WWE Survivor Series 2017 Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades

Photo Source: WWE.com

The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, & Dean Ambrose) vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, & Big E)

Result: The Shield defeated The New Day via pinfall

Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Jeez, what a way to kick off Survivor Series. Having this as the main show opener makes me wonder – even before anyone hits the ring – whether someone will get involved later on in the evening.

And hey, speaking of “before anyone hits the ring,” did we really need to drag out the intros for this one to last nearly fifteen minutes? Sure, New Day needs a pre-match promo, and this one was the best kind of brutal (Kofi’s “We about to go Bob Barker on they ass” was a great line). But to follow it up with a video recap before The Shield even had their music hit was just a momentum killer.

One last bit of pre-match housecleaning: The five man commentary team. Hate three guys in the booth? Haha, let’s go bigger! It’s not all bad though – a nice touch having Corey Graves on the border on the chyron when introducing the broadcasters. Not nice enough to forgive five guys blathering on at once, mind you, but a nice touch.

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Onto the match, and would you be surprised to hear it was great? Perfect tone setter for the night, nice mix of fast-paced action and slower, psychological work. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, The Shield played more of the heel role in this battle of fan favorites. Makes sense – Reigns gets booed all the time anyway. New Day spamming the Unicorn Stampede earned a few boos, but it was definitely The Hounds of Justice who were working for that reaction.

I’ll breathe a little easier when Big E gives up on that spear through the ropes, because one day he’s going to break his neck executing the move. He looks like he tweaked the approach a bit, but it’s an unnecessary, overly dangerous spot.

But this was about twenty minutes of really great trios action. Both teams are so good at working within the six-man tag setting and innovating offense to take advantage of it. It’s a shame the crowd was so dead for most of it, because it was great. I’d love to see these two groups work together again, because this was fantastic.