya (a solid team) so two fairly decent star-filled teams in a time the original brand split was still fresh so this was a very novel concept; Raw vs Smackdown. At last years Survivor Series the women’s teams were; Team Raw made up of: Alicia Fox (who by now had a fairly effective gimmick going for her as the crazed ‘captain’ of the team so she was very entertaining at this stage, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Asuka and Nia Jax so a really solid team. They faced Team Smackdown made up of: Becky Lynch, Naomi, Carmella, Natalya and Tamina whom in replacing Alexa Bliss from the 2016 team wasn’t exactly an upgrade… but still an OK team. Now lets talk about these 2 teams in the 2018 equivalent. Team Raw… oh boy… 4 heels who people really don’t care about or wouldn’t take serious as contenders for the championship for example. And Natalya who is talented sure, but really isn’t going to set the world on fire anytime soon. Team Smackdown has Asuka who is probably the most wasted talent in the company right now in terms of where she is and where she SHOULD be, Carmella and Sonya Deville whom are both improving all the time but are still not at a place I’d feel comfortable with them in a main match spot and Naomi who almost 2 years after winning the title she is really just another member of the roster. Yeah…. not exactly star studded is it? For some reason they have had Bayley and Sasha shunned from the match on the Raw side and have been dealt a bad hand given Charlotte’s promotion to the main event slot. It really doesn’t matter who wins this match. I’ve no idea who will win, but logically I’d suggest Nia and possibly Asuka will end the match, given they’re the next contenders to their respective champions. Given I think Smackdown will win the tag team match I’ll go for Raw in this one. Just because.
Prediction: Team Raw win
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura V Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins
No story build (outside of a promo each this past week) but who the fuck cares…. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA VS SETH FREAKIN ROLLINS, WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!! Shinsuke hasn’t exactly been a roaring success as US Champion, nor has he been given the chance to do so, but he remains one of the best performers in the company.Seth Rollins the same, incredibly good performer and having in 2018 one of the best years of his WWE career so far. This match is going to be great. Expect a certain Lunatic to get involved in some way to possibly cost Rollins the match, although that does seem obvious it’d make sense. And a win for Nakamura against Rollins on a big show like this would maybe give him the boost he needs right now.
Prediction: Shinsuke Nakamura wins
WWE Champion Daniel Bryan V Universal Champion Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman)
I still less than 12 hours after it was made official am a bit in shock; Daniel Bryan is a heel, Daniel Bryan is the NEW WWE Champion, AJ Styles over 1 YEAR title reign is over, and we on Sunday night are getting a match that was scheduled for Summerslam 2014, was dreamed and prayed for before Mania in 2015, but somehow and after a bizarre and pretty incredible set of circumstances… at Survivor Series 2018 we are going to witness DANIEL BRYAN vs BRRRROOOOOCCCKKKKKK LLLLLEEEESSSSNNNNAAARRRRRR!!! WOW. Now lets all hope and pray Brock is as big a fan of Daniel Bryan as he is and showed he was last year of AJ Styles. If he is, we are in for an absolute classic. Fingers crossed.
Prediction: Brock Lesnar wins
Team Smackdown: Team Captain The Miz, Jeff Hardy, Shane McMahon, Rey Mysterio & Samoa Joe V Team Raw: Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman, Finn Bálor and Bobby Lashley (with Lio Rush and Team Captain: Baron Corbin) – Men’s 5 on 5 Survivor Series Elimination Match
10 big star names. 9 of them ranging from fantastic to at worst good wrestlers (I’ll let you figure out the 1 I’ve left out from that praise). Given that Becky is off the show you’d have to say this is the match on this show now that has been given the most build up going in to the event. The Smackdown team is a bit of a miss-mash, but Survivor Series now on the Smackdown side of it is always the Shane McMahon show. It’s not good but it isn’t going to change anytime soon, and to his credit he does his best to make the whole thing seem a big deal. The Raw side of it has a few interesting elements to it; Dolph, Drew and Braun is the main event angle in the post-Roman era of Raw and has been really fun to watch as McIntyre ascends to the top heel spot as Strowman continues his chase of the red brands bright red belt. Finn is Finn so he’ll be good to watch, and Lashley with Lio Rush by his side entertains me at least way more than he did as a babyface, although some disagree with me. I don’t see how this match can’t be good or at least fun given whose in the match. Although I thought that of last years Men’s 5 v 5 but that was so over-booked and quickly became a bit of a farce. The big Braun – Stephanie McMahon promo on Raw on Monday (in which Braun demanded this and that from Stephanie, to which she agreed to as long as Team Raw got the win) was the main indication to me of how this will go. They don’t book the monster and his hands weak, ever. And I can’t see Corbin attacking Braun and costing Raw as that’d upset Queen Stephanie so that’s that one out the window. Maybe Drew will turn on Braun, that’d be the only way I see Strowman being took out of this match, and I really can’t see that happening. So I’m going Team Strowman/Raw to get the big win.
Prediction: Team Raw win
Smackdown’s Charlotte Flair V Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey
Well… I did not expect this match to be taking place… not yet at least!!! Becky is out so Charlotte is in. I’d have preferred Asuka but I’m definitely not complaining! We are getting what I would’ve had as my Wrestlemania main event next year… before BeckyMania began anyway! I don’t think there had been a much more hyped women’s match in WWE history than Becky vs Ronda, and amazingly Lynch was on the level and maybe way above in the eyes of some in terms of popularity but FOR NOW we have to wait and we have Rousey vs Flair. Now lets be real, given the match was made just days before the event, this will be the first time Ronda has had a match on PPV that she hasn’t had months to practice for. But lets also bear in mind Charlotte is the best in-ring opponent she has ever been in with, and she has just got better and better in-ring and out of it as her Raw women’s championship reign has flourished. Yes she has no realistic competitors for the title right now, but if anyone can match Ronda it’s maybe those on the Smackdown side… well 3 of them… who knows about Asuka, Lynch we will have to wait for, but Charlotte Flair is one of the very very few people that could believably beat her in a match. Ronda will win of course, and she should, but I trust in Charlotte and her abilities to deliver the best match possible. i’m not sure if it will still go on last as it seemed Becky and Ronda were going to, but nonetheless it’ll be a sight to behold. I hope and pray it’s good, but I’ve learnt not to doubt Ronda Rousey in WWE. her big matches have all delivered and then some, and she’s facing her best opponent yet… so… who knows…
Prediction: Ronda Rousey wins
I will warn in advance. My review blog might not be as long and as detailed as usual, as I’m going to maximize my enjoyment and socializing during the event. I will only be noting down results, my star rating and a one sentence review. And I’ll write my blog on the way home on Monday and put out sometime in the evening my thoughts on what should be definitely a memorable show. It should be pretty good in ring, but as a show it could go either way. One thing is for sure is that it’ll be absolutely fascinating to see unfold.
Josh.
NobodyisReady.com 