WILL MONDAY NIGHT RAW REIGN SUPREME AT SURVIVOR SERIES?
Survivor Series rolls into Toronto on Sunday night and it looks set to be one of the biggest versions of the event that the WWE has ever produced. The night boasts a match that is 12 years in the making between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. With Goldberg holding a victory over Brock back in 2004, it means that Brock wants to level the playing field, but as well as this hugely anticipated match, WWE also boasts three traditional Survivor Series matches. The men, women and tag teams will collide in three matches with the winner of two being crowned the most dominant brand. Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley have inherited a flagship show and one that is used to being on top of SmackDown, but under the control of Shane McMahon and former WWE World Champion Daniel Bryan, SmackDown has become a much more forceful show. SmackDown has been stated as the best show for pure wrestling and storyline since the brand divide was made official back in July and Survivor Series could be their chance to prove that they are much better than Raw. The traditional Survivor Series matches pit Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Braun Strowman and Chris Jericho up against Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Shane McMahon, Randy Orton and AJ Styles, but even though Strowman was an odd addition to the match, he could easily be the dark horse.
Strowman is undefeated in WWE and it will be a shocking decision to allow him to be pinned for the first time in an elimination match. WWE could easily go down the Rusev route and allow him to be counted out instead, but that is still a loss, he will lose his undefeated streak. The Raw team is perhaps the strongest Survivor Series team that has ever stepped into an elimination match, so it would be a huge shock if SmackDown's team managed to gain the upper-hand in this match. The Women's match is another stand out elimination tag and sees Women's Champion Charlotte team up with Sasha Banks, Bayley, Alica Fox and Nia Jax to take on SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch, Naomi, Carmella, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Bella. The Women's Division across both brands is undoubtedly the strongest it has ever been, but at the same time, there needs to be a winner when it comes to an elimination match. The likes of Alicia Fox, Carmella, and Naomi have only been added to make up the numbers, that much is obvious and it is highly unlikely that they will play a huge role in the outcome of the match. The match will come down to Nikki, Bayley, Becky, Charlotte and Nia Jax and with Nia being an undefeated force on the Raw roster, you have to think that she will have a lot to say. Nia is a dominant force and she will once again prove that she could easily defeat all of these women. It is hard to see her being pinned, which means that Raw must be winning this match as well. That leaves SmackDown as the stronger option in the tag team match because they obviously have much better teams, but sadly one win out of three won't help them out much. It means that Raw would be the overall winners once again. Unless there's a turncoat or some further controversy happens here. Raw could also gain the Intercontinental Championship on Sunday night when SmackDown's Dolph Ziggler defends against Raw's Sami Zayn, if Zayn wins the match then the IC title will make the switch over to Raw, but later in the night when Raw's Brian Kendrick defends the Cruiserweight Championship against SmackDown's Kalisto, this could see the Cruiserweight title and entire division make the switch over to SmackDown. These added stipulations have made Survivor Series so much bigger as an event, and given that it is the final dual brand event of the year, it is good to see that wwe monday night raw tickets has put a lot of effort into their final top four pay-per-view. With TLC and Roadblock coming up in the next few weeks, Survivor Series needs to set the tone for the end of the year and if it follows through on the hype, then it will be one of the best shows of the year.