3 Takeaways from WWE Survivor Series 2015
By Evan Gomes
wwe.com
Three takeaways from WWE Survivor Series 2015.
There were lots of exciting things on a packed Survivor Series card this year. The Undertaker celebrated his 25th anniversary in WWE by chokeslamming a giant man through a table and winning at the show he debuted in. Goldust reappeared to confront his brother Stardust on a throwaway traditional elimination match on the pre-show. Hopefully this gives Stardust an angle now that it’s come to light that Cesaro may be out injured for a while.
ALSO ON DAILY DDT: Ranking All 28 Survivor Series Main Events
Also, the traditional five-on-five Survivor Series match that was thrown together had a disappointing ending where New Day deserted Sheamus. His night would improve later, but we’ll get to that.
Dropped-Ball Divas
The Divas Championship match had no real buildup prior to the final RAW before Survivor Series. It was there that during the main event contract signing, Paige main disparaging remarks about Charlotte’s deceased brother Reid Fleihr. The comments and story angle were meant to make the beef more personal, but it came across as irresponsible and too far. Ric Flair came out against the angle and WWE had to release a statement on it.
Even with the “personal” angle added, the match itself had no extra oomph, as Live Audio Wrestling pointed out on twitter:
Charlotte def. Paige at 14:14 - any argument that the Raw promo added a "real level of emotion" was thrown out window by ATL crowd
— Live Audio Wrestling (@LAWradio) November 23, 2015
Prior to the match, a WWE pre-match vignette aired and it didn’t even make mention of the remarks about Reid. That’s proof that WWE realized the errors of their judgement before and backed away from them.
The match itself was a good match, and Paige and Charlotte had over 14 minutes to work. The lack of buildup and development effected the feel of the match, and even a spot where Charlotte speared Paige off of the barricade fell flat. After the match, Charlotte seemed to have forgotten her rivals comments about her brother:
For a match that’s supposed to be personal, Charlotte is all smiles. #WWE #SurvivorSeries
— 411 Wrestling (@411wrestling) November 23, 2015
Booking like this is a step in the right direction for Divas creative in that it takes it away from being just about who is cattier. This first attempt, however, was a swing and a miss.
Next: Mirror Mirror on the Wall