How would you book Survivor Series?
First thing is first, I’d have Vince gather his children with an idea, whoever wins as survivors earn title shots for respective titles and any champion that wins earns the right to pick the stipulation. That would accomplish the job of creating future importance of stories into these non-title matches.
Tag Team Division Survivor Series Match
I’ll be honest I find this match unnecessary as an addition. At least it’s in the pre-show. SmackDown has the Colons and the Club and RAW features a team that has only appeared once on RAW (Lucha House Party), along with B-Team and Ascension, so there’s a lot of deadweight that should hopefully get eliminated early. I’d have Revival shine early along with New Day and Usos getting an elimination before being eliminated. Eventually Sanity should beat Roode & Gable along with the Revival to get the win for team SmackDown and earn the title shot against the Bar.
Cruiserweight Championship – Buddy Murphy vs Mustafa Ali
There’s not much story built into this one, so it should just be a pretty straight forward first title defense for Murphy. Both guys get some good offense in during the show opener before Murphy hits his finisher and gets a clean win.
Raw vs SD Tag Champions – AOP vs Bar
AOP needs to look strong here and should be able to get some good physical shots on the Bar and should take some offense as well to show their resiliency. In the end I’d have the managers get involved old school, have Maverick become a nuisance that annoys the Bar and Big Show, but when Show goes to get involved it backfires and allows AOP to pick up the win on the Bar.
Women’s Survivor Series Match
With Mickie’s history with Nia Jax and Natalya’s ongoing story with Ruby Riott and the Riott Squad, miscommunication needs to be a part of the story at least in part. For Smackdown, the first question is who becomes the fifth member and the choice comes down to Mandy Rose, one of the Iiconics or Nikki Cross and it should be Nikki Cross. The teams should go back and forth with eliminations before Asuka gets the last elimination on Ruby Riott to get the next title shot against Becky Lynch. In the match I’d have Jax laugh at Mickie getting eliminated first, only for Mickie to attack her from behind to set Nia up for elimination, and I’d have Riott abandon Natalya when she needs a tag, setting up Asuka vs Riott as the last two.
IC Title vs US Title – Seth Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura
These two go back and forth getting good offense in and Rollins kicks out of a Kinshasa before Dean Ambrose shows up and distracts Rollins to allow Nakamura to hit another one for the win.
Men’s Survivor Series Match
The Men’s team on RAW is much stronger than the one on SD, Dolph should beat Miz at some point early in the match to continue the story of the World Cup (that’s not going to end with just that one off with Shane). I’d have Braun and McIntyre surviving the match with Braun meeting Brock and McIntyre facing Rollins in the future.
Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair
Ronda needs to win this match, they should put on a good show with a lot of back and forth and some good submission and countering wrestling before Ronda uses the armbar to beat Charlotte and possibly set up that WrestleMania story.
Universal Champion vs WWE Champion – Brock Lesnar vs Daniel Bryan
This match is broken from the beginning with the fact that they turned Bryan heel. The best story to tell in a Bryan victory would be an underdog story, but that only works as a face. Brock will win this match and probably make Bryan look bad in doing it.